ABSTRACT
Teachers whose students had trouble independently accessing the online curriculum during COVID-19 online learning had to rely heavily on parents. This paper presents findings from interviews with elementary special educators regarding their experiences collaborating with parents while teaching online. Thematic analysis generated four themes: prioritising non-academic support;increases in mutual understanding;parents implementing educational content;and providing feedback to parents. Teachers emphasised providing socio-emotional support to families and reported opportunities for teachers and parents to learn more about each other. They also highlighted several skills that were not smoothly translating to the home. Implications regarding strong teacher–parent partnerships are discussed.
ABSTRACT
This paper presents a case study of the experiences of a special educator named Ms. Montes (pseudonym) teaching standards-based mathematics during Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) during spring 2020. Ms. Montes was interviewed twice during this period;data were analyzed through inductive thematic analysis. Pre-COVID, Ms. Montes provided her students daily opportunities to tackle challenging mathematical problems and taught self-regulation strategies for students to better understand themselves as learners. After the shift to ERT, Ms. Montes described “the wall between us” as various barriers that made teaching mathematics online far more challenging. Challenges included supporting students with productive struggle when not physically present with them and supporting student self-regulation during mathematical problem-solving. Supporting students with disabilities to learn mathematics during ERT and distance learning will require considering emotional and affective dimensions of learning. Coaching students and families in self-regulation strategies could support student engagement in mathematical problem-solving in online learning.