Going to School in a Pandemic: Modes of Schooling and Students’ Sense of Connectedness to their Schools, Teachers, and Peers, in the Time of COVID-19

• In Event: The Cascading Educational Impacts of COVID-19

Abstract

Background: Six months after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic, students around the world are returning to classes in re-imagined ways. In British Columbia, Canada, some students have returned to classes full-time in person, others are learning in an entirely online setting, and some are learning through hybrid models (i.e., half of the time in-person, and half of the time online). These multifaceted modes of schooling provide students with varying degrees of interactions with their schools, teachers, and peers, and may have important implications in terms of their feelings of connectedness and school belonging. Notably, the literature on school belonging posits that adolescents’ feelings of belonging to their school significantly affect their academic development and school adjustment (Pittman et al., 2010; Fong Lam et al., 2015), as well as their emotional and mental health (Anderman, 2002; Arslan, 2018). While we continue to navigate this unprecedented time in education, it is essential to consider the impact of these distinct modes of schooling on students’ sense of connection to their schools, teachers, and peers.

Objective: The objective of this work is to explore how the COVID-19 pandemic, including different modes of schooling, has impacted high school students’ feeling of connectedness to their schools, teachers, and peers.

Methods: Data for this study will be collected via online questionnaire from approximately 2,000 students from three high schools (in two school districts) in British Columbia, Canada, between October and December 2020. This study will employ a concurrent mixed-methods design in which students will be asked quantitative questions about their demographic background (i.e., age, gender, ethnicity) as well as their school belonging before and during COVID-19. For instance, students will be asked to recall how they felt about their school before COVID-19 and at the time of data collection (i.e., during COVID-19; Waters et al., 2010). Students will also be asked to share how the COVID-19 pandemic has influenced their connections with others.

Analysis plans: Data from this study will be analysed in January 2020. For the quantitative analysis, hierarchical linear regression will be conducted with school belonging at the time of COVID-19 as the outcome variable. Students’ modes of schooling will be dummy coded into three binary variables (i.e., in-person, online, hybrid). Demographic factors (i.e., age, gender, ethnicity) and school belonging before COVID-19, will be entered in Block 1. Following this, students’ mode of schooling will be entered in Block 2. Competing models will be tested and compared.

For the qualitative analysis, ten students from each mode of schooling with varying levels of school belonging since COVID-19 will be selected through a process of quantitative data integration. These students’ qualitative responses will be analysed using theoretical thematic analysis.

Implications: Findings from this work will contribute to the development of an empirical understanding of how different modes of schooling relate to high school students’ feelings of connection to their schools, teachers, and peers, in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic – a particularly important issue given the known association between belongingness and academic success and mental health outcomes in adolescence.

Authors

• Natasha Parent, University of British Columbia (UBC)
  Presenting Author

• Kyle Dadgar, University of British Columbia (UBC)
  Non-Presenting Author

• Cassandra Hesse, University of British Columbia (Vancouver)
  Non-Presenting Author

• Rachel Baitz, University of British Columbia (UBC)
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jennifer D Shapka, University of British Columbia (Vancouver)
  Non-Presenting Author