Homing into School:The best of two worlds, reflections from COVID-19 Pandemic

This paper presents the findings of the research study, Spaces and Tools for Learning during Pandemic (STLDP) undertaken with young people (16-18-year-olds) in two schools in Lancashire, UK during and after lockdown period (February – May 2021). The research project applied visual methodologies to elicit young learners’ schooling experiences during COVID-19 and envision the future of learning spaces. During COVID-19 lockdown, participants missed the commuting time, the transition time between different environments, and the walk by the beginning/end of the day. By staying for longer periods in their houses and doing most of the activities from the same place, their minds were requested to travel from one activity to another without leaving the same place. On top of that, they have lost part of their social interactions and have changed the way they relate to each other inside and outside home. If one of the positive aspects reported by young-people was the opportunity to spend more time with their families, the opposite was also true. Young-people experienced an elevated mental distress and recognised the importance of in-person social interactions during their learning journey. According to young people, the school is more than a formal educational setting but a learning environment that offers an essential degree of human contact, proximity with the others and allows them to be motivated and driven by each other. The research findings highlight the importance of rethinking the school settings as space that promotes health, wellbeing learning environments. Connecting the formal and informal learning spaces in the school and promote the development of a learning organisation. Young people envision the future of school learning environments as a place shared within their peer learning community and where they can still find the level of comfort found at home during COVID-19 pandemic