CHILDREN’S SOCIAL VULNERABILITY AT SCHOOL DURING THE PANDEMIC: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEWABSTRACT
This study aims to analyze national and international scientific productions over the last 5 years regarding the impact of the pandemic on the education of children and adolescents in socially vulnerable situations and the psychological consequences resulting from this context. The study was carried out through a systematic review of the literature, in accordance with the guidelines of the Main Items for Reporting Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA). The discussions were conducted based on Historical-Cultural Psychology, which understands social interactions in cultural contexts as promoters of the material living conditions in which the subject is inserted. The results found express the abyss of inequalities in Brazilian education. Children and adolescents in vulnerable situations were unable to access online classes due to the lack of material resources and access to the internet, due to the precarious living conditions in which their families live, making the environment unfavorable for the continuity of learning and their development.
Keywords:
social vulnerability; pandemic; education
RESUMO
Este trabalho tem como objetivo analisar as produções científicas nacionais e internacionais nos últimos 5 anos a respeito do impacto da pandemia na educação de crianças e adolescentes em vulnerabilidade social e as consequências psicológicas decorrentes desse contexto. O estudo foi realizado através de uma revisão sistemática da literatura, de acordo com as diretrizes dos Principais Itens para Relatar Revisões Sistemáticas e Meta-análise (PRISMA). As discussões foram realizadas a partir da Psicologia Histórico-Cultural que compreende as interações sociais em contexto culturais como promotoras de condições materiais de vida em que o sujeito está inserido. Os resultados encontrados expressam o abismo de desigualdades na educação brasileira. As crianças e adolescentes em vulnerabilidade ficaram impossibilitados de acessar aulas online pela falta de recursos materiais e acesso à internet, devido às condições precárias de vida em que suas famílias vivem, tornando o ambiente desfavorável para a continuidade da aprendizagem e seu desenvolvimento.
Palavras-chave:
vulnerabilidade social; pandemia; educação
RESUMEN
En este estudio se tiene como objetivo analizar las producciones científicas nacionales e internacionales en los últimos 5 años a respeto del impacto de la pandemia en la educación de niños y adolescentes en vulnerabilidad social y las consecuencias psicológicas decurrentes de ese contexto. El estudio se realizó por intermedio de una revisión sistemática de la literatura, de acuerdo con las directrices de los Principales Ítems para Relatar Revisiones Sistemáticas y Metaanálisis (PRISMA). Las discusiones se realizaron a partir de la Psicología Histórico Cultural que comprende las nteracciones sociales en contexto culturales como promotoras de condiciones ateriales de vida en que el sujeto está inserido. Los resultados encontrados expresan el abismo de desigualdades en la educación brasileña. Los niños y adolescentes en vulnerabilidad se quedaron imposibilitados de acceder clases online por la falta de recursos materiales y acceso a internet, debido a las condiciones precarias de vida en que sus familias viven, volviendo el ambiente desfavorable para continuidad del aprendizaje y su desarrollo.
Palabras clave:
vulnerabilidad social; pandemia; educación
INTRODUCTION
The spread of COVID 19, an illness that was caused by the recently discovered corona virus, scientifically named SARS-CoV-2, was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11th, 2020. It was identified for the first time at the end of 2019 in Wuhan, province capital of Central China, rapidly spread all over the world and, in Brazil, the first case was diagnosed on February 26th, 2020 (Pan American Health Organization [PAHO], 2020).
Due to characteristics of the new corona virus such as elevated transmissibility and mutation capacity (Fundação Oswaldo Cruz [Fiocruz], 2021), and based on WHO recommendations, lockdown social isolation and social distance were measures adopted to halt the advance of the pandemic. In Brazil, those decisions were made in a disorderly way. There was no Action Plan or a committee with well-organized strategies by the Federal Government, which would have been of pivotal importance in Brazil, a country of continental proportions that is plagued by social inequality (Souza, 2022).
Thus, the pandemic produced a strong impact on people’s lives, with consequent psychological suffering of biblical proportions for peoples all over the world. According to a study by the WHO, in the first year of the pandemic, the incidence of depression and anxiety increased 25%. Social isolation stress is one major factor. It is connected to restrictions to professional capabilities, the search for support by family members, and community engagement. In addition, other stressors are: fear of contamination, loneliness, the suffering of beloved ones, grief and financial concerns, while young people and women are the ones who take most of the impact (PAHO, 2022).
