Arts-integrated early childhood curriculums as a remedy for educational setbacks in the virtual classrooms during the Covid era: an exploration of parents’ perspectives

The coronavirus pandemic caused elementary students to take online classes at home due to mandated social distancing and stay-at-home orders. Social distancing and stay-at-home orders have caused unprecedented changes in the early childhood education system, which has been shown to negatively affect the socioemotional well-being of early learners and cause learning loss in concepts such as reading and math for children in grades K-2. This study aimed to explore parents’ perspectives on whether arts-integrated early childhood (EC) curriculums implemented through online schooling for second-grade classrooms provided better educational outcomes and socioemotional well-being for students than online EC curriculums that utilized static learning. A survey was given to the parents of children receiving arts-integrated education and those receiving static education in second-grade classrooms. The findings suggest that arts-integrated education methods positively affected socioemotional well-being and educational outcomes. The result showed the potential of the art integration to enhance emotional response to teaching methods, increased socioemotional well-being during class time, and better educational outcomes. A discussion of the results, suggestions for future curriculums, and further research surrounding this topic are presented.