Ísland fór ekki varhluta af heimsfaraldri COVID-19 og um miðjan mars 2020 var í fyrsta skipti í sögu lýðveldisins sett á samkomubann sem náði einnig til grunn-, framhalds- og háskóla. Það hafði í för með sér að stór hluti kennslu varð rafrænn og nemendur, foreldrar og kennarar þurftu að aðlagast breyttum aðstæðum þegar kom að samskiptum og félagstengslum. Í þessari grein verður sjónum beint sérstaklega að upplifun þroskaþjálfa á þjónustu við nemendur sem þurfa margvíslegan stuðning í námi og félagslegum samskiptum. Könnunin er hluti af stærri rannsókn fræðafólks frá Menntavísindasviði Háskóla Íslands á áhrifum COVID-19 faraldursins á skóla- og frístundastarf. Um er að ræða spurningakönnun þar sem bæði voru opnar og lokaðar spurningar. Meginrannsóknarspurningin var: Hver er reynsla þroskaþjálfa í grunnskóla af áhrifum faraldursins á þjónustu við nemendur? Tilgangur könnunarinnar var að skoða reynslu þroskaþjálfa í grunnskóla af áhrifum faraldursins á þjónustu við nemendur og upplifun þeirra á faglegri ábyrgð sinni í skertu skóla- og frístundastarfi. Markmið hennar er að varpa ljósi á þjónustu og stuðning við nemendur og bera kennsl á leiðir og lausnir sem hafa reynst vel og munu jafnvel stuðla að bættri þjónustu við öll börn þegar faraldurinn er afstaðinn. Niðurstöður gefa til kynna að þjónusta við nemendur með margvíslegar stuðningsþarfir hafi skerst meira en hjá öðrum, meðal annars vegna þess að nám og þátttaka í gegnum fjarbúnað reyndist ekki öllum nemendum aðgengileg. Vísbendingar eru um að jaðarsetning og einangrun nemenda hafi aukist hjá þeim sem stóðu höllum fæti félagslega en að nemendur sem voru búnir að byggja upp félagslegt net fyrir COVID-19 náðu að viðhalda þeim tengslum. Niðurstöður rannsóknarinnar vekja jafnframt áríðandi spurningar um hvernig hægt sé að tryggja öllum börnum jafnrétti og aðgengi að menntun og félagslegri þátttöku í áframhaldandi heimsfaraldri.
At the end of February 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic reached Icelandic shores and had severe consequences for society and daily life, as all around the world. In mid-March 2020, for the first time in the history of the Icelandic republic, an assembly ban was imposed, which also affected all levels of the educational system. All over Iceland, daily school routines changed, teaching in school buildings was limited and some schools were closed. Almost overnight, education and teaching became mostly remote, which meant that students, parents, and teachers had to quickly adjust to different ways of learning, teaching and communication. These events affected every student and teacher in Iceland. This article will focus on how these changes affected services provided to students with various and complex support needs concerning learning and social interaction. Inclusive education is the official school policy in Iceland. The policy promotes full participation of all students and implies that every student should receive support and accommodation on an equal basis with other students. The idea of inclusion is based on social approaches to disability and diversity. Attention is drawn to the environment and to the needs for social change. Disability is seen as part of human diversity and the focus is on overcoming barriers and identifying opportunities for participation for all. Participation and belonging are core concepts of inclusion. School plays an important role in the lives of children and provides meaningful space for social interaction, socialization, relationship building and self-development. Thus, it is essential that children experience belonging to the school community. Still there are children that experience marginalization, academically or socially, and research has shown that the social aspects of school are a much greater concern to children than academic success. Social educators are professionals working in a variety of community settings with the professional responsibility to support full participation, human rights, autonomy and quality of life. Within the education system, social educators have the responsibility to support children in learning and social participation, find barriers and opportunities for participation and adapt school environment to children’s diverse needs. Social educators often work with children in need of support for participation and social interaction. These children are at an increased risk of being marginalized and were particularly vulnerable to the consequences of limited school and leisure services during the pandemic. The study described in the article is part of a larger research project on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on education and leisure. The project is run by academics from the School of Education at the University of Iceland. The aim of the study is to look at social educators’ experiences of providing services to students during the assembly ban and investigate how they saw their professional responsibility in these circumstances. The study is guided by the following research questions: How do social educators assess services and support provided to children during the COVID-19 pandemic? What impact do they think the situation had on children’s social connections and interactions? How useful do they think their professional knowledge was in adapting services and support measures to the changed situation? The findings indicate that students with high support needs did not always receive sufficient services and support to participate in learning and social interaction. Learning, communication and participation through an online medium did not prove accessible to all students. The findings also suggest that isolation increased among students who had experienced marginalization before the pandemic. Students who had built a social network before the pandemic were more likely to be able to maintain and even strengthen their social connections. It turned out that the professional knowledge of social educators, as well as their problem-solving orientation thinking was of high practical value in adapting the school environment and support measures to the rapidly changing situation. The results of the study show that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted social inequities and disproportionately affected certain groups of children more than others. This raises crucial questions as to how to guarantee equal access to education and social belonging to all children. The fact that the most widely used teaching and communication method through remote devices was not accessible to all students is contradictory to the idea of inclusion which is concerned with removing barriers for participation in society and environment. It is unacceptable that the isolation and marginalization of students, who are already disadvantaged, increases during a crisis such as this. Thus all concerned parties urgently need to work together in finding ways to accommodate teaching, learning and communication methods, technology and tools to meet the needs of all students. The study clearly shows that reacting to the impact of the pandemic has resulted in increased cooperation and synergy within the schools, creating ideal conditions for innovation and development that can contribute to further progress.
