Jyotsna Pattnaik & Mary Renck Jalongo 
The Impact of COVID-19 on Early Childhood Education and Care 
International Perspectives, Challenges, and Responses

This collection brings together a diverse group of scholars from throughout the world who have grappled with and investigated the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the lives of young children. Profound changes have occurred in all facets of early childhood education and care (ECEC). Young children and their families, college students enrolled in teacher preparation programs, inservice teachers/caregivers, and postsecondary faculty have endured prolonged periods of quarantine, disruption, stress, and grief precipitated by the pandemic. These consequences have been even more challenging for individuals and groups who were already struggling or marginalized prior to the advent of the coronavirus. Collectively, the chapter authors draw upon findings from their research and insights gleaned from professional experiences to recommend ways of providing high-quality programs despite persistent global health threats.​

Table of Content

Part One: COVID-19 and the Global Early Childhood Landscape.- Chapter 1: Introduction to the Volume.- Chapter 2: A Bioecological Systems Approach to Understanding the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Implications for the Education and Care of Young Children.- Chapter 3: Heroes, Victims, Sacrifices, and Survivors: A Qualitative Analysis of Early Childhood Teacher’s Social Media Posts during COVID-19.- Chapter 4: Lessons From the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Study of Government Policies Relating to the Early Childhood Sector across Ten Countries.- Chapter 5: COVID-19 and Early Childhood Care and Education in India.- Chapter 6: Preschoolers’ Perceptions of the COVID-19 Epidemic: An Interview Study with Children in Slovenia.- Part Two: Wellbeing in Early Childhood Personnel.- Chapter 7: Wellbeing during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Perspectives of Australian Early Childhood Educators.- Chapter 8: Work Wellbeing during COVID-19: A Survey of Canadian Early Childhood Education and Care Managers.- Chapter 9: “My cup was empty”: The Impact of COVID-19 on Early Childhood Educator Wellbeing.- Chapter 10: Early Childhood Educator Well-Being during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Study and Emic Perspective.- Part Three: Focus on Families.- Chapter 11: Beneficial Parenting According to the “Parenting Pentagon Model”: A Cross-Cultural Study during a Pandemic.- Chapter 12: 
Early Identification of Risk, Developmental Delay, or Disability in Young Children: Connecting Families with Services During a Global Health Crisis.- Chapter 13: It just doesn’t work”: Parents’ Views about Distance Learning for Young Children with Special Needs.- Chapter 14: Lessons Learned Supporting Families of Young Children with Disabilities via Telehealth during the COVID-19 Pandemic.- Part Four: Caregivers, Teachers, Administrators, and Teacher Education.- Chapter 15: The Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Family Child Care Providers: Insights from a Rural U.S. State.- Chapter 16: Black Family Childcare Providers’ Roles as Community Mothers during the COVID-19 Pandemic.- Chapter 17: The COVID-19 Pandemic and Early Childhood Education in Ethiopia, Liberia, and Pakistan: Perspectives of Pre-primary School Teachers.- Chapter 18: “It’s just too much”: COVID-19 Effects on Head Start Teachers’ Lives and Work.- Chapter 19: Hands-On Mathematics: Pre-Service Teachers Supporting Home Learning During COVID-19.- Part Five: Delivering Programs and Services Despite Challenges.- Chapter 20: Young Children’s Online Learning and Teaching: Challenges and Effective Approaches.- Chapter 21: Remote Teaching and Learning in Early Primary Contexts: A Qualitative Study of Teachers and Parents During the COVID-19 Lockdown.- Chapter 22: COVID-19 Influences on the Quality of Curriculum in Selected Child Care Centres in Singapore.- Chapter 23: Educational Services for Young Children with Disabilities During COVID-19: A Synthesis of Emergent Literature.- Chapter 24: Music Programs for Young Children During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Stories from Across the World.- Chapter 25: Will Programs Be Prepared to Teach Young Children At-Risk Post-Pandemic? A Scoping Review of Early Childhood Education Experiences.

 

About the author

In 2021, Mary Renck Jalongo co-edited a highly successful special issue of 
Early Childhood Education Journal on COVID-19 and published two articles on the topic. Articles from that Special Issue have been downloaded over 90, 000 times to date. For 25 years, she served as editor-in-chief of 
Early Childhood Education Journal and continues as  senior editor of Springer Nature’s Educating the Young Child book series. Throughout her career, she has written, co-authored, or edited more than 40 books. Her professional journal articles have earned eight national awards for excellence in writing, including four EDPRESS awards. She is a professor emerita with 37 years of experience at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP). where she was named the professor of year.





Jyotsna Pattnaik is a professor of early childhood education at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) where she earned the Outstanding Professor Award from the College of Education and the Professors Around the World Award. In 2020-21, she co-edited a special issue of 
Early Childhood Education Journal on COVID-19, made three national presentations on the topic, served as a speaker on the topic for two webinars in India, and chaired one Master’s thesis on the topic. She has guest edited two international focus issues of 
Childhood Education (ACEI), edited three books, and published over 30 articles/book chapters. In 2009, she was the recipient of the outstanding alumni scholar award from the College of Education and Communications, Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP). Her current projects include two empirical articles on the effects of COVID-19 on early childhood education and care.