Considering that the challenges imposed by the pandemic were not merely sanitary, but also socio-economic, political, cultural, ethical, and scientific, and intensified by structural inequalities, and eradicating the idea that “the corona virus is democratic”, the populations in contexts of social vulnerability suffered more intensely from the impact of the pandemic (Matta, Rego, Souto, & Segata, 2021). There was drastic increase in unemployment, of professional informality, and of food insecurity (United Nations Organization for Food and Agriculture [FAO], 2021), in addition to precarious living conditions, where there were insufficient resources to meet the recommendations by the Ministry of Health, populations in situations of poverty went through further exposure to the virus, to hunger, and to violence.
At the same time, education was one of the segments that experienced major loss during the pandemic. Onsite classes in Brazil were called off in March of 2020 and, on April 1st of the same year Provisory Measure 934 established exceptional guidelines for Education during that moment of emergency, thus leading to a distance continuation of the teaching-learning process for students in the public and private networks via Internet (Grossi, Minoda, & Fonseca, 2020), by means of the use of the Communication and Information Technologies (CITs). A survey by the Inep reveals that 99.3% of Brazilian schools suspended onsite classes and Brazil was one of the countries that kept schools closed for the longest time. In addition, a little over 53% of public schools and 70% of the private schools kept the academic calendar (SEGS, 2021). Thus, there was huge difficulty to create new methods and adapt to the use of CITs, but the most heartily felt absence was accessibility for all students especially the ones in the public networks (Senhoras, 2020).
The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (Unesco) (2021) points out that the closing of schools led to high social and economic costs for all communities, but for marginalized, vulnerable children and families, the impact can be even more harmful. In addition to the interrupted learning process, the Unesco lists other issues such as malnutrition, unpreparedness by parents to help carry out activities, shortcomings in children caretaking, increase in rates of school dropouts, greater exposure to violence and exploitation, and so on.
The concept of social vulnerability appears under different definitions in the scientific productions and, specifically in Brazilian Psychology scientific production, social vulnerability themes are rarely approached. One definition of social vulnerability refers to a certain imbalance between material and symbolic resources that are available to individuals and their necessities. In addition, the concept takes into consideration a multiplicity of factors such as: “access to services, to the prevalent culture, to social relations, and to subjectivity itself” (Scott, Prola, Ciqueira, & Pereira, 2018, p. 610).
For the purposes of this study, the concept of social vulnerability considers a multi-dimensional notion, that is, it does not refer only to a scarcity of material and financial conditions, although it is included. Rather, it must be analyzed in accordance with the inter-connection among different factors of the social structure, from the social relations of individuals/community, to their access to the rights offered by the State, for example, that might affect the level of wellbeing experienced by individuals/ the community (Scott et al., 2018).
To Cultural-Historical Psychology, thought by Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934) and developed by other authors such as Luria and Leontiev, anchored by dialectic-historical materialism (Marx, 1844/2004), reality is dialogically constructed in the material and historical dimensions. Likewise, humans are historically and socially constituted in their objective and subjective dimensions of life. Thus, human development is not purely biological. Rather, learning and psychological-cognitive development in humans is socially-historically constructed, inevitably, in their interaction with the environment and in cultural mediation with others (Vygotsky, 1991). In this sense, the social means in which individuals find themselves (family, school, community) and their material life conditions are determinants in their development.
Considering the aforementioned issues, the objective of this study was to analyze the national and international academic productions in the last 5 years on the impact of the pandemic in the education of children in situations of social vulnerability and their consequences on the psychological development of these children.
It expected that this study will contribute to the verification of what was produced on the theme, promoting a dialogue between psychology and education, with the objective to discuss the impact of the pandemic in the context of social vulnerability at school and the consequences in the psychological development of these children, in addition to promoting the importance of further psychological research on the impacts of the pandemic in education, especially for students in situations of social vulnerability.
METHODOLOGY
The present study is a systematic review of literature that is guided by the recommendations of the Most Important Items to Report Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis. (Moher et al., 2015). Advanced searches were realized in the month of December of 2022 in the databases of the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES), using the following refining criteria: 1) article-format material; 2) publication in Portuguese and English; 3) publications of the past five years. The descriptors used in the searches are displayed on table 1.
