Teacher support of non-native language students during the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-national comparison

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic created a great deal of disruption in all segments of life across the world, including for education. There is evidence to suggest that these disruptions may have been particularly damaging to students from marginalized communities, including those whose native language is not that of the test. During the pandemic, schools were forced to change the mode of educational delivery from in person to largely online. In an effort to ease this transition they took a number of additional efforts to support teachers, parents, and students in meeting the challenges that arose due to the pandemic induced disruptions. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of these efforts on student perceptions of teacher support during the pandemic. Results demonstrated that when school support to non-native langue parents increased, non-native langue students were more likely to perceive that their teachers supported them in a variety of ways. Implications of these results are discussed.