What is important learning – Teachers showing the way in the pandemic

This is not a piece of lockdown lament! Rather, with the “P” word becoming a universal sword of Damocles, this blog shines some light on the humane professionalism of how some teachers embraced and approached learning of their students during the initial lockdown period and their return to school. The blog is based on research undertaken with 13 primary school teachers across Manawatū and Greater Wellington area.

There is no minimising the fact that across the globe teachers were taken by surprise by the suddenness of school closures. International studies since have highlighted the ‘loss’ of academic time and a sense of doom and gloom in terms of students’ learning during the time away from school. No doubt, these are genuine concerns, given that teachers feel responsible for the learning of their students. Their unwavering focus is on the curriculum – e.g., numeracy and literacy, therefore the imminent ‘set back’ of students in their academic learning loomed large in the minds of teachers. The underlying impact of this loss of academic time on their students’ performances and subsequent dip in benchmarked standards were constantly playing at the back of their minds. In addition, globally and locally, the unprecedented lockdowns had immense emotional toll on families and children.

Despite these professionally challenging situations, some of what the teachers said in this research showcased examples of humane-ness and broadened notions of learning. In some ways it can be said that these teachers were bucking the international trend on what they saw was the utmost need for their students. Their narratives were steeped in genuine care for not only their students, but the overall wellbeing of their whānau. This was indeed a point of difference that was quite striking and needs to be appreciated and shared widely as a key point of learning by teaching fraternity, given that the threat of COVID-19 and its multiple variants seems to be an ongoing feature of our day-to-day lives.

Lockdown was a time when these teachers modelled the concepts of kotahitanga and manaakitanga. Teaching is often referred to as a fishbowl activity but lockdown by default allowed them to become observers of family dynamics and contexts. While there was ‘de-privitisation’ of teaching, there was also a mutual fishbowl syndrome, which by no means was a comfortable arrangement. But as the ERO 2021 report shows the result of this mutual gaze had some unanticipated and positive outcomes for both teachers and families.

In our research we identified a few quotes from teachers which highlight their genuine concern and care for the wellbeing of their students and families first, and the opportunities to learn together, rather than focusing on the holy grail of academic learning. The attitude and actions of these teachers remind one of the words of a well-known educator, J. Krishnamurthy (JK) who said that the most fundamental and essential aspect of education is “to have people who are understanding and affectionate, whose hearts are not filled with empty phrases [loss of learning time], with the things of the mind [slipping away from the national average]” (1981, 76).

After bit, it took a bit of time, but I'm letting go of the kind of academic side of things and like what's my role as a teacher you know, that had changed completely... And so, yeah, that was an adjustment but once I got that, it's I don't need to worry if I haven't seen everyone do their assignments online… Maybe they're practicing cooking more, you know, and that's not something that I can kind of go A+ but it's still really good learning.

They loved the family time, and I think, Oh, I think that they tell you that they loved the physical side, because a lot of kids would be going, bike riding, and doing lots more physical stuff, which we don't do enough of at school break. They would say that they got to do creative things which is really cool.

Kids are having a whole lot of and parents are having a lot of special one to one time, and I got to see and hear about afterwards or sometimes, you know, online or whatever the awesome things that they were doing together, Just to know that yeah they're getting a lot of family time, which is very important. We talk about here about Whare Tapa Wha you know, and whanau is really important part of it, so that was definitely a positive.

With this little blip in the middle [the lockdown] where there was this glimpse of hope. For me, cause I’m trying to figure out how to teach outside of the box I guess. So lockdown was a good opportunity to sort of explore and experiment.

The teachers’ ethics of care and concern and their spontaneous broadening of the notion of learning are matters that need to be captured and supported. The move away from boxing learning into classrooms and schools was debunked almost instinctively by these teachers. The quotes are profound examples of what some teachers thought about learning when they did not have time to draw upon deeper philosophical and futuristic educational theories and propositions. They were simply acting on their gut instinct of what was needed for their students at that point in time, with no reference points or benchmarks for an unprecedented event. Inadvertently they were enacting the wisdom of Gert Biesta who identified a three-dimensional purpose for education – qualification, socialization, and subjectification. Specifically, Subjectfiication he noted was about “qualified” freedom, that is, freedom integrally connected to our existence as subject. This is never an existence just with and for ourselves, but always an existence in and with the world. An existence with human beings and other living creatures and “in” a physical environment that is not a simple backdrop, a context in which we act, but rather a complex network through which we act; a network, moreover, that sustains and nurtures us (Biesta, 2020, 95-96)”.

An international report by UNICEF identified education as one of the key determinants of children and young people’s overall mental health and well-being. Given this important status of education, can we, or are we bold enough to embrace this broad notion of learning as one of the ‘beautiful risks’? Can we in Aotearoa live up to the call of Gloria Ladson-Billings (2021),who argues that returning to normalcy and going back to pre-COVID pedagogy and education is the “wrong thing”?

Our study showed the flexibility of teachers to reflect and broaden their notion of what education and learning is all about and rethink how learning can be reconsidered. The challenge is for the system to listen to them and not allowing them to return to the hamster wheel that could potentially undermine the creative shifts that some teachers are keen to embrace. As one teacher noted, “there was so much potential stuff that then never happened”.

Vijaya Dharanv.m.dharan@massey.ac.nz

Vijaya is a Senior Lecturer at Massey University, Institute of Education, where she is involved in coordinating and teaching postgraduate specialist teacher training in ASD, Educational and Developmental Psychology and others at a post graduate and under graduate programmes. She is a registered psychologist and a teacher. Her research interests are in the field of inclusive education, Autism, emotional and behavioural difficulties, student disengagement and pedagogy. She is keen that her research activities are centered on being useful to wider communities and support the cause of equity and diversity.

Acknowledgement: The research reported on this blog was supported by a grant from HealthCarePlus.

References

Biesta, G. (2020). Risking Ourselves in Education: Qualification, Socialization, and Subjectification Revisited. Educational Theory, 70: 89-104. https://doi.org/10.1111/edth.12411

Dharan, V., Pond, R., & Mincher, N. (2022). Teacher student well-being in the COVID-19 pandemic. Research Report. Massey University. Palmerston North.

Education Review Office. (2021). The impact of Covid-19 on schools. Wellington.

Gloria Ladson-Billings (2021). I’m Here for the Hard Re-Set: Post Pandemic Pedagogy to Preserve Our Culture, Equity & Excellence in Education, 54:1, 68-78, DOI: 10.1080/10665684.2020.1863883

Krishnamurthy, J. (1981). Education and the Significance of Life. HarperCollins

McCormack, J., & Future Curious Ltd. (2020). Covid-19 Module 1: Hauora/well-being in uncertain times. https://www.education.govt.nz/covid-19/covid-19-and-well-being/

UNICEF Innocenti. (2020). Worlds of Influence: Understanding what shapes child well-being in rich countries: Innocenti Report Card 16. UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti.