By Amber Strong Makaiau
On October 21, 2021 I had the opportunity to participate in the Game Changer Series: Navigating The Pandemic - A Courageous Conversation about COVID hosted by What School Could Be. In the midst of our global challenge, finding support, seeking solutions, and sharing our truths can be quite powerful. At this event we shared our thoughts, wonderings and strategies for making sense of the current moment in education. For me, it was a homecoming of sorts as both the Executive Director of What School Could Be, Dr. Kapono Ciotti and one of the panelists, Dr. Andrew Ho of the Harvard Graduate School of Education are both Hanahau’oli School classmates of mine! We were joined by Mari Jones from the High Tech High Graduate School of Education.
Our conversation at the event was framed around the article, How Do You Open School in a Pandemic? Start by Asking Teachers and Students. This EdSurge publication was based on a study by Justin Reicha and Jal Mehta titled, Healing, Community, and Humanity: How Students and Teachers Want to Reinvent Schools Post-COVID. To view a recording of our discussion about the article and more CLICK HERE. To follow is a written narrative of my responses to the questions that were used to stimulate our dialogue on the day of the event.
1. The article and study (linked above) captures the experiences of students and teachers during pandemic schooling. Topics addressed in the publications include: learning loss, “going back rhetoric,” the need for connection, and increased student autonomy. What should schools be focusing on to move forward through the pandemic to something better?
What stood out to me the most was the finding that “in all of [their] data from more than 200 teachers, not once did [they] hear teachers describe remediating lost learning through assessment and targeted remediation as their top priority for next year” (Reicha & Mehta, 2021). It reminded me of the narrative around “learning loss,” which is critically explored and unpacked in the "Learning Loss" Handbook researched and produced by the Human Restoration Project. I highly recommend checking it out. It outlines the current narrative of "catch up" being propagated by testing companies and policy makers.
Part 1 of the handbook (The Why) deconstructs the issue of “learning loss.” [They] analyze the origins of the term, how it’s being used today, and dissect its connection to the standardized testing industry. Part 2 (The How) demonstrates how we can rebuild what has been lost…[they] believe the solutions lie in reimagining systems toward human-centered learning and reestablishing connections that have long been lost in the classroom, such as free play, community connections, and social-emotional learning.
Related to the sentiments of the Human Restoration Project, the Reicha & Mehta (2021) article also highlights other interesting lessons and reflections that have come out of pandemic era schooling, which I think stem from some larger philosophical questions that are currently being asked by researchers, theorists, educators, families, and children:
What is the purpose of school/education?
How do we know children are learning?
From my perspective as a progressive educator, these questions are ongoing and consistently worth exploring, and possible answers to the questions can be discovered by “watching children and life alertly” (Palmer, 1937, p.1). I believe if you are studying children and society right now, you find that schools and educators--to remain relevant and purposeful--must be designing policies, structures, curriculum, and pedagogy that brings attention to and addresses the:
Social emotional well-being of individuals and communities
Ethical and balanced integration of technology, including artificial intelligence within the human experience
Power of scientific innovation in addressing real-world problems
Resistance to evidence and science-based policy-making
New ways of thinking about and prioritizing how we work and gather together
Influence of misinformation and media literacy
Urgency of climate consciousness and environmental activism
Detriment of income inequality and a divided society
Strength of protest and progress against racial injustice
Growing call for more socially just forms of democratic governance
Contributions of art and other humanistic practices to a meaningful and flourishing life
We must also seize the moment to reestablish and normalize more humane forms of assessment. The whole narrative of “learning loss” is framed around declining standardized test scores and most people who genuinely care about the well-being of children and communities know test scores cannot be the only way or “most credible way” we measure learning. As a progressive educator, I would advocate for a more progressive philosophy and pedagogy around assessment such as:
Focusing assessment on gathering information about the whole child, “including thinking skills; work habits and study skills; appreciation of music, art, literature, and other aesthetic experiences; improved social attitudes and social sensitivity; personal-social adjustment; philosophy of life; and physical fitness” (Bruce & Eryaman, 2015, p.10). This was how the Eight-Year Study (also known as the Thirty-School Study), an experimental project conducted between 1930 to 1942 by the Progressive Education Association (PEA), applied progressive principles to evaluate teaching and learning. Almost 100 years have passed since this research, and still most schools have not yet prioritized other aspects of the human experience (beyond math, English Language Arts, and Science) as worth assessing in school.
