Abstract
This chapter explores the transformation of teaching and leadership practices at the Student Academic Success Services office (SASS) at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (UMN) in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The sobering reality of the disruption to on-campus instruction due to the escalating pandemic required a multi-pronged approach for a workplace geared towards advancing the academic progress of its students. Through a collaborative autoethnography, the authors, who work with students to improve academic performance through courses and individualized coaching sessions, chronicle how they were able to pivot rapidly and transition effectively into virtual modes of teaching and supporting students. SASS students are some of the most vulnerable to abrupt changes to their learning routines and styles; this includes students on probation, those with learning disabilities, and students struggling to stay motivated and balance their social, personal, and academic demands.
TopBackground
Adaptation and innovation present a fundamental challenge to the organizational culture of higher education, given its hierarchical, bureaucratic operational norms (Birnbaum, 1988; Tierney, 2008). The COVID-19 pandemic required an immense and immediate transformation of university protocols, pedagogies, and response procedures. In the middle of the 2019 spring semester, as the realities of the COVID-19 pandemic set in, many universities reeled with a torrent of decisions and dilemmas. Should university life resume after spring break? What about after the summer break? Is it safer for international students to stay put or return home? How will students and instructors adapt to online learning and remote instruction? Do students have adequate technology access? How can students and faculty be kept safe while delivering on learning outcomes and developmental experiences? As universities strived to adapt and communicate at the administrative level, instructors forged ahead with resiliency and resoluteness, making mid-semester curricular adaptations on a daily and hourly basis, and cobbling together student support interventions. This unprecedented moment was the catalyst for a marked shift in university life, and the transformation is ongoing. Thus, as higher education is reconceptualized in the time of COVID-19, it is critical to understand the ways that instructors experienced, responded, and adapted to this unparalleled moment in history.
It is women of color (and educational theorists) who have been on the forefront of advocating for responsive pedagogy (hooks, 1994; Rendón, 2008). Rendón (2008) asserts that in times of social change and unrest, there emerges a new agreement between teacher and student, one that “speaks to who we are as whole human beings...intelligent, social, emotional, and spiritual” (p. 48). In the midst of the campus shut down, the urgent need for whole-person, student-centered pedagogy became more apparent than ever before. In this chapter, the authors - three educators and instructors who encompass a myriad of identities and positionalities - use autoethnographic methods to explore the following research questions:
- 1.
How did we experience the shift to online, remote learning? How did we adapt our pedagogy and approach to teaching during the pandemic?
- 2.
How did we identify and respond to students’ needs in the shift to remote learning?
- 3.
What was our experience navigating administrative and supervisory roles?
- 4.
How did we care for ourselves and our communities during the evolving realities of the pandemic?
- 5.
What lessons did we learn for future semesters of remote learning and/or periods of crisis and unprecedented change?
Key Terms in this Chapter
LGBTQIA: Acronym for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, (questioning), intersex, and asexual.
Collaborative Autoethnography: A methodological process of documenting, sharing, and interpreting personal reflections, visions, and stories Analysis of the pooled autoethnographic data requires a rigorous commitment to personal reflection and communal sharing in order to elucidate common insights and themes.
BIPOC: Acronym for Black, Indigenous, and people of color.
Remote Learning: Distanced learning classroom designed to meet in real time virtually for a lecture. May also include independent and asynchronous work by students.
Asynchronous: Learning on your own time, and not concurrently with classmates and the instructor of the class. There may be lectures to view, materials to read and assignments to complete each week or within a certain period of time.