Educational Continuity under Crisis: How School-Based Support Professionals Navigate Systemic Constraints

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly disrupted educational systems worldwide, with lockdowns and school closures forcing a rapid transition to online learning. This shift posed unprecedented challenges for the delivery of educational support services in public education, revealing critical vulnerabilities in institutional readiness and professional adaptability. This study explores the lived experiences of school-based support professionals (psychological counselling and guidance [PCG]) as key institutional actors within educational systems working in public schools and Guidance Research Centres in Türkiye during and after the pandemic. Drawing on qualitative methodology, two complementary studies were conducted. The first employed a phenomenological design and involved in-depth interviews-both face-to-face and online-with 61 PCG experts (27 females, 34 males; M = 33.48 years). The second study utilized a case study design, engaging 29 professionals (15 females, 14 males; M = 33.38 years) through similar interview methods. Findings highlight a stark discrepancy between the educational and psychosocial needs of students and the limited capacity of support professionals to respond effectively, primarily due to systemic constraints exacerbated by pre-existing inequalities and the need to reconceptualise their professional roles to include family engagement. The pandemic exposed a critical paradox: while student distress and learning disruption surged to historic levels, the digital divide, institutional inertia, and lack of policy coordination rendered many core competencies of support professionals inoperable. Crucially, the study reveals that effective educational continuity in crisis contexts requires transforming families from passive recipients to active partners in student support, challenging the conventional school-cantered support model. The long-term implications of this mismatch between demand and support capacity, alongside inadequate home-school partnerships, pose significant risks to educational equity and are likely to reverberate across educational settings for years to come.