Estimated reading time: 9 minutes, 6 seconds
Someone asked me on Twitter if I had an updated version of my
Pedagogy of Care Gone Massive article on Hybrid Pedagogy for COVID-19 times. I didn’t have a particular update to the particular points in the article, but I have written updated thoughts on care in general and what I think priorities should be during this crisis. I think this article on
Literacies Teachers Need During COVID-19 is a good overview, but I should go deeper, shouldn’t I?I think
care can occur on many different levels.
You can care on
the course philosophy and design level: how is your course design welcoming to diverse students and shows your genuine care for them? (Keep in mind there are
forms of care that are instrumentalist, calculated or neoliberal – where a teacher “shows” care to ensure student success or to motivate them. This is important, too. But I think genuine love and care for students is the thing most of us already carry inside of us and need to express now more than ever). No matter what size of class you teach, creating spaces where students can support each other socioemotionally is REALLY important. I
talk about this more with Dave Cormier in this video.- You can show care at the class situation level. By how you make yourself vulnerable and share of yourself (authenticity and openness literacy) whether in a Zoom call, recorded video, or note on Slack. This helps students relate to you more, because you are being fully human and they can be, too. You can show care by modifying your class session to discuss topics stressing students instead of carrying on as if nothing is happening. Conversely, you may ask your students if they’d rather be *distracted* from the current crisis and do something else. I have done a combo of these, including sometimes dividing class into two groups and meeting each group for half the class time… so that no one ends up listening to a conversation they didn’t want to hear about.
- You can show care in habitual ways, like always asking students at start of class how they’re feeling, or checking in with them between classes on Slack
- You can show care at the personal level by ensuring students are able to reach you privately
First of all – note that in the article above, I mention a group of things like wellbeing/care literacy and humanizing/authenticity literacy. I also mention socioemotional digital literacy and equity literacy and openness literacy… so all that actually factors into care somewhat, doesn’t it? E.g. equity is about caring to look deeply into possible inequities in your class and amongst your students, and seeking to rectify whatever is causing the inequity, or find ways to address them in your course if you cannot rectify (e.g. if you can’t get better internet for a student, ensure you do low bandwidth asynchronous work or at least options) . One of the most empowering ways to redress injustice is to put power of decision making in the hands of those farthest from justice, but ensure they have enough knowledge and tools to make a well-informed choice, and know how much leeway they have to design their own path. E.g. don’t assume what support a single parent would need to do well in your course. Ask them or give them options to choose from.Trauma-informed pedagogy is particularly important during COVID-19 times, obviously because everyone is living through a crisis, but even outside crises, we know many of our students are living through some trauma, like depression, anxiety, learning difficulties like ADHD, domestic abuse, economic problems, loss of a loved one, love life trouble 🙃 or anything else. They may or may not tell us about these things. Because of the pandemic, we know many of our students will be going through some of these. See these
COVID-19 Diaries by my student Omar Cherif capturing multiple student viewpoints.I also have a half-written post on
creating intimacy online… so I will share that below.My original post about pedagogies of care tells a story of a hug and how we cannot hug online. We also cannot make “true” eye contact online (and it’s a skill to mimic it by looking at the camera… but when you look at the camera you’re not looking at the other person on your screen.. so you SEEM to be looking at them when ur not. Depends where they appear on your screen). The other thing you can’t share online is a meal… but you can mimic that with coffee hour or tea time or such.But hey. Remember that book, the
Five Languages of Love? Physical touch is only ONE way to show love. It’s difficult to explain this to kids/grandmas and how lack of hugs messes their dynamic… but we know we can show care in other ways. Gift giving (digital e.g. memes and fun videos or cards or delivered physically), giving of our time to spend talking on phone or video conference, doing service for each other (like buying groceries for elderly, like extending deadlines for students). And of course, we can show care with words. And I know not all of us are as good with our words. But whatever words you have to show care for students, find ways to get them across. In writing or orally. Whatever allows you to express it best.I realized towards the end of the semester that all the care I was giving to students and faculty at my institution was wearing on me, it was so much affective labor, and I still had my own family to care for…. but I also saw it all reciprocated when faculty called to check on me and my students showed me love in so many moments and forgave me for lateness in sending in grades.In my original article, I talk about the following steps for care:
First of all, I had to know about this student’s situation, because she had shared with me; I had to empathize with how it would make her feel, I had to imagine her reaction, and respond in a certain way, and I had to be ready to hug her. Nel Noddings calls this attentive and receptive “engrossment” of a carer towards others. It also requires action from the cared-for to affirm they feel cared-for.
