The current COVID-19 pandemiccrisis is not only a health and medical crisis. It has   revealed inefficiencies in educational systems fostered by political and ideological agendas of neoliberal policies. Additionally,this crisis has made visible massive inequalities in wealth, income and power, and the protracted inequalities in education.Education was already mired ina crisis of resources, infrastructure, human capital,etc. before the appearance of COVID-19 in many countries, but this new developmenthas pulled back the curtain to reveal more clearly the deep inequalities in schools and the challenges that students and teachers face (Chalari & Atta, 2021). Specifically, the COVID-19 crisis has further revealed in particularly stark terms that the extreme economic inequalities unmasked by the 2008 economic collapse remain unaddressed (Kapola et al, 2020). 

In this presentation, we argue that this unprecedented global crisis and the health and safety measures imposed in several countries around the world(such as social distancing, strict lockdowns, home isolation and the suspension of all educational institutions)strengthened existing educational inequalities with direct effects on students’ quality of life and overall well-being. Specifically, they have highlightedconventional class hierarchiesnot merely in regard to wealth, income and economic security, but also inequalities regarding access to valued circumstances, to practices and ‘ways of life’ (Sayer, 2005).Subsequently, these have had a huge impact on students’ well-being, as well as on their ability to flourishand their potential for happiness.

In this presentation, we report findings from an EU funded research project titled ‘SHINE’, which adopted a comparative and intersectional approachto exploring the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on students’ well-being in Cyprus and Greece, in order to understand how patterns of educational inequality affect happiness attainment in children.Our study gave secondary school students in Cyprus and Greece the opportunity to discuss their experiences and share insights into the impact of the pandemic crisis on their society, on education and especially on their own everyday lives, and to share their thoughts and views on the role that education may play in tackling the impact of the crisis.Thus, our project raised important questions about the possible role of education for the promotion of students’ well-being in the context of the pandemic crisis, and aimed to lay a foundation for tracing new ways of exploring the practices and discourses through which well-being and happiness are constituted.

In our attempt,Boudieu’s theoretical concepts and, in particular, ‘habitus’ were used as the main conceptual and methodological tools to help us explain and develop a holistic understanding of students’ lived, embodied, affective experiences in contemporary Greece and Cyprus. Habitus is a complex and enigmatic concept that Bourdieu developed to demonstrate the ways in which ‘not only is the body in the social world, but also the ways in which the social world is in the body’ (Reay 2004, 432). We employed habitus as an adoptive mechanism to the effects of the crisis on young people’s lives andbecause it holds promise for exploring the affective aspects of living in an unequal society (Reay 2015). A psychosocial understanding of students’ habitus may allow for a better and richer appreciation of how the exterior – wider social structures such as the pandemic crisis– is experienced and mediated by the interior, the psyche (ibid), and creates the proper conditions for a happy or unhappy life.It may also introduce other variables that may explain and predict social inequality (Illouz 1997). 

The study attempted to shed light upon the perceptions and lived experiences of students. The nature of this goal suggested an emphasis on the investigation of ways in which individuals interpret their social world – a purpose that led researchers to select a mixed method approach (qualitative and quantitative). Within this framework, a two-stage study carried out: an online survey and focus group interviews. The aim in this study was not to develop a statistically generalisable sample, but rather to capture diversity of experience and to explore research questions and classify key issues for future development. Thus, in order to ensure access to a sufficient number of participants, ‘purposeful sample’ technique was employed (Patton, 2002). Specifically, we started our fieldwork by finding four secondary typical inner-city schools which are located in Nicosia and in Athens. These schools contained primarily of students from lower middle-class and working-class families and students from families with a history of immigration. Participants were identified and selected through direct contact with school head teachers and teachers. Firstly, we conducted an online survey in both countries. In this survey, we used innovative techniques for data collection (such as online tools) that appealed to young participants and could be completed remotely even during extended periods of lockdowns and school closures. For this survey we aimed at a sample of 400 participants in each country, around 100 students from each school, all from the 3rd year (no specific sampling criteria were used for the selection of these participants). When the analysis of the online survey data was completed, we conducted focus groups with students from the same eight schools in Cyprus and Greece. From each of these schools, we deliberately selected 10 students, for a total of 40 students from Greece and 40 from Cyprus in order to explore students' subjective well-being. The selection of these participants was based on their profile, their degree of motivation to take part in the project, their gender (an equal share of male and female), their age (an equal share of 2nd and 3rd year students), their socio-economic status, their cultural background / migration status (representative of the share of migrants in the specific cultural groups as far as is given in each country). Two focus groups of 5 students were held in each school.

Our intention in undertaking this research project was to contribute new knowledge, add a new body of empirical evidence to the effects of the pandemic crisis, and address gaps for policy-making both at the EU and national levels by offering a systematic and comprehensive study of the effects of educational experiences on students’ well-being in Greece and Cyprus from a comparative and intersectional perspective. The study reported in this presentation aimed to effectively discuss and provide a closer insight into possible ways of thinking about education, different from those presented in previous studies. Its findings aim to contribute to the improvement of educational policy and practice in both countries, by informing pedagogic, curricular and other educational judgments and decisions in times of crisis, and to serve as an indication of the need for further research. Such findings may shed light on the effects of crisis on individuals’ educational experiences in a global perspective; the impact of the pandemic crisis is now common across most of the countries around the world. Many countries might find the present study informative with regard to their own struggles. Within Europe, there is currently a rising interest in the impact of the pandemic crisis on education. Recent EU policy developments – but also broader sociological and cultural studies – show a noticeable trend towards efforts to develop and highlight a discourse on well-being, health and happiness, by putting the health and well-being of young people at the core of the social investment agenda through transforming educational practices.

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