![5
In all of this, it is important to recognize the role of faculty development centers
not just as the main source of support for educators at universities, but also their role
in modeling good practices for educators to emulate (Bali Caines, 2018). The
ERT situation required agility from faculty developers, as “best practices” in previ-
ous online teaching for the past 20 years before did not always apply in this case.
Faculty developers needed to perform with agility but also to model agility in
responding to this uncertain situation; they needed to model trauma-sensitive edu-
cational development in order to foster trauma-informed pedagogical approaches
that would support and care for students. They also needed to do so while promoting
equity and offering educators as much agency and ownership as possible, while try-
ing to help maintain quality education for students. Moreover, in a situation where
educators needed to provide so much more care to students than usual, faculty
development centers became spaces for community support. As Noddings says,
“when… the cared-for is unable to respond in a way that completes the relation, the
work of the carer becomes more and more difficult. Carers in this position need the
support of a caring community to sustain them” (Noddings, 2012, p. 54). As Brenna
Clark Gray writes, as faculty developers, “we must do [the work] in a way that cen-
tres care, that acknowledges the stress and strain of our moment, that makes the
digital humane: no one specifies those things, but they become central to my insti-
tutional purpose. The gulf between what the institution prioritizes and what I know
is right expands” (Gray, 2018, p. 51).
This article shares my experience as a faculty developer at the American
University in Cairo’s (AUC) Center for Learning and Teaching (CLT), as a key
member working in a team tasked with supporting all faculty members through this
shift to remote teaching. Specifically, I will highlight the agility and responsiveness
of the different approaches followed at different times during the pandemic, and
how they fare in terms of promoting ownership, agency and equity (Bali Caines,
2018), and how they were influenced by trauma-informed approaches (Imad, 2021).
Most of the actions were local, centered on my university’s context and in response
to administrative recommendations and faculty and student feedback and requests;
some of it was of a global nature, responding to what the global community of fac-
ulty developers and educators needed, and taking advantage of the possibilities for
trans-national and glocal faculty development opportunities because so many
worldwide were teaching fully online.
2
Overview of the Agile Faculty Development Approach
Two major elements of the emergency situation that require agility are that faculty
are diverse in terms of their digital literacies and attitude towards learning new tech-
nologies, as well as diverse in terms of who their students are and what their peda-
gogical approaches are. This meant that there was no-size-fits-all (Gachago, Pallitt
Bali, 2020). Agility was also needed because of the uncertainty of the situation.
What was needed, how long it would be needed, how faculty and students would
1 Providing Agile Faculty Development in Times of Uncertainty…](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/22239204-250617091605-17c6b178/85/Global-Perspectives-On-Educational-Innovations-For-Emergency-Situations-Vanessa-Dennen-23-320.jpg)
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learning from each other in small groups, modeling the kind of reciprocity and peer
support they could continue to do within their own departments and in their courses
as well.
Third: Optional technology hands-on sessions on designing their courses on
Blackboard and using Zoom breakout rooms. The Zoom breakout room sessions
became very popular after people attended the institute, because they experienced
good use of breakout rooms and decided to use them in their classes. These sessions
were conducted in such a way that every faculty member worked in a small group
and was able to practice being the host and creating the breakout rooms themselves,
in order to build their confidence to use it in class on their own.
Fourth: Glocal PD: Aside from the local PD offered, we also offered some
“Glocal Educational Development” opportunities in late spring and early summer.
At first, as part of theAMICAL consortium (a consortium ofAmerican-style Liberal
Arts institutions outside the US), I co-facilitated several workshops using Liberating
Structures. Liberating Structures are microstructures that offer “novel and practical
how-to methods to help you include and unleash everyone in shaping [decisions].
