The rapid shift to emergency remote education – hereafter referred to as “ERE” – to stem the spread of COVID-19 was an unprecedented albeit necessary measure for public health and safety. Students and their families and educators were challenged to engage in a novel living and learning context for which most were unprepared. Black, low-income, and secondary students and their families were particularly vulnerable to pandemic-related disruptions, and ERE exacerbated pre-existing educational inequities in school access and engagement (Acosta et al., 2021; Haderlein et al., 2021; Kraft et al., 2021). According to the gifted Black middle school students within this critical-constructivist grounded theory study (n = 7), ERE also illuminated how schooling and family structures acted as apparatuses for the status quo in contributing to the decontextualization of students’ living and learning experiences and perpetuating dominant ideologies surrounding gender, race, power, and others. The findings suggest that the upholding of these constructs during ERE created undue pressure for students to comply with familial roles and responsibilities while maintaining academic excellence despite significant challenges faced in acclimating to ERE and the subsequent blurred lines between school and home. This poster highlights students’ experiences with and adaptations to this pressure. Implications for student-centered stakeholders are addressed.

Author: Brittney R. Davis