Early in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic brought drastic changes to our lives, namely border closures/restrictions and the imposition of lockdowns and other policies such as limitations on economic activity and transition to teleworking. Inevitably, schools all over the world were closed, and teachers and students were confronted with a paradigm shift regarding the teaching–learning process. Thus, there was a need to adapt the education system, traditionally built around physical schools, to distance learning, which represented a quantum leap in terms of the utilization of new technologies and pedagogical strategies to ensure access to quality education for all students (Archambault and Borup 2020). This scenario brought to the fore serious situations, such as the accentuation of differences in the teaching process, caused by economic and social disparities. Moreover, children with fewer resources and/or less parental support at home were put in a risk position of being left behind in their learning, which, in turn, intensified the pre-existing gaps (Verma, Campbell, Melville and Park 2020). According to an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development report (OECD 2020), additional barriers were faced by vulnerable students, namely children from “low-income and single-parental families, immigrant, refugee, ethnic minority and indigenous backgrounds, with diverse gender identities and sexual orientations, and those with special education needs” (OECD 2020, p. 2).

Regarding Portugal, the first ‘state of emergency’ was declared on the 18th of March, and the schools were all closed; teachers and students were sent home, and were suddenly confronted with issues around distance learning, i.e., the lack of technological tools (computers, tablets, internet access, etc.) and the shortage of skills to use digital technologies (OECD 2020). Therefore, the Ministry of Education made efforts to ensure pedagogical continuity through the implementation of different measures. One of the main interventions consisted of using diverse tools and technological instrumentation. The Microsoft Teams and Zoom platforms stood out and could be used free of charge with institutional emails. When it was not possible to ensure internet access to students, or in cases where they did not have computers, learning support centres provided face-to-face and distance support, and a cooperation with post office services and the National Scouts was also implemented to deliver hard copies of lessons and tasks to students that would later be returned to teachers. Special attention was given to Roma communities with the implementation of a campaign for awareness and prevention of COVID-19, promoted by the ‘Sílaba Dinâmica—Intercultural Association’ in collaboration with ‘Letras Nómadas—Association for Research and Promotion of Roma Communities’, and ‘Ribalta Ambição—Association for Gender Equality in Roma Communities’, and with the support of the Portuguese High Commission for Migration (OECD 2020). In addition, beginning 20 April 2020, the Ministry of Education and public television (freely accessible by Portuguese people under equal conditions), with the support of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, made available a television programme called #EstudoEmCasa (Studying at home) that contained a set of educational content found to be relevant to the development of student learning (for ages 6 to 15 years). Daily television classes were released between 9 am and 6 pm, and the programme lasted until the end of the 2019/2020 school year. It was structured in thematic blocks, with 30-minute sessions, and was headed by teachers from eight schools in the country, who made themselves available to develop this activity. Schools received, in advance, the timetable and the contents of each educational block, as well as support materials and activities. The Ministry of Education presented ‘Studying at home’ as a support resource aimed mainly at students without connectivity and/or equipment, since more than 98.9% of the Portuguese population has at least one television at home (INE—Statistic Portugal https://www.ine.pt/).

In this context, the state’s response to the pandemic caused us to reflect on how to deal with the socio-economic discrepancies among Portuguese students in a crisis context such as COVID-19. Several questions emerged: Is it possible to guarantee equity in science education in a pandemic situation? How can teachers guarantee equity in this period? Educational research on these issues is still scarce. The present study intends to address the lack of studies about external unforeseen crises and equity in science education. More specifically, we aim to answer the following research question: How did science teachers ensure equity during the pandemic?

Equity in science education

The term ‘equity’ has been gaining ground in science education (Schenkel et al. 2019), and there are several reflections around its meaning, such as that of James Banks et al. (2001), who state that equity in science teaching is the “instruction that provides all students with an equal opportunity to attain academic and social success in school” (p. 197). The concept of equity in science teaching implies the use of learning experiences to allow the active involvement of students in the construction of their own knowledge (Banks 1993) and teaching materials and activities, in accordance with students’ socio-economic status and cultural diversity (Braaten and Sheth 2017). These authors argue that ensuring equity is essential for all students to participate and achieve success in science. However, this description of equity is very general and can have a multiplicity of meanings (Rodriguez and Morrison 2019), and there is a need to move from a utilitarian perspective of the concept of equity to a more critical and questioning perspective, especially when we are dealing with students and families from underrepresented minorities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Basile and Lopez 2015).

