Loneliness through the lens of Black feminist love-politics: pedagogical practices amid pandemic online learning

Purpose Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, including contact restrictions and the switch to virtual classes, loneliness has become a pressing concern for college students and their learning. This study aims to interrogate current discussions about college student loneliness through the lens of Black feminist love-politics to reimagine online pedagogical practices. Design/methodology/approach Using a broad literature base and anecdotes from personal teaching experiences, the authors contend that Black Feminist perspectives on love, care and solidarity can illuminate the sociopolitical dimensions of loneliness in pedagogically productive ways. Findings The authors explore various pedagogical practices that are inspired by Black feminist approaches that aim to promote solidarity, love and care in either virtual or in-person classrooms. These pedagogical suggestions result from the authors’ teaching experiences amid online learning and current literature in education. Practical implications The authors seek to support educators’ understanding of the most pervasive yet misunderstood emotional experiences of student learning amid the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper explores strategies for addressing feelings of loneliness within online learning-related contexts in higher education. This discussion will be particularly relevant for educators and students from historically marginalized populations. Originality/value This work focuses on the plight of community college students, a demographic that has not garnered enough attention in the educational research concerning this pandemic. In addition, this paper offers an account of loneliness that aligns with the political and ideological crisis of today and places it in conversation with Black feminist thought.

Compassion: the legacy of the pandemic in rural schools and communities

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how rural schools and communities responded to the COVID-19 pandemic through compassionate care. Design/methodology/approach This paper provides “compassion narratives” (Frost et al., 2006, p. 851) from five educators (i.e. the authors) working and/or living in rural communities. Each narrative describes how compassion was witnessed and experienced from various professional positions (which include classroom teacher; building-level leader; district-level leader; special services director and school psychologist; and assistant professor of educational leadership). Findings The compassion narratives described in this paper demonstrate how various organizations and communities responded to COVID-19 through compassionate care. They also provide a lens for considering how rural schools and communities might sustain compassion in a post-pandemic world. Originality/value This paper extends disciplinary knowledge by considering the healing, transformative power of compassion within rural schools and communities – not just in response to COVID-19 but in response to all future adversities.

Lessons from the COVID epicenter: how teacher candidates of color and the academy adapted to remote instruction

Purpose Given the challenges of remote learning and the pandemic’s disproportionate impact on communities of color, this paper aims to present the voices of teacher candidates of color working on the frontlines of remote learning in communities of color hard-hit by the pandemic and to understand changes made in the shift to remote instruction for teacher education at the university level. Design/methodology/approach Two teacher candidate narratives are presented as case studies along with findings from a self-study on the changes necessitated by remote instruction in two teacher preparation courses at the university level. Findings Findings underscore teacher candidates’ fortitude amidst compound stress. Emergent themes included flexibility, adapting, reaching out for help, problem-solving and drawing on their own experiences. Themes also included struggle, fatigue and feelings of incompetence. At the university level, teacher education preparation required flexibility and opening up space for collaborative problem-solving. Originality In urban communities of color, pre-pandemic disparities in under-resourced public schools not only persisted but were intensified by the pandemic’s unequal impact on people of color. This study foregrounds the voices and experiences of teacher candidates of color teaching remotely, providing contributions to the field derived from their lived experiences. Their voices are essential data, bringing much needed attention to obstacles of remote teaching in communities of color and to the resourcefulness teacher candidates demonstrated in service of multicultural education.

Teachers as change agents: social justice theory to practice

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate how participation in a multicultural literature course impacted K-12th classroom teachers’ social justice pedagogy and classroom practices one to three years after completion of the course. Design/methodology/approach This study investigated the effectiveness on teacher practices of a graduate literacy course, which was redesigned within a framework of social justice pedagogy by focusing on critical analysis of texts, teacher inquiry and a literacy civic engagement project. The authors interviewed 20 teachers one to three years after they enrolled in this multicultural children and young adults’ literature course. The authors also explored their classrooms and kept a researcher’s reflective journal. Findings The authors describe how participants implemented social justice pedagogy and strategies with their K-12th grade students. Originality/value While many studies look at how teacher education programs integrate social justice education into their programs, few researchers follow their students into the K-12 classrooms to investigate if teachers are connecting higher education course work and theory into practice.

Understanding social justice commitment and pedagogical advantage of teachers with a migrant background in Switzerland: a qualitative study

Purpose This study aims to understand the social justice commitment and the pedagogical advantage of teachers with a migrant background in Switzerland. Through semi-directive interviews with four of them, the research team analyses how these teachers use their background as a resource in their teaching practices. Linking their personal life experiences related to migration and schooling and their professional identity, results show that their history influences their teaching practices but moreover their commitment to social justice within school. Design/methodology/approach For this study, the authors conducted four semi-directive interviews with teachers with a migrant background. The research team transcribed all the interviews and analyzed them through Nvivo software. The analytical process followed the logic of content analysis as developed by Miles and Huberman (2003). The research team used several layers of categories and codes to produce a deeper understanding of the data. On this basis, the authors refined their categories and codes and created research memoranda including all the information to establish the profile of each teacher interviewed. Findings This study’s data showed that “teachers with a migrant background” is a broad category of individuals, all entering the teaching profession with their own life experiences, their own relation to diversity and their own personal background. It also showed that teachers with a migrant background seem committed to social justice in different ways. This relates to Mantel’s study (2021) that established three types of teachers with a migrant background. All of them developing a different pattern of commitment to social justice. Originality/value This study aimed at understanding teachers with a migrant background’s social justice commitment and pedagogical advantage in Switzerland (Canton of Geneva). If this field has been developed in North America, it is not well studied in Switzerland. Yet, the number of teachers with a migrant background is important in some part of the country and might be increasing in the next years. Exploring their potential is therefore a matter of representation and legitimation.

