Learnings from the Impact of Online Learning on Elementary Students\u27 Mental and Social-emotional Well-being Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic

This research examined practices that might foster students’ mental and emotional well-being, quality relationships among students and staff and safe and inclusive school climates through online platforms, especially during times of crisis such as during the COVID 19 pandemic. In order to achieve that goal, this study sought to identify the kinds of protective and risk factors that help or hinder students’ ability to cope and thrive, through a scholarly framework of Critical Race Theory (Yosso, 2005), Online Learning (Hughes, 2004) and Social-emotional Learning (Durlak et al., 2011). The researcher conducted personal interviews with a variety of educators serving at largely low-income public primary schools and mostly bilingual and non-native English-speaking parents in Marin County. The findings of these interviews highlighted that students don’t equate to academic selves, that the level of expected responsiveness was surprisingly high while online, and that new connections and social and emotional support systems emerged. These findings have important implications for understanding how teachers and educational professionals iterate their practices of online learning going forward