With the aim of discussing the concept of equity, in 2019, the Cultural Studies of Science Education dedicated a special issue to the exploration of the meanings of equity in research and teaching practices in science through sociocultural perspectives (Fortney, Morrison, Rodriguez and Upadhyay 2019). For example, Brian Fortney and Erin Atwood (2019), in their article, addressed teaching by exploring how an equity agenda in science and learning evolves. The authors describe a reflection on the theme centred on the experiences of a science teacher trainer and a student. The work shows equity in two components: equity as interactive and equity as complex and dynamic that facilitate the reconstruction of personal conceptualizations of equity in the classroom through the use of praxis.

Moreover, other empirical studies have been developed about the topic (Atwater 2011), some of which focused on science education reforms, innovative teaching practices (e.g., teachers’ responsiveness) and methods (e.g., inquiry-based learning), and their effects on specific groups (e.g., race-ethnicity and socio-economic status). As an example, the study by Hosun Kang (2021) aimed to understand the role of a teacher’s responsiveness in promoting equity in secondary science teaching and consisted of a case study on a teacher, Ms. Chadwick, which was conducted for 2 years in a school that served economically disadvantaged Latinx and Asian communities (over 90% of Ms. Chadwick’s students were Latinx and multilingual students). The results showed a responsive teacher who takes into account the students’ needs, identities and ideas, working against the ideologies and cultures prevalent in dominant discourses, selecting teaching strategies that expanded marginalized students’ opportunity to learn.

In Spain, Zoel Salvadó, Carme Garcia-Yeste, Regina Gairal-Casado and Maite Novo (2021) designed and carried out scientific workshops, attended by 86 students aged 8 to 13 years at risk of social exclusion. The students belonged to low-income communities and minorities who participated in workshops conducted by scientists outside the classroom. The results showed that the workshops had a positive influence on the construction of the scientific capital of this social group. The participation of scientists in workshops promoted the link with real-world and scientific work, providing them with models of jobs involving science.

The study by Cory Buxton (2006) reports an experience of collaboration during a 2.5-year study with teachers and students to reform teaching and learning of science, within the context of the lowest-performing elementary school in the state of Louisiana in the United States. The study took place in a school with 245 students (86% African American, 13%, Hispanic, and 1% White non-Hispanic). The researcher worked together with 14 teachers engaged in a master’s degree professional development project and pre-service teachers who participated in field experiences at this school. Data were collected through focused group interviews with teachers and future teachers, written documents of students’ work, field notes, and photos and video recordings of selected activities in classrooms. Using a taxonomy for authentic science inquiry experiences for students in a disadvantaged socio-economic context, the author highlighted teachers who had been able to successfully engage their students in authentic science inquiry. The results highlight the importance of teachers and students working collaboratively in the implementation of an equity-promoting inquiry model, attending to different issues, i.e., developing inquiry outside of school, providing the time and the resources for students to formulate the problem and solve it, and using a model of assessment that considers the students’ options.

Likewise, Sharon Lynch, Joel Kuipers, Curtis Pyke and Michael Szesze (2005) examined, through a large-scale analysis, how highly rated science curriculum materials, aligned with reform goals, improved educational outcomes for diverse student populations. The participants were 1500 students, selected considering their ethnic, linguistic and socio-economic diversity. The researchers followed a quasi-experimental methodology. The students of the experimental group were involved in inquiry activities during the teaching of the curricular unit Chemistry That Applies. The research showed statistically significant differences in the post-test results between the two groups (experimental and comparison) regarding achievement, basic learning engagement and goal orientation. Regardless of ethnicity, socio-economic status or gender, students in the experimental group involved in inquiry-based learning had better results than students in the comparison group.

