TY - JOUR
T1 - Elementary Schools’ Response to Student Wellness Needs During the COVID-19 Shutdown
T2 - A Qualitative Exploration Using the R = MC2 Readiness Heuristic
AU - Calvert, Hannah G.
AU - Lane, Hannah G.
AU - McQuilkin, Michaela
AU - Wenner, Julianne A.
AU - Turner, Lindsey
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the authors. Li-censee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2022/1/12
Y1 - 2022/1/12
N2 - During spring of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic and accompanying public health adviso-ries forced K-12 schools throughout the United States to suspend in-person instruction. School personnel rapidly transitioned to remote provision of academic instruction and wellness services such as school meals and counseling services. The aim of this study was to investigate how schools responded to the transition to remote supports, including assessment of what readiness characteristics schools leveraged or developed to facilitate those transitions. Semi-structured interviews informed by school wellness implementation literature were conducted in the spring of 2020. Personnel (n = 50) from 39 urban and rural elementary schools nationwide participated. The readiness = motivation capacity2 (R = MC2) heuristic, developed by Scaccia and colleagues, guided coding to determine themes related to schools’ readiness to support student wellness in innovative ways during the pandemic closure. Two distinct code sets emerged, defined according to the R = MC2 heuristic (1) Innovations: roles that schools took on during the pandemic response, and (2) Readiness: factors influencing schools’ motivation and capacity to carry out those roles. Schools demonstrated unprec-edented capacity and motivation to provide crucial wellness support to students and families early in the COVID-19 pandemic. These efforts can inform future resource allocation and new strategies to implement school wellness practices when schools resume normal operations.
AB - During spring of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic and accompanying public health adviso-ries forced K-12 schools throughout the United States to suspend in-person instruction. School personnel rapidly transitioned to remote provision of academic instruction and wellness services such as school meals and counseling services. The aim of this study was to investigate how schools responded to the transition to remote supports, including assessment of what readiness characteristics schools leveraged or developed to facilitate those transitions. Semi-structured interviews informed by school wellness implementation literature were conducted in the spring of 2020. Personnel (n = 50) from 39 urban and rural elementary schools nationwide participated. The readiness = motivation capacity2 (R = MC2) heuristic, developed by Scaccia and colleagues, guided coding to determine themes related to schools’ readiness to support student wellness in innovative ways during the pandemic closure. Two distinct code sets emerged, defined according to the R = MC2 heuristic (1) Innovations: roles that schools took on during the pandemic response, and (2) Readiness: factors influencing schools’ motivation and capacity to carry out those roles. Schools demonstrated unprec-edented capacity and motivation to provide crucial wellness support to students and families early in the COVID-19 pandemic. These efforts can inform future resource allocation and new strategies to implement school wellness practices when schools resume normal operations.
KW - Capacity
KW - Digital divide
KW - Education
KW - Health
KW - Organizational readiness
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85121695629&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/uar_2022/2
U2 - 10.3390/ijerph19010279
DO - 10.3390/ijerph19010279
M3 - Article
C2 - 35010539
SN - 1661-7827
VL - 19
JO - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
JF - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
IS - 1
M1 - 279
ER -