Johana Protzel
Occasional Paper Series #46
Schooling During the Pandemic: Children's Perspectives and Lived Experiences
This issue of the Occasional Paper Series is enriched by a collection of images, artwork, and photographed experiences from five child contributors who help us understand what it was like to be schooled during the pandemic. In the introduction of this issue, guest editor Mariana Souto-Manning writes:
… in addition to urging us to interrogate what and who might be part of a future that is more just and humane, more oriented toward freedom, the children remind us of the many ways humans can make meaning and be authors.
According to Souto-Manning, the children’s contributions raise questions such as:
- How might we better attend to siblings and foster intergenerational learning opportunities?
- How might parents be repositioned in the ecology of teaching and learning after the pandemic?
- How might we re-orient schooling to an ethics of familism, collaboration, and interdependence?
See below for the children’s contributions or view them in a PDF
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Johana Protzel
“This is a drawing of three birds stacked on top of each other next to a flower that I painted because my teacher, Mrs. Kim, asked me to.” – Johana Protzel“While we never would have dreamt that Jojo would be in a Korean dual-immersion kindergarten class remote for four-fifths of the school year and hybrid for the remaining one-fifth, we were blessed to watch her grow, see her produce beautiful art, and to learn alongside her. I’ve learned so much about Korean, kindergarten, and her creativity and am so grateful to her amazing team of educators.” – Betina Hsieh, mother of Johana Protzel
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Sara Álvarez
Sara Álvarez
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Fiona Fong-Frederick
Fiona Fong-Frederick
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Amelia Martinez
Amelia Martinez
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Lela Joy Green Greaves
Lela Joy Green Greaves
“Just because we’re magic, does not mean we’re not real” – Jesse Williams, BET Awards Speech
Your teachers
Are all around you.
All that you perceive,
All that you experience,
All that is given to you or taken from you,
All that you love or hate, need or fear
Will teach you—
if you will learn.– Excerpt from Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
Fearless, unstoppable
Courageous, invincible
We’re human, unshakable
Every girl’s a super girl…You’ve got a story, so don’t you worry
Say what you need to say
This is your chapter, happy ever after
Live every day that way– Lyrics from “Every Girl’s a Super Girl” by JoJo Siwa