LS distribute control so that participants can shape direction themselves as the
action unfolds.” (Liberating Structures, n.d.). Moreover, AUC joined four US insti-
tutions in offering a more advanced exploration of digital literacies via DigPINS
(Digital Pedagogy, Identity, Networks and Scholarship, as described in Bali
Caines, 2018), which allowed faculty who were already comfortable with digital
teaching and digital literacies who wanted to reflect more deeply with others all over
the world undergoing similar changes. We used a combination of asynchronous
activities such as Slack, Twitter, blogging and collaborative annotation, and syn-
chronous sessions using LS, and faculty could choose which elements to engage
with at their own discretion.
The above options offered faculty agency, and also offered “care” to faculty and
modeled how this care could be reciprocal amongst themselves and how they could
encourage a caring environment within their classes, among their students. We
received positive feedback on the value faculty members gained from these various
PD options, including their success in using breakout rooms (and also feedback
from students on enjoying this), the value of interaction with faculty peers in the
synchronous workshops, and the value of hands-on technical workshops such as on
Zoom breakouts.
3.4
Phase 4: Preparing for Fully Online Semesters
Given the success of the summer preparation PD, we offered similar PD in prepara-
tion for the fall semester, in addition to New Chalk Talk newsletters that included
curations of faculty experiences, and a synchronous workshop towards the end of
Spring 2020 in which faculty panelists from various disciplines shared their good
practices in teaching online during the Spring 2020 semester. One of the most
M. Bali](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/22239204-250617091605-17c6b178/85/Global-Perspectives-On-Educational-Innovations-For-Emergency-Situations-Vanessa-Dennen-28-320.jpg)
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students’ learning. Such knowledge is essential to develop the right policies, train-
ing, and interventions when national and international crises such as the CoV-
SARS-2 pandemic occur. Educational policies that marginalize the use of technology
in schools fail to take advantage of the tremendous range of skills, experience, and
resources that learners bring with them to school (Kozma, 2011). Such educational
policies must consider informal learning and the value it brings into a formal learn-
ing environment. If governments prioritize educational transformational policies,
they need to consider the economic rationale and respond thereto (Kozma, 2011).
References
Boer, P. J., Marais, J., Sheya, H., Halweendo, J. M. (2021). The Perceptions of English Teachers,
at a selected Combined School in Erongo Region, on their readiness to conduct online teaching
during the COVID-19 lockdown in Namibia. The Namibia CPD Journal for Educators, 6(1),
185–210. https://doi.org/10.32642/ncpdje.v6i1.1558
Bozkurt, A., Jung, I., Xiao, J., Vladimirschi, V., Schuwer, R., Egorov, G., Lambert, S., Al-Freih,
M., Pete, J., Olcott, D., Jr., Rodes, V., Aranciaga, I., Bali, M., Alvarez, A. J., Roberts, J.,
Pazurek, A., Raffaghelli, J. E., Panagiotou, N., de Coëtlogon, P., … Paskevicius, M. (2020). A
global outlook to the interruption of education due to COVID-19 pandemic: Navigating in a
time of uncertainty and crisis. Asian Journal of Distance Education, 15(1), 1–126. Retrieved
from http://www.asianjde.com/ojs/index.php/AsianJDE/article/view/462
Fuhrman, S. H., Cohen, D. K., Mosher, F. (2020). The state of education policy research.
Routledge.
Government of the Republic of Namibia (2004). Namibia Vision 2030: Policy framework for long-
term national development. Office of the President.
Giannini, S., Albrectsen, A., (2020). Covid-19 school closures around the
world will hit girls hardest, Retrieved from https://en.unesco.org/news/
covid-19-school-closures-around-world-will-hit-girls-hardest
Honig, M. I. (Ed.). (2006). New directions in education policy implementation: Confronting com-
plexity. Suny Press.
Isaacs, D.. (2008, February 14). School computers rot in store. The Namibian, Retrieved
on 20 April 2012 from http://www.namibian.com.na/index.php?id=28tx_ttnews[tt_
news]=44475no_c ache=1.
Jackson, S. J., Pompe, A., Krieshok, G. (2011). Things fall apart: Maintenance, repair, and
technology for education initiatives in rural Namibia. In Proceedings of the 2011 Conference
(pp. 83–90).