For every search there was a systematic reading of the abstracts with the application of the inclusion and exclusion criteria for studies. The following productions were included: scientific articles, complete articles, articles that refer to basic education and the pandemic period, which mention the social vulnerability or poverty and that have at least one author who is a student or has formation in the area of Psychology. The exclusion criteria were: different format of scientific article, incomplete work, articles that do not portray basic education in the pandemic period, not mentioning social vulnerability or poverty, and articles that do not contain at least one author in the area of psychology.
For reviewing the works, researchers used the analysis of content (Bardin, 2011), a tool that is generally used in qualitative researches. Organizing the reading by the following themes: “objective”, “theoretical aspects”, “methodologies”, “results and discussions”, systematized annotations were made and results were presented. Then, researchers realized discussions with the obtained material from the perspective of Cultural-Historical Psychology.
RESULTS
A total sum of 9 advanced searches was realized in the CAPES. Initially, each search was made without filters, that is, without the refinement that was later applied. Immediately after that, there was a systematic reading of the abstracts, in which there was an exclusion of the ones that fit into the exclusion criteria. Table 1 presents the partial result of the searches (data without the exclusion of the duplicated texts).
The first search draws attention because no text was found. In the third search and in the sixth search the descriptor “Psychology” was used, and in the fourth search and in the ninth search, the term “psychological suffering” was used, after a systematic reading of the abstracts, no article was found either. Therefore, the inclusion criterion according to which at least one author should be from the area of Psychology was adopted. In the second search, the descriptor “Psychology” was removed and “education” was added. Thus, some works were obtained, just like in the 5th, 7th, and 8th searches. In the 3rd search, the descriptor “inequality” started replacing the descriptor “Social Vulnerability”, because although the terms are not synonymous, the portrayed phenomena should coincide. The same idea justifies the descriptor “poverty”, which is also not a synonym for “Social Vulnerability”.
Initially, 183 search results were obtained. After the application of the refinement, 5 texts were excluded, and 178 articles were left for the systematic reading of abstracts. After the reading, 165 articles were excluded because they did not meet the inclusion criteria and 5 were repetitions. The final result was 8 articles for complete reading. The excluded texts were reviews, editorials, and a book chapter; articles in which the theme focus was clinical assistance for teachers, the impacts of the pandemic in higher education, mental health for the elderly; articles that do not focus on education, articles that do not approach Social Vulnerability or poverty, or inequality in access to education; texts in the specific area of pedagogy, nursing, geography, social sciences; texts that do not have at least one author from Psychology.
Out of the 8 articles assessed for full reading, 1 was excluded. The excluded article was focused on a discussion regarding the subjective wellbeing of children and confinement during the pandemic. It mentions distance from school but does not focus on it. In addition, it does not discuss poverty of social vulnerability or educational inequality, resulting in 7 articles for review. Illustration 1 displays the search process.
The 7 selected articles were developed in 2020, and the ones by Martins (2020) and Araújo (2020) were from the first semester, whereas the ones by Barbosa, Anjos and Azoni (2022), Ramos, Leite and Rezende (2020), Lopes Neta and Figueira (2021), Lumertz, Nunes and Menegotto (2022) and Bernartt (2022) were from the second semester.
There is a variety of methodologies in the 7 studies. Barbosa et al. (2022) present a literature review of national and international articles on the impacts of the Pandemic in the learning process for children and adolescents in Basic Education; the research by Ramos et al. (2020) is documental and bibliographical. It has the objective to identify how they faced the pandemic, just like schools and the MST movement. The work by Martins (2020) is of exploratory nature and realizes the analysis of social discourse regarding the impacts of the pandemic in basic education, based on a Facebook post.
Lopes Neta and Figueira (2021) realized an explanatory research based on electronic questionnaires which were answered by 55 students from the 9th year of basic education in three vulnerable neighborhoods in the city of Maceió with the objective to approach the reality of participants during the pandemic. Lumertz et al. (2022) presented a case study, which had been cut out of a research work on learning difficulties, with the objective to discuss education during the pandemic considering the context of poverty. The research by Araújo (2020) is of exploratory nature and its objective is to discuss the impact of the pandemic on childhood with an emphasis on education and social vulnerability. Bernartt (2022) produces a theoretic work with the objective to discuss the impact of the pandemic in basic education and the use of CITs in education while emphasizing the historical inequality between public and public education.
Regarding theoretical aspects, 2 texts (Lumertz et al., 2022, Martins, 2020) are especially based on the Cultural-Historical Psychology theory founded by Lev S. Vygotsky (1896-1934). The article by Martins (2020) discusses, based on different authors, the blaming of individuals and the exemption of the State from blame and the marginalizing of Poverty, the transference of the blame for student failure and the identity of poor children and the right to education.