Moreover, considering the need to foster equity in science education, in the last few years, several studies have focused on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results to study the relationship between student-centred instruction approaches (e.g., inquiry-based learning) and science performance in students with low socio-economic status. For instance, in a study based on PISA 2015 data from 3279 students belonging to the Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Guangdong regions of the Chinese mainland (B-S-J-G-China), Shaohui Chi, Xiufeng Liu, Zuhao Wang and Seong Won Han (2018) concluded, through a multiple regression analysis, that in the case of students with low socio-economic status, higher levels of inquiry-based learning activities were positively correlated with better science achievement, better disciplinary climate, a higher level of teacher support and more positive attitudes towards science. From these variables, the authors identified a positive disciplinary climate, defined as “student perception of the stability and effectiveness of classroom rules and the frequency of disciplinary incidents among students in the class” (Chi et al. 2018, p. 1287), as being responsible for the positive outcomes regarding science learning. In a similar study, Nai-En Tang, Chia-Lin Tsai, Lloyd Barrow and William Romine (2019) conducted a mixture regression analysis with PISA 2015 data collected from 5146 US students. The results suggest that there was no positive effect of inquiry-based learning in science outcomes for students of low socio-economic status, contradicting the literature (e.g., Krajcik, Marx, Blumenfeld, Soloway and Fishman 2000), which describes the benefits of such a pedagogic approach. However, the authors emphasize the following aspects to bear in mind when drawing conclusions: (i) it is possible that adequate instruction time, resources and support have not been made available for the implementation of inquiry-based learning activities, and (ii) inquiry-based learning may not be effective in preparing students for PISA assessment. In a broader study, with data retrieved from PISA 2012 to 2015, regarding ten participating countries (Brazil, Chinese Taipei, Finland, France, Korea, Norway, Peru, Qatar, Singapore and USA), Jihyun Hwang, Kyong Choi, Yejun Bae and Dong Shin (2018) found mixed results. Although the results of some countries were in line with the theoretical assumption that inquiry-based learning reduces achievement gaps between students with high socio-economic status and students with low socio-economic status, the main findings did not support the positive impact of the inquiry-based learning approach. Nevertheless, and according to the authors, this is not indicative of the failure of the inquiry-based learning, since it depends on teachers’ understanding of it and the context wherein it is implemented.

Despite some contradictory or, at least, ambiguous results, student-centred pedagogical approaches seem to be the most promising to promote science learning equity. Thus, the ability to fully benefit from their positive effects implies that teachers have resources, time and a full understanding of how to successfully carry out these activities.

Science education in crisis contexts

Educational research about equity in science education during times of crisis is almost non-existent. One exception is the study developed by Jo Fletcher and Karen Nicholas (2016) that focuses on an unpredictable situation caused by a natural disaster. The study aimed to explore the actions of school principals on student learning, during and after the Christchurch earthquakes. Semi-structured interviews with school principals showed that principals worked towards improving student learning conditions (e.g., they implemented systems to be in contact with families, using technologies), especially students who lived in poverty, intervening in an individualized way with those pupils and their families.

However, with COVID-19 disease, the issue of equity in times of crisis took place on a global scale, taking on other contours, with the closing of schools provoking a general awareness that there were urgent issues that needed to be addressed to ensure access to quality education for all students. Thus, the implementation of distance learning and the creation of online learning environments to support teachers, pupils and families was considered a good solution to resolve the issue of access to school. Nevertheless, it did not prove to be suitable for all students, because in addition to difficulties with technological abilities, online learning for young children also requires adult supervision during lessons (Kim 2020). Also, some students could not access digital learning resources, and governments had to offer these resources (computers, tablets, internet access, etc.) and/or provide alternative learning resources, i.e., television and radio broadcasts (OECD 2020). Nevertheless, in several countries, or at least in some disadvantaged zones of some countries, the resources were not appropriate, since, for instance, some family houses did not have internet coverage or even electricity. One such example was the study carried out by Zuheir Khlaif, Soheil Salha, Saida Affouneh, Hadi Rashed and Lotfia ElKimishy (2021) conducted with 22 teachers from three countries: Afghanistan, Libya and Palestine. The study aimed to examine how middle school teachers from the three countries responded to school closure to fight the spread of COVID-19. The results show that in the three contexts, teachers faced the same challenges, of which infrastructure and teachers’ technical knowledge and skills stood out. Concerning the infrastructure, given the difficulties of poor students in accessing online classes with their colleagues, teachers minimized this aspect by using open computer centres for poor students to follow classes.

