Abstract:

Most countries implemented the closure of educational institutions temporarily to reduce the virus's spread. According to UNESCO (2020), 195 countries implemented school closure from primary to higher education, so 1.5 billion, over 90% of students were affected by not physically attending school worldwide.

The school closure is one of the measures which was implemented to minimise the risk of developing the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK as well. The educational settings have been closed since the 20th of March for all except key workers' children and vulnerable children. Vulnerable children include children with SEN who have educational health care plans (EHCPs), which is known by different names in different parts of the UK (House of the Commons Library, 2020). In fact, there are many children with SEN who do not have a statement of needs. For instance, only 3.1% of children with SEN have EHCPs in England had an opportunity to continue school-based education during the COVID-19 outbreak (Department for Education (DfE), 2019). Furthermore, the published data shows that 3.7 per cent of pupils (almost 350,000) attended schools on the first day of school closures (DfE, 2020). It is more likely that parents do not want to send their children to school due to concerns and anxieties about the risk of developing infections and virus. Therefore, many SEN parents had to educate their child/ren at home in the context of the Covid-19 outbreak.

It is expected that the current pandemic is more likely to have short term and long term impacts on people (Fegers et al., 2020). However, SEN parents are more likely to experience more challenges due to their children needs/requirements compare to typical parents. Therefore, it is essential to investigate the impact of home learning (HL) on SEN parents to develop strategies for the current and similar future pandemics (Ameis et al., 2020; Pellicano & Stears, 2020). Within mind, this study aimed to explore the impact of HL on SEN parents and their children to provide knowledge to those who can address the needs/requirements of parents of children with SEN. The electronic version of the interview guideline in an online survey format was utilised with parents who educate their one or more children between five to sixteen years old at home in the context of the COVID-19 outbreak in the UK. The online survey could enable the participants to share their HL experiences and to raise their voice in their own time at their convenience (Wright, 2006). The data was collected from 171 participants in one month. It is worth to emphasise that the data was obtained during the first school closure in the UK, so this study offers unique experiences of parents with SEN. Content analysis was used to analyse the participants' responses. Most parents (% 72.5) reported that HL negatively impacts their or their child/ren well-being. On the contrary, a small percentage of parents (%16.3) recognised HL benefits, particularly parents of children who experienced school-related problems, believed that their children have less anxiety and are happier at home. Also, some parents (% 11.7) reported that HL had damaged the relationship between parents and child or others. They mainly indicated that they have friction or an argument with their child/ren because of HL practices.

Keywords:

Covid-19, home learning, parents, special educational needs, well-being.