Early Childhood and Lockdown: The Challenge of Building a Virtual Mutual Support Network between Children, Families and School for Sustainable Education and Increasing Their Well-Being

Ana Belén Cano-Hila and Rafel Argemí-Baldich
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Ana Belén Cano-Hila: Department of Sociology, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Barcelona, Avinguda Diagonal 690, 08034 Barcelona, Spain
Rafel Argemí-Baldich: Department of Methods of Research and Diagnosis in Education, Faculty of Education, University of Barcelona, Passeig de la Vall d’Hebron 171, 08035 Barcelona, Spain

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 7, 1-15

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic is questioning the achievement of main challenges we face as a society, for instance, to ensure a free, equitable, and good quality compulsory education for all children or to reduce social inequality. During the spring lockdown, particularly in Spain, schools were closed for six months and a process of virtualization of teaching was total; that context generated important educational challenges. This paper presents and analyses forms of digital reciprocity and solidarity among pre-primary education children, families, and teachers, by presenting a case study of the parents’ WhatsApp class groups and a collaborative YouTube channel. The procedure developed was netnography and the data analysis followed the model of grounded theory. Both digital spaces created by parents have become a network of mutual support. It has had multiple positive impacts: (i) providing and receiving social support; (ii) generating dynamics of reciprocity and empowerment; and (iii) activating values that generate a sense of community (feeling of belonging, trust, etc.). The case study shows how virtual networks increase the subjective well-being of participants in a difficult context and also invites reflection about the key role of cultural capital of the parents as a key element in the conditions of educability of children, especially in e-learning of pre-primary education.

Keywords: early childhood; lockdown; e-learning; mutual support; reciprocity; solidarity; educational community; well-being; sustainable education (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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