Loving school in the time of corona: stories of families navigating uncertainty in education in Alaska

Tara Swanson
Wed, 22 Apr 2026 17:45:07 PDT

While students navigated their transition from the school shutdown in March to their re-entrance back to school in August, parents were faced with the tough decision of “what do I do with my kids?” Unprecedented times called for parents to reexamine their child’s participation in education and determine the best of seemingly not-so-great options for their student and their family. This project utilized qualitative research and a phenomenological approach to examine how families have made choices about their children’s education between March and December 2020. Thirteen families were interviewed throughout the fall and asked a series of guiding questions to examine emergent themes and to understand the perspective of individual families within the community of Seward, Alaska during this unprecedented time in history. The aim of this research was to gain insight into how parents and schools within a rural area have reckoned with this historic moment and continually seek the best outcomes for their youth provided the resources in their environment and a seemingly ever-changing call to adapt.