Teacher-Guardian Collaboration for Emergency Remote Learning in the COVID-19 Crisis

Abstract

2020's COVID-19 crisis has given rise to ubiquitous emergency remote learning (ERL). Guardians, mostly parents, have had to help their children transition and adapt to this difficult learning context. Previous work on remote learning has explored guardian involvement in pre-planned and well-developed remote learning programs, such as established virtual schools. However, ERL lacks pre-planned procedures, policies, and resources. In this paper, we look at how teachers and guardians collaborated to manage the situation. We present an interview study of guardians and teachers of K-12 students in China and look at their collaboration during the COVID-19 ERL. We report how teachers and guardians collaborated to carry out techno-procedural, surveillance, and material work to make ERL possible for K-12 students. Lastly, we reflect on the challenges our participants faced and discuss design implications not only for remote learning during COVID-19 but also future emergency remote learning situations.