Article Notice – Understanding the Lived Experiences of Lower School Students in Virtual Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Implications for PreK-12 Schooling in a Post-Pandemic World

An article that scrolled across my electronic desk over the past few days.

Understanding the Lived Experiences of Lower School Students in Virtual Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Implications for PreK-12 Schooling in a Post-Pandemic World

• October 2023

• DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-8795-2.ch015

• In book: Handbook of Research on Critical Issues and Global Trends in International Education

• Raymond John Schmidt

Abstract – This chapter is an original summary of the qualitative research results investigating the closing of on-campus schooling due to the COVID-19 pandemic which led to the need for lower schools to implement virtual education. The critical issue investigated was the negative impacts on student learning that resulted from lower school students learning virtually. The phenomenon in this investigation was the lower school virtual education lived experiences caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This chapter focuses on the experience itself and how experiencing something is transformed into consciousness. This study is particularly important because the implementation of virtual education as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic swiftly and radically altered the field of mainstream PreK-12 schooling in 2020 and still does today. The results of this investigation provide global trend guidance to school leaders and other stakeholders who are considering virtual education as an option for lower school students.