Kacelo, P. M., Boer, P. J., Chainda, A. M. (2019). The impact of international computer driv-
ing license training on the use of information and communication technologies in the class-
rooms by teachers in the zambezi Region. The Namibia CPD Journal for Educators, 5, 87–108.
https://doi.org/10.32642/ncpdje.v5i0.1244
Kozma, R. B. (2011). ICT, education transformation, and economic development: An analysis of
the US National Educational Technology Plan. E-Learning and Digital Media, 8(2), 106–120.
Ministry of Education (2006). Education and training sector improvement programme (ETSIP).
Retrieved from https://planipolis.iiep.unesco.org/upload/Namibia/Namibia%20eTSiP%20
2007.pdf
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Global Perspectives On Educational Innovations For Emergency Situations Vanessa Dennen
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- 5. Educational Communications andTechnology: Issues and Innovations Vanessa Dennen · Camille Dickson-Deane · Xun Ge · Dirk Ifenthaler · Sahana Murthy · Jennifer C. Richardson Editors Global Perspectives on Educational Innovations for Emergency Situations
- 6. Educational Communications and Technology: Issues and Innovations Series Editors J. Michael Spector, Department of Learning Technologies, University of North Texas, Denton, TX, USA M. J. Bishop, College of Education, Lehigh University University System of Maryland, Bethlehem, PA, USA Dirk Ifenthaler, Learning, Design and Technology University of Mannheim, Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany Allan Yuen, Faculty of Education, Runme Shaw Bldg, Rm 214 University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong
- 7. This book series, published collaboratively between the AECT (Association for Educational Communications and Technology) and Springer, represents the best and most cutting edge research in the field of educational communications and technology. The mission of the series is to document scholarship and best practices in the creation, use, and management of technologies for effective teaching and learning in a wide range of settings. The publication goal is the rapid dissemination of the latest and best research and development findings in the broad area of educational information science and technology. As such, the volumes will be representative of the latest research findings and developments in the field. Volumes will be published on a variety of topics, including: • Learning Analytics • Distance Education • Mobile Learning Technologies • Formative Feedback for Complex Learning • Personalized Learning and Instruction • Instructional Design • Virtual tutoring Additionally, the series will publish the bi-annual AECT symposium volumes, the Educational Media and Technology Yearbooks, and the extremely prestigious and well known, Handbook of Research on Educational Communications and Technology. Currently in its 4th volume, this large and well respected Handbook will serve as an anchor for the series and a completely updated version is anticipated topublishonceevery5years.TheintendedaudienceforEducationalCommunications and Technology: Issues and Innovations is researchers, graduate students and professional practitioners working in the general area of educational information science and technology; this includes but is not limited to academics in colleges of education and information studies, educational researchers, instructional designers, media specialists, teachers, technology coordinators and integrators, and training professionals.