Lumertz et al. (2022) connect Vygotsky and Paulo Freire as they discuss oppression mechanisms and humanization processes bringing the concepts of social situation and humanization process that the two authors discuss, the limit situation concept by Paulo Freire and the development social situation by Vygotsky. The authors also mention Luria, which emphasizes the importance of mediations and the environment for human development.
Bernartt (2022) comes from a social-historical vision with an emphasis on the Vygotskian concept of learning. The author mentions Wallon, highlighting the importance of the environment for individual constitution and of affection in the learning process, and also brings cognitive aspects regarding the use of CITs or its abuse for child development. In addition, the author denounces the risk of turning education into a commodity or into an instrument to reproduce an unfair system.
Ramos et al. (2020), in their critical perspective, have Paulo Freire as a major reference and are especially based on the Pedagogy of Movement, which is a product of the theoretical-practical baggage of the MST movement, especially the Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire, the Soviet Socialist Pedagogy and the Cuban Education, in opposition to the Pedagogy of Capital.
The article by Lopes Neta and Figueira (2021) is the only work whose references bring definitions of social vulnerability, which comprehends the structure of opportunities and the capacities by territories to generate different levels of social vulnerability. The authors are also based on Bourdieu to comment on symbolic violence as a potentializing device in the triggering of social issues.
The review by Barbosa et al. (2022) presents a cognitive perspective of learning. Due to the methodology of the research, they approach few initial references such as the importance of social experiences in learning and point at the effects of social inequality on learning.
The article by Araújo (2020) presents data and opinions by renowned specialists from different areas regarding children and the pandemic, especially concerning education and development, during the most sever periods of social isolation. The author also brings data regarding living conditions for populations in poverty and children in situations of social vulnerability. He is the only one to mention indigenous and Quilombo communities.
Thus, in order to discuss the review, researchers created categories in accordance with the most relevant themes in the results and discussions of the included articles. The following categories were defined: 1) Learning in remote education and digital exclusion; 2) Social Vulnerability, poverty and school; 3) Public policies, neoliberalism and Humanization.
DISCUSSION
Learning in Remote Education and Digital Exclusion
All seven articles that were obtained for this review point out that with the suspension of onsite classes, and remote lessons were the emergency solution to mitigate impacts of the pandemic on Education, students in social vulnerability were the most affected ones. Among the general difficulties of remote education, all the authors will highlight the lack of suitable environments for learning, especially when it comes to technological resources and access to the Internet for students at low socio-economic levels, while this was the most relevant and aggravating expression of educational inequality in the Pandemic (Araújo, 2020, Barbosa et al., 2022, Bernartt, 2022, Lumertz et al. 2022, Martins, 2020, Lopes Neta & Figueira, 2021, Ramos et al., 2020).
Barbosa et al. (2022) point at the availability of few connectable devices per family, expensive internet connections. Only half the families in the rural areas had internet access and many residents in these areas do not know how to navigate the Web. In the study by Lopes Neta and Figueira (2021) with students in social vulnerability from three neighborhoods of Maceió, 6% reported that they did not have enough internet connection available and 9% reported that they did not have a cell phone, and had to use their parents’ cell phones. The teacher who participated in the study by Lumertz et al. (2022) reports that most of her students did not have computers, Internet access was limited and only one cell phone to be shared with the whole family. Corroborating these data, in accordance with the National Research by Continuous Household Samples (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics [IBGE], 2022), 10% of Brazilian households do not have Internet access and only 41.9% of the households are provided with computers.
The research by Barbosa et al. (2022) signalizes that the lack of stimuli during the pandemic increased the probability that children in social vulnerability will also suffer from learning problems. For example, the Summer Learning (SLL) phenomenon, which refers to the risk of loss or delay in learning processes, which is more often observed in low-income children especially due to the lack of resources and/or materials, especially when they have no contact with the school.
In addition, the articles by Martins (2020) and Bernartt (2022) highlight that the historical inequality between public and private schools became even more evident with the need for individual use of CITs. In general, the whole educational system was not ready and teachers had to adapt quickly; however, most of the private schools were already using platforms for distance learning, and their classes were conducted in real time, while at public schools there as a delay in the use of technologies, in addition to the material difficulties faced by the students. Data from the National Union of Municipal School Administrators (UNDIME, 2020) demonstrated that 83% of the students in the Brazilian public networks live in vulnerable families.