The concern with guaranteeing access for all students during the period of confinement to online classes is reported in the study of Emily Miller, Emily Reigh, Leema Berland and Joseph Krajcik (2021), which examined how elementary teachers have innovated to offer all their students virtual science lessons using a project-based learning (PBL) approach. The participants were two teachers: Amy and Irma. The results showed that it is possible to use PBL during confinement and to use different strategies to involve students, aiming to guarantee the involvement of all. Therefore, while Amy used technologies to support the engagement of students in the investigation of the driving question, Irma chose to use the students’ home context to involve them. Overall, both teachers felt that PBL was crucial to maintaining interactions between students and their connection to science lessons, as well as to overcoming isolation during confinement.

Research context, data collection and analysis

The participants in the present study are six science teachers who have been collaborating in a STEM research project since 2019. The project aims to understand the effects of implementing STEM activities on students’ learning and motivation, as well as their interest in pursuing scientific careers. During the development of the project, teachers and the project team built STEM activities to be adapted and implemented with their students during the confinement between March and June 2020. They were all female, all volunteers and of different ages. The participants were selected because they continued to collaborate on project activities during the pandemic, and in the confinement period they showed availability to develop with their students one of the STEM activities. At the time of initial data collection, their teaching experience ranged from 15 to 30 years. Teachers 1, 2, 3 and 4 have a similar academic background. They hold a full teacher qualification for teaching biology and geology or physics and chemistry in middle and secondary education. Teachers 5 and 6 have an initial 5-year training in chemical engineering and, to be able to teach physics and chemistry in middle and secondary schools, they underwent complementary training in teaching for 1 year (Table 1). In fact, to be professor of biology/geology and physics/chemistry in Portugal, before 2007 (i.e., before the Bologna Process) it was necessary to (i) have a degree in teaching, more specifically, during their initial training (average duration of 5 years), which means that future science teachers received training in scientific and pedagogical areas, and carried out an internship in schools; and (ii) have a science or engineering degree and additional training that allowed them to teach. During their professional activity, under a constructivist approach, all teachers were involved in professional development programmes related to science teaching activities. Professional development programmes involved an iterative cyclical process, organized into five steps: (1) planning (teachers design a set of inquiry activities); (2) action (teachers implement the activities with their students); (3) collection (teachers collect information regarding students’ learning, involvement, and difficulties and ways of overcoming them); (4) interpretation (teachers interpret the results collected); (5) reflection (teachers reflect on their experiences).

Table 1 Teachers’ demographics
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When the pandemic started, a close relationship was maintained with participant teachers to understand what they were doing to guarantee the equity of their students’ learning. They were teaching students aged 12 to 15 years in different middle schools within the Lisbon district. The teachers’ schools are located in neighbourhoods of the greater Lisbon region (the region surrounding Lisbon) that belong to five municipalities known for having a population of minority ethnic groups. These five municipalities have an overall population of 1,634,375 inhabitants (corresponding to about 16% of the resident population in Portugal, according to the PORDATA database, https://www.pordata.pt/). The percentage of foreigners residing in these five municipalities in the greater Lisbon region is approximately 3.5% Latinx, mainly from Brazil, 3.6% African, less than 1% Asian and less than 1% Roma (PORDATA database). According to teachers, about 70% of the students at their schools were white, of Portuguese or European origin; nearly 10% were reported as black, of Portuguese or African origin; around 10% of the students were of Latin origin, mainly Brazilians; less than 5% of the total population of the schools were Asian, and less than 5% of the students were reported as Roma. Teachers stated that around 40% of the students within their schools were considered poor. In general, they were in heterogeneous classes, with students with different socio-economic backgrounds and with diverse levels of motivation to learn science and of academic performance in science.

As for the data, two collection methods were used: individual interviews at the end of the school year, lasting 60 minutes, and teachers’ individual written reflections, also produced at the end of the school year. To analyse the interviews and the written reflections, an inductive strategy of content analysis was used, repeatedly examining the data to uncover salient patterns and themes associated with the research aims (Miles and Huberman 1994). All documents were read, and the targeted text was segmented. Each segment was assigned a code according to its features. After rereading segments and codes, a final group of categories and sub-categories emerged. The categories used in this study were as follows: science classes in Portuguese public television, platforms and other alternative means of communication, and science activities for distance learning.

