Uncovering new opportunities for family engagement during COVID-19

Abstract

In March 2020, COVID-19 dramatically and indelibly altered the U.S. educational landscape. Drawing on data from interviews with 30 Michigan preK teachers, Bethany Wilinski, Alyssa Morley, and Jamie Heng-Chieh Wu describe the centrality of family engagement in their pandemic preK education and the practices that contributed to stronger home-school relationships. They consider how the family engagement practices that emerged during the pandemic might be carried forward by thinking of family engagement as an improvisational practice that is co-constructed by teachers and families.