Still, for education via CITs to take place in the right way, as in Distance Learning (DL) (Ead in Portuguese) specific virtual pedagogical strategies are necessary, unlike in remote teaching, to which many students in the public network had to adapt by improvisation, without technological resources or training (Bernartt, 2022, Martins, 2020). Bernartt (2022) points out that children and adolescents are easily attracted by visual stimuli that draw their attention away, such as the profusion of lights, sounds, and images in the WEB. The excess of information compromises long-term memory retention and fragmented attention hinders profound reading, in addition to other issues that the author points out.
Another fundamental point regarding remote education that the articles highlight is the importance of the teacher as a mediator and of the organization of learning around the school environment (Barbosa et al., 2022, Bernartt, 2022, Ramos et al., 2020). Based on Vygotsky, Bernartt (2022) affirms that duly organized education propels human development and drives future development processes, thus the quality of education will propel the development of children and adolescents. The teacher is very much a mediator, that is, an intermediary between students and knowledge, and must take into consideration the students’ potential for development (Bernartt, 2022). In this case, children in social vulnerability were left without the vital contact with teachers and the school due to connectivity difficulties.
In remote education, most of the responsibility for mediation fell on the family’s hands, and according to Ramos et al. (2020) it disqualifies the role played by the teacher, and the children’s right to education. It also created an environment of pressure and stress for families while exposing the children to psychological violence. Furthermore, Martins (2020) points out that many parents of children in social vulnerability were illiterate, had had little schooling, or had no time.
The articles also mention the absence of classmates. In the research by Lopes Neta and Figueira (2021) with children in social vulnerability, 76% of the participants reported that that thing they missed the most about school was the company of their classmates. Although authors emphasize that students are not aware of the importance of school, Ramos et al. (2020), when speaking of the absence of classmates in their research, highlight the importance of social relations in the teaching process and affirm that “the learning promoted at school goes beyond the mere socialization of curricular content, it comes alive in the interaction, in the games, in the attention paid by the teacher and the appropriate responses to right and wrong” (Ramos et al., 2020, p.1321).
The case study by Lumertz et al. (2022) provides an example of the relation between precariousness and learning. By investigating the case of the participant complaining of “learning difficulties” the authors realized that the child was going through a phase of transition from make-believe-based playtime to a study-based activities (Lumertz et al., 2022), and all that took place right in the middle of lockdown. This participant lived in unfavorable socio-economic conditions, without connectivity and living in material precariousness, and only had access to printed material provided by the teacher, in addition the fact that the mother had no conditions to mediate her child’s learning.
Three articles portray the some attempts to mitigate the impacts on children with fewer resources. Ramos et al. (2020) report that the children in the Movimento Sem Terra (MST) studied in accordance with the policies of each state, with the purchase of technological packages, some children followed the classes in real time or by means of recorded videos, but most children remained without access. In some cases, the teachers went to the students to give them printed material, however many parents were unable to mediate their children’s learning. Lumertz et al. (2022) portrayed the same situation. The text by Martins (2020) reports that there was the purchase of microchips and tv lesson experiences. However, the authors report that the measures were insufficient and disorganized.
Social Vulnerability, Poverty and School
Even in cases where children in social vulnerability had access to the materials, whether virtual or printed (Lopes Neta & Figueira, 2021, Ramos et al., 2020), the basic living conditions and the family organization of students in social vulnerability were reported as unfavorable to learning and development, and the importance of the role played by school in these contexts as a shelter for children in Social Vulnerability was consolidated (Araújo, 2020, Barbosa et al., 2022, Bernartt, 2022, Lumertz et al., 2022, Martins, 2020, Lopes Neta & Figueira, 2021, Ramos et al., 2020).
Many children and adolescents with their low-income families had to stay at their overcrowded homes during isolation without basic living conditions, such as sanitation and food, and without the conditions to follow the sanitary recommendations of the Ministry of Health, and being thus exposed to psychological suffering and the virus. According to the articles, the ones that had access to health products and services were better protected and that is evidence that the pandemic was anything but democratic. According to Ramos et al. (2020) and Leite and Rezende (2020) if a child lives in an environment without conditions for habitation, food, education, and health, there will be a negative impact in academic formation.
