Date of Conferral

2021

Degree

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

School

Education

Advisor

Mary Barbara Trube

Abstract

Scholarly literature lacks studies on how prekindergarten and kindergarten (PK-K) teachers supported students’ school readiness skill development and successful transitions to formal schooling during the COVID-19 pandemic. Framed by school readiness theory and social development theory, this qualitative study explored perspectives of 16 PK-K teachers to answer two research questions about how teachers support students’ school readiness skill development foster students’ successful transitions to formal schooling during the COVID-19 pandemic in a metropolitan area in the southwest region of the United States. Data were collected through one on one, semistructured interviews, and analyzed by following an inductive process using Saldaña’s coding system. Synthesis of data revealed PK-K teachers supported students’ readiness skill development and fostered students’ successful transitions to formal schooling during the pandemic when teachers shared leadership and enacted the following practices: (a) recognized parents’ roles in children’s readiness for school; (b) supported students’ roles in school readiness from a whole child paradigm; (c) reflected on teachers’ roles in emergent and prepared curriculum; (d) acknowledged school leaders’ roles in safe, secure, and trustworthy environments; and (e) embraced technology’s role in virtual and traditional learning modes. Findings contribute to positive social change by suggesting concrete ways how parents, students, teachers, and school leaders practice shared leadership and used technology during the COVID-19 pandemic to support and foster PK-K students’ school readiness skills in virtual and traditional settings during and after the pandemic.

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