Finding learner-centered ways to measure, document, and report growth over time
Engaging students in self-assessment and evaluation in collaboration with peers, teachers, and family
Responsibly finding ways to use the power of technology to support qualitative information gathering and evaluation of student performance and growth
2. How has the pandemic shone a light on inequities in education, and what can we do to address these issues?
The pandemic has shone a light on inequities in education in a number of ways, including very tangible, concrete inequities experienced by individuals in schools and those that are part of more intangible belief systems and a larger “culture war” that is currently being played out in society at-large.
For example, on the individual level, we found when schools had to transition to distance learning, students who did not have access to a computer, wifi, a quiet place to work, and in the case of young children a “learning coach” who could sit alongside them during distance learning experiences--they were marginalized compared to their peers who had these resources. In this digitally dependent age, it has become abundantly clear that all schools must be fully funded to provide computers and wifi to all students. Over the past year and a half, we’ve all seen how access to a device that connects to the internet, and all this affords (e.g. online web browsing, virtual meetings, engagement of a learning management system, email, etc.) is a giant gatekeeper to full and equitable participation in the culture of power in the USA and when schools aren’t able assist all students in connecting to the digital ecosystem of our 21st century society, they reinforce larger systems of inequality that currently exist in our nation.
In addition, we’ve learned schools must ensure that all students have access to individual mentors and other human support systems, beyond their primary teacher, who can help them navigate their individualized learning needs. Well before the pandemic, research showed in many schools, not all students have at least one person on campus they can depend on for additional learning support and human connection. Based on what has played out during the pandemic, this research was confirmed and we know if we want all children to thrive, we must find ways to expand the network of adults and peer support that schools can connect each student with in order to ensure all kids have access to the academic, social, and emotional relationships they need to be successful in school. I don’t necessarily think this means hiring more teachers, but perhaps identifying non-profit organizations and other people (e.g. retirees and college students) who want to meaningfully contribute to the lives of young people, who can become part of the school community and support students in meaningful ways.
On a more societal level, so much has been revealed about the culture wars － the cultural conflict between social groups and the struggle for dominance of their values, beliefs, and practices － that are playing out in the USA today. For example, the national conversation that has emerged around Critical Race Theory has divulged much about oppressive belief systems that pervade our national culture and contribute to inequities in education. We are currently seeing bans or opt out policies related to culturally responsive teaching, ethnic studies, the 1619 project, and diversity, equity, and inclusion work in schools. If we do indeed believe the USA should strive to have a diverse democracy, professional development and real work must be done in schools to ensure social justice education is not an add-on, but standard practice in American schooling.
3. What’s working for schools as they ensure the social emotional health of students right now?
First, acknowledge the fact that EVERYONE has experienced life changes in the past year and half. To paraphrase a very familiar quote from the progressive education philosopher, John Dewey, ”We don’t learn from experience, we learn by reflecting on experience.” If any learning is going to happen right now － whether it is academic, social, and/or emotional － we have to make space in schools to reflect on how we have personally changed, how the world around us has changed, and how it continues to change. Honestly, what I see working in schools right now is reflection done in community (e.g. in classrooms, faculty meetings, school-wide, and with families), which is also integrated into the entire school day/curriculum and not just seen as an add-on or one hour SEL lesson that students experience once a week.
Integrated and scheduled times for daily reflection requires that teachers use more constructivist and progressive approaches to teaching and learning across all subject areas and disciplines. One approach I’ve spent years using and which I’ve seen thrive during the pandemic, even in the online environment, is Philosophy for Children (P4C). P4C both values and enacts progressive philosophy and pedagogy through a number of practical strategies:
Intellectually safe communities of inquiry
Learner-centered questions and wonder as a starting point for inquiry
The integration of philosophical thinking across disciplines and content areas
Time for personal and community-based reflection
And to borrow a catch phrase, from longtime P4C practitioner, Dr. Thomas Jackson, we cannot be in a rush right now! To make meaning of all we’ve been through over the past year and a half, “we must put an emphasis on listening, thoughtfulness, silence, and care and respect for the thoughts of others.”