Concerning food in particular, Araújo (2020), Barbosa et al. (2022), Lumertz et al. (2022), Martins (2020), and Lopes Neta and Figueira (2021) highlighted that the food provided in the school cafeteria lunch was the most important source of nutrition for poor children and, with the interruption of classes during lockdown, these students were at risk in their process of learning, healthy development and survival. In addition, several nutrition programs were interrupted during the pandemic all over the world.
In the articles by Araújo (2020), Barbosa et al. (2022), Lopes Neta and Figueira (2021) and Ramos et al. (2020) it is possible to observe that the children in vulnerable socio-economic situations spent more time doing domestic chores. In the study by Lopes Neta and Figueira (2021), 56% of the participating students reported that the biggest challenge in remote education is that fact that, when they are not at school, they need to take care of their home and younger siblings. Araújo (2020) points out that, in many families, older children were supposed to babysit younger siblings so their parents could go to work. Barbosa et al. (2022) argue that the increase was 40% more intense for girls, in addition to the fact that they were at greater risk of not returning to school due to early pregnancy, enforced marriage, or sexual exploitation. Furthermore, due to lack of income, child labor increased during the Pandemic (Lopes Neta & Figueira, 2021).
The distance from school and the extra time with family, in social isolation, exposed children to violence (Martins, 2020; Ramos et al., 2020). Ramos et al. (2020) added that such increase due to tensions of unemployment and lack of income, among other issues. According to the UNICEF, in addition to the increase in violence, there is gloomy realization was that under-notification also increased, because the closing of schools led to reduced social interaction for children, and further distance from teachers and other adults (Raciunas & O’kuinghttons, 2021).
The authors also highlighted psychosocial impacts that were aggravated in the case of children in social vulnerability. Bernatt (2022) affirms that even the younger children, despite the fact that they could not fully understand the pandemic scenario, felt the isolation and the emotions triggered by the pandemic such as fear, loss, uncertainty, feelings of anger and anxiety, which might damage the reflexive function, interfering in cognitive and emotional development and in learning.
Likewise, Ramos et al. (2020) highlight that children noticed the changes in routine, the no-longer going to school, the lack of connectivity, and started to worry about the general scenario. Araújo (2020) adds that the change in the family constitution, such as the distance from grandparents for sanitary precautions, could affect the development of children. Furthermore, in periods such as the pandemic, stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenalin increased in children, and these hormones pose threats to the construction of brain health and, consequently, health problems in the short, medium, and long-term. Thus, in addition, to the precarious living conditions for the poorest families already mentioned in this work, there is a situation that leads to psychological suffering and illness for children and adolescents in social vulnerability (Araújo, 2020).
Thus, in accordance with the articles that were obtained in the review, the loss of physical contact with the school brought along a significant deterioration in the living conditions of children and adolescents at low socio-economic levels, greater exposure to violence and under-notifications, interruption in the school teaching-learning process, and the possibility of damage to development and psychological suffering for children and adolescents in social vulnerability. Thus, onsite schooling contributes to the eradication of social and educational inequality and to the humanization process by providing basic living conditions such as food and education (Lumertz et al., 2022).
Public Policies, Neoliberalism and Humanization
The articles in this review point out that socially vulnerable children’s right to education could not be guaranteed during the pandemic, especially due to digital exclusion. The self-evident educational and social inequality among children and adolescents of different socio-economic levels is an alarming realization. However, the COVID-19 pandemic served the purposes of neoliberalism to change basic education and promote EaD, that is, turn education into a commodity. Education companies made money with the sale of remote teaching packages, taking advantage of the scarcity in public education resources (Bernartt, 2022,Martins, 2020, Ramos et al., 2020). According to Bernartt (2022), the discourse was that technology would fix all educational problems. However, what we have identified is that there is a huge blank space due to access inequalities, which corroborates the maintenance of the interests of dominating classes.
In his article, Martins (2020) discusses the blaming of poor families for poverty, the social discourses that blame families for the deterioration of public schools, and deem it as not smart enough to organize itself economically, as violent and criminal. Discourses that point at education as a ticket to a better life, and that is based on meritocracy. These discourses disregard the historical evidence of these peoples being deprived of their rights and, according to the author, release the State and Society from any responsibility (Martins, 2020).
