Using the Disruption Caused by COVID-19 as an Opportunity to Rethink Public Education

• In Event: Educational Change at a Time of Crisis

Abstract

The major disruption caused by COVID presents a unique opportunity to examine our ideas related to schools, many of which we have long taken for granted. A main assumption the pandemic challenged is the traditional view of schooling in which teaching occurs in face-to-face classrooms with teachers and students present five days a week. Rather than seeking to return to “normal,” it is essential to consider what we have learned about school and teacher change as educators switched first to 100% online and then shifted again to teach students face-to-face and online. Through surveying teachers in North Carolina, this study sought to hear from educators about the changes they had implemented and whether these offered new approaches to learning.

Authors

• Robert W. Smith, University of North Carolina - Wilmington

• Kylee Maarschalk, New Hanover High School