It’s Our Story: Parents and Carers’ Experiences during the Pandemic

Parents and carers taking part in the Covid Realities research programme came together to create a zine about their experiences during the pandemic, as well as focusing on what needs to change in the future and why. The zine was developed and designed collaboratively by participants and artist Jean McEwan, and supported by the research team, at a series of three virtual zine-making workshops during February and March 2021. The aim of the zine is to directly represent the voices of parents and carers, therefore giving power and expression to those with firsthand experience of living on a low income, who are frequently marginalised in broader policy-making conversations. Making zine pages together in small groups with the chance for conversation and discussion during the workshops also provided a source of social support for contributors. This is especially pertinent in the pandemic context, where it has been harder for people to find social spaces to connect.

A Descriptive Analysis of Cohesion within Virtual and Physical Small Groups of Mothers in Bandwidth-Constrained Communities in Cape Town

Isolation contributes to deteriorating health outcomes during the first 1000 days of a child's life (the period from conception to two years). Mothers and their growing babies are at risk of pregnancy-related complications and malnutrition during this sensitive period due to inadequate information. This study describes how a faith-based organization (FBO) in Cape Town leverages available resources in both physical and virtual spaces to support mothers through antenatal classes. We observed seven small groups in their physical spaces, interviewed seven mothers and analyzed fifteen WhatsApp chat groups to understand the group structure, dynamics, and interactions. When the model was introduced to the mothers in the physical and virtual spaces simultaneously, cohesion was achieved and sustained. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, where strong indications of stress and isolation were evident, a strange paradox was noted: all groups showed weak ties (with minimal communication among members). It was hard to explain the non-commitment despite efforts from the moderators to encourage sharing among mothers. We identified two underlying causes: a minimal sense of belonging to the group and bandwidth constraints. Further analysis showed that bandwidth constraints digitally excluded some mothers from active participation. These findings indicated the need for HCI and technology designers to design less bandwidth-intensive interactive platforms for inclusivity. © 2022 ACM.

Opportunities from Covid-19 Pandemic: Strategies to Transform On-Site to Remote Community Clinical Experience

The Covid-19 pandemic continues to affect lives. This evidencebased strategy describes pathways to address the crisis and meet goals of undergraduate baccalaureate nursing education. Impact of the pandemic on clinical site availability provided opportunities to revise the maternity clinical course from direct on-site clinical to a clinical course with multiple modalities including small-group hospital clinical, faculty-facilitated remote clinical days, and written assignments. The design incorporated adult learning principles. This presentation illustrates transformation of the “Community Clinical Education Day” from on-site activities to remote virtual experiences. Teaching strategies that successfully fulfilled requirements of maternity clinical course, components of the eight-hour offering, and effectiveness of a multimodal clinical course compared to a traditional clinical course are described. Objectives: To identify mission, services, and population of community agencies and to develop education offerings for target population Format: Live remote faculty presentation on community-based health promotion;assessment, values, and beliefs;social and health-related issues affecting women;cultural competence in healthcare;and health literacy. Students independently review agency websites, and in small groups develop client education materials on assigned topics. Students reconvene remotely to present teaching projects. Implications: Changes from traditional methods of on-site community clinical education to remote model with multiple modalities of instruction reflect adult learning principles, enhance student engagement, and provide templates for educators. Evaluations of remote community clinical demonstrate completion of course objectives and positive student and faculty perceptions of the experience. The effectiveness of a remote multimodal course compared to traditional course provides a model for adaptation of clinical courses.

Corona in the Schoolyard: Children's Game "Corona" as a Sociocultural Construct during the Covid-19 Pandemic

At the beginning of 2020 a children's game called "Corona" spontaneously appeared among the lower grade pupils of the primary school "Saint Sava" in Belgrade's municipality of Vraoar. Typologically it belongs to the games of chasing and the rules of the first detected variant resemble very much the playground game known as tag with the exception that the player who chases is called "Corona". During April and May of 2021 a field research was conducted in order to collect information about the ways the game was played in the schoolyard during the months of February and March 2020 (on the 17th of March the schools in Serbia were closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic and were not opened until the beginning of the following school year on the 1st of September 2020) and during the school year 2020/2021. An analysis of the collected data showed that there are two basic groups of variants: the first one practiced during the school year 2019/2020 and the second one during the school year 2020/2021 (in which the role of Doctor appears). Both groups are described through the ideal types of their respective variants. The ideal type models of all variants have been observed in relation to the series of elements from the sociocultural context within which the game "Corona" originated, pointing towards a direct correlation between the game elements and its structure on the one hand, and, on the other, the changes that occurred in the micro and macro sociocultural environment of the interviewed children immediately before and after the proclamation of the pandemic of Covid-19. Some of the factors which were triggers in the inner dynamics of the process of shaping the variants of the game "Corona" as a sociocultural construct have been discussed: the internal ones (coming from the children's community itself - those concerning their specific needs and their pre-existing idioculture) and the external ones, concerning a dense network of regulatory and informational factors imposing onto the children a new emerging pandemic reality. This new reality resulted in changes of daily routines, reactions to highly restrictive school regulations and exposure to fear- and confusion-inducing information which reached children through various information channels. The new schoolyard game called "Corona" gave the participants possibility to project their inner psychological tension and express it through a recreational activity (running) and through a frame of a complex communication achieved on a symbolic level.

Child well-being in early childhood education and care during COVID-19: Child sensitivity in small, fixed groups.

The article explores child well-being in Danish early childhood education and care (ECEC) during the time of COVID-19. A phased reopening of Denmark occurred in spring 2020 under strict health guidelines. Two ECEC institutions were followed first-hand to observe the impact of the pandemic on pedagogy and child well-being. Observations and interviews were conducted with follow-up interviews and an online survey a year later. The findings suggest that the pandemic caused pedagogues to work in a more child-sensitive way with elevated staff/child ratios and children in small, fixed groups; however, child well-being was not negatively affected, despite the acute situation.