Teachers’ Responses to Pandemic Uncertainty and The (Re)Organization of Schooling

• In Event: Organizing Systemic Change in Education: Leveraging Partnerships, Networks, and Teacher Collaboration

Abstract

Contributing to the literature conceptualizing the role of uncertainty in teachers’ decision-making and organizational change, this paper explores the changes in practice that teachers made during the COVID-19 pandemic. Semi-structured interviews conducted with 51 teachers over two years indicate that they perceived the pandemic’s uncertainties as an opportunity to reconsider the alignment of their own beliefs and practices as well as an imperative to find ways to weather increased day-to-day turbulence. Participants reflected on the ways the pandemic has been replaced by new sources of uncertainty regarding their connections to colleagues and students’ families. Contextualizing these perspectives with organizational theories, I argue that these changes in practice and perception suggest that a possible re-organization of schools is underway.

Author

• Lauren Yoshizawa, Colby College