To do this online, it would be something like
- Take time to know your students, face and name, individually or in small groups if the numbers allow it. If numbers are huge, ensure there are spaces where they can support each other, and when someone is struggling focus on them as a whole person. It’s the difference between caring for ALL your students vs caring for EVERY student. That second is so important. And so hard.
- Create a hospitable environment and open relationship that makes it easier for students to share with you. As bell hooks would say, we need to make ourselves vulnerable before asking our students to be.. and still, we need to accept that they might choose not to. E.g. I let my kid appear on Zoom calls sometimes (“let” is an exaggeration. I can’t help it so I go with the flow). I understand not all people would feel sufficiently professional to do so. But if you do, it makes you more human to others and allows them to let down their guard. But equally, I never expect everyone to turn on their cameras and recognize there can be all kinds of reasons why someone would choose not to do that. This semester most of the time students wanted their cameras off. I learned to distinguish their voices well!
- Empathize/imagine. I don’t think empathizing online is much harder than in person… as long as you approach the situation as a human interacting with other humans. Sometimes I am thankful that I am beyond my usual stoicism and am feeling vulnerable, anxious, worried right now and seeing impact on my wellbeing, my family’s, my colleagues. This helps me empathize with students and imagine how those with preexisting depression and anxiety must be taking it harder. Even the strongest of them struggled with time management or stress over social isolation or worrying for loved one’s health or just daily decisions to risk going out or stay home.
- Respond. No hugs allowed. No clap on the back. But so much more in the other love languages, like taking time to listen and finding ways to help out. Preempting care – e.g. one time, before universities closed, we had an extra day off due to weather and i met my students on Zoom so they could experience this in case we closed. We closed 3 days later. They were grateful they had that experience before everything went to Zoom. I expected time management challenges so I gave students options, as their first assignment back, to either go through a module about learning online, or a time management for online learning chapter. It made all the difference. When my university was considering online proctoring, we spent time as a class discussing it on Slack and our first Zoom session after that, I switched up the lesson “plan” to discussing this article by Shea Swauger about the ethical implications of proctoring/surveillance.
And it may take a while to feel the impact of your care, but you’ll get it, eventually. By the way, some people have said they got student evaluations complaining they spent too much time talking about covid in class. I understand students who need a break from this (see comments on it above). But I also think people who chose to talk about it, especially within the frame of their discipline and/or to just check on student wellbeing did the right thing, regardless. It may not be good to force students to discuss the trauma, if they don’t want to, but it seems worse not to ACKNOWLEDGE the trauma and keep going as if nothing was happening around us. That seems irresponsible and insensitive to me personally. Even people who teach math and engineering have found ways to connect with students via jokes and memes outside class time, and others have found ways of integrate covid into their courses. When you care and you give yourself freedom, you find ways.Before I go, I saw these really cool images on Twitter about equity, equality, justice. Take a look:
Added later: Thanks to @edtechsinfo for keeping me honest by getting the image origin at https://t.co/7fhWTH7pOy by @lunchbreath from the original book https://t.co/2nZ3kkaM9M by Shel Silverstein.
Added later. I came across the
Equity Rubric from Peralta community college (still going to explore it).I also use particular WhatsApp sticker hug emojis that I wanted to share! I may make them into a GIF!
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Thanks for sharing this. It’s an interesting read particularly in light of COVID. Some great pragmatic suggestions which I always appreciate!
Thanks for sharing some sanity. (I need more sanity!) I like that you focus on the importance of private spaces and not needing video. The video has been bothering me less, but realized today that it’s because I’ve been burying the video under a pile of tabs & ignoring it.