Science classes through public television

One of the initiatives of the Portuguese government to ensure that all students had access to classes during the pandemic was the ‘Studying at home’ programme launched on 20 April on public television. In this daily space, broadcast from 9 am to 6 pm, teachers from the various disciplines and school years taught 30-minute classes on the contents of the curricula, which students watched at home. A weekly science class for students from 12 to 15 years old was broadcast on television.

The participant teachers gave instructions to their students to attend the weekly science classes, as this was a way to reach every student. According to one of the interviewed teachers:

There are many students who do not have access to the internet or a computer because they have economic difficulties and belong to a disadvantaged socio-economic environment. This info was assembled by the school, and that is why the school opted to use ‘Studying at home’ television classes… because all students have a television (...), it is a vehicle for everyone learn the contents. (Teacher 1)

In fact, according to the interviewees, all their students had at least one television at home, which made it possible to have access to the public television science classes, taught by science teachers from Portuguese schools, thus enabling everyone to follow the school curriculum. Therefore, through television, students with lower socio-economic status were able to access science classes, proving this to be a fundamental resource for the most vulnerable groups, who do not have internet and a computer at home, to have the same opportunities to learn science during the pandemic. In this way, the use of television classes as a means to provide students with access to knowledge was consequently an important resource to minimize inequities. However, the interviewees also recognized that television classes were not enough, and it was necessary to complement them:

We have an asynchronous moment, where we give a weekly assignment related to the science class of this week of Studying at home, to support and complement the class they saw on television. These asynchronous classes are complemented with synchronous classes because the students have different needs. Each teacher has 20 minutes to answer questions about Studying at home. (Teacher 2)

Maintaining contact between teachers in synchronous classes with students to explore the classes broadcast on television was essential to support them and take into account their learning needs and their diversity. Even so, there were still students without access to these classes, due to lack of resources at home, especially internet and computer, which resulted in situations of inequality. Furthermore, teachers are faced with another problem. Although TV classes reached all students, teachers could not guarantee that everyone would attend classes, and it was essential to ensure moments of support and alternative ways for students to access synchronous class materials in order to minimize inequity, especially for the poorest students, as mentioned by Teacher 3:

My students, most of them have economic difficulties, there is no internet, but they all have television (…) they saw the science classes of the Studying at home, which was a great initiative, because it ensured that everyone had access to the contents, and Studying at home went forward in a short time, so that students did have alternatives. But we were not able to be sure about several things: we don’t know if they really see the programme, parental supervision is different. There are parents who know that they do not accompany their children, because they already did not accompany them before the pandemic, as in the case of Roma boys and street children. How do we ensure they attend classes? (…) there are families with several children who are on telework, who are under stress with the whole situation and who are unable to accompany their children during television classes. Therefore, there was a need to create moments of support from the teacher, because even in a pandemic time, our support makes a difference, especially in the case of the most disadvantaged. So, I gave differentiated support according to students’ needs. That’s what we did at school. The students attended the classes and I prepared materials about the class they had attended [such as tasks with questions about the content, PowerPoint presentations and materials with content information]. In the case of students who did not have access to the internet, the school sent printed materials to them, and, at times, I adapted activities, taking into account whether or not they had access to information. (Teacher 3)

As seen in the words of Teachers 2 and 3, although teachers recognized that ‘Studying at home’ helped students to have access to the classes, it was highlighted that to ensure equity in students' learning, teachers accompanied the students, creating moments of discussion about content and developing with them tasks about the TV classes. This support is especially important for students who have no support at home. Furthermore, in addition to television science classes, there was a need for schools to ensure that lower-income students had access to materials and other resources for exploring the science curriculum. In this sense, in order to minimize situations of lack of access to synchronous classes, schools sent materials and resources produced by teachers to the homes of the most disadvantaged families.

