The outbreak of the COVID-19 global pandemic led to the
adoption of measures (lockdowns, school closures, and
online classes, among others) that had an immediate impact
on the teaching and learning processes. However, with the
2022 PISA cycle, it is necessary to analyse the longer-term
consequences of these changes, not only in terms of the
conditions under which the teaching process takes place,
but also regarding their effects on students’ academic
performance.
findings are consistent with those of Izquierdo et al. (2019),
who show a higher level of reading competence among
students whose parents have a high economic status and
university education, and whose involvement in their
children’s education is greater. In this regard, Vázquez-
Cano et al. (2020) estimate that parental educational
attainment explains 20% of the variability in PISA reading
scores in Spanish-speaking countries. From a comparative
perspective, Sayans-Jiménez et al. (2018) highlighted the
importance of variables related to family economic and
cultural wealth in reading performance, an influence more
marked in Spanish-speaking countries than in Anglophone
countries. Finally, Jiménez-Pérez et al. (2021) found that
Reading performance in PISA has been examined from
different
multidisciplinary
perspectives,
including
comparative education, pedagogy, psychology, and
sociology (Alonso-Sainz, 2021; Govorova et al., 2023).
Among sociodemographic variables, student gender has
been widely studied to explain differences in reading
performance in the PISA assessment: findings indicate
higher reading literacy among girls than among boys
(Encinas-Martín & Cherian, 2023). Analyses of different
PISA editions have confirmed a reverse gender gap in
reading performance in the Spanish context: female
students obtain higher scores than male students, with
variations in the size of the gap depending on the edition of
the study (de Frutos & Santaren, 2020; Van Bavel et al.,
2018). Rapp and Borgonovi (2019) also identified gender
differences in reading across different national and cultural
contexts. Khorramdel et al. (2020) corroborated this trend
and added that gender differences in reading literacy are
much greater than those observed in mathematics. Finaly,
Martínez (2021; 2008) focused on the Spanish case, in
particular on the Canary Islands, showing a more marked
influence of gender in cases of school failure. In the broader
context of the reverse gender gap (Martínez, 2021), in the
Canary Islands this variable would be more predictive of
school dropout than of academic performance.
mothers’
reading
habits
significantly
influence
adolescents’ reading proficiency in Spain.
The impact of the pandemic on learning has become the
focus of international research. According to Di Pietro
(2023), the post-COVID educational
framed within the following processes: (a) overall, the
pandemic reduced educational performance by
context can be
approximately 0.19 standard deviations; (b) learning
deficits appear to be greater in mathematics and science
than in reading; and (c) the effects are long-lasting and do
not appear to differ significantly across educational levels.
These findings are consistent with earlier results reported
by UNESCO (2020), which anticipated some of the current
challenges, such as the need for increased public spending
on and the potential negative consequences of the
pandemic for inequality across educational systems.
It is essential to consider how the influence of the same
factors outlined above --psycho-pedagogical variables,
gender, and students’ socioeconomic background-- on
reading literacy has changed because of the pandemic.
Studies focusing on the Canary Islands are, for the time
being, limited. Some preliminary but significant findings
are presented by Cabrera et al. (2020): school closures
during the COVID-19 pandemic appear to have clearly
widened inequalities in educational opportunities. In this
case, the impact of the pandemic may have increased
differences in reading performance among students in the
Canary Islands, depending on the heterogeneity of
families’ sociocultural and socioeconomic conditions.
In PISA, students’ socioeconomic status is measured using
the ESCS index, which considers parents’ educational
attainment, their occupation, household resources, and
family wealth. According to Avvisati (2020), the ESCS is
a measure that determines students’ social position based
on their social, cultural, human, and financial capital.
Inequality of educational opportunities, with particular
attention to families’ sociocultural background and its
influence on PISA reading results, has been analysed in
the context of the Canary Islands (Marrero et al., 2022;
Martínez, 2008, 2009; Pérez et al., 2013). These studies
confirm the relevance of the family context in explaining
In light of the above evidence, and considering the
educational context resulting from lockdown during the
COVID-19 pandemic, the aim of this study was to analyse
the reading literacy of students in the Canary Islands in the
PISA 2022 assessment, examining differences according to
students’ performance in the Canary Islands.
These
Rodríguez-Rodríguez, D., Domínguez-Santana, F., Stendardi, D., & Jiménez García, E. (2026). The Impact of Lockdown
on the Reading Competence of Students in the Canary Islands in PISA. Investigaciones Sobre Lectura, 21(1), 1–24.
3
