Who gets to be ‘screen free’? Exploring a disconnection divide in U.S. public and private K-12 schools during the COVID-19 pandemic

This study explores a divergence in discourses about, and institutional approaches to, digital technology use in public and private K-12 schools in the United States. Offering a critical thematic analysis of the technology mission statements published on the websites of urban Waldorf schools and neighboring public schools in six U.S. cities during the Covid-19 pandemic, we show how public schools described digital technologies as essential to students’ learning, wellbeing, and career readiness while neighboring Waldorf schools eschewed the same technologies and positioned themselves as a sanctuary from screens. Bridging perspectives from critical scholarship on educational technology, disconnection studies, and the sociology of education and parenting, this article suggests that a “disconnection divide” has emerged in U.S. education during and in the wake of the pandemic. Whereas the digital divide refers to unequal access to and experience with technology, the disconnection divide, here, refers to unequal levels of opportunity, woven into the institutions of everyday life, to avoid technology use. As digital technologies become more powerful, persuasive, and integrated into education and everyday life, the disconnection divide may have implications for students’ data privacy, technology use practices, and educational outcomes.