“Until they fit in.” Maltese educators’ practices and attitudes towards migrant students in middle and secondary schools

Purpose This paper aims to explore the attitudes of Maltese educators towards migrant students and how these attitudes impinge on their practices. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative approach, informed by critical theory, was taken to conduct this study. Nineteen middle and secondary school educators were recruited through snowball sampling. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect the data. Critical discourse analysis was used to analyze the data. Findings The presence of migrant students in schools has caught the Maltese education system unprepared. As yet there are no policies to guide educators on practices that would enhance migrant students’ sense of belonging. This paper shows how many of the educators engaged in exclusionary practices and argued that migrant students had to fit in within the present education system. While the language barrier was the greatest bone of contention, the presence of non-Catholic students was also seen as problematic. However, one could also observe accommodating practices and there were educators who embraced this diversity and implemented inclusive practices whenever possible. Originality/value This study, locally new in its field, highlights the need for adequate training both in terms of pedagogies and methodologies that are inclusive, as well as professional development that targets the intellectual growth of educators in terms of exposure to sociological and philosophical theories, to become more conscious of the political implications of their actions and hopefully strive to create a more equitable educational experience for their students.

Self-efficacy is a story: teachers’ possible selves in a pandemic world

Purpose A The purpose of this study was to better understand how teachers find agency in challenging circumstances. The authors sought to investigate this by examining the developing self-efficacy beliefs of teachers over time. Design/methodology/approach A longitudinal multi-case study methodology is used to investigate the stories of three new teachers over a two-year period spanning the onset of the pandemic. Narrative and thematic analysis was used to identify themes and trends. This was supplemented by teacher self-efficacy survey responses. Findings Teacher self-efficacy is a story that teachers build as they find what is possible. This story is informed by shifting conceptions of possible future selves as teachers interpret the challenges around them. These mutually reinforcing and fluid narratives shape teachers’ developing identities as they find agency during a changing reality. Originality/value Qualitative and case studies of self-efficacy are rare. Our study explores the context and thinking behind individual teacher beliefs at the time of a global pandemic. We offer a unique look at how teachers make sense of agency and possibilities under conditions of change.

Legacies of the COVID-19 pandemic for language education: Focusing on institutes managers’ lived experiences

Purpose This paper aims to compare the use of technology in language institutes before and amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Then, the authors illustrate the legacies of the COVID-19 pandemic for language institutes from the managers’ perspective. Design/methodology/approach In the current study, the authors went through a systematic process of collecting qualitative data, discovering sub-categories, forming categories out of them and explaining the topic under investigation using selected categories. Findings The findings showed that the use of technology has dramatically changed from limited usage for administrative purposes and computer-assisted language learning to building the future of an institute based on online education. Also, the health and education pandemics had positive legacies for language education in making a decision to move to fully online education for having a more sustainable organization, solving the potential problems of an organization with collaboration and cooperation between the managers and employees based on integrity, developing teachers’ knowledge, literacy and skills which lead to the best practices in online language teaching and shifting to flexible schedule based on the students’ needs and timetable which increases the accessibility of language education. Originality/value Based on the review, none of the previous research focused on the critical role of managers in language institutes facing the pandemic. Thus, the relationship between managerial decisions in technology integration, readiness for transformation and moving to online language education is still vague.

The impact of COVID-19 on teachers' mental health

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine teachers’ experiences with mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. Design/methodology/approach The authors administered an online survey to full-time public school teachers simultaneously enrolled in a master’s degree program in education. Out of 455 teachers who were sent the survey, 96 completed it, resulting in a 21.1% survey completion rate. The survey was composed of both quantitative and qualitative items which assessed teachers’ self-perceptions about their mental health before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as their use of mental health resources. Most questions were drawn from the Patient Health Questionnaire-4 (PHQ-4), so focused primarily on symptoms of depression and anxiety. Findings The results of the survey indicated that overall, teachers felt an increase in symptoms of anxiety and depression between March 2020 and February 2021. A noteworthy percentage of participants said they were seeking mental health supports. Research limitations/implications This study was conducted with teachers in an alternative certification program, so their experiences might not be widely generalizable to teachers enrolled in traditional pathways to certification. Originality/value While some research has been conducted on mental health, less has been conducted with public school teachers and even less has assessed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to add to the existing literature about teachers' experiences with anxiety and depression, as well as the specific impact of COVID-19.

Are school leaders culturally intelligent? Validation of the cultural intelligence (CQ) scale in the UAE

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to report results of testing and validation of the cultural intelligence (CQ) Scale in a new location, the culturally diverse United Arab Emirates (UAE) and in a new sector: public and private school leaders. Design/methodology/approach This study surveys 167 school leaders from public and private schools in the UAE using the 20-item version of the CQ Scale, which uses a seven-point Likert response scale of strongly agree to strongly disagree. An examination of the dimensionality of the 20 items was conducted using both principal components analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. Demographics were also gathered. Findings Results from testing and validation of the scale indicated a high level of CQ among school leaders in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. An examination of the dimensionality of the 20 items showed them to fall into the same structure of four sub-components as conceptually conceived: knowledge, strategy, motivation and behaviour. The mean scores for the four components of CQ in this study indicate high CQ amongst Abu Dhabi school leaders, although the knowledge dimension measured slightly lower. The results confirm previous research that found CQ to be higher in culturally diverse settings, which, according to socio-demographic details gathered in the study applies to the UAE. Originality/value This is the first known study to test the Cultural Intelligence Scale in UAE schools. It answers the call from the CQ Scale developers to validate the scale in diverse contexts.