Platforms and other alternative means of communication

In addition to ‘Studying at home’, teachers resorted to the use of online platforms to work synchronously and asynchronously with students, given the need to ensure that they would access the resources. One of the teachers stated:

In the school where I teach, the distance learning regime was organized based on weekly plans. All classes were aware of the activities to be carried out by discipline, and we had the possibility of having one synchronous session per week. The platform for communication between students and teachers was the Microsoft Office Teams. (…) not all students could access it due to lack of computers and internet, in the first weeks they stayed at home (...). Our school collected the information on it and we tried to solve it, case by case, with the help of resources that we had at school, which we lent, and also thanks to the help of other people who had computers that they didn’t need. With larger families, we found the best way to share the computer. (Teacher 4)

As mentioned in the previous excerpt, at the beginning of the confinement, not all students could access computers or were connected so that they could follow synchronous science classes. Therefore, teachers and schools adopted measures to ensure that all would have access, thus enabling students to follow the classes. Teachers started by listing the students’ needs and determining the best solutions for each case. This was reinforced in the interviews:

There are students who didn’t have a computer at home and internet. How could they attend my synchronous classes? How are we going to do it? These were new questions that we faced at the beginning of the confinement and that we had to answer to make sure that we managed to ensure that no students are left behind and that everyone has access to learning (…). In my classes, I had about two students [of about 25 to 30 students] who did not have these resources. We had to respond and have solutions. Computers and tablets were made available to students to answer this need and to help them to access classes. (Interview, Teacher 2)

As Teacher 4 and Teacher 2 mentioned, to ensure that all students could access synchronous classes and learning, it was necessary to take measures making digital resources available to students who did not have them. In this way, schools and teachers sought to guarantee access for all students to fundamental resources for distance learning and to ensure equity.

Moreover, teachers used alternative means of communication, such as cell phones and email:

We also did other activities with students [in addition to Studying at home classes]. We had synchronous classes, one hour a week, using a platform, and the students also worked independently at home. In synchronous classes, I asked questions, students presented the work they did during the week, doubts about studying at home, etc. As I said, not everybody had access to computers, tablets, and the internet (…). I picked up the phone and called the students, to support them, and made my phone number available to them. They were calling and asking questions (…) Sometimes, when the internet was not good, I sent the materials by email instead of using the platform, because it was easier for students, or via WhatsApp. In the most difficult cases, the school even printed the materials and deliver it to them. (Teacher 3)

As seen in the previous excerpt, one of the ways to ensure that all students had access to learning was to use the phone either to call and answer the students’ questions, or to send materials (using WhatsApp), and to access and send emails (since all students had a mobile phone). Thus, the teacher considered the mobile phone an essential resource for communicating with her students, guaranteeing everyone’s access to learning. According to her, not all students had a computer, but they all had a mobile phone in their household. Thus, the mobile phone became a fundamental resource for students’ access to science learning, helping to minimize inequalities.

Science activities for distance learning

Teachers’ interviews and written reflections made evident the activities that had been developed with students during the pandemic. When developing the activities, they considered (i) the context of confinement, i.e., students were at home, with no possibility of access to laboratory materials; and (ii) the teaching context, i.e., the socio-economic origin of students and minority ethnic groups. As an example, one teacher described an activity about the sound that she performed with her students at distance, which aimed to measure the sound level in various rooms of the students’ house during confinement. This content was part of the students’ curriculum. Teacher 5 noted the importance of students keeping in touch, even in a confined situation, with the experimental component of the science discipline. Furthermore, she said that “it motivates all students, especially the most disadvantaged, because they feel more involved”. For this reason, as stated in her written reflection:

Students had to design their homes and measure sound levels at different times and under different circumstances with the aid of a sound level meter previously installed free of charge on their cell phones. I launched this challenge in the synchronous class, via Cisco’s Webex. I showed them with my own phone how to get to the application [to measure the sound level] for free (…) I had very good results. (Interview, Teacher 5)