The articles by Bernartt (2022), Lumertz et al. (2022), Martins (2020), Lopes Neta and Figueira (2021), Ramos et al. (2020) approach the need for public policies not only in the pandemic period that will guarantee the provision for basic needs of the children and adolescents in social vulnerability because the precarious living conditions that interfere in their learning and humanization process already existed previously. Martins (2020) also mentions the need for digital inclusion policies, giving democratic access to digital technologies.
Ramos et al. (2020) highlight the fact that the measured adopted by the government will not be enough to mitigate the economic impacts of the pandemic, without a national social policy. According to the UNICEF (2022, p. 18), “it is possible to say that the Emergency Aid, during the trimesters in which it was being paid, protected approximately 1.8 million children from situations of poverty or extreme poverty”, in 2021. However, when the aid was suspended, the statistics went back to the previous situation. The educational measures were also not enough, such as the purchase of technological packages because access to education for the most vulnerable populations became even more difficult.
Lopes Neta and Figueira (2021) argue that there was symbolic violence behind the discourses preaching that the government had already done what was possible resulting in the absence of educational public policies. In the authors’ research, the participating students are not aware of the absence of rights and the impact in their future; it happens because, according to the authors, the students are immersed in a sanitary crisis and in the precarious conditions in which they live and feel pressure to present an attitude of acceptance regarding the situation (Lopes Neta & Figueira, 2021).
By connecting the theories of Paulo Freire and Vygotsky, Lumertz et al. (2022) point out that humans are historically constructed and that education is fundamental in the humanization process. In Paulo Freire’s perspective, human beings humanize each other, in a process of mediation and relation with the world, and the operators of humanization are the basic living conditions such as habitation, nutrition, health and education (Lumertz et al., 2022). Education, in this sense, is deemed as a liberating process. If it is humanizing and liberating, therefore there is no humanization in oppression. Thus, “schools, in their function of promoters of learning, bring the real possibility of humanization, leading to self-awareness and liberty from the oppressed/oppressor paradigm.” (Lumertzet al., 2022, p. 15).
FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
Due to deprivation of access to services and material resources, the populations in greater social and socio-economic vulnerability were the absorbers of the most impact during the COVID-19 pandemic. With the suspension of onsite classes, Education was one of the most affected sectors, revealing and maintaining a dramatic scenario of intensification of the Brazilian educational inequality.
Regarding the objective of this study, it was possible to identify that the suspension onsite classes affected the whole educational system, especially for children and adolescents in situations of social vulnerability. Basic living conditions such as habitation and nutrition, access to digital technologies and family organization is a determining factors in children’s learning. Scarcity in the availability of CITs was the most reported difficulty in the articles, that is the reason why most of the children in vulnerability completely lost connection with school, which made them even more vulnerable to violence and child labor; domestic chores became more time-consuming, especially for girls; many children ceased to have the healthiest nutritional source they had, the environment in which they live proved unfavorable to learning and development. Thus, it became evident that schools and teachers are fundamental in the lives of children in social vulnerability as sources of learning and provision for basic living necessities.
The few measures adopted by the government such as distribution of microchips and the purchase of technological packages proved insufficient because the children in vulnerability did not have access to basic living conditions. Studies demonstrate that it is a responsibility of the state to guarantee education and basic living conditions for the humanization of individuals.
Due to the precarious conditions to which the children in social vulnerability were more exposed during the pandemic, the authors discuss the increase in psychological suffering for these children in comparison with the children from higher socio-economic levels and that live in more suitable contexts for learning and development. However, such aspects are not fully explored in the articles.
It is possible to emphasize that social vulnerability itself is an underrated theme in Psychology research works. This is a sign that there is a huge blank space when it comes to attention and comprehension of the suffering of such large portion of the Brazilian population. In the searches, it was possible to notice that there are many Psychology studies referring to the impacts on education, and focusing on psychological illness, but that do not take social vulnerability into consideration. Thus, it is possible to say that the need for more attention paid to these themes is really relevant in a country with so much social inequality and the need for a Psychology that is truly connected to the Brazilian reality and the oppressed population.
Social isolation and the suspension of classes due to the COVID-19 Pandemic happened quite recently. With the return of onsite classes, it is possible to highlight the need for more studies regarding the impacts of the pandemic on Education because they are timeless, and with a focus on the issue of social vulnerability for children and adolescents in order to give more visibility to this segment of society and contribute to the fight for the effectiveness of a constitutional right, the right to education, which will lead to more equality in society.
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The entire dataset supporting the results of this study has been published in the article itself.
