Lessons Still Not Learned: Teachers and the Pandemics of 2020 and 1918

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 5:25 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  In Roundtable Session: Resisting Constraints: Academic Freedom, Teacher Unions, and the Fight for Democracy (Table 2)

Abstract

In Lessons Still not Learned: Teachers and the 2020 and 1918 Pandemics, the authors explore the similarities in the added expectations placed on teachers- and the consequences of those expectations- in both 1918 and 2020 pandemics. During these cross-century crises, classroom teachers had to tackle new remote teaching practices, to help ensure social stability, and to take on counseling, sanitation, even nursing duties. There were parallel impacts- on teacher morale and teaching workforce-as well. Separated by 100+ years, these shared experiences suggests a few missed lessons from history. The authors contend that we can still learn from these teachers.

Author

• Brian R. Sevier, California State University - Channel Islands