Teachers’ views on how to support the learning and well-being of vulnerable children

Abstract

Every young learner is unique and diverse from each other. A child’s identity is influenced by several factors including their life experiences, religious beliefs, nationality, physical abilities, gender, and race. However, children who come from disadvantaged backgrounds or have experienced adversities in their lives such as poverty, stress, family problems, change and transition or forced displacement are placed in a state of vulnerability. Such negative experiences which may lead to vulnerability, may impact the child’s overall well-being and learning. Schools are expected to support every child despite their backgrounds and needs. It is also known that the school environment can lessen the negative repercussions of the adversities they would have faced. Therefore, this study focused on how the school, particularly kindergarten teachers support not only the engagement of vulnerable children but also their well-being. Six semi- structured interviews were conducted with kindergarten educators who worked in state schools. The selection of schools was based on where the school is located, areas which are known to have a particular demographic of vulnerable or marginalised backgrounds. Kindergarten teachers’ perspectives on how they support the learning and wellbeing of children such as the strategies they use and challenges which they face were collected in the interviews. The results suggest that the teachers believed that the child’s background influences the child’s performance and behaviour in class particularly their ability to form relationships with their peers and behaviour problems such as acting out or acting behaviours. However, teachers mentioned the importance of teacher child relationships in order to raise children’s self-esteem, sense of security and motivation which help them to integrate better in the classroom. As a result, this improved their learning as they participated more and promoted their well-being. In turn, teachers also focused on creating inclusive classroom climates. The data showed that most teachers focus on making children aware about differences through various strategies such as social stories, circle time sessions and open discussions. The participants focused on eliminating attitudes which support discrimination and instead spoke about the importance of showing attitudes of love, care and respect towards children who are vulnerable. It was recommended that more awareness and more should be done to promote inclusion in schools. Additionally, more support should be given to parents who due to their position are not able to fully participate in their child’s school experience. Lastly, the return of Nurture groups which supported children with SEBD was discussed and it was also suggested to introduce Hubs to the early years since it benefited children who needed support in speaking Maltese and English.