Similar to other Nordic countries, equity, equal opportunities and education for all are fundamental principles in the Icelandic education system (Buchholtz et al., 2020). Emerging literature indicates that the COVID-19 pandemic has amplified inequality in education around the world, meaning that students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are falling even further behind (i.e. Finkel, 2020; Graham & Sahlberg, 2020). The question of equality is not only a question of equal access but, perhaps more importantly, of equal opportunities to gain equal educational outcomes (Armitage & Nellums, 2020; Blundell et al., 2020; Doyle, 2020). Researchers and policymakers must look beyond the simple idea of thinking that ensuring equal access to resources is adequate. It is important to look under the surface in addressing the impact COVID-19 is having on education and analyse how students from different socioeconomic backgrounds are affected to different extents.

The main aim of the paper is to analyse how parents experienced their role in upper secondary education in Iceland during school lockdown or school disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Through interviews with parents, we intend to analyse if all students had the same possibilities to benefit from learning in the altered educational environment, given the presumption that studying from home requires for example certain facilities, more independence and assistance from families. By doing so we will enhance the understanding of the potentially increasing equality gap in upper secondary education in Iceland during the COVID-19 pandemic based on students’ socioeconomic background.

The theoretical framework used will draw on Basil Bernstein’s (2000) model of pedagogic discourse. Through a Bernsteinian framework on types of family involvement, it is possible to analyse parents’ discourse about their role in the distance learning environment. Using Bernstein’s model and theoretical language of instructional and regulative discourse, it is possible to explore the circumstances parents are put into without much preparation and to what extent students are provided with different opportunities in distance education. Bernstein offers an interesting alternative voice to theories of social reproduction. Key to this alternative viewpoint is the idea of understanding how educational mechanisms are configured and structured in relation to the family, with the implicit implication that they might be reconfigured or altered to disturb the status quo (Donnelly & Abbas, 2018). Bernstein’s framework is useful to analyse how families contribute to how students identify themselves and how various roles are taken on by parents and students. The framework takes into account how different positions converge or diverge to social positions the school expects families to uphold. These positions are important since they determine how engaged students are in the school and to what extent they are able to benefit from the study (Edgerton & Roberts, 2014). Included in the framework are the two inter-related orders or discourses the educational system uses to transmit knowledge and skills to students.

The research is a part of an ongoing research project. The first phase of a comprehensive data collection has already taken place and more will be gathered on the long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on upper secondary education in later stages, through classroom observations and follow-up interviews. The current dataset consists of qualitative and quantitative material from questionnaires (N=5,095) and interviews (N=48) from three upper secondary schools in Iceland that were purposefully selected for the project. One of the schools is a traditional grammar school with high achieving students of similar socioeconomic background in the Reykjavik capital area and two are traditional comprehensive schools with students of mixed socio-economic backgrounds, one within and the other outside the capital area. The paper relies on 12 interviews with parents from the three upper secondary schools. The parents were selected to represent diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, all genders, and other demographic factors. The interviews took place in early 2021. They were semi-structured and intended to capture a wide spectrum of the impact COVID-19 had on upper secondary education.

The preliminary findings expose issues concerning social justice in upper secondary education not only during the period of school closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic but also when the schools operated with a mixed setup of online and onsite teaching. Parents were to a different extent capable of assisting their children due to lack of time at home or familiarity with the subjects taught in upper secondary schools. The findings also indicate that parents of foreign origin had to look outside their homes for educational support for their children because their social network was in some instances weak. The findings raise critical questions related to social justice during the pandemic in Iceland and other parts of the world at the same time. Teachers, schools, and educational authorities must take into consideration how students are to different extents capable of benefitting from opportunities offered to them. It is not enough to make sure all students have the same opportunities. It is also important to make arrangements to ensure all students are capable of using the opportunities offered to them. The research will be of great sociological importance as it highlights the interplay among students, parents, and practitioners within upper secondary education in Iceland. Its importance also lies in the contribution to general discussions about equality in education on the one hand and important aspects of educational discourse that might improve opportunities in education for all students on the other.

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