Abrupt Reform: High School Teaching in the Time of COVID-19

• In Event: Intense Challenges and Opportunities in Curriculum Policy

Abstract

This paper explores one urban school district’s abrupt shift to remote learning due to COVID-19. A comparative qualitative study, it uses interviews with teachers in three district high schools – two comprehensive, one innovation – as well as one charter to probe teachers’ sensemaking of remote teaching and the roles their professional communities played in the transition. In particular, the study explores teachers’ responses to district requirements. To ensure consistent, quality instruction across schools, Iron City (pseudonym) required that teachers set aside planned course material and transition to common standards it deemed relevant. Teachers interpreted this requirement in myriad ways and some resisted it in the interest of their students. Responses were closely associated with the professional learning models their schools practiced.

Author

• Jeremy T. Murphy, Harvard University