Abstract:

The global COVID 19 pandemic dramatically altered the early education teaching landscape worldwide. The switch to a virtual education model left many educators, parents and students scrambling to access appropriate technologies, adjust complex schedules, and attempt to learn in a radically different way. For very young kindergarten-age children, their introduction to formal education via virtual technologies in 2020/2021 has been particularly challenging. To understand more about the inter-related experiences of children, teachers, and parents engaged in Kindergarten learning during this challenging time, we conducted a series of online in-depth interviews with the key stakeholders in this endeavor. The goal of our study was to determine how parents and children coped with a virtual education model, how teachers adapted or abandoned teaching practices, and how future virtual learning technologies might best support students, parents, and their teachers in achieving their goals.

We conducted 10 interviews with parents and teachers located on the East Coast of the United States who were either the parents or the teachers of kindergarten children. Our interview protocol was approved by the Institutional Review Board at our University and the interviews were conducted in the early spring of 2021. The interviews lasted between 30 – 50 minutes and were recorded and transcribed. The authors read and open-coded the transcripts, producing a preliminary code list set. We then collaborated in sorting and labeling thematic categories and identified relationships between the categories.

Our findings describe the new (and not always welcome) roles for both teachers and parents as coaches, therapists, and teacher-parents, as well as surfacing emotional familial conflicts about learning and working together during the lockdown. While both teachers and parents expressed concerns about the negative impact of the pandemic on the children under their care, we identified a more conflicting relationship dynamic emerging between parents and teachers over time. Critical areas we proposed considering moving forward include thinking about how to negotiate this parent/teacher relationship dynamic if and when children return to in-person learning, how to best assist students in ‘leveling up’ quickly with their education, and how to maintain or even repair complex familial learning support networks.

Keywords:

Covid-19, Kindergartners, Parents, Teachers, Relationships, User Interface.