Pandemic meaning making: messing toward motet

Abstract

Purpose In this child–parent research study, three adolescents theorize their meaning-making experiences while engaged in exclusive online learning during a three-month stay-at-home mandate. The purpose of this study is to highlight youth-created understandings about their literacy practices during COVID-19 in order to expand possibilities for youth-generated theory. Design/methodology/approach This child–parent research builds upon a critical dialectical pluralist (CDP) methodology, which is a participatory research method that looks to privilege the child as a co-researcher at every stage of the inquiry. In this research study, the adolescents work together to explore what it means to create and learn alone and then with others via virtual platforms. Research team discussions initially were scaffolded by the parent–researchers, and the adolescents developed their analyses individually and together, and their words and insights situate the findings and conclusions. Findings The musical form of a motet provides a metaphor that three adolescents used to theorize their meaning-making experiences during the stay-at-home order. The adolescents determined that time, frustration, and space were overarching themes that captured the essence of working alone, and then together, in messy, orchestrated online ensembles. Originality/value In this youth-centric research paper, three adolescents create understandings of their meaning-making experiences during the stay-at-home order and work together to determine personal and pedagogical implications.

Family literacies during the COVID-19 lockdown: Semiotic assemblages and meaning making at home

“…An OECD (2020) report on the long-term impacts of school closures foregrounds primary to upper secondary students’ disengagement and learning loss during the COVID-19 lockdown. In Schaefer et al’s (2021) study, youths of 13-17 years old tried to theorize their pre-pandemic face-to-face creative activities and the impacts of moving these multimodal activities online during the shelter-in-place mandate in New York between March and June 2020. The youths explored their frustrations with time and space in virtual learning when their dance classes, band rehearsals, and math and writing experiences were transferred to the screen.…”

“…We also identified practices and relations that sustain such educational inequity. Other studies show that children, adolescent co-researchers, and parents turned critical moments during troubled times into opportunities for creative literacy learning and meaning making (e.g., Kuby & Rowsell, 2021 ; Schaefer et al, 2021 ). Parent stories, rather than correlational studies, have been pivotal resources for researchers to access diverse families’ literacy activities ( Edwards et al, 1999 ; Rowsell, 2006 ).…”

‘The power to SAY what I want to and it gets written down’: Situating children's and adults' voices and silence in participatory research

“…Several recent works come from the field of critical dialectical pluralism (Onwuegbuzie & Frels, 2013), acknowledging the links between participatory research and social justice, and re‐centring notions of ‘good’ or ‘bad’ research (Holmes & Ravetz, 2023) by focusing primarily on what it means to be a child in certain contexts (Pahl, 2023; Schaefer et al., 2021), rather than viewing the child as a go‐between between the researcher and knowledge. Significantly, meaning is co‐constructed with children, a process we extended through co‐reflections on the process of research itself, via a process of co‐authorship (Little & Little, 2022; Schaefer et al., 2021).…”

Reimagining Numeracies: Empowered, Game-Informed Meaning Making in and beyond the Pandemic Era

“…In March 2020, following gubernatorial executive orders, schools in the Tri-State Area (New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut) suspended all in-person instruction due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Early reports of educational responses to this dramatic and sweeping shift noted that, across the United States, the number of students online grew exponentially from 1 million to 55 million (Butcher, 2020;Schaefer et al, 2020Schaefer et al, , 2021Turner et al, 2020) and the resulting "pandemic pedagogy" (Milman, 2020, ¶5) included K-12 educational triage; teachers, administrators, and parents all were trying to find a way to educate students in light of constraints that ranged from emotional and physical wellbeing to access to and proficiency with digital resources (Schaefer et al, 2020). Although many of these initial issues persist, this article offers a vista into a class culture and an activity that supported students' numeracies, creativity, and empowerment despite uncertain and disempowering circumstances.…”