Pandemic Series | A Closer Look at Five Prevailing Educational Narratives during the COVID-19 Pandemic by Megan E. Lynch

In this piece, Megan Lynch, Ph.D. candidate, and teacher educator at Penn State, examines the different narratives of educators during the pandemic and problematizes how these narratives can sustain educational and societal inequalities.

In early March, as schools began closing all over the U.S., social media became flooded with posts and memes speculating concerns, potentials, and hypothetical scenarios. They expressed and elicited a range of emotional responses: humorous, enlightening, saddening, optimistic, calming, thankful, and impassioned. They reassured teachers and students that things would “get back to normal” eventually. They seem innocuous; however, they represent and perpetuate specific ideologies that undermine educational equity. For example, the “we are all in this together” narrative (#5 below) indicates a colorblind lens that ignores the unequal ways that teachers, students, and their families are experiencing the pandemic. Thus, if not closely examined, these narratives can sustain the educational and societal inequalities that this pandemic has exposed.

As a Ph.D. candidate and boundary-spanning teacher educator in a College of Education, I work alongside K-4 teachers and their students, Elementary and Early Childhood Education student teachers and their mentor teachers, as well as other teacher educators from the College of Education on multiple teams and across two separate school districts. By being connected to many educators, I have had the privilege of watching how they have handled the transition with grace, creativity, understanding, and hard work. I have also seen support for educators by posting memes, inspirational quotes, and coping advice on various social media platforms. In this article, I present five of the pervasive narratives that have been making the rounds on Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit, among other social media platforms during the COVID-19 pandemic.

These five were selected primarily because of their popularity. For example, The High School Musical cast did a sing-along in April from their 2006 film’s song, “We Are All in This Together.” These narratives are pervasive. They have the power to influence policy makers, teachers, families, students, voters, and all of those connected to the U.S. P-12 public school system. Because of their hidden power, we must stay alert and vigilant. We must ask ourselves what we are saying about schooling and the greater society, and visions for both.

1. Students should have all of the same or nothing at all.

The push for this thinking has occurred primarily in relation to students with disabilities, meeting Individualized Education Program (IEP) requirements, and ensuring adequate accommodations in line with recommendations from the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). This is a valid concern. However, school administrators have attempted to remain compliant by issuing top-down mandates to ensure that if/when schools in a district begin online teaching, it looks the same way for all schools and classrooms, regardless of students’ needs. I have heard colleagues say things like, “Our district is pushing for equity. If I teach a science lesson to my students this week, we need to ensure that all the students in the grade level receive the same lesson.” This would have been unheard of from these teachers in the weeks prior to school buildings closing. What we are seeing is not “equity,” but a tightening of the reigns, an increase in surveillance, and an outdated version of equality.

2. Things will be better once we get back to normal.

Understandably, those echoing this sentiment are reminiscing about their lives before COVID-19. Educators are working tirelessly to connect and teach their students online while balancing their own home lives. But we have to face reality. Normal was not working. Educators that do social justice and equity work in schools have been advocating on behalf of the many students of color and students experiencing poverty because of the vast inequalities that they disproportionately experience: school lunch debt, lack of Internet access, lack of personal technology, unsafe shelter (i.e., no access to clean drinking water; homes with mold, dust, mildew, cockroaches), and lack of adequate healthcare.

We have the opportunity to create a new normal. We can advocate for a legislature that considers the Internet as a utility. We have the institutional, financial capacity to ensure all students have access to free breakfast and lunch. If schools can give out Chromebooks to all the students who need them now (Mitchell, 2020), what is stopping them from continuing this in the coming school year? Moreover, the complaints about families not checking emails can’t hold now that we know Internet access (regardless of price) isn’t an option for many. State-mandated testing was eliminated this year. Let’s not invite it back into our schools. We can push for smaller class sizes to maintain physical distancing. Parents and families are more involved in their students’ school lives than ever before; let’s use that and continue to build relationships with families. Don’t end the parades, sidewalk chalks, and handwritten letters once the schools open up again. Bring parents and families into the school with the same enthusiastic creativity we see now. We have the opportunity to bring about a more equitable society, one that rejects the tenets of capitalism that have stratified and oppressed so many (Bowles & Gintis, 2011).

3. We will need more socio-emotional learning (SEL) and trauma-informed practices to help our students heal.

As a result of this pandemic, students will have lost those close to them, have been socially isolated, and/or have spent an extended period of time in home situations that did not allow them to thrive. While students returning from school will undoubtedly require more intentional SEL and engagement in trauma-informed practices, we must remember that it is not a replacement for equity work. SEL works on an individual level; it does not address collective, societal change. The causes of the trauma and need for SEL are rooted in systemic racism, oppression, and capitalism (Gorski, 2019; Simmons, Brackett & Adler, 2018). An increase in SEL may help individual students feel better for the current school year but meeting students’ socio-emotional needs will not change the system of schooling unless we focus our efforts on systemic change.

