eLearning Environments as Engaging Invitations to Elementary Age Learners: Parental Experiences and Understandings

Introduction

As COVID-19 flooded through our large metropolitan area of the Gulf Coast Region of Texas, every citizen’s world experienced core changes. The work environment changed as employees begin to adjust and work from home remotely. School-aged children were sent home while the classroom teachers desperately tried to figure out how to instruct within a remote environment without training or much support. Service industries were shut down, with businesses closing and hourly workers finding themselves without jobs and associated income. The world that everyone knew had stopped without any warning, and people tried to find a new normal as the weeks turned into months, into over a year on some level of lockdown, hand sanitizer, and mandatory masks. Our parent, a middle-class professional woman who embraces her role as Mother to her elementary-age daughter, continuously reflects upon and offers the perspective. Our parent attempts to successfully support her daughter’s learning within an unconscionable situation that was unexpected and an environment in which the schools were not ready for a shift into the world of remote teaching and learning. The parent’s perspective is vitally essential. Her perspective brings forward a parent's voice during a difficult time while maintaining employment in a remote work environment while also acting as a responsible parent. Also, the parent recognized the importance and impact of a solid educational experience upon her daughter’s current grade-appropriate learning and future life endeavors.