Recalibrating Reality: Preschool and Kindergarten Teachers Describe Shifts in Practice in Response to COVID-19

• In Event: Ongoing COVID Impacts in Early Childhood Education

Abstract

Preschool and kindergarten teachers play a critical role in shaping young learner’s literacy environments. Covid-19 impacted the literacy contexts early childhood teachers (ECTs) designed and facilitated. This research uses causation analysis (Saldaña, 2016) to examine ECTs’ (n = 187) responses to an open-ended survey question regarding pandemic-related shifts in their pedagogical literacy practices. Findings show (a) social distancing, (b) masking, (c) children’s cognitive development, (d) children’s social and emotional development, and (e) resources supplied by school districts influenced shifts in their literacy practices. These shifts lead to changes in the ecology of early literacy environments (Camborne, 2002) with noted changes in (a) materials, (b) spaces, and (c) people that young learners and ECTs accessed to enact literacy routines.

Authors

• Leslie La Croix, George Mason University
  Presenting Author

• Allison W. Parsons, George Mason University
  Presenting Author

• Sehyun Yun, Ball State University
  Presenting Author

• Holly L. Klee, George Mason University
  Presenting Author

• Margaret Vaughn, Washington State University
  Presenting Author