‘I never do the workbooks’: comparing the affordances of schools and homes as learning environments during COVID-19 for adolescent girls in Aglomerado da Serra, Brazil

This paper explores COVID-19-related school closures experienced by adolescent girls (12–17 years old) in Aglomerado da Serra, an informal settlement in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Schools are everyday, meaningful places, crucial for identity formation, well-being, and overall health. In schools, most youth spend most of their week learning, forging important relationships and developing a sense of belonging to the community. Particularly in marginalized contexts, people rely on schools for support. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Brazilian schools were closed for up to 18 months, and students were expected to study at home, independently. Affordance theory helps explore the different learning environments of schools and homes, shaping learning experiences and self-perceptions. Opportunities and constraints of learning spaces, seen through the lens of affordances and their actualization, highlight the often-overlooked spatial dimensions of learning. Ethnographic data was collected in 2021–2022, including (walking) interviews and photography. The findings emphasize the dynamic and relational nature of affordances in schools and homes. Overall, the study advances research on the role of space in learning, emphasizing the importance of both physical and social environments in supporting student engagement. It suggests that school closures, while disrupting traditional learning practices, also revealed the critical role of affordances in shaping educational outcomes.