Purpose of the Study
COVID-19 has shaped the global economic context significantly. Head Start, an initiative that has been providing educational opportunities, as well as focus on healthy nutrition and management of public health issues in children in families affected by the coronavirus, illustrates how the outcomes of COVID-19 have shaped the performance of non-profit organizations, causing them to adjust to the environment of the online setting. This study aims to analyze the coronavirus’s impact on educational and health management opportunities for children in families affected by COVID-19 in the U.S., providing solutions to the current problem by providing educational opportunities and social support to the target demographic.
Literature Review
Historical Review
The coronavirus has brought changes that would have been deemed as otherwise unimaginable to the setting of the global economy. Specifically, the complete transfer to the online context and the readjustment of strategies for managing financial resources have been essential change that has affected the performance of multiple organizations (Wilke et al., 2020). Notably, due to the comparative recency of the pandemic becoming a global problem, the history of the issue at hand, namely, the effects of COVID-19 on early childhood education and health management, is quite brief (Wilke et al., 2020).
Specifically, some of the earliest studies show that the variables in question are deeply interconnected as the pandemic has drastically changed resource allocation (Wilke et al., 2020). As a result, a range of early childhood education projects has been lacking the necessary funding (Wilke et al., 2020). Similarly, the management of public health issues in children has been affected by COVID-19 since a sizeable amount of financial resources had to be allocated to address the health crisis (Wilke et al., 2020). However, the exact relationships between the variables in question are yet to be discovered.
In turn, the issue of early childhood education has been the subject of multiple discussions for quite some time. The developmental significance of providing children with early education opportunities has been examined since the 17 th century and has been actively explored since the 1930s (Silalahi, 2019). With the emergence of theories of early childhood education created by Vygotsky, Piaget, and Eriksson, strategies for encouraging the rapid emergence of critical thinking and related academic skills in young children have been devoiced (Silalahi, 2019). In their frameworks, the researchers in question specified different developmental stages, explaining the nature and course of cognitive progress (Silalahi, 2019). Therefore, understanding these theories is central to examining the effects of external factors, such as the pandemic, on early childhood development opportunities.
Recognizing the role that external factors play in children’s cognitive development is central to building the framework for their successful learning and identifying the effects that the pandemic, with the relevant changes in the Head Start opportunities, has produced on children’s academic options. Therefore, Vygotsky’s developmental framework is vital for examining the variables in question. According to the theorist, social interactions represent the key to effective early childhood development and learning, the zone of proximal development defining the range of skills a child can embrace at a specific time (Silalahi, 2019). Therefore, in the context of the pandemic and the drop in social interactions, the opportunities for enhancing early education are significantly reduced.
Similarly, the theoretical framework created by Piaget emphasizes the importance of building cognitive skills at an early age. However, Piaget’s approach suggests the focus on individual learning as opposed to knowledge development through social interactions, which allows suggesting that the lack of Head Start opportunities may not be as devastating to the opportunities for young learners as one might have believed it to be.
Finally, the concept of social support that Head Start offers needs to be reviewed as a critical, independent variable. The subject matter has been examined through the lens of the recent changes in social services, particularly the outcomes of the coronavirus (Jalongo, 2021). Specifically, the issues regarding the increase in staff turnover, a rise in workplace burnout, and the resulting unavailability of quality care need to be examined.
It is worth noting that the current body of knowledge lacks evidence concerning the effects of the pandemic on the quality of early education and the development of cognitive skills in children. The specified lack f information is understandable given the relatively short time span over which the pandemic has managed to engulf most the social interactions on global and interpersonal levels. Furthermore, there is a considerable lack of information concerning the specific effects of the absence of Head start opportunities on children’s early development. Therefore, further analysis of the specified concerns is strongly needed to identify perspectives for future early childhood education.
Current Findings
At the same time, believing that the issue of supporting children academically and socially has not been seen as an issue with strong research potential lately. For example, the study by Sciberras et al. (2020) has investigated the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the physical and mental health of children in Australia, thus, producing essential results. Furthermore, despite the gap in the analysis of the effects of the levels of social security, particularly the provision of education options and health maintenance opportunities, especially in regard to Head Start services, several studies have outlined the drastic effects of the coronavirus on the quality, efficacy, and frequency of support provided for young learners (Jalongo, 2021).
Specifically, the paper by Li et al. (2020) denotes the presence of multiple obstacles in addressing the accessibility of early education opportunities and health management services for families affected by the coronavirus (Jalongo, 2021). Nonetheless, the issue needs to be explored further in order to identify the exact nature of the problem and the current range of concerns that young learners have in accessing learning options and healthcare services.
Methodology
To address the issues raised above, meticulous and profound research will be required. Specifically, the mixed research method will have to be adopted to gauge the coronavirus’s exact effect on the opportunities for children and their families, as well as the extent of challenges that Head Start has been facing in providing the services in question to the target demographic. Specifically, the qualitative analysis will allow for determining the essential factors impeding the provision of vital education and healthcare opportunities to young children. Afterward, a quantitative assessment of the effects of the identified factors on Head Start’s performance and the quality of services offered by the organization will be conducted.
The research will involve the participation of at least 200 people so that the study results can be as representative of the real-life setting as possible. Therefore, the sample size will be equal to 132 participants. The specified number will allow for testing the research hypothesis with the required extent of certainty in the research outcomes and the credibility of findings (). To obtain the sample for further analysis, the simple random sampling approach will be utilized. Although often dismissed for the lack of nuance in its framework, the simple random sampling technique will help reduce the extent of time that the process will consume.
Therefore, the participants will be selected accordingly, the min inclusion criteria being their age (2-6-year-old children). In order to ensure that the study remains fully ethical, informed consent will have to be obtained from parents. The key quantitative information will eb collected using the records of the research participants’ performance in tests determining their ability to use their cognitive skills, as well as the assessments determining their health rates at different stages of using Head Start. In turn, qualitative data needed to evaluate the nature of the observed changes will be collected from interviews with the children’s parents.
Analysis
To assess the qualitative data, the thematic analysis will be utilized. Thus, key themes related to the subject matter and essential characteristics of the observed change will be identified based on the interview results. The quantitative data analysis process, it will be performed. As a result, the changes in children’s performance and health rates will be identified.
Hypothesis
COVID-19 has affected the performance of Head Start, therefore, causing a significant drop in the range of early childhood education opportunities and children’s health service quality.