Related to reflection, school leaders, educators, and staff need to feel and be empowered to make changes and put into action the lessons learned from reflecting on the current moment. There will be nothing more heartbreaking than to recognize important lessons learned from pandemic era schooling and then not have the ability to transform educational practices, institutions, and systems to incorporate those lessons.
On a final note, I have also observed the healing capacity of art-making in schools right now: drawing, painting, writing poetry, dancing, and engaging in dramatic play. I have seen first-hand how schools that have maintained an integrated approach to art-making and creative expression have provided students and educators with alternative methods for reflecting on the current moment and nurturing their social and emotional well-being. As Dewey (1934) asserted in Art as Experience, art has the power to mediate the interaction between an individual and their environment and can help humans reach a stage of fulfillment.
4. As educators, we carry the pressure of safety, moving education forward, and the social-emotional needs of students. What can we do to support the social-emotional needs of educators? (With the challenges of energy out and depletion, how are we getting energy in for educators?)
In my role as the Director of the Hanahau‘oli School Professional Development Center, I have been studying teachers and how the professional needs of teachers have changed over the course of the pandemic. At the onset of the pandemic, in Spring 2020, educators were highly motivated to learn all they could about distance education and crisis online teaching. Then, in the Summer of 2020, teachers and school leaders had the chance to catch their breath, and they wanted time to improve upon their school’s distance learning plans. A critical mass of teachers also became interested in social justice education following the events of Summer 2020 and as we moved into the 2020-21 school year this was top of mind. In Summer 2021, I started to observe educators' interest in professional development wane, and as teachers entered fall 2021 it became very clear many in our beloved profession had reached a threshold for learning new things. As I write this blog entry, it seems like most educators are doing what they can to stay positive amidst everything they’ve gone through in the past year and a half.
Reicha and Mehta (2021) report, “teachers have developed new comfort and skill with flexibility and adaptation. During the pandemic, [they] learned that many of the features of schools that appear to be fixed and immovable are actually contingent and plastic” (Reicha & Mehta, 2021). While I think this is true and good, I also think many educators are presenting symptoms of chronic stress. Without downplaying the real severity of a diagnosis like this, I do see many educators who are debilitated, overwhelmed, and down. It seems like we are at a point in the pandemic where teachers are finally processing what it has been like to live and teach in a constantly changing work world － just when they thought they had their footing, things changed again. So with the challenges of energy out and depletion, how might we get energy in?
I think what educators need right now is time and space to make sense of what they’ve been through, and for renewal. Just as I have had the time to reflect on the questions posed for this event, it is important we schedule, both personally and professionally, deep and sustained contemplation. This reflection can take many forms － quiet meditation, physical outlets like yoga or walking, art-making, and writing － and it must be prioritized as an essential part of our individual and collective pathways forward. Relative to organizational structure and work, in this podcast from “On Being”, Priya Parker identifies four essential questions:
What have you longed for during the pandemic that you couldn’t do with colleagues (or loved ones)?
What did you not miss? What should we not bring back?
What did we invent during this pandemic?
What do we want to invent now?
Together, let us fearlessly and gracefully invent a new narrative around education in the USA. Instead of harping on things like learning loss and catching up, we need to be thankful for all of the teachers who have helped to create structure and stability in the lives of so many children and families when everything around them was rapidly falling apart. As we collectively work to put things back together and build anew, let us embrace the words of Parker Palmer in The Courage to Teach: “Good teaching cannot be reduced to technique [or test results]; good teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher."
REFERENCES:
Reich, J., & Mehta, J. (2021, July 21). Healing, Community, and Humanity: How Students and Teachers Want to Reinvent Schools Post-COVID. https://doi.org/10.35542/osf.io/nd52b
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Dr. Amber Strong Makaiau is a Specialist at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Director of Curriculum and Research at the Uehiro Academy for Philosophy and Ethics in Education, Director of the Hanahau‘oli School Professional Development Center, and Co-Director of the Progressive Philosophy and Pedagogy MEd Interdisciplinary Education, Curriculum Studies program. A former Hawai‘i State Department of Education high school social studies teacher, her work in education is focused around promoting a more just and equitable democracy for today’s children. Dr. Makaiau lives in Honolulu where she enjoys spending time in the ocean with her husband and two children.
