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Research related to COVID-19

UCL Institute of Education is working on numerous ground-breaking projects to understand how people are responding to the coronavirus pandemic.

A duty of care and a duty to teach: educational priorities in response to the COVID-19 crisis

Led by Professor Gemma Moss, this study explores the challenges the COVID-19 crisis sets primary school teachers. It will examine the diverse roles primary schools play in their local communities and how these vary depending upon levels of social disadvantage.

Coping and wellbeing in families during the COVID-19 crisis

Dr Katie Quy and Dr Lisa Fridkin are investigating coping and wellbeing in children aged 7-11 years, and their families, during the COVID-19 crisis. The project aims to explore how the current situation might be affecting children’s wellbeing, the types of coping strategies which might be protective or harmful, and the kinds of things that might need to be done to help children manage the current situation and to ‘recover’ afterwards.

COVID-19: Global social trust and mental health

Dr Keri Wong is working on a study looking at the short and long-term effects of COVID-19 on individual's social trust in relationships, mental and physical health. Involving UCL and four other universities (University of Pennsylvania, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Nanyang Technological University, University of Trento), this study will to enable comparisons between the UK's lockdown experience and the experiences in other countries where they have adopted different COVID guidelines.

COVID-19 impact on young peoples' learning, motivation, wellbeing, and aspirations

This study, led by Professor Lindsey Macmillan, will look into whether the pandemic and unprecedented school closures affected secondary school pupils in England. The project will run until September 2021 and is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

COVID-19 youth economic activity and health monitor (YEAH)

This research project will address the UK's need for robust evidence on the pandemic's consequences for youth employment, learning and wellbeing. The research is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) as part of UK Research and Innovation’s rapid response to COVID-19. Dr Golo Henseke is the Principal Investigator.

COVID Social Mobility and Opportunities Study (COSMO)

This major new youth cohort study will provide vital new evidence on how the COVID-19 pandemic affects socio-economic inequalities in life chances. Dr Jake Anders in the Centre for Education Policy and Equalising Opportunities (CEPEO) leads the project with the Centre for Longitudinal Studies, the Sutton Trust and Kantar Public also making up the team.

The project is supported by key stakeholders, including the Department for Education, the Office for Students, ADR UK, the Education Endowment Foundation, Transforming Access and Student Outcomes in Higher Education (TASO), to ensure co-production of policy-relevant evidence.

FACT Covid: Families and Community Transitions under Covid

Dr Humera Iqbal, Dr Katherine Twamley and Dr Charlotte Faircloth are working on a multi-country research project to examine the impact of the coronavirus on everyday family life. By focusing on families, this project explores both how individuals respond to public health measures put in place, and how these are negotiated with others in the household and family. The team is interested in how intra-household differences affect individuals’ experiences, particularly across gender and generations.

Families in Tower Hamlets: impacts of COVID-19

This project is about everyday life in the midst of a pandemic. The team, led by Professor Claire Cameron, is working with Born in Bradford, a cohort study aiming to reduce health inequalities, to examine the social, economic and health impacts of COVID-19 on family life with young children.

Study findings will help support Tower Hamlets council to shape its service offer to all families with young children, especially those newly impoverished and those designated vulnerable: pregnant women, and children.

Learning through disruption: rebuilding primary education using local knowledge

This project explores how primary school parents, pupils and staff have coped with, and adapted to, a period of prolonged disruption in education, and the lessons we can learn as schools resume. The project is led by Professor Gemma Moss and is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

Moving Up: optimising secondary school transition processes during the COVID-19 pandemic

Led by Dr Sandra Leaton Gray, this project provides guidance to schools to help accommodate year 6 pupils transitioning from primary to secondary schools during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Student to degree mismatch: the role of schools, and the impact of disruption from COVID-19

Led by Dr Gill Wyness, this project will examine the impact of exam cancellations on student to course mismatch. It will look at the characteristics of mismatched students (by school type and socioeconomic status) in 2020 versus 2019. The project is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and will run from March 2021 until August 2022.

 

The COVID-19 pandemic: the experiences of young autistic people and their parents

Dr Caroline Oliver, Professor Carol Vincent and Dr Georgia Pavlopoulou are exploring the impacts of COVID-19 on autistic children and young people’s educational experiences as well as that of their parents. Funded by the British Education Research Association, the project will use participatory qualitative methods to work with families and young people with autism to understand how they have experienced lockdown, home-schooling, and virtual learning, as well as their experiences of transitions back to school after the COVID-19 lockdown.

The role of teaching/classroom assistants during the COVID crisis

Led by Professor Gemma Moss, this study is looking at the contributions teaching/classroom assistants and those working in classroom support roles have made and the dilemmas they encounter while working with children, families, and teachers as schools switch between supporting children's learning in school and at home.

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