In This Spirit: Helping Preservice Teachers Thrive During the Pandemic Through Adaptation and Change

Journal of Catholic Education Volume 23 Issue 1 COVID-19 and Catholic Schools Article 11 9-2020 In This Spirit: Helping Preservice Teachers Thrive During the Pandemic Through Adaptation and Change Novea A. McIntosh Ed.D University of Dayton, Rochonda L. Nenonene Ph.D. University of Dayton, Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/ce Part of the Higher Education Commons, and the Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons Recommended Citation McIntosh, N. A., & Nenonene, R. L. (2020). In This Spirit: Helping Preservice Teachers Thrive During the Pandemic Through Adaptation and Change. Journal of Catholic Education, 23 (1). http://dx.doi.org/ 10.15365/joce.2301122020 This Article is brought to you for free with open access by the School of Education at Digital Commons at Loyola Marymount University and Loyola Law School. It has been accepted for publication in Journal of Catholic Education by the journal's editorial board and has been published on the web by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons at Loyola Marymount University and Loyola Law School. For more information about Digital Commons, please contact . To contact the editorial board of Journal of Catholic Education, please email . 162 Journal of Catholic Education / COVID-19 Special Issue In This Spirit: Helping Preservice Teachers Thrive During the Pandemic Through Adaptation and Change Novea A. McIntosh & Rochonda L. Nenonene University of Dayton “New times demand new methods,” William Joseph Chaminade. These words reflect the lived experiences of two faculty women of color, identified as Afro Caribbean and African American scholar practitioners in education at a Marianist university. We share our different narratives of the experience from the dual lens of social emotional learning and culturally responsive pedagogy with our classes and students as they thrived during a pandemic. Included in these narratives will be a discussion of the continued community building process, exploration of efforts to learn more about the teaching profession, social justice and advocacy as we learn about others, and challenges encountered in creating virtual learning environments, as spaces to express themselves and dig deeply into their experiences as preservice teachers. This essay gives voice to the work of two faculty of color who found their work more valuable and accessible to students during these tough times. Keywords Marianist Characteristics of Education, social justice, teacher education, culturally responsive teaching, social emotional learning T “New times demand new methods.” -William Joseph Chaminade. hese words reflect the lived experiences of two faculty women of color, identified as Afro Caribbean and African American scholar practitioners in education at a Marianist university. We accepted the mandate of the Marianist institution intent on preparing preservice teachers to meet the needs of all students. We are both culturally responsive educators whose teaching and research focus on providing access, opportunities and equity for all learners, particularly the underrepresented, marginalized and underserved. Hence, we are connected with our department’s mission to educate scholar practitioners who build community, engage in critical reflection, and embrace diversity for the promotion of social justice, as this truly aligns with our phiJournal of Catholic Education, Vol. 23, No. 1, Summer/Fall 2020, pp. 162-174. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 International License. https://doi.org/10.15365/joce.2301122020 Helping Preservice Teachers Thrive 163 losophies of teaching and provides a great premise for our research within the Marianist framework. Advocacy then, is at the heart of our work. The COVID pandemic upended education significantly. Not only did it shift our physical space but tested our abilities to adapt and change our practices to meet the needs of preservice teachers. This essay gives voice to the work of two faculty of color who found their work more valuable and accessible to students during these tough times. Our roles in our department are strategically aligned with students learning in the first year, with a social justice course, sophomore and junior years with a diversity course and senior year with student teaching and the urban teaching academy. Thus, when the pandemic occurred and we were all under quarantine, we had to create experiences for students that sustained the quality and high expectations of our program. We share our different narratives of the experience from the dual lens of social emotional learning and culturally responsive pedagogy with our classes and students as they thrived during a pandemic. Included in these narratives will be a discussion of the continued community building process, exploration of efforts to learn more about the teaching profession, social justice and advocacy as we learn about others, and challenges encountered in creating virtual learning environments, as spaces to express themselves and dig deeply into their experiences as preservice teachers. Teaching to Change the World and Then it Does When freshmen arrive on campus in the Fall and are welcomed into the department of teacher education, we introduce them to three essential questions: What does it mean to be a member of a community?; What does it mean to be a learner?; And what does it mean to be in the teaching profession? These three questions are grounded in the framework of the Marianist Characteristics of Education and provide a starting point in our program to connect teaching to social justice, advocacy and meeting the needs of all students. Among the five Marianist Characteristics of Education, to educate for adaptation and change is often viewed by the preservice teachers as complex to interpret and apply in an educational context. Frequently in conversation with first years, you can hear them wrestling with the multifaceted understandings and nuances associated with this characteristic. It is not unusual for the students to associate this characteristic with the straightforward interpretation of gaining knowledge and growing intellectually as one matriculates through a school curriculum. Yet, even more powerful is the conclusion 164 Journal of Catholic Education / COVID-19 Special Issue drawn by Hoffer (1956) when offering his analysis of education for adaptation and change. “A school ought to be continually revising its methods, bearing in mind the complexity and instability of the real world. The development of new circum-stances presupposes on the part of educators a calm affectivity and respectful hu-mility in the face of truth.” (p. 113). Hoffer’s conception of this characteristic provides a wider contextual lens to view the work of educators while also recognizing the need to tailor our responses and actions to the people whom we are serving, which is where we find ourselves during the (...truncated)