‘Back to normal’, everyone is talking about ‘back to normal’. What is normal? Is it possible to go back after what we have experienced? None of us knows if we are in the wake of the COVID19 crisis or in the midst of another of the unfolding waves of the virus; none of us can tell if the routine we are creating at present will remain stable for an extended period. Everything is still uncertain and fragile, and we are all learning to live with unpredictability. I constantly remind my pre-service teacher students that the flexibility they are acquiring in these ever-changing dynamic times will serve them well in their roles as educators.
In their effort to give learners and educators a sense of security, many educational institutions are attempting to create an impression of stability and normalcy by returning to what they did before the upheaval of the pandemic. In many Israeli schools, that means cramming over thirty pupils into a classroom with a teacher standing at the front; it means a return to frontal lecturing on-campus in most higher education institutions. In schools, the official catchphrase has become SEL (social-emotional learning), but the undercurrents are all pulling towards catching up, learning lost material and testing, testing, testing. In higher education, many students are torn between their longing for social interaction with other students and lecturers and their desire to return to the flexibility of online learning. Many students are struggling financially as they could juggle work and study more easily when studying online. Many lecturers crave to develop alternative teaching strategies, combining what they learnt during the pandemic, but are too overworked and exhausted after the frequent changes to devote themselves to yet another transition. There is still a tangible atmosphere of ‘let’s just get through it’ in the air.
I, too, am caught between extremes. I am missing the security of teaching from home and enjoying the exhilarating interaction with students on campus. I am working hard to rework every class, combining my teaching ideas from pre-COVID days and incorporating the digital tools I have adopted to maintain student engagement. I swing between enthusiastically crafting creative lessons which require lengthy preparation of materials and manipulatives and the depressing reality of my time limitations. I have taught one of my courses four times: once as a face-to-face semester-long course, once as an intensive course, once as a year-long flipped classroom online course, and now as a face-to-face flipped classroom course. Each transition requires the recreation of the syllabus, the teaching methods, the modes of assessment. I don’t want to compromise the quality of the lesson and therefore focus on the tiny details. I am aware that as a teacher-educator, I am a role model for my students. This requires me to maintain my enthusiasm and creativity while I, like my peers, feel pressured and severely overworked.
I am constantly aware that we need to sit down with colleagues and talk about the big picture more than anything else. Where are we going? What are we creating? What are we missing when teaching and learning return to pre-pandemic routines? There is no time or space to grapple with these questions – everyone is in survival mode, and we are guided by institutional directions like “X% of teaching hours must remain online”.
One of my main frustrations is that even when there are innovative and creative steps taken at the level of institution management, no time is devoted to discussion with teaching staff about the potential and the value of the plan. There is no space created for dialogue, collaborative excitement or dreaming. Without understanding the principles behind them, many lecturers see innovations as a further distraction, additional work, an infringement on their autonomy, or a plain bother. Unfortunately, staff days, meetings, and professional learning days are being filled with random topics that are relevant and worthy but are less urgent. Let us use our time differently in this unique period. Inviting a speaker or organising a conference for staff is ‘back to normal’; initiating discussion and facilitating collegial dialogue about our needs as educators and our students’ needs is presently more pressing. Collaboratively unpacking the constant transitions (those in our power and those that aren’t) would be a wiser use of precious time in these confusing times.
Our educational reality isn’t all dark and gloomy. I promise that my next post will be more optimistic; I will share an invigorating ‘different learning’ day I recently organised for the Department of English Language and Literature at The Oranim College of Education.
