There Will Be No Post-Pandemic “Normal” for Teachers

Look out, you may have missed it. While we teachers have been working overtime to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve just agreed to yet another work speed-up.

We’ve been “stepping up” and “doing what it takes” to continue to provide educational services, even when there has been NO funding for PPE, sanitation, or the technology we’ve been expected to use. We’ve been working unpaid overtime to pivot the classrooms we’d spent years and often thousands of dollars of our own money to convert from desks and bare walls into vibrant learning spaces over to online instruction — sometimes literally overnight. We’ve “accommodated” parents’ demands to continue to provide in-person instruction — at the risk of our own health and lives — because some parents realized they couldn’t go without the free babysitting schools provide. At the same time, many teachers have simultaneously provided online instruction to accommodate the families and children who do not feel safe sending their children to school. They’ve further provided work packets for people who couldn’t access materials online, and provided asynchronous online options for students who couldn’t attend the class synchronously due to internet, work schedules, or family scheduling issues. All of these “accommodations” have required double, triple, or even quadruple the planning work. Then there has been the time spent troubleshooting glitchy internet systems (and students’ glitchy internet systems) with no tech support. After teaching both online and in-person, many teachers spend a second shift on planning, then a third shift on emails and phone calls to answer all the questions that come with 2–4 instructional formats, unreliable technology, and students who worked (or slept, or whatever) through the daytime class but then have questions in the evening — which means re-teaching the content to additional waves of students after we just spent a full day teaching.

Source: “Actual Footage of Teachers Getting Through 2020 Meme (May 9, 2020) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCsdJzrQftg

The result has been that teachers who were already stretched thin are now stretched past that. (Remember the halcyon days when we used to wonder what being stretched past that would look like?). Ten-hour work days have turned into fifteen-hour workdays — plus weekends.

We think that this is just temporary. That it will only be required during the pandemic. We rationalize the lack of assistance from the state or federal government, choosing to focus on what is in our locus of control instead of fixating on what the government does or doesn’t do — governments have been so unhelpful for so long that we’ve stopped expecting help a long time ago. We’ve figured that stepping up to help the country through an emergency is something we should all, as citizens, be willing to do. We keep hoping and waiting for the day when our contributions will be acknowledged and rewarded.

But there is no reason for us to think that relief will come, even once the pandemic gets resolved. Instead, it is more likely that people will expect that the services teachers have been providing during the pandemic will continue after the pandemic is over.

• Course management systems such as Google Classroom will go from being a tool for addressing the pandemic to an ongoing expectation. Now that students and families are used to being able to access all course materials online, they will continue to expect this. They will assume that all the extra work required to maintain these platforms is just part of what teachers do.
• People will continue to expect distance learning. If they could Zoom into class before, why should they have to stop after the pandemic is over? Prepare for the notes saying that Johnny has a tummy ache, or that it was too hard to get the kids to school today, so they’re just going to stay home and attend virtually today. They will assume that providing that option isn’t that hard, doesn’t take any extra time, and doesn’t come at a cost to the teacher or to the students in the classroom. But they will also be likely to complain if the teaching isn’t optimized for online options.
• Forget about deadlines. We now have a whole generation of students who are being taught that “flexibility” and “grace” are reasonable to expect at all times and for any reason. Be prepared to continue rolling deadlines, ongoing grading, and sending multiple notifications and having numerous conferences with students about missing or late work.
• Expect that we’ll be expected to continue “accommodating” everyone else’s various life situations or issues. People have learned that teachers can and should take the time and energy to “just work with” everyone else’s family plans, work schedules, physical health, mental health, doctor’s appointments, errands, etc. Now that the current situation has taught people that it’s no problem for teachers to do this (and not realized the toll doing so has actually taken on teachers) they will continue to expect this level of accommodation and personalization.

A lot of the above services are good pedagogy and really can benefit students and their families. But this is not a sustainable level of service for teachers to provide individually and independently. These services would really require 3–4 paid staff, rather than just one teacher. Teachers, more than anyone, would be delighted if they had a person who was paid to put all their materials online, and a tech support person available 12–15 hours a day to help with technical issues in their classrooms and with their students. Plus an additional aide who facilitated zoom and online instruction and who answered all the “how do I. . .?” and “Where is. . .?” questions that inevitably come along with online platforms and virtual instruction.

But the refrain of “there isn’t any money” that teachers have heard for decades will continue. Why should all the people who benefit from exploiting teachers — families, the state, taxpayers — change their expectations now that they know how much teachers are willing to do and how little funding is required to get them to do it? If teachers “made it work” during a pandemic, why won’t it seem reasonable to expect teachers to keep “making it work” after the pandemic is over? After all, getting teachers to work extra overtime for free is always a better and cheaper option than paying taxes to fund “essential” services. And now people know just how far they can go and how many demands they can make, and that teachers will — once again — suck it up and make it work.

So keep the pads on.

Source: “Teachers Trying to Get Through 2020 (Glass-breaking Football Meme). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NID511cm_qc