Teamwork Routine and the Wicked Problems It Encounters in Regular and Pandemic Times

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session Fourteen
  In Roundtable Session: Lessons Learned Through COVID-19: Understanding the Long-Term Impacts and Leader Responses (Table 2)

Abstract

Teacher teamwork has long existed in schools, and has been found to serve multiple functions, including dealing with wicked problems. In this study, we compared one grade-team’s teamwork routine and the wicked problems it encounters in regular and pandemic times. Employing an ethnographic method, 18 observations, 30 interviews, and hundreds of SMS messages were collected in 2017 and 2020. The findings indicate that the teamwork routine maintained its ostensive aspect while changing its artifact and performative aspects; the same four wicked problems remain, with intensified overload, at-risk students became "invisible", and complexity cooperation with other teachers during the pandemic, while relations with parents improved. The study also found that teachers pay a higher price while the school continued to function.

Authors

• Meyrav Cohen Zecharia, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
  Presenting Author

• Nirit Pariente, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
  Non-Presenting Author

• Dorit Tubin, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
  Non-Presenting Author