Equity Focused Online Learning: A Conceptual Framework for Implementing Culturally Relevant Online Education

During the coronavirus-19 pandemic, education faced major overhauls in an incredibly short period of time but through these experiences educators and caregivers have uncovered best practices for themselves and their communities. After analyzing 136 completed surveys and 11 interviews looking specifically at questions around equity and various ways in which equity was brought into the discourse and more than a year of data analysis a conceptual framework for implementing culturally relevant online schooling developed. The framework identifies two core aspects, mechanical and conscious with eight (8) components to implementing equitable online education: infrastructure, devices, software, training, socioemotional, relevance, agency, and differentiation.