What Does It Take to Sustain COVID-Related Innovations to Strengthen Student-Teacher Relationships? (Poster 43)

• In Event: Friday Poster Session 9:35 am
  In Poster Session: Division G: Policies Mattering and Praxis Poster Session

Abstract

During the COVID-19 crisis, educators across several high schools within one New York City school network responded to mass absences, large-scale disengagement, and a drop in students’ grades by building structures to support strong student-teacher relationships. Recognizing the value those structures had for student well-being, educators sought to make them permanent upon a return to in-person learning. In this paper, we describe educators’ micro-innovations - small changes new to the contexts in which they developed – and the continuous cycle of problem identifying and problem solving they encountered in efforts to concretize them as part of a comprehensive infrastructure for supporting student well-being. Our findings contribute to considerations for continuous improvement, and long lasting change in support of student-teacher relationships.

Authors

• Bianca Licata, San Francisco State University

• Thomas C. Hatch, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Angel Zheng, New Visions for Public Schools