- 8. Vanessa Dennen • Camille Dickson-Deane Xun Ge • Dirk Ifenthaler Sahana Murthy • Jennifer C. Richardson Editors Global Perspectives on Educational Innovations for Emergency Situations
- 9. This book is an open access publication. ISSN 2625-0004 ISSN 2625-0012 (electronic) ISBN 978-3-030-99633-8 ISBN 978-3-030-99634-5 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99634-5 © Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) 2022 Open Access This book is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this book are included in the book's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the book's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland Editors Vanessa Dennen Florida State University EPLS Tallahassee, FL, USA Xun Ge Department of Education University of Oklahoma Norman, OK, USA Sahana Murthy CDEEP Office Indian Institute of Technology Bombay Mumbai, Maharashtra, India Camille Dickson-Deane University of Technology Sydney, NSW, Australia Dirk Ifenthaler Learning, Design and Technology University of Mannheim Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany Jennifer C. Richardson Department of Curriculum and Instruction Purdue University West Lafayette, IN, USA Educational Communications and Technology: Issues and Innovations
- 10. v Preface The World Health Organization declared COVID-19 outbreaks as a pandemic and a global health crisis on March 11, 2020. The pandemic has affected society and indi- viduals on many levels and throughout various aspects of life, including education. All over the world, schools and universities were mandatorily closed, moved online, or delivered in other alternative formats. COVID-19 has forced educators to adapt to emergency situations and seek innovative solutions to continue to provide educa- tion to students in all kinds of settings, from PK-12 education to higher education. Such emergency situations have presented unprecedented challenges to educators, students, administrators, parents, and policymakers, and many other stakeholders. The urgency of the situation has called for a system-wide response to make a transi- tion from in-person, classroom education to other feasible modes of education. It has forced educators to explore various opportunities and possibilities for alterna- tive forms to deliver education. All of this has compelled us to seek alternative ways and solutions to education. Such a global and unprecedented situation has led us to many questions and inquiries. Research questions involve, but not limited to, the following: pedagogical issues, technological and infrastructure challenges, teacher professional development, issues of disparity, access and equity, and impact of gov- ernment policies on education. The pandemic is far from the first emergency to disrupt education, and surely will not be the last. Educators have adapted to address needs during the emergency response to natural disasters and health epidemics as they arise. However, the scope and nature of the pandemic means that educators and students everywhere are hav- ing a common experience, albeit with varying contexts and responses. It also pro- vides a unique opportunity for generating scholarship that helps us understand the varied educational needs, perspectives and solutions that arise during an emergency and the different roles educational institutions and educators may play during this time. Such a global and unprecedented situation led to many questions and inquiries for educational researchers. Two presidential panel discussions were organized dur- ing the 2020 AECT (Association for Educational Communications and Technology; https://www.aect.org) Virtual International Convention to address adaptive
- 11. vi education and innovative solutions to emergencies and crisis during the COVID-19 pandemic. Educational researchers committed to pre-tertiary and higher education from all parts of the world, including the USA, Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Germany, the Netherlands, Egypt, and South Africa, were brought together to (1) share their current practice and experiences in response to education during the COVID-19 pandemic, (2) reflect on and develop solutions for emergency educa- tion for the future, (3) engage in dialogues on strengthening teacher professional development with adaptive learning and instruction in response to emergency edu- cation, and (4) discuss the needs for educators and researchers to constantly update their repertoire of knowledge, pedagogy, and technology and their intersection and be sensitive and responsive to the educational needs, locally, regionally, and glob- ally. The two panel discussions stimulated exciting and interesting intellectual con- versations and academic exchanges on multiple issues and dimensions, which reflected varied contextualized practices and international perspectives. Given the rich content produced during the two presidential panel discussions and the ongoing global situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, an initial team of panelists decided to develop an edited volume documenting the outcomes of the panel discussions and capturing innovative practices and solutions throughout the world. The open-access format of this edited volume will enable a global outreach to researchers, practitioners (who often do not have access to resources due to lim- ited library access, etc.), administrators, and policy makers. The edited volume pres- ents AECT and its membership as a globally leading organization focusing on educational communications and technology. In addition, it will function as a con- temporary document of this global crisis. Further, this work will present a rich resource for possible future emergency scenarios in the educational arena. An open call was made to solicit contributions from all over the world in February 2021. As a result, we received 57 proposals from different continents of the world: Asia, Australia, Europe, Africa, South America, and North America. After going through two rounds of rigorous reviews and revisions by our reviewers and editors, 31 chapters were accepted to be included in this open-access edited volume. The contributions in this open-access edited volume were pooled following the six regions the World Health Organization (WHO) uses for their reporting, analysis, and administration: African Region, Region of the Americas, South-East Asian Region, European Region, Eastern Mediterranean Region, and Western Pacific Region. Given the representation of contributions in the abovementioned WHO regions, the edited volume comprises four parts as follows: Part I—African Region, Part II—Region of the Americas, Part III—European Region and Eastern Mediterranean Region, and Part IV—South-East Asian Region and Western Pacific Region. The included chapters address a