4. Some of my students will be so far behind next year and will need to catch up.

Defining behind is an important step here. What is the difference between behind and ahead? What are we measuring? Perhaps if we reflect deeply on how we might answer the questions, Will all students truly be behind? or Which ones will be behind?, a trend emerges. Among those who are already considered to “be behind” are the students experiencing poverty, students with disabilities, English language learners, and racially-minoritized students (Strauss, 2020). The deficit orientation of students from these groups as static, unchanging, always behind is a product of a schooling system that sorts and categorizes students into haves and have nots. It is nearly impossible to be seen any other way. Those from White, affluent, privileged families will be considered fine, regardless of what learning they missed during the pandemic (Ragsdale, 2020; for a critique, see Bastian, 2020). In other words, we are seeing how schools being closed is just “more evidence” for why marginalized students are behind when instead it is due to institutional factors that pre-date the pandemic (Strauss, 2020). Moving forward, we can work to ensure that marginalized students have access to equitable learning opportunities that tap into students’ knowledge and experiences.

Moreover, the narrative of students being behind precipitates harmful options that may include extending the school year; cutting art, music, world languages, and other elective courses; and further devaluing social studies, science, and the humanities. We may see increased time spent on math and literacy, to the point of overwhelming and exhausting students. Rote memorization in an effort to make up for lost time may make a comeback. There is potential for increased surveillance of teaching to the standards and not wasting a minute of class time. These are not changes that we will see in urban, high-poverty majority-minority schools; they are already the oppressive norm. This is our opportunity to advocate for students in these schools to learn and develop in a well-rounded curriculum. Schools truly can become the “great equalizer” we falsely claim it to be.

5. Remember that we are all in this together.

            While a nice sentiment and perhaps in its most innocent variation may truly be attempting to appeal to a sense of community, oneness, and cohesiveness, our students are not all experiencing this pandemic the same way. There is increased aggression and discrimination towards Asian-Americans on a global stage as U.S. politicians and others worldwide have referred to COVID-19 as the “Chinese Virus” or “Wuhan Virus” (Human Rights Watch, 2020). This discrimination has also occurred locally, as my partner witnessed first-hand White students mocking and deriding Asian-Americans in a local fast food chain in mid-March in reference to COVID-19. Certain groups are disproportionately affected: members of African-American and Latinx communities, those experiencing poverty, those with compromised immune systems or other vulnerabilities, those in dense urban areas, those in rural areas without enough healthcare options or available testing, the elderly and those living in multi-generational homes, and frontline workers and their families (NAACP, 2020). 

Additionally, teaching online has given teachers a window into their students’ homes. Though this was certainly an unwelcome window, we can no longer turn a blind eye to the vast disparities in living conditions. We cannot continue to pretend school and home are separate. We also have to reconcile the fact that students’ home lives are not all the same. We cannot assume that differences are okay and that we should honor and celebrate all students’ home experiences. Should we really celebrate the home lives of the students who have to creatively engineer solutions to access clean drinking water or stop the leaking window? Instead, we must recognize that beyond the fact that they are different, they are unequal. As we move forward, we need to acknowledge that we did not experience this all the same way. Those who are more negatively affected are not at fault.

We must ask ourselves if we want to live in a society that is okay with vast socioeconomic differences, what role schooling plays in creating/sustaining such differences, and how we plan to enact change. While it is disappointing that it has taken a horrific pandemic to raise these concerns for many, let’s use this opportunity to dig deeper into how our society functions and what opportunities educators have to make a difference. Let’s stop, reflect, and do better.

Megan E. Lynch is a Ph.D. candidate in Curriculum and Supervision at Penn State University. She has over 10 years of experience teaching emergent bilinguals both abroad and in the United States. Situating herself in Marxist and Vygotskian scholarship, Megan’s current research interests are in developing a socially just pedagogy in teachers, primarily within the contexts of professional development schools, instructional supervision, and preservice teacher education.

References

Bastian, R. (2020, April 13). The societal inequities surfaced by a viral “what if” parenting post. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/rebekahbastian/2020/04/13/the-societal-inequities-surfaced-by-a-viral-what-if-parenting-post/#20a762c893a4

Bowles, S., & Gintis, H. (2011). Schooling in capitalist America: Educational reform and the contradictions of economic life. Chicago, IL: Haymarket Books.

Gorski, P. (2019). Avoiding racial equity detours. Educational Leadership, 76(7), 56.

Human Rights Watch (2020, May 12). Covid-19 fueling anti-Asian racism and xenophobia worldwide: National action plans needed to counter intolerance. https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/05/12/covid-19-fueling-anti-asian-racism-and-xenophobia-worldwide.

Mitchell, J. N. (2020, March 29). COVID-19 in Philly: City schools will spend $11M on ChromeBooks for students who don’t have computers. Pennsylvania Capital-Star. https://www.penncapital-star.com/covid-19/covid-19-in-philly-city-schools-will-spend-11m-on-chromebooks-for-students-who-dont-have-computers/.

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). (2020). Ten Equity Implications of the Coronavirus COVID-19 Outbreak in the United States. https://naacp.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Ten-Equity-Considerations-of-the-Coronavirus-COVID-19-Outbreak-in-the-United-States_Version-2.pdf.

Ragsdale, J. (2020). What if instead of behind these kids are ahead? [Blog Post]. https://www.altogethermostly.com/what-if-instead-of-behind-these-kids-are-ahead/.

Simmons, D. N., Brackett, M. A., & Adler, N. (2018). “Applying an equity lens to social, emotional, and academic development,” Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center, Pennsylvania State University

Strauss, V. (2020, April 24). An old story made new again: Why students of color are primed to be left behind in the coronavirus crisis. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/04/24/an-old-story-made-new-again-why-students-color-are-primed-be-left-behind-covid-19-crisis/.