‘And here is a caterpillar kindergarten’: Latin American children transforming school practices at home during the pandemic

ABSTRACT

The present ethnographic study was conducted in collaboration with thirty-five Latin American children from different countries during the period of school closures precipitated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Through exchanges of multimodal texts (letters, text messages, photos, drawings, audios, videos) and virtual encounters, we sought to understand how these children reconstructed and transformed their schooling practices. Through our interactions in this constructed ethnographic field, we could observe how the children lived during the pandemic from their unique perspectives. Everyday school structures were incorporated within the children’s embodiments and experiences at home, opening new opportunities for agency enactment, and expanding possibilities for learning and exploration. Their learning practices revealed a process of appropriation, merging what they already knew to new learning experiences that were created beyond the school as an institution or an abstract concept.

KEYWORDS:

• School practices
• learning practices
• multimodal interactions
• COVID-19
• collaborative ethnography
• Latin American children

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the children who participated in this project, as well as family members who supported the exchange of letters and virtual encounters. We also acknowledge the invaluable contributions of our research partners: Angeles Clemente, Florencia Conde, Alba Lucy Guerrero, Silvina Fernández, and Verónica Di Caudo. We are grateful to the anonymous reviewers of Ethnography and Education for the quality of their comments, suggestions, and questions.

Notes

1 The names of the children have been changed for confidentiality purposes.