Excluded School Students - Excluded Lives after Covid-19
On September 30th, 2021 the 7th meeting of the Moscow CHAT Reading Group “ReadingLive” took place on-line.
Invited expert Harry Daniels, Professor of Education, Department of Education, University of Oxford, United Kingdom, delivered a presentation “Excluded Lives: Critical lessons for future practice and policy concerning exclusion from school after Covid-19”. In his talk professor Daniels reflected upon the main causal relationships and pressures that have turned exclusion into a source of injustice and vulnerability rather than a form of disciplinary action under the pandemic. Portraying children at risk of exclusion, the speaker highlighted that vulnerable schoolers are likely to struggle poverty, recognized mental health problems and adults’ neglect. Harry Daniels spoke about the project aimed at gaining a better understanding of the phenomenon of exclusion and applying Socio-Cultural Theory for overcoming exclusion as a new social challenge. He stressed the importance of transforming the existing practice of exclusion from schools to the practice of inclusion through better understanding cultural differences, providing individualized teachers’ support and psychologists’ intervention. According to the expert, the key for reengagement of vulnerable children lies in dramatic changes in the whole mindset and attitudes to them, as well as reconstruction/ reconsideration of educational system, keeping in mind the needs of the vulnerable students.
The presentation was commented by Alla B. Kholmogorova, Doctor of Psychology, Professor, Dean of the Faculty of Counseling and Clinical Psychology, Moscow State University of Psychology & Education; Leading Researcher, Moscow Research Institute of Psychiatry (Branch of the National Medical Research Centre for Psychiatry and Narcology). Alla Kholmogorova illustrated the issues raised by professor Daniels with empirical data related to online learning and social deprivation during lockdowns of different categories of children and their parents in Russia.
The discussion touched upon various issues, including concerns about children with special needs in the context of online education as well as the ways of their integration back in school after lockdowns, measures of minimizing school dropouts, the role of effective teaching and schools’ participation in preventing exclusions etc.
The discussion was moderated by Olga Rubtsova - PhD, Head of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Contemporary Childhood.
Relevant materials:
Daniels H. et al. Excluded Lives: School exclusion risks after COVID-19. Report. Department of Education, University of Oxford, 2020.
Video of the webinar is available on Youtube.
Video materials of the previous meetings:
25.05.2021. The ZPD and Second Language Learning: A Method for Future-in-the-Making
19.04.2021. Using double stimulation to understand how significant positive and lasting change can happen in families with young children
02.03.2021. Scaffolding as an embodied process within student-teacher functional system
28.01.2021. P.Y. Galperin’s Development of Human Mental Activity: implications for practice and research
30.11.2020. From the concept of ZPD to the practice of dynamic assessment.
12.10.2020. The Urgency of Agency