Glad this resonated!! The video thing drives me nuts, and I,say this as co-founder of Virtually Connecting. @rjhogue and I had never met on video before VC and we were EXTREMELY close to each other.
Thanks! I was quite hesitant to bring the love languages into it, but it felt like the right model to bring in. Thanks for validating that.💕
I am glad you did
Teaching is an exchange isn’t it , it is very human
And we care for our students,
Older or younger, in ways the community around them may not. But we cannot teach in a vacuum that ignores human issues that need care such as grief or fear
Maha this is excellent!
So many good points such as this one:
One of the most empowering ways to redress injustice is to put power of decision making in the hands of those farthest from justice, but ensure they have enough knowledge and tools to make a well-informed choice
This is really interesting thank you
I really love how you mention love languages and vulnerability
I think education has so many very excellent people who are weighed down by tests and targets. If we allow them to focus on learners, on relationships and trust and respect, it would change things
looking for refs around care so this couldn’t be more timely
thanks for this Maha – particularly useful for me today
Thank you for this! I have been sharing the original a lot recently; it really resonates right now. (And always).
Thank you. Glad both resonate and are helpful. 💕
Yup. I “telecommuted” for years by phone, text & email. On top of everything else about video, when voice only over phone, we didn’t have a lag so convos were easier. I had a VoIP phone and I really miss that thing right now – Not sure why it was sooo much better. Do you know?
Some aspects of care, which I would argue can be practiced both online and off. From Maha Bali (quoted):
Take time to know your students, face and name, individually or in small groups if the numbers allow it.
Create a hospitable environment and open relationship that makes it easier for students to share with you.
Empathize with students and imagine how those with preexisting depression and anxiety must be taking it harder.
Respond. … taking time to listen and finding ways to help out.
All of these are ways to behave better generally, not just as teachers, and all of these should characterize our online behaviour perhaps even more than offline.
Thanks for sharing practical ideas. Text and email dont not work. I’m gonna try Zoom care
You make excellent points and suggestions here. It supports one of my own insights: teachers who ignore what is happening with students affectively, will find they’re not reaching them cognitively either.
I find this very useful Maha. Thanks for sharing!
This is an inspiring read. I particularly liked the distinction you made between caring for all and caring for every student.
Much love for this update, Maha! BTW, did you see the OG of that equality/equity/justice meme? It’s a fascinating read in its own right, and @CRA1G is a great, friendly, & supportive Twitter colleague, too:
medium.com/@CRA1G/the-evo…
Visually, this is very powerful!
This is a wonderful post! Thanks for sharing it 🙂
It is, thanks @Bali_Maha So many takeaways!
I was deeply inspired by this article. Due to the COVID-19 epidemic, online classes have become more and more common. We have been accustomed to face-to-face lectures before, and we are still in the groping stage in the field of online classes.
I think there is a point in the article that is very important. It is easy to overlook the psychological condition of students when teaching online, and it is difficult to take care of everyone’s feelings. This is a major drawback compared with face-to-face instruction. , This point will be what we should focus on in the future.
I think that with the development of technology, online courses will be better developed. We should try our best to integrate all the advantages of face-to-face teaching and develop some excellent features that are not available in face-to-face teaching. For example, course videos can be watched at any time, and extended materials are more easy to get…
Thank you for sharing this profound and meaningful artical for us. I was taught a lot from it. Almost every point you considered is deserved to study. I am always thinking it is so difficult for kids(primary school students) to adapt VLE. But now I am on the fence about it because of the importance of the teaching of the educators. Thank you so much.
You’re welcome.
A lot has changed in WordPress since that theme was last updated.
Look esp at the article on neoliberal, calculated and critical care?
Thanks Maha for this insightful article. I’m planning on using Pedagogy of care as a framework to design discussion guidelines in my class:) You make a very good point here: “keep in mind there are forms of care that are instrumentalist, calculated or neoliberal”, I will be thinking about this, thanks for sharing the article…