Pandemic Pivots in Teacher Education: Creating and Sustaining the New Normal

Abstract

This article documents how one Teacher Preparation Program (TPP) at a medium-sized public university in the northeast responded to the needs of their urban partners during the global COVID-19 pandemic. The adaptation of this school-university partnership involved improving relationships where the TPP is more responsive to the needs of this urban school district. This article showcases how two colleagues created pandemic pivots in their graduate courses for in-service teachers. These pedagogical examples, or pandemic pivots, knit together technology and Social Emotional Learning (SEL) and create a more inclusive and more equitable new normal. Moreover, these pandemic pivots leverage programmatic mechanisms to sustain this new normal. The sustainability and success of this partnership makes use of stakeholder feedback loops which are both programmatic and interpersonal. Through institutionalizing these feedback loops, we create programmatic sustainability with the ability to dynamically meet the needs of our partners. The integration of SEL and technology pedagogical practices illustrated here are the result of programmatic structural changes driven by the voice of our partners, showcasing the design of our TPP.