Research From a Distance

Author: Johnathan McCausland

I still remember walking back to my hotel room in Miami to calm myself down. It was the beginning of March. I was supposed to be facilitating a workshop, but instead, I found myself stressing about my dissertation. Penn State had just sent a notification that classes would be remote until April due to the COVID-19 pandemic (at the time I naively believed we would go back to “normal” in April). As I stood in my hotel room, I thought, “How am I going to finish my dissertation now? My plan is ruined.” 

Before I go further, I have a quick aside. Knowing that other folks have had and are having similar (and different) experiences, this post is my story in continuing to complete my dissertation and teach during COVID-19. Throughout the post, you will see links to resources that helped me solve particular challenges/moments. For example, two articles, one by Dr. Manali Sheth and another by Dr. Daniel Morales-Doyle were helpful in thinking about my project broadly. 

So, to return to my story with me panicking in a hotel room…

While I will admit my reaction was fairly dramatic, the dissertation process is difficult enough without having to compete with a pandemic. In fact, by March, I was already three months into my data collection. I had plans to document the experiences of 17 preservice teachers within Penn State’s secondary science methods sequence. I wanted to understand, broadly, how white preservice teachers learn anti-racist science teaching during their time in the program. This meant I would be collected data in two methods courses, SCIED 411 and SCIED 412, and a field experience. I collected video and audio data, documents from their work in and outside of class, writing field notes, and I kept reflection memos. The news about COVID-19 did not necessarily change this plan, but it required me to adapt to meet the requirements of our new, socially distanced reality.

To make the proper adaptations, I decided to focus on SCIED 411 first because I was currently teaching the course and it was most urgent. I needed to figure out two things, how to continue collecting data and adapt SCIED 411 to work in a remote setting. In truth, the data collection was fairly straightforward. Instead of collecting video and audio data with cameras and digital audio recorders, I used Zoom’s recording features. I was also able to use Otter.ai to help in some of my future transcription needs by syncing Otter with Zoom. The only hiccup was that I could not record discussions in breakout rooms. To solve this, I asked my preservice teachers to record their discussions and I created a cloud-based folder (e.g. Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive, Box, etc.) that they could upload the recordings to. Realizing this took time, I ended class a few minutes early or started the following class late to give them time to upload. Now it has become a running joke that I “nag” them to record “everything” and upload recordings constantly. For the in-class documents, I began using Google Docs/Slides and similar software (e.g. Padlet, Jamboard, NearPod, Pear Deck, etc.) instead of whiteboards. Other tools like Remind, Loom, Slack, Flipgrid, Kaizena, Desmos, and AWW have also been helpful to me in various capacities. In fact, these tools have allowed for more in-depth analysis because I can look at the edit history rather than only having the final version. 

Once April arrived and the pandemic had not abated, the preservice teachers in my class were exhausted and scared. They had little bandwidth to continue the break-neck pace I had set forth for them. Knowing they needed space to process, I changed plans for a class and allowed our check-in to take our entire time together. This led me to change my plans again because I needed to be responsive to the needs of my students. They needed relief and compassion. They needed time for self-care. To meet these needs, I decided to remove anything from the course that was not salient to my design for SCIED 411. I did this because if my conjectures were correct, the preservice teachers would still learn and they would be able to focus on taking care of themselves and their loved ones. With all this said, many of the same things I did previously pedagogically were helpful in alleviating the stress of online instruction and keeping my students engaged. For example, I sent weekly agendas, amended the syllabus per my students’ suggestions/needs, recorded class for later viewing, provided suggested due dates for task management but accepted any work at any time, created a calendar to schedule office hours, I did not lecture (ever) but provided tasks, data, and experiences to reason with, I used videos and podcasts instead of long-form writing when able, and gave my students ample amounts of choice in how to express their thoughts and ideas. In the end, I was teaching in a new medium and had to amplify some aspects of my teaching (flexibility and clarity), but the core of my practice stayed the same. 

Now that I am about to finish collecting data from SCIED 412, I realize that the pandemic has taken a lot from us, but it has also given us opportunities. For me, it has given me new tools to use in data collection and my teaching. It also caused unique relationships to be built between my students and I. In hindsight, these relationships have created opportunities I couldn’t have imagined in March. For example, one student, so interested in their own relationship with white supremacy, asked if we could begin a project exploring how whiteness is learned in families over generations. We are able to engage in this work because we could meet more frequently online and our families, spread all over the country, are able to meet for interviews and focus groups on Zoom. Two other students, who taught during a remote Upward Bound summer program, gave me the inspiration to supplement SCIED 412 with a remote field experience where the preservice teachers are now teaching students from five districts across Pennsylvania. Both of these projects would not have happened without COVID-19 and our socially distanced world. So in reflection, I know COVID-19 has taken much from us, but it should not only be viewed as a barrier because, if embraced, our socially distanced reality can create new inspiration and opportunities to change how we engage in our work for the better.