Coping With COVID-19 in Kentucky: Youth Examine Their Learning Lives

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 7
  In Roundtable Session: Fighting for Educational Equity Within a Global Pandemic (Table 26)

Abstract

This article presents a youth-driven study to understand Kentucky students’ learning-from-home experiences in the wake of COVID-19 statewide school closures. Grounded in a sociocultural perspective on human development and guided by a youth participatory action research approach to inquiry, this study employed a sequential mixed-methods design to examine how the pandemic shaped students’ learning lives. Data sources include a state-wide student survey (N = 9,475) and peer-to-peer interviews (N = 32) administered in 2020. Descriptive and inductive analysis of results highlight the importance of (a) socio-economic status as a mediator of educational experience and (b) social relations for learning.

Authors

• Daniela Kruel DiGiacomo, University of Kentucky

• Ellen L. Usher, Mayo Clinic

• Sanaa Kahloon, Harvard University

• Connor Daniel Flick, Western Kentucky University

• Caiti Griffiths, University of Cincinnati

• Beth Goldstein

• Sadie Bograd

• Sofie Farmer