Abstract:

The present study aims to investigate the extent to which the emergency remote teaching which took place beginning in the spring of 2020 in France was implemented differently by teachers working in schools serving students from socially disadvantaged backgrounds in “Priority Education Network”.

Previous research underlines that parents from priority education areas struggle to understand school system’s functioning and requirements in ordinary school setting (Kakpo, 2012; Perier, 2005). Besides, remote learning, mainly using digital communication, can also be influenced by families’ computer equipment (DEPP, 2021; OECD, 2020, Rayou and Ria, 2020) or parents’ computer skills (Hargittai & Hinnant, 2008; Pasquier, 2019; Delahaye, 2015). Finally, research shows that teachers in priority education schools tend to lessen requirements and expectations (Bautier & Rayou, 2009; Bonnery, 2009). Therefore, our analysis will focus on the similarities and differences between priority education and ordinary schools in three main areas:
1) parental involvement;
2) the use of videoconferencing;
3) learning requirements.

Method and data sources:
This study combines three quantitative and qualitative data sources in a mixed-method approach.
A teacher’s questionnaire (n=351) was used to investigate declared practices during remote teaching and their perceptions of this experience. Questionnaire analyses were performed using R 4.0.5., comparing answers from teachers in and out of priority education schools. Chi-square tests were used to determine statistical significance of differences between these two groups.
Our researchers conducted a semi-structured interview with twenty-two of these primary school teachers who had answered our call for volunteers issued in March of 2020, at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Nineteen videoconference class sessions have also been recorded and transcribed, as well as teachers interviews. They have been called back here to illustrate and interpret the results of the questionnaire.

Results:
As far as parental engagement is concerned, our study shows that the differences related to social background go well beyond material shortages. Indeed, teachers perceived parents’ lack of cultural and language resources as an obstacle to helping their children. Parents from disadvantaged backgrounds were found to be less efficient helpers. However, distance learning has been an opportunity for teachers to foster communication with families, an important factor in the success of students. This input from the pandemic experience is something the education community could build on to foster school equity.

The use of visioconferencing showed no significant differences between priority education and ordinary schools. However, parents’ presence during virtual classes was judged more helpful in ordinary schools than in priority education schools.

As far as learning requirement are concerned, our results show that priority education teachers tend to focus more on the review of previously-learned content over the introduction of new content, contrary to what is mostly done in ordinary schools. Teachers explain their rationale for doing so in interviews.

Keywords:

Remote teaching, social background, primary school.