Routledge Lessons from Lockdown: The Educational Legacy of COVID-19

Lessons from Lockdown explores the impact of COVID-19 on our schooling systems, on the young people and families that they serve and on all who work in – and with – our schools, and asks what the long-term ramifications of the pandemic might be for the pedagogy and purpose of formal education. Drawing on the voices of more than a hundred pupils, parents and professionals, it reveals how teachers and learners are adapting practice in areas such as curriculum modelling, parental engagement, assessment and evaluation and blended and online learning. In this timely new book, Tony Breslin draws on his experience as a teacher, researcher, examiner, school governor and policy influencer to assess what the educational legacy of COVID-19 could be, and the potential that it offers for reframing how we ‘do’ schooling. Whatever your place in this landscape, Lessons from Lockdown is a must-read for all concerned about the shape and purpose of schooling systems in mature economies – schooling systems and economies set on recovering from the kind of ‘system shock’ that the pandemic has delivered. Review ‘Tony Breslin’s highly readable and engaging book works on three levels. First, it offers a comprehensive chronicle of the impact of lockdown on our education system. Through clarity of narrative and the voices of a wide range of participants, we are reminded of the multi-layered and capricious events of spring and summer 2020. I have a strong sense that those interested in education will return to these pages for many years to come. But Lessons from Lockdown provides much more than a captivating narrative of schooling during the pandemic. Breslin is a knowledgeable and experienced educator and articulates several decades of change within education, thus contextualizing the various responses to the closure of schools across the UK. Finally, and most powerfully, the book makes a series of clear-eyed, well-balanced recommendations. These stimulating suggestions will, unquestionably, be discussed in staffrooms across the nation and, if we are to have the future we desire for our children, by those in power.’ Daniel Coyle, head teacher, Newman Catholic College, Brent ‘This book captures a vital moment in time and offers a highly readable and engaging account of what happened when education was thrust into lockdown early in 2020. But it goes further than that, placing the decisions taken in a broader context of educational policy and practice. Therefore, it should not be a surprise that it tells a tale of how many individual schools and teachers were left largely alone to make the best of the situation. In many ways Lessons from Lockdown demonstrates how the pandemic has shone a light on the injustices, inequities and poor political leadership that are endemic in our education system. Tony Breslin’s extensive research, drawing on the immediate experiences of a range of key players in the education sector, does us all a service in making sure that those decisions, actions and consequences are not all left to be reimagined with the benefit of hindsight, but chronicled here and now. As we see the longer-term impact of lockdown on our children, our schools and on the wider educational community, researchers of the future will be intensely grateful for this book’s ability to present a broad and deep narrative of what the lockdown of the first part of 2020 felt like to those involved. The arguments that Breslin marshals from these experiences to challenge us all to reimagine what our education system should seek to achieve and how it should be structured are provocative and engaging.’ Nick Johnson, chief executive, British Educational Research Association ‘A lesson or class is a structured period of time where learning is intended to occur. Lessons from Lockdown: The Educational Legacy of COVID-19 opens wide many doors to learning at the same time: principals' and policymakers' office doors, staffroom and classro