Educational participation of primary school children with cancer from a Life Course perspective: A critical review of the literature.

• More children diagnosed with cancer during primary school survive into adulthood. • Adult survivors of childhood cancer experience lower educational and occupational attainment. • Educational participation as a social process is poorly understood for children with cancer. • We synthesize recommendations for practice and policy to improve educational participation. • We call for engagement with Life Course principles with implications for research practice. Adult survivors of childhood cancer experience poorer long-term socioeconomic outcomes, yet the influence of educational participation during primary school years is not well understood. This review synthesizes empirical findings from seventy-four quantitative and qualitative peer-reviewed studies, published from 2000-2019 and identified through a search of nine databases. The findings point to the following recommendations to improve policy and practice: provision of teaching and learning away from school; focus on student-centeredness; strengthening home-school-hospital partnerships; facilitation of teacher and peer acceptance; school re-entry support; resources and funding; and advocacy. The findings suggest that a Life Course lens is appropriate to conceptualize the role of educational participation for mitigating long-term impacts of childhood cancer during developmental transitions from childhood to adolescence and adulthood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]