Different and Unequal: Early Childhood Education Social Networks in the Time of COVID-19

• In Event: Identifying and Navigating the Curriculum and Instructional Equity Fault Lines of the COVID-19 Crisis

Abstract

This study examines how the social networks of early childhood educators (ECE) have developed in response to COVID-19 and how they have positioned themselves to shape a rapidly shifting policy environment. In the wake of the pandemic, ECE programs are faced with unprecedented challenges around the country, such as loss of developmentally-appropriate, generative learning time; shifting operational demands; the need to provide heightened levels of support for families; and the physical, mental, and financial health crisis of an already vulnerable ECE workforce. In addition, guidance provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates that smaller class sizes, staggered schedules, increased health monitoring, and more intensive sanitizing measures will be required for programs to safely open. These protocols will increase costs to unsustainable levels for many programs, especially in underserved neighborhoods. Given these daunting challenges, understanding policy formation at this moment is critical.

The heuristic offered by Quarantelli and colleagues conceptualizing “transboundary crises and disasters” also suggests that social networks, often overlooked in disaster research, are of great significance in responding to crises and disasters, and can be helpful in understanding the degree to which cultural and social interpretations of causal agents compound their effects. Scholars have found that in disasters of various types and in various locations, social networks both operate to mitigate the effects of disaster (Roberto, Kamo, & Henderson, 2009) and form out of a shared experience among unlikely allies (Robles, & Ichinose, 2016). This study examines how social networks formed across ECE programs to address the COVID-19 crisis, the areas of concern identified by social networks in communities differentially positioned with regard to social capital, and how the networks are working to shape policy to address those concerns.

This is a comparison-case study relying principally on interviews and document analysis. The first case is a loosely affiliated group of programs that serve low-income families of color in the South Bronx, while the other is a formal coalition of independent preschools who serve well-resourced neighborhoods in Brooklyn with a large white population. Preliminary findings from the analysis of 20 interviews indicate that the formation and activities of ECE social networks in each of the neighborhoods were deeply affected by the degree to which their school communities experienced illness and job loss associated with the pandemic, the sources of their funding, as well as proximity to resources derived from their respective degrees of social capital. In the first case, network members organized to meet the health and other basic needs of their students and families, while in the second, members organized to directly influence regulatory bodies. This research adds to the education policy literature by using this frame to build conceptually on the work of Coburn and Russell (2008) to investigate the relationship between social capital, social networks, and educational policy. It also contributes to the work of social network analysis in disaster research. It is useful to policymakers in crafting ECE policy that takes into account racial and socio-economic disparities in the wake of COVID-19.

Author

• Jessica Charles, Bank Street College of Education