Peer-reviewed article
“This is Where the Care Can Step Up”: A Typology of Nurturing Pedagogies in Primary Schools Serving Low-Income Communities During COVID-19 Closures
Seán Gleasure, Dympna Devine, Gabriela Martínez Sainz, Seaneen Sloan, Mags Crean et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examined how three primary schools in low-income communities in Ireland provided care and support to young children (ages 4-5) during COVID-19 school closures. The researchers interviewed teachers, principals, and families to understand different approaches schools took to nurturing children during this period. The study identifies three types of nurturing: academic (focused on learning), affective (focused on well-being), and critical (combining both), with school culture and leadership playing key roles in how well schools supported children during the pandemic.
Key points
- Schools serving low-income communities face uneven duty of care, with structural inequalities becoming more pronounced during COVID-19 closures
- Three typologies of nurturing pedagogy were identified: academic nurturing (focused on learning), affective nurturing (focused on welfare and well-being), and critical nurturing (combining both)
- The three case-study schools emphasized academic and affective nurturing to varying degrees during pandemic closures
- School culture and leadership were central factors in achieving critical nurturing approaches
- Social justice implications exist for education of children in low-income school communities
Limitations
The study is based on only three schools and four children in Ireland, so findings may not generalize to other contexts. The document does not provide quantitative outcome measures or comparative data on child well-being impacts across the different nurturing approaches.
Abstract
Abstract All schools possess a duty of care towards their students. However, this duty of care falls unevenly across schools, with those serving low-income communities often responding to the material and psychological effects of poverty as a priority. This duty of care for such schools was placed into stark relief during the period of COVID-19 school closures, when structural inequalities in society became particularly pronounced. Previous research has drawn distinctions between different forms of caring enacted in schools serving low-income communities. These range from practices centred on children’s academic learning to those more concerned with children’s welfare and well-being—which, for the purposes of this paper, we term as academic nurturing and affective nurturing respectively. Others recognise the need for schools in low-income communities to perform a dual role and engage in both forms of nurturing simultaneously—which we term as critical nurturing. This paper presents findings based on case studies from three designated disadvantaged primary schools in Ireland during pandemic-related closures. It draws on interviews from the Children’s School Lives longitudinal study with the teachers, principals, and families of four Junior Infant children (typically aged four to five years). Our findings suggest a typology of nurturing pedagogies, with academic and affective nurturing emphasised to varying degrees across our three schools during this period. Narratives from interviewees also demonstrate the central role of school culture and leadership in achieving critical nurturing, with significant social justice implications for the education of children in schools serving low-income communities.