Learning Lessons From International Education in Crisis Research: Supporting ECEC Teachers in England as They Return From the COVID-19 Pandemic

Introduction

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on the lives of children. The pandemic brought uncertainty for the Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) sector in England when, in its early stages, there were calls for schools and ECEC settings to close. This move was controversial as there were conflicting views on the impact of closure on the virus spread and whether children could be super spreaders (Roberts, 2020; Munro & Faust, 2020; Withers, 2020). With lockdown debates intensifying ECEC settings saw attendance fall as parents grew more concerned (Adams et al., 2020) with educational institutions being closed from 18^th March 2020. The ECEC sector remained open only for children of key-workers who had been classified within government documents as needing to work due to the nature of their employment (DfE, 2020). As national restrictions lessened lockdown measures were suspended on the 20^th July 2020 and children returned to ECEC settings albeit with social distancing and new hygiene expectations. This return resulted in a number of changes for settings which included restrictions on the available resources in an attempt to reduce surface transmission of the virus, and children in support bubbles with certain staff (Early Years Alliance, 2021). All these measures were in place to try and mitigate against the effects of the virus and to ensure that parts of the UK economy could reopen where working from home was not available (DfE, 2020).

Early reviews of the impact of lockdown and the revised measures put in place focussed on the social aspects of ECEC and how lockdown and then the return to settings might have a negative impact on children’s emotional well-being (Graber et al., 2020; Loades et al., 2020; Swadener et al., 2020). More recently the focus has been linked to a range of narratives that children need to ‘catch-up’ on ‘lost learning’. Although there is an acknowledgement that children might need additional support there is still debate about whether this should be academic support or emotional and social support. As we develop this chapter we will explore the impact of the pandemic on the ECEC sector in England. There will then be a discussion on the ways in which ECEC teachers have been affected and what they have done to support the children in their care. We will highlight areas of good practice that have been demonstrated, this can be used by ECEC teachers to consider their own practice and responses to the pandemic. One of our key arguments is the potential to learn from and apply strategies developed by the humanitarian sectors’ decades of international education in crisis research and interventions related to children’s well-being and academic attainment. Our overarching aim for the chapter is to consider how a postcolonial approach can be employed to highlight there are other, non-Eurocentric, ways which can provide additional solutions, support and advice for English ECEC teachers, school leaders and policy makers to support setting/school attendance and ensure positive emotional and mental well-being is prioritised.