As can be seen in the previous excerpt, the teacher used a free cell phone application so that students could measure the sound level in the various rooms in their homes. All these students had access to a cell phone, thus ensuring that everyone could participate in the activity. As she noted during the interview, she took into consideration that “the students had access to the internet and the means to successfully develop what was proposed to them”. In addition, as she mentioned, “the students enjoyed the activity very much. With the use of materials available at home, they were able to take measurements and learn with a hands-on science activity, even those with more difficulties” (Interview, Teacher 5). According to the teacher, the activity proved to be adequate for the confinement situation, allowing her students to measure the sound level and enabling an experimental teaching of science. In addition, it was very positive for students with greater economic disadvantages. As it was a hands-on activity, they felt they were able to put it into practice and finally managed to do it successfully. These aspects were critical for students to learn science and get involved in asynchronous activities. In this sense, we can even mention that activities with these characteristics—i.e., which allow students to define a plan (in this case they decided the places in the house where they wanted to measure the sound level), make measurements, record data and critically discuss the data collected—improve the involvement of students, especially the most disadvantaged, with asynchronous science classes, promoting student learning opportunities and, consequently, equity. According to the teacher, in addition to helping students learn, it helped the most vulnerable students to express positive emotions and feelings in relation to distance science classes.

Teacher 6 also identified practical work with her students as a way of motivating them to learn physics. According to her:

My classes are heterogeneous. I have students with economic difficulties, and others who belong to the middle class and of different ethnicities. There was a need to motivate students, to propose practical work, in which they could have a problem to solve and where they could develop skills and have some more motivation to achieve the learning objectives, at home, and with the materials and resources available (Interview, Teacher 6).

Moreover, the use of practical work was recognized as a way to motivate students to learn science during confinement, especially those who had greater difficulties and came from disadvantaged backgrounds. Before the pandemic, with regard to communication during classes, it was “easier to follow the students because the interaction is facilitated and we are able to give feedback on the spot, especially to those who have more difficulties and that they don’t have so much follow-up at home” (Interview, Teacher 6). In a confinement situation, this becomes more difficult, making it necessary to bear in mind that “to involve all students, and especially those who are most unsuccessful, like my Roma students, this type of work is fundamental” (Interview, Teacher 6). The teacher recognized the importance of experimental activities, whose practical content allows students, especially the most vulnerable, to learn science and succeed in distance classes. In addition, it has been found to have contributed to developing their autonomy. No less relevant was a kind of over-concern about valuing and respecting the ideas and proposals of each student, seeking to constantly give feedback to all students, especially the most disadvantaged ones, this being a fundamental aspect in the promotion of equity.

In this regard, she gave as an example another activity performed during confinement, to teach the transformation of elastic potential energy into kinetic energy. The activity consisted of asking students to build a car and put it in motion, using a rubber band and using materials they had at home. According to her written reflection:

The students were very creative. They built cars using water bottles, used CD wheels or bottle stoppers, used toothpicks or sticks [Fig. 1]. As it was a problem in which they had to look for a solution and which had several chances of resolution, the students were not frustrated by not being able to do so. Everyone was doing at their own pace and looking for solutions and I was talking to them on the phone, to help them, giving clues so they could improve. (Written reflection, Teacher 6)

Fig. 1
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Examples of cars built by students

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It is evident from the previous excerpt that using everyday materials that students had at home was a way of keeping them involved in science classes, especially the most disadvantaged ones, and to ensure that everyone had access to learning and equity. As the teacher stated, “the activity did, in fact, involve the students” and “especially the students of other ethnic groups who felt the possibility of success, it was an activity that involved them (…) they liked what they have done, and this has motivated them a lot” (Interview, Teacher 6).

