Association between neighbourhood composition, kindergarten educator-reported distance learning barriers, and return to school concerns during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario, Canada
Introduction Research to date has established that the COVID-19 pandemic has not impacted everyone equitably. Whether this unequitable impact was seen educationally with regards to educator reported barriers to distance learning, concerns and mental health is less clear. Objective The objective o...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Swansea University
2023-04-01
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| Series: | International Journal of Population Data Science |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://ijpds.org/article/view/1761 |
| _version_ | 1827611941451857920 |
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| author | Natalie Spadafora Jade Wang Caroline Reid-Westoby Magdalena Janus |
| author_facet | Natalie Spadafora Jade Wang Caroline Reid-Westoby Magdalena Janus |
| author_sort | Natalie Spadafora |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description |
Introduction
Research to date has established that the COVID-19 pandemic has not impacted everyone equitably. Whether this unequitable impact was seen educationally with regards to educator reported barriers to distance learning, concerns and mental health is less clear.
Objective
The objective of this study was to explore the association between the neighbourhood composition of the school and kindergarten educator-reported barriers and concerns regarding children's learning during the first wave of COVID-19 related school closures in Ontario, Canada.
Methods
In the spring of 2020, we collected data from Ontario kindergarten educators (n = 2569; 74.2% kindergarten teachers, 25.8% early childhood educators; 97.6% female) using an online survey asking them about their experiences and challenges with online learning during the first round of school closures. We linked the educator responses to 2016 Canadian Census variables based on schools' postal codes. Bivariate correlations and Poisson regression analyses were used to determine if there was an association between neighbourhood composition and educator mental health, and the number of barriers and concerns reported by kindergarten educators.
Results
There were no significant findings with educator mental health and school neighbourhood characteristics. Educators who taught at schools in neighbourhoods with lower median income reported a greater number of barriers to online learning (e.g., parents/guardians not submitting assignments/providing updates on their child's learning) and concerns regarding the return to school in the fall of 2020 (e.g., students' readjustment to routines). There were no significant associations with educator reported barriers or concerns and any of the other Census neighbourhood variables (proportion of lone parent families, average household size, proportion of population that do no speak official language, proportion of population that are recent immigrants, or proportion of population ages 0-4).
Conclusions
Overall, our study suggests that the neighbourhood composition of the children's school location did not exacerbate the potential negative learning experiences of kindergarten students and educators during the COVID-19 pandemic, although we did find that educators teaching in schools in lower-SES neighbourhoods reported more barriers to online learning during this time. Taken together, our study suggests that remediation efforts should be focused on individual kindergarten children and their families as opposed to school location.
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| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T08:15:20Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-0c5db4ea5c6342c8a2d63406dd8bf353 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2399-4908 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T08:15:20Z |
| publishDate | 2023-04-01 |
| publisher | Swansea University |
| record_format | Article |
| series | International Journal of Population Data Science |
| spelling | doaj.art-0c5db4ea5c6342c8a2d63406dd8bf3532023-12-02T22:28:15ZengSwansea UniversityInternational Journal of Population Data Science2399-49082023-04-017410.23889/ijpds.v7i4.1761Association between neighbourhood composition, kindergarten educator-reported distance learning barriers, and return to school concerns during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario, Canada Natalie Spadafora0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8498-1712Jade Wang1Caroline Reid-Westoby2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2419-7253Magdalena Janus3https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9500-6776Offord Centre for Child Studies, McMaster University, McMaster Innovation Park, Suite 201A, 1280 Main St. West, Hamilton ON, L8S 4K1Offord Centre for Child Studies, McMaster University, McMaster Innovation Park, Suite 201A, 1280 Main St. West, Hamilton ON, L8S 4K1Offord Centre for Child Studies, McMaster University, McMaster Innovation Park, Suite 201A, 1280 Main St. West, Hamilton ON, L8S 4K1Offord Centre for Child Studies, McMaster University, McMaster Innovation Park, Suite 201A, 1280 Main St. West, Hamilton ON, L8S 4K1 Introduction Research to date has established that the COVID-19 pandemic has not impacted everyone equitably. Whether this unequitable impact was seen educationally with regards to educator reported barriers to distance learning, concerns and mental health is less clear. Objective The objective of this study was to explore the association between the neighbourhood composition of the school and kindergarten educator-reported barriers and concerns regarding children's learning during the first wave of COVID-19 related school closures in Ontario, Canada. Methods In the spring of 2020, we collected data from Ontario kindergarten educators (n = 2569; 74.2% kindergarten teachers, 25.8% early childhood educators; 97.6% female) using an online survey asking them about their experiences and challenges with online learning during the first round of school closures. We linked the educator responses to 2016 Canadian Census variables based on schools' postal codes. Bivariate correlations and Poisson regression analyses were used to determine if there was an association between neighbourhood composition and educator mental health, and the number of barriers and concerns reported by kindergarten educators. Results There were no significant findings with educator mental health and school neighbourhood characteristics. Educators who taught at schools in neighbourhoods with lower median income reported a greater number of barriers to online learning (e.g., parents/guardians not submitting assignments/providing updates on their child's learning) and concerns regarding the return to school in the fall of 2020 (e.g., students' readjustment to routines). There were no significant associations with educator reported barriers or concerns and any of the other Census neighbourhood variables (proportion of lone parent families, average household size, proportion of population that do no speak official language, proportion of population that are recent immigrants, or proportion of population ages 0-4). Conclusions Overall, our study suggests that the neighbourhood composition of the children's school location did not exacerbate the potential negative learning experiences of kindergarten students and educators during the COVID-19 pandemic, although we did find that educators teaching in schools in lower-SES neighbourhoods reported more barriers to online learning during this time. Taken together, our study suggests that remediation efforts should be focused on individual kindergarten children and their families as opposed to school location. https://ijpds.org/article/view/1761COVID-19 pandemickindergarten educatorsschool closuresschool neighbourhood |
| spellingShingle | Natalie Spadafora Jade Wang Caroline Reid-Westoby Magdalena Janus Association between neighbourhood composition, kindergarten educator-reported distance learning barriers, and return to school concerns during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario, Canada International Journal of Population Data Science COVID-19 pandemic kindergarten educators school closures school neighbourhood |
| title | Association between neighbourhood composition, kindergarten educator-reported distance learning barriers, and return to school concerns during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario, Canada |
| title_full | Association between neighbourhood composition, kindergarten educator-reported distance learning barriers, and return to school concerns during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario, Canada |
| title_fullStr | Association between neighbourhood composition, kindergarten educator-reported distance learning barriers, and return to school concerns during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario, Canada |
| title_full_unstemmed | Association between neighbourhood composition, kindergarten educator-reported distance learning barriers, and return to school concerns during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario, Canada |
| title_short | Association between neighbourhood composition, kindergarten educator-reported distance learning barriers, and return to school concerns during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario, Canada |
| title_sort | association between neighbourhood composition kindergarten educator reported distance learning barriers and return to school concerns during the first wave of the covid 19 pandemic in ontario canada |
| topic | COVID-19 pandemic kindergarten educators school closures school neighbourhood |
| url | https://ijpds.org/article/view/1761 |
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