Redefining Teachers' Roles

Unsurprisingly, the unusual circumstances of the pandemic have brought to light the need to appreciate the efforts of essential workers such as health care workers and teachers. As expressed in a 2020 UNESCO report, “Education in a Post Covid World: Nine Ideas for Public Action”, “Throughout this crisis many societies have begun to acknowledge the importance of a set of workers who have not always been properly appreciated. We have seen health care professionals appropriately recognized as frontline responders who place themselves at great risk for the good of all.… In many settings this has also been accompanied by an appreciation of the labour of teachers, particularly of their professional expertise and commitment.” The report brings to light how parents tracking their children’s learning at home have been sensitized to the complexity of teachers’ work.

Although some aspects of online teaching may not have worked perfectly, future teaching can take what did work, such as formative assessment and interaction by video or online teams, whether synchronous or not, and blend it with the best of what we had prior to the disruptions. The same UNESCO report praises teachers for going beyond the call of duty during the pandemic, creatively adapting to the situation. It rightly advocates that the spirit of exploration and experimentation “unleashed” during the pandemic should continue.

We have been compelled to redefine teaching and assessment. Teachers may become jugglers of face-to-face, blended, and “hybrid” teaching, to accommodate the circumstances of their institutions and their students. While you may teach in a physical classroom, some of your students may be online, hence the growing distinction between “blended” and “hybrid” teaching – terms that were used synonymously in the past. While blended teaching involves elements that are face to face complemented by elements that are online, one emerging definition of “hybrid” centers on the students – some being in class/ others being online.

 “Going to school” will never be the same again.