Confronting (de)humanizing remote teaching practices

Abstract

This colloquium discusses the critical need to reimagine human connections in the context of remote instruction necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Educators should envisage humanizing and caring teaching practices, and address the needs of the whole person, in order to counteract education inequities and empower students in times of disruption and opportunity.

I have supported students who have been evicted from their homes due to COVID. I have supported students with their mental health during COVID. Because of the massive challenges my students face, my CT [cooperating teacher] faces, and I face, it is impossible to stay on track with teaching all of the curriculum. (Eleventh-grade preservice teacher)

As expressed by one preservice teacher, the COVID-19 pandemic has challenged our normative conceptualization of teaching (Thompson et al., 2020). The pandemic-forced abrupt transition to remote instruction, for which most educators, families, and students were unprepared, swiftly and unexpectedly removed all boundaries between home and school. When the boundaries between students’ school experiences and their lived experiences become blurred, how can we establish and maintain human connections through a screen? What if the cameras are turned off? Educators are facing enormous challenges while also receiving opportunities to reimagine student–teacher connections to best support diverse students during this unprecedented time.

The COVID-19 crisis has disproportionately impacted vulnerable populations. Lack of access to technology, increased levels of loss, unstable residential status, food insecurity, increased rates of psychological and emotional distress, and detrimental health consequences have all affected students of color and those from resource-limited communities (Dorn et al., 2020; Mize and Glover, 2021). The limited access to childcare assistance became even worse for families living in poverty conditions (Malik et al., 2020). A recent Office of Head Start (2021) document shared that “almost one third of children served in Head Start programs before the pandemic—approximately 250,000—have not received any services to date.” ¹ Access to various learning prerequisites, such as devices and a stable Internet connection, is concerning in resource-constrained student communities (Reza, 2020). This point is echoed in a survey completed in December 2020 by preservice teachers in an initial teacher education program at a university in New Jersey, USA. For instance, one preservice teacher expressed the following:

COVID-19 made it difficult to teach remotely on several occasions. From connection issues and online services abruptly shutting down, many students did not have access to Internet or technology initially and many have to share spaces or technology with siblings. (Second-grade preservice teacher)

Another made the following remarks:

COVID-19 has hit my community that I am student-teaching in pretty bad . . . One student, I had to call the mom because she wasn’t showing up for class, and I had said, “Hello. Just checking to see if [child’s name] is okay!” The mother harshly told me that the teacher was aware that the student didn’t have “Internet that way” . . . It turns out that this family is homeless, which is why they do not have access to the Internet for their child. Another student eventually got taken out to “homeschool” because the mother couldn’t be there for the child . . . she had to get an additional job to pay for the Internet for school. This was after she already told the teacher a couple weeks before this that she had to pawn jewelry to pay for more Internet for remote learning. (Fifth-grade preservice teacher)

These survey responses from preservice teachers revealed the stark reality of, and exposed the risks faced by, resource-constrained students and their families during the remote instruction necessitated by the pandemic. During remote instruction, the use of Zoom (or other video-conferencing platforms) and a webcam has become the norm. The inevitable dilemma for educators of maintaining a connection with students (camera-on mode) while also ensuring that students have the option to maintain their privacy (camera-off mode) has emerged from this situation. Some argue that the “camera-on” mode is essential for restoring human connections and facilitating student engagement (Herman, 2020). Similarly, many preservice teachers shared their struggles in building relationships in a virtual setting where their students had become “invisible” by turning off their cameras. Also, they struggled to understand whether the students had understood the lessons due to the loss of visual cues. One second-grade preservice teacher commented the following: “Student engagement is definitely a challenge, especially since most do not have their cameras on. It is extremely difficult to identify which students are understanding and which students need more support without being able to read their body language.”

It is difficult to teach and converse with a collection of black boxes on a screen where only the students’ names are visible (camera-off mode). However, requiring students to turn on their cameras is culturally insensitive and inequitable, protecting white racial privileges (Finders and Muñoz, 2021). Key indicators of student engagement were found to be highly cultural even before the pandemic (Finders and Muñoz, 2021). According to studies, under-represented students are twice as likely to be concerned about their homes being visible, and might also have additional issues such as a low bandwidth or an unstable Internet connection (Finders and Muñoz, 2021; Terada, 2021). The concerning issue here is that school districts with a high proportion of students of color have a stricter “camera-required” policy than school districts with a majority of white students (Will, 2020).

We must confront perpetuated inequities and dehumanizing practices that marginalize students of color in schools (Bartolomé, 1994; Legette et al., 2020; del Carmen Salazar, 2013). We should recreate and reinvent teaching strategies and implement a more student-centered learning approach. Caring pedagogy should undergird educators’ roles by supporting and prioritizing students’ needs (Huerta, 2011; Noddings, 2012). Empathy and genuine care are the foundations of real human connections; therefore, offering different ways for students to demonstrate their engagement in a virtual classroom should be considered. Students can communicate in a variety of ways without using a webcam. For instance, one tenth-grade preservice teacher shared the following communication method: “Most students communicate using the chat on Webex.” Modifying learning materials and adapting learning can facilitate learner-focused virtual learning environments. This is demonstrated by the following comment:

I am in a preschool classroom with three-year-olds. Teaching virtually has been a challenge due to the fact that not all students have the materials or resources to participate in some of the lessons provided by the curriculum. I have learned how to modify lessons based on individual needs, as well as knowing what materials students do or do not have. (Preschool preservice teacher)

Integrating Zoom’s breakout rooms during remote instruction can help to foster human connections and engage students’ learning interests. Two preservice teachers expressed the following sentiments:

I learned a new way of getting to know my students and build community in a virtual setting. Each day, we had a question of the day as a way for me to get to know them. It was also to provide them with the opportunity to talk about things other than school and for the whole situation of remote learning and the pandemic not to feel as daunting. (Second-grade preservice teacher)

Our class does small groups in breakout rooms during every lesson, so I have gotten to work with the students more often and formed relationships with them through that. (Third-grade preservice teacher)

In an era of social distancing imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the inherent physical distance in remote instruction, I argue that educators should prioritize and enact humanizing and caring teaching practices. Drawn from Paulo Freire’s critical pedagogy, humanizing pedagogy contends the process of becoming more fully human for educators and students, and their collective pursuit of critical consciousness (Freire, 2018; Salazer, 2013). Dehumanization can take many forms in schools, from increasing neo-liberalism and standardization to deficit discriminatory approaches (Bartolomé, 1994; Legette et al., 2020). To counter (un)intended acts of dehumanization, educators should go beyond the prescribed curriculum and have a sociocultural consciousness, fully acknowledging and validating students’ lives and embracing the complexities and diversities existing in schools by humanizing teaching (Bartolomé, 1994). As one fourth-grade preservice teacher enunciated, remote instruction should place “more emphasis on meeting students’ needs rather than just trying to teach the curriculum.”

Humanizing pedagogy is deeply rooted in interpersonal relationships and thus correlates with caring practices. Caring is at the basis of all pedagogical relationships that foster respect, compassion, and trust among the carer (the person who gives care) and the cared for (the person who receives that care; Bartolomé, 1994; Huerta, 2011; Noddings, 2012). Humanizing and caring practices will enable educators to legitimize and value students’ interests and experiences, provide genuine care and compassion for students, understand the role of the emotions of the carer and the cared for, and ensure students’ overall well-being (Bartolomé, 1994; Noddings, 2012; Robinson et al., 2020). As a result, students from diverse backgrounds will feel seen and connected. During a time when our lives are disrupted, humanizing and caring teaching practices are now more critical than ever.