ABSORBED BY EVERYDAY LIFE – STUDENTS’ EXPERIENCE OF THE CHANGING GRAMMAR OF SCHOOLING DURING THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

This paper reports the findings of the study of selected elements of grammar of schooling (temporal and spatial organization, learning interactions). The study presented in this article focuses on the experiences of 64 1st year pedagogy students’ who had learned in the coronavirus pandemic. The data were collected through questionnaire with open-ended questions about the changes students experienced due to the coronavirus pandemic in areas such as the organisation of space, the organisation of time, learning interactions, forms of work, as well as the expected consequences of the changes they are currently witnessing and the anticipated ‘return to normality’. The article presents the findings related to changes in three elements of the grammar of schooling: (1) spatial organization; (2) temporal organization; and (3) educational interactions. The results of the study indicate that students had to reorganize their space-time due to receiving the educational process from home. Students feel swallowed up by everyday life – the educational process has become one of many routine daily activities. They experience a changein privacy boundaries, which has consequences for other family members as well. Students’ relationships with teacher educators are still formal and centered around the content being taught. Relationships with peers have weakened considerably.

The dynamic tension at the core of the grammar of schooling

The American system of schooling has been remarkably resistant to change, with most changes coming in the form of tinkering around the edges. Large-scale reform that alters what David Tyack and Larry Cuban (1995) referred to as the “grammar of schooling” has tended to fizzle out. David Labaree suggests that the practices that are most likely to become part of this persistent grammar of schooling, such as the age-graded classroom, are those that align with schools’ social mission and that meet schools’ organizational needs. Those two elements of the grammar of schooling must remain in balance if reform is to succeed.

Educational Change by Design: Creating a School of the Future

This case study, framed within a school–university partnership, highlights the tensions inherent to employing design-based approaches for educational change. The case illustrates core tensions between an abductive, open-ended, design-based approach to change versus more traditional (deductive/inductive) approaches to managing change in schools. The design process serves as a way to break away from the traditional “grammar of schooling” (Tyack & Tobin) in a system unaccustomed to radical change. The case highlights the challenges of maintaining fidelity to the design process within a range of logistical and resources constraints, such as the time available to participants to engage in the process, and the difficulty of rapidly prototyping a new school model within an existing educational ecosystem. In the teaching notes, we recommend a theoretical lens and set of questions for educational leaders to reflect on as they consider approaches to educational change in their own settings.