"It's 90% Useless": Illusio, Online Teaching, and COVID-19

• In Event: Bourdieusian Contexts and Cases in Teaching and Technology

Abstract

This instrumental case study explores how early childhood teachers in a progressive private school adapted habitus to changes in the field resulting from changes to practice required by pandemic health policies. Employing Bourdieu’s notions of Habitus, Field, and Illusio, we examine how educators in the school approached the move to distance learning during the early months of the pandemic. The study focuses on the experiences of two teachers: one who was able to adapt practice and saw the changes as opportunities for professional growth, and one who did not see eLearning as worthwhile and who left teaching less than a year after the start of the pandemic.

Authors

• Stephanie C. Sanders-Smith, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Jadyn Laixely, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Giselle Del Carmen Martinez Negrette, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Tanya Espinosa Cordoba, Anderson University