The COVID‐19 pandemic has upended the lives of working parents as they strive to meet the conflicting demands of childcare and professional obligations. While growing evidence suggests the extraordinary challenges to time and work brought by the pandemic, this article explores the pandemic as an opportunity for stillness and reflection, a personal and professional recalibration. Through a personal narrative describing my experiences as an academic and mother before and during the pandemic, framed within the ethics of care, this article brings light to the untenable reality of working mothers pre‐pandemic, explores the ways in which the pandemic has positively facilitated caring relationships at home as well as the reallocation of time and household responsibilities, and argues for policy and legislative action at the institutional and societal levels that support and value the care work of women and men alike.
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This study illuminates the experiences of K-12 educators as they strove to (re)build caring relationships with students during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study was conducted during a graduate course for experienced K-12 teachers in the spring of 2020 at a four-year comprehensive university in the United States. Data was collected from reflective learning journals and asynchronous peer discussions, which captured educators’ experiences as they transitioned to remote learning in real-time. Qualitative content analysis was used to identify pertinent themes. Findings suggest that remote learning revealed relationships in need of repair. Educators practiced authentic care and cultivated connectedness by 1) acting as warm demanders, 2) responding to students’ social-emotional needs, and 3) trying to bridge the digital divide. The article concludes with implications for practice and areas for future research as schools, districts, states, and countries consider the “new normal” in K-12 schooling.
Extensive research suggests that ideal worker and mothering expectations have long constrained academic mothers' personal and professional choices. This article explores how academic mothers experienced their dual roles amid the unprecedented shift in the work-life landscape due to COVID-19. Content analysis of questionnaire data (n = 141) suggests that academic mothers experienced significant bidirectional work-life conflict well into the fall of 2020. Increased home demands, such as caring for young children and remote schooling, interfered with their perceived capacity to meet ideal academic norms, including a singular focus on work, productivity standards, and their ability to signal job competency and commitment. Likewise, work demands reduced their perceived ability to meet ideal mothering norms, such as providing a nurturing presence and focusing on their children's achievement. Academic fathers experienced increased demands on their time but primarily described intrarole conflict within the work domain. Despite a pandemic landscape, ideal academic and mothering norms remained persistent and unchanged. The article concludes with implications for policy and practice in higher education.
In the United States, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, schools and testing centers were forced to close on-site locations. With teacher candidates no longer able to complete clinical teaching or take certification exams in person, states created new recommendations for facilitating a pathway to teacher certification. Specifically, 19 states provided guidelines that allowed educator preparation programs (EPPs) flexibility in how teacher candidates completed existing certification requirements. By analyzing summaries of these states' guidelines, themes of time, technology, flexibility/nonflexibility, and EPPs emerged. Using a comprehensive lens, this brief examines the role and implications of each of these themes in teacher certification during these unprecedented times.
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