Practice to Promise: Moving Modes of Inquiry Online

Introduction

This chapter draws upon the self-study methodology to examine the ways in which the author has considered pedagogy as a notion of practice moving to a fulfilled promise in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. In exploring self-study as a methodology for pedagogy examination, the work of Samaras and Freese (2006) has served as a foundation, along with the work of Feldman (2003) in providing necessary underpinnings for quality and validity in the work.

This method is particularly salient for examining pedagogy and engaging in the process of reflection that is so endemic to the work that educators do, particularly as it relates to this case in the context of digital instructional contexts (Philipsen et al., 2019). LaBoskey (1994) pointed out that the methodology is aimed at a personal/professional sense of improving practice and is often initiated individually in an agentive way. The methodology also draws upon a number of qualitative methods; in this case, the work stems from narrative work framed as personal, exploratory writing, available artifacts and documents from the instructional process, and journaled reflections.

In returning to these seminal events, during the months of March and April in 2020, the dominant theme that emerges from autobiographical writing and from journaled reflections, as well as those posted on social media, is a disorientation and high degree of emotion, punctuated by the bizarre nature of daily briefings from political figures. The isolated nature of the time is cognitively juxtaposed with the cold of late winter/early spring in the author’s rural mountain community, and the desire to remain connected with family and colleagues. The sudden shift to at-home working and living has not yet completely dissipated as questions continue about the waning efficacy of vaccines, and political questions swirl around the notion of asking if people, including students, are vaccinated.

In keeping with an autobiographical methodology, the author begins with a personally-written vignette in the next section before exploring the implications of moving modes of inquiry online both prior to and within the frame of the pandemic. At the time of this writing, the pandemic is not yet over and safety conditions are still in place as decisions are being made about vaccinations, boosters, and masking in the United States. There are layers to this experience that the author continues to explore; to that end, this chapter is not yet comprehensive, but is a way of working through developing pedagogy in the present time and moving forward in the pandemic.