Understanding Caribbean Early Childhood Teachers’ Professional Experiences During the COVID-19 School Disruption

Abstract

The COVID-19 Pandemic and resulting school closures, present a serious threat to young children’s care, learning, and the achievement of their developmental potential (UNESCO, 2020a ). Disruptions to normal school functioning worldwide have presented challenges for teachers who were generally unprepared to teach using different methodologies (United Nations in Policy brief: Education during Covid-19 and beyond, 2020). Since a child’s right to care and education extends even during emergencies this study was conceptualized to better understand the professional experiences of early childhood teachers as they navigated the teaching learning process during the COVID-19 school disruption. A multiple site qualitative case study was designed to answer two research questions: What were the professional experiences of Caribbean Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) teachers at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic period? And how did Caribbean ECCE teachers adapt to ensure continuity of children’s rights to access education? Almog and Perry-Hazan’s ( 2012 ) conceptualisation of the Right to Adaptable Education provided the theoretical foundation for this study. Data were collected using a questionnaire sent to teachers from seven Caribbean countries. Five themes were extricated from the findings: changed teacher experiences, significant new understandings, changed teacher collaboration practices, changed individual qualities, and warning signs for support. We conclude by making recommendations for macro level support for the ECCE sector during educational disruptions.

Challenges and Opportunities of Mathematics in Digital Times: Preschool Teachers’ Views

“…More specifically, they faced barriers such as lack of training for distance education, lack of equipment or internet connection in schools and students, and the children were unfamiliar with distance learning and limited personalized teaching. Moreover, they referred to continually reduced students' interest as they preferred direct contact and communication with their teacher and classmates [3,6]. In addition, the absence of pedagogical material related to mathematical concepts in face-toface schooling led them to create and/or recreate digital material.…”

“…Several studies have been conducted on the pandemic school closures from various points of view regarding remote teaching in preschool settings during the COVID-19 outbreak. These studies have investigated the practices and barriers preschool teachers face concerning digital tool use [3,[5][6][7]18]. Mainly, Gomes et al [7], using web surveys, studied preschool teachers' practices and barriers across Australia, Bangladesh, Norway, Singapore, and India.…”

“…According to their findings, teachers revealed low levels of participation in children, limited social interaction and developmentally appropriate ways of engaging children in the virtual learning format, lack of knowledge and skills for virtual teaching, and limited technological support. Following a qualitative approach, Abdul-Majied et al [6] investigated the experiences of Caribbean early preschool teachers at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to their findings, teachers reported increased work with uncertain results.…”

“…Therefore, teachers could follow communication with students by giving them proper homework and others that followed in some degree teaching interventions, utilizing online teaching and proposals from various Information and Communications Technology (ICT) scenarios [4,5]. However, the research indicated many barriers preschool teachers faced during school closures, such as technical skills for teachers and children, lack of infrastructure, and lack of training for teachers in distance learning [3][4][5][6][7]. According to the previous research (e.g., [8,9]), preschool teachers stated that they taught mathematics during the school closure.…”

The Impact of the Teaching at the Right Level Approach on Critical Reasoning in Mathematics Learning in Elementary Schools

“…If translated into Indonesian, teaching means teaching, while at the right level means at the right level. So teaching at the right level means teaching given to students according to their level of ability (Abdul-Majied et al, 2022;Paris et al, 2021). The TaRL approach is a learning approach that focuses on the level or stage of student development and is not based on class level.…”