Achieving equity in teaching science during the pandemic situation

This research shows teachers dealing with a pandemic situation—COVID-19. It proves how this can be done to ensure that all students, especially those from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds and ethnic minorities, have access to learning. This is about equity at school during the pandemic period, involving six science teachers and students’ science learning. Given the lack of access (particularly) of the most disadvantaged students to the internet and computers, the first measure taken by teachers was the use of science classes on public television. This governmental initiative was quickly implemented to ensure that students were not penalized in the ability to access classes. Such TV programmes have already been used to ensure access to classes for students in various countries in distance learning situations (e.g., Brown and Brown 1994). However, as students have different needs and benefit differently from parental supervision, teachers complemented TV classes using other materials, and created moments of individual support, especially to combat situations of unfairness. In line with several studies, the advantages of teacher support in distance learning emerged as fundamental in student learning and in supporting learning equity (Ukpokodu 2008). A second measure is related to distance teaching, in which teachers adapted their methodologies within a short time frame, providing their classes via electronic platforms, and working synchronously and asynchronously with their students. For students without internet and computers, teachers used alternative means of communication, such as the telephone or postal services, and they counted on the cooperation of school staff who communicated with municipalities and parents’ associations and took the materials to the more disadvantageous families. Also, various stakeholders provided families with tablets and computers, favouring families with many children, so that more children could access the internet simultaneously. Therefore, it was possible to mobilize and provide missing resources through, for example, computer loans or printing of materials. Access to these resources by the most vulnerable students was an important step in ensuring everyone’s learning, and a sign of commitment to equity goals. The importance of all students having access to computers and internet in distance learning is noted by Stacy Fox (2016), who considers the lack of access to digital resources a problem for students with greater economic difficulties, leading to inequity situations. Fox stresses that schools play an important role in providing equitable access to technology, as this paper corroborates. A third measure is related to the nature of the activities developed by science teachers. In addition to the TV science classes, teachers created complementary materials (e.g., tasks with questions about the content, PowerPoint presentations and materials with content information) and activities that valued hands-on learning and problem solving, bearing in mind that students were confined to their homes and that the materials to be used under these conditions would have to be accessible to all students. When designing the teaching activities, it was essential to take into consideration the students’ socio-economic conditions, as exemplified when they opted for mobile phone applications and other everyday resources (e.g., water bottles, CDs). Therefore, this research also confirms that teacher practices are significant and influence the promotion of equity and condition students’ opportunity to learn (Kang 2021). According to the interviewees, students with low socio-economic status were shown to be motivated to learn science and evidenced increased self-efficacy if they were actively involved in the construction of their knowledge. In other words, when students with disadvantaged backgrounds are involved in the conception and execution of a plan proposed by their teachers and asked to answer to a starting problem, it motivates them to learn science and makes them feel more confident, because they recognize they can make it and be successful. Specifically, in a confinement situation, when teacher–student communication and interactions are more difficult, these kinds of activities seem to make the difference in students with low socio-economic status. These activities carried out at a distance highlight the notion of educational equity defended by Alexis Patterson (2019). Equity “is both a goal to be attained (and enjoyed within the classroom) and a process created by the participants in a classroom” (p. 364). The promotion of equity is intrinsically associated with the work that is developed between teacher and student and with the opportunities that the former has to offer to the latter. These opportunities take into account contexts, circumstances and people, and an educational purpose focused on minimizing the impacts of students’ unfavourable backgrounds on their learning and performance. Moreover, the results are in line with other studies in which students, regardless of their race, ethnicity and socio-economic status, have been involved in inquiry activities, demonstrating achievement and learning engagement (Lynch et al. 2005). In this way, teachers have used an equity pedagogy (Banks 1993), modifying the teaching activities to provide academic success to all students from diverse ethnic, cultural and social class groups (Singh 2011).

Conclusion

Unforeseen situations, such as COVID-19, pose great challenges for science teachers regarding the equity of learning for their students, whose low socio-economic status places them even more at a disadvantage in times of crisis. Our findings show what six science teachers did to ensure that all students had access to science classes and academic success. This allows us to point out ways to respond to this (still ongoing) pandemic, as well as to possible future unexpected crises. Thus, ensuring the equity of students’ science learning, regardless of their socio-economic background and ethnicity, implies that (1) teachers develop complementary materials about the classes that students have attended and create moments of individualized support in order to minimize inequity, using distance learning platforms or other means of communication for those students who do not have access to internet and computer; (2) teachers build and implement activities that value hands-on learning and problem solving, enabling all their students to achieve academic success. Thus, this study highlights what can be done differently in adverse contexts of external and uncontrollable crises, so that equity in access to education, and specifically to science classes, and the achievement of meaningful learning by students is ensured. We believe that this study allows the science education community to reflect on possibilities that teachers can choose to ensure equity. In the future, in a post-pandemic era, it will be important to evaluate which practices were promoters of equity and, learning from experiences, understand the type of measures that can be taken to increase the science curriculum and support teachers in unforeseen situations such as the one we are living with COVID-19.