Teaching and Learning in the Upside Down: Arts-Based Inquiry During Times of Crisis

• In Event: Reconceptualizing Schools, Teachers, Community Spaces, and Shakespeare Through Arts-Based Inquiry

Abstract

In March 2020 schools across the United States made an abrupt transition to teaching online due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The two presenters, an English Education professor at a large city university and a high school English teacher were documenting our collaboration in developing a curriculum that is deeply rooted in Maxine Greene’s philosophy of aesthetic education and the social imagination. Suddenly we had to shift to teach online to address the needs of students who were anxious, some even traumatized.

We discuss how we worked to sustain the classroom community in our new virtual space, and the creative lessons we designed to help students and teacher candidates continue to learn while exploring and expressing the complexities of their circumstances.

Authors

• Amanda Nicole Gulla, Lehman College - CUNY

• Molly Sherman, Harvest Collegiate High School