Prioritizing "Community-first" in Teaching During Crisis

In response to the 2016 election of Donald Trump many of my professors responded with emails and in-class listening sessions to acknowledge the impact the results would have upon Black, Indigenous, People of Color, survivors of sexual assault, immigrants, women, and LBTQIA+ students in the program. Throughout his campaign trail, Trump normalized discriminatory rhetoric focused on blaming “others” without acknowledging his commitment to all people in the United States. My professors were clear in their commitment to student-centered learning and social justice by clearing their lesson plans to make space for students’ reactions on the recent election.

In March 2020, the pandemic lockdown began causing isolation, financial hardship, death, and continued hate crimes in the United States. I am a 2nd year Ph.D. student teaching undergraduate leadership courses. I occupy the shoes my professors were in during 2016—I must choose between response to national events or conducting business-as-usual in the classroom.

Creating curriculum and lesson planning is hard, but during the pandemic, I realized adaptation is necessary, but often untaught to educators. In the words of my mentor, Dr. OiYan Poon, in her book Difficult Subjects (2018) “when shit hits the fan, what do you do with the lesson plan?" (p. 1) The following is my encounter of failing, feedback, and creating using a community-first model of curriculum development during 2020-2021.

My Failure: Learning on normalcy as an anxiety response

One main responsibility of educators is to evaluate our students. The leadership course I teach is a Pass/Fail course. When I entered this role, I associated failure grades and classroom performance, rather than focusing on students’ growth.

When Michigan State University pivoted to emergency remote learning, I quickly saw how my students were experiencing personal hardship beyond my control. I first attempted to stabilize a sense of normalcy through hyper-vigilant communication on expectations and deadlines so students could plan for their course despite the unexpected changes around them.

Welcome feedback and acknowledge mistakes.

Despite my assumptions that structure and routine were needed, several students were failing in the class. One student reached emailed me about her concern that despite the pandemic, my expectations of students and course remained the same. While I was gracious in extending deadlines, the student believed moving forward without recognition of the pandemic was unhelpful. The student shared that given the class was about leadership, she expected more from me to set a “new normal” rather than continuing with “business as usual.” To clarify, this student was not failing the course. However, she felt the need to voice her concerns knowing the impact it would have upon her classmates with whom she had developed a strong bond. She had insider knowledge about students’ lives and concerns that I did not. I was deeply grateful for her honesty and willingness to advocate on behalf of her classmates.

image credit: Surla, Kristen (2021). Maker and innovator [infographic].

Creating

After receiving the student’s feedback, I re-created an alternative assignment for the final project and simplified the remaining course. After reflecting on my own values, I leaned on the concept of “student-centered” learning to justify the changes. In an unprecedented time for everyone, it was necessary to adjust my curriculum to balance the new contextual challenges and the overall topic of the course.

In my role as an educator, I emphasize a “community-first” model of leadership. For me, a “community-first” response starts with context—their identities, access to resources, knowledge, and experiences. Recalling Papert’s (Ackermann, 2011) idea of constructionism, it was imperative for me to demonstrate that myself and students had to construct, revise, and make a new plan to receive the most benefit from their learning. Similar to my professors who had adapted their syllabi to allow students to process the 2016 presidential election, I too had to respond.

The changes were well-received by the class and in our final reflection, we collectively reflected on the pragmatism of the assignment. Students wrote about the uncomfortable and difficult decisions they had to make about their families, school, and work during the pandemic. Through these reflections, they destabilized the idea of “positional leadership” and instead began to see themselves as people actively leading in their own communities. Although I abandoned my original plan, the goals of the class were met: students saw themselves as leaders, advocated for their needs, and brought forth ideas of needed resources in their communities.

References

Ackermann, E. (2001). Piaget's constructivism, Papert's constructionism: What's the difference. Future of Learning Group Publication, 5(3), 1-11, doi:10.1.1.132.4253

Ahad-Legardy, B., & In Poon, O. Y. (2018). Difficult subjects: Insights and strategies for teaching about race, sexuality, and gender. Stylus Publishing.

Poole-Boykin, C. (2016, October 23). 25 percent of college students report stress over 2016 presidential election: Study. ÂBC News. https://abcnews.go.com/Health/25-percent-college-students-report-stress-2016-presidential/story?id=58686767