The Covid-19 pandemic has piled pressure on those trying to continue children’s education in a global crisis.

From working out how to successfully host virtual lessons to deciding when to reopen schools, these challenges can be overwhelming for parents, educators and policymakers alike.

“If we focus on the safety, wellbeing and security of teachers, then the safety, wellbeing and security of children and their families improves immeasurably too”

To find some solutions, Apolitical spoke with Chris Henderson, an expert on teaching in crisis situations who co-chairs a working group at the Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE). Based at the University of Waikato in New Zealand, Henderson has supported education policy responses to crises around the world.

Covid-19 is like no other crisis, Henderson explained, because everyone around the world is in the same boat, meaning they cannot rely on external support. Even during the decimation of the Christchurch earthquake in 2011, he said, educators were comforted by the availability of support outside the city.

“It’s making teachers feel a lot less isolated, but at the same time feeling a lot more alone in their struggle,” he said.

In response, Henderson has five key lessons for teachers and policymakers to help them navigate the crisis.

1) Prioritise teacher wellbeing

Drawing on the experiences of colleagues working in crises, from sprawling refugee camps to natural disaster zones, Henderson said one of the biggest lessons was to prioritise the wellbeing of teachers.

“If we focus on the safety, wellbeing and security of teachers, then the safety, wellbeing and security of children and their families improves immeasurably too,” he said.

Multiple studies have demonstrated a positive impact of teacher wellbeing on child wellbeing and performance, Henderson pointed out in a recent online blog.

In the current crisis, he said, one improvement to wellbeing could be the way that teachers frame their situation. While acknowledging the challenges they face, such as stress and exhaustion, that means flipping the narrative of being victims to professionals thriving in difficult circumstances.

“Some of that language and some of that thinking at a time of crisis further exacerbates the trauma and fatigue of being a teacher,” he explained.

2) Keep it simple

Trying to cover too many different things with children can also “further exacerbate any negative outcomes that might already be present from the crisis,” Henderson said.

So many educational systems are guilty of a “broad and shallow approach,” he said, but it is much more valuable to focus “narrow and deep” while there are other important challenges to deal with, such as trauma.

Teachers and policymakers should look to help support parents’ basic pedagogical strategies in the home

Henderson also recommends teachers do not necessarily jump “straight back into the nuts and bolts of learning,” he said, but instead focus on aspects of children’s “psycho-social and social-emotional wellbeing” to help them feel less overwhelmed by the situation.

3) Focus on what you can control

A major issue teachers face is their “feeling of helplessness,” Henderson said.

To deal with this, “the main strategy is to actually feel like you’re creating something,” he said, “doing something that you’re in control of and that you can really see the benefits of on others.”

For example, he said in another blog post, teachers can visualise a new, perfect future state and set in place a strategy to get there. This is called “backwards mapping,” he said, and can help teachers regain a sense of agency.

Parents, meanwhile, are struggling to facilitate valuable learning with students without a teacher there, Henderson said.

In response, teachers and policymakers should look to help support parents’ basic pedagogical strategies in the home, he said, perhaps by mirroring professional development strategies which have been built for teachers in low-income settings, such as courses using SMS and WhatsApp.

4) Governments – listen to the experts

On a policy level, Henderson said, governments need to take the recommendations of teachers seriously. They are “the experts on child learning, child health and wellbeing,” he said, and governments should listen to them when making decisions like when to reopen schools.

Compared to policymaking on medicine or law, historically the voice and perspective of teachers “hasn’t been well-received or well-regarded,” he said.

"Parents and communities are seeing the skills of teachers and the science of learning in action”

And just like teachers, governments should be looking for potential innovations. “It’s just as important for policymakers to be in that mindset that this is an opportunity for change or an opportunity for making a difference,” Henderson said.

5) This is not a new normal

Finally, Henderson pointed out that the Covid-19 crisis should not be seen as a promotion for remote learning for children.

We might be able to remotely prepare young people for performing exams, he said, but “that’s an incredibly narrow view of what school and education actually is.”

Things like building relationships with teachers and problem-solving with peers are vital aspects of schooling, he said, while it is also a very small percentage of the world’s teachers and learners that can actually access online remote learning.

In fact, if any lesson is to be learned from the crisis, it is that “parents and communities are seeing the skills of teachers and the science of learning in action,” Henderson said.

“In the same way that we’ve really respected and responded to that public health expertise” in the crisis, he said, “we need to respond to education expertise.” — Jack Graham

(Picture credit: Unsplash)