Transformations in K-12 Teaching: Using What Was Learned During the Pandemic

Introduction

The global health crisis brought with it educational challenges for both teachers and learners within classrooms from kindergarten through high school. Educators needed to shift to delivering instruction to students in an alternate virtual format and some teachers were not adequately prepared to provide the diversity of instructional strategies that were required in a new instructional environment to provide meaningful and productive online teaching. For many students, a traditional classroom was transformed into a format with which they had no experience and little ease of use. Many K-12 students were left with few choices if they weren’t equipped to receive instruction online.

Simply stated, the sudden switch to an online environment disrupted learning but it did not do so in the same way for all students. At the onset of the pandemic, students with limited or no broadband, limited digital devices or the digital resources needed for alternate instruction were sometimes left out of the virtual instruction experience. Some differently-abled or vulnerable students were unable to access their promised educational experience in a manner consistent with their individual needs. Additionally, Black and Latinx and students living in poorer neighborhoods did not have resources to be successful in virtual learning (Hoofman & Secord, 2021; Irwin et al., 2021; Storey & Slavin, 2020).

Virtual instruction created a potential to hinder children’s overall well-being as well. In addition to schools being the source of academic instruction, schools also serve as a source of non-academic services that contribute to children’s physical and mental health. The disruptions in both learning and well-being presented further challenges that often-elicited additional emotional distress to both teachers and students beyond what the health crisis itself created, causing the mental health issues that are apparent even after a return to the classroom (Hoffman & Miller, 2020; Hoofman & Secord, 2021; Irwin et al., 2021; Rogers, et al., 2020)

We have learned from the experiences of both students and teachers during the pandemic how vital it is to examine the intersection of equity with the education experienced by different learners during the educational experience that was provided during the pandemic. Inequities existed (Hoofman & Secord, 2021; Hoffman & Miller, 2020; Irwin et al., 2021; Rogers, 2020; Storey & Slavin, 2020). To address the inequities, it is equally important to examine how the consequences that occurred from extended virtual instruction were also experienced unequally. The consequences included non-attendance and non-enrollment, significant learning loss, and mental health issues

This chapter will highlight how the delivery of instruction during the pandemic yielded inequitable outcomes for some students. Inequitable access to virtual instruction, a digital divide, and the inability of virtual instruction to address some students’ individual student needs resulted in negative outcomes for many K-12 students (Dorn et.al.,2021b; Lewis, et al., 2021)

Some of these outcomes, such as learning loss, still remain in place. Educators can look with reflection and analysis at the challenges to equitable education to elementary and secondary students that were heightened during the pandemic and can identify practices that can address the issues.

The author suggests that the educational inequities experienced by some K-12 students during the pandemic can be addressed through solutions focused on more careful attention to individual learner’s needs and openness to innovative instructional environments. The author further imagines transformation in the future that can evolve through educational system reforms, the developmental of communities of practice, and enhanced educator preparation. (All4ed n.d.; Beard, et al., 2021; Kaufman & Diliberti, 2021; Reich et al., 2020; Trust & Whelan, 2020)

Using a systems approach, described by Senge (1990) in The Fifth Discipline as “…the structure that underlies complex situations, and for discerning high from low leverage change…” (p.69) this chapter explores and connects possibilities by first examining the challenges to equity in elementary and secondary education that emerged during the pandemic, addressing those challenges as with a range of solutions, and envisioning future transformation in K-12 teaching and learning, so no crisis leaves any students behind. Figure 1 indicates the path from awareness of educational inequities apparent during the pandemic to future transformations.

Figure 1.

A path to transformation