THOSE WHO CAN, TEACH: REIMAGINING THE VALUE OF TEACHERS
EDDi XXIX (December 2020)
Guest Contribution By: Dr Sadie Hollins
As part of the last EDDi issue of the year I thought it was important to try and reflect upon some of the positive things I will take away from 2020, in what has been an otherwise incredibly difficult year.
At first, I’ll admit, I really struggled.
I thought about the Class of 2020 and 2021 and the uncertainty they are facing as a result of continual lockdowns in many university destinations around the world. I thought about the impact on students of the lost contact time with teachers, particularly those that don’t find school easy even under ‘normal’ circumstances.
I thought about how teachers around the world are being ‘squeezed’, whether that be due to the stress of classes being isolated at short notice, the demands of juggling face-to-face and online learning simultaneously, or the worry that accompanies a new COVID case in their school.
In the international sector, some teachers signed new contracts only to be told that their roles were no longer available, leaving them jobless and, in some cases, stranded by circumstances beyond their control.
All of these things signal the current and continual challenges placed upon teachers around the world.
The ongoing uncertainty, and experiencing so much ‘unknown’ that doesn’t seem to have a clear end date in sight, is scary. In spite of this, I believe, and hope, that the pandemic may be leading to a reimagining of the value of teachers, and an increase in the trust placed in them.
From classroom to Zoom room
At almost no notice, many teachers had to swap their classrooms, alter their ways of teaching and begin teaching students online (or at least with online provision playing a significant role). Professor Neil Selwyn commented in his article ‘How creative use of technology may have helped save schooling during the pandemic’ that at the time of writing in October it was estimated that half of the world’s schools remained closed. This poses a significant, and potentially damaging, disruption to the education of an entire generation of children.
However, rather than this imposed shift to online schooling signifying a move to digital learning being the most valuable learning, Professor Selwyn argued that the most compelling technology-lessons to emerge have been:
‘the informal, improvised, scrappy digital practices that have helped teachers, students and parents get through school at home.’
This has involved teachers reimagining different technologies to aid learning, ranging from the use of Tik Tok to create bite size chunks of learning, challenges or feedback, the use of Whatsapp in some countries where access to technology was limited, the innovative use of Zoom and it’s increasing number of functions to facilitate whole class instruction, small group discussion, and even end of unit examinations, as well as the explosion of Bitmoji classrooms as spaces where students can access resources and have daily check-ins with their teachers and classmates.
You only need to look at the growth of education support groups on social media sites such as Facebook, to witness the passion and drive of teachers determined to take on the challenge of online learning, and make it a truly meaningful experience for students.
In an extremely short space of time, teachers have had to become creative in using whatever technologies they already had to hand, and rapidly learn the use of new ones.
As if this didn’t create enough pressure, teachers have then had to couple delivering knowledge to students using unfamiliar platforms, with senior management ‘drop-ins’ and observations of digital classes, and increased parental involvement during the delivery of online schooling for younger students.
It’s not that I think parents (as a generalised group) haven’t historically valued teachers, but what I’m hoping has happened is a renewed appreciation of teachers and what they do.
I often think that our own experiences of school can significantly shape what we think teachers do, and parents particularly can be guilty of believing that teaching practice has remained the same since they left school, or passing on their biases to their children; ‘yeah he hates maths, but I was the same’.
I am in my early thirties and I truly feel that curriculum design, modes of delivery and the overall philosophy of teachers are unrecognisable from when I was at school. Sometimes I believe that this prior experience can significantly impact how parents view and frame their expectations of their children’s teachers, but teaching is not a fixed commodity and it is a field that is evolving all of the time. Take for instance, the relatively recent move to underpin what we do in the classroom and throughout schools with ‘trauma-informed pedagogy’ and the increased sensitivity to what our students can carry with them emotionally to school.
The historic U-turn on how GCSE and A-Level grades were awarded this summer from using the government’s standardisation model to teacher-assessed grades, was significant because for the first time, students, parents, school administrators and government ministers were forced to place their trust in teachers. Whilst I appreciate this method of evaluating grades isn’t without its problems, it further highlights the value of teachers and what they do - because they alone often truly know what the students they teach are capable of, and know how to get the best from them.
Whilst 2020 has been an extremely challenging year, I am hopeful that a re-valuing of teachers has occurred, and will continue to. Never have we had to work so hard, but we have all exceeded our own expectations. I don’t think we could be further removed from the old adage ‘those that can’t do, teach’. It’s about time to change this sentiment…
‘Those that can, TEACH!’
By Dr Sadie Hollins (views are author’s own)
SADIE HOLLINS - BIO
Dr Sadie Hollins currently works as a Head of Sixth Form at an International School in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Prior to working in international education she worked as a HE lecturer and researcher focusing sociological issues in sport.
After a decision to take a different life path, she moved to Chiang Mai, where she has been based for the past four years. During this time she has had the opportunity to work in a residential rehab facility, and as a school counselor. She is passionate about the concept of change and creating inclusive and aware schools for students, staff and parents. Â
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