A Time to Adapt, Not “Return to Normal”: Lessons in Compassion and Accessibility from Teaching During COVID-19

Abstract

COVID-19 drastically altered teaching and learning. The unprecedented public health crisis forced educators to transition courses online, to learn new technologies, and to embrace adaptability and flexibility. These pedagogical changes brought with them new challenges and stressors, causing many educators to long for a “return to normal” in education. In this conversation, I reflect on the transformative lessons we as educators can learn from teaching during the pandemic. I argue that teaching during COVID-19 has presented opportunities for educators to become more compassionate toward students. Some of the ways we restructured our courses may also make education more accessible to vulnerable groups. Examining the lessons I have learned in compassion and accessibility through teaching sociology during COVID-19, I suggest that now is a time to adapt, not return to normal.

The Impact of Social Relationships on College Student Learning during the Pandemic: Implications for Sociologists

“…Recent articles in Teaching Sociology are consistent with this view about the need not just for relationship building but also for caring. Bartholomay (2022:64) encourages a commitment to compassion in working with pandemic-stressed students, which “can be understood as an awareness of the suffering of others coupled with a desire to relieve it.” Hess and colleagues (2022) have documented an increased emphasis on care among faculty even at a prominent Research I institution. Similarly, Coleman (2022) highlights a series of best practices that sociology faculty can employ to assist students in coping with stresses exacerbated by the pandemic.…”

“…Increasing state support for higher education, reducing student loan burdens, and increasing need-based financial aid would help alleviate these financial concerns. Sociology faculty have some ability to control student expenses by being sensitive to textbook costs and using low-cost or no-cost materials whenever possible, as Bartholomay (2022) and Francis, Hill, and Overmier (2022) note. While technology access is important for all online classes, sociology faculty who teach data analysis and research methods using software such as SPSS, STATA, or NVivo might need to be especially proactive in anticipating and addressing student technology access.…”

Remote Education Trajectories for Learners with Special Needs During the Covid-19 Outbreak

“…Among different findings and considerations, the creation and the utilization of open educational resources were identified as a necessary step to bridge the accessibility-related obstacles of digital teaching in inclusive education settings. Interactive teaching strategies advocating for compassion and accessibility and using open educational resources to promote equity in education were suggested by [35]. The application of accessibility review methodologies with transversal actions in the creation and management of learning resources and MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) is suggested in [36].…”

Toward a Du Boisian paradigm of family science

“…The Covid‐19 pandemic and uprising against White supremacy and police violence beginning in 2020 in the United States and globally has, for many scholars, fundamentally shifted the ways that research and teaching are viewed and carried out (Bartholomay, 2022; Berg et al, 2022; Santellano, 2022). Though many researchers were already taking a critical or radical approach in their scholarship, especially those studying areas such as racism, state violence, or the carceral state, this contemporary moment required us to collectively (re)examine the ways that we understand and frame our research, engage with the topics and participants of our research, and contribute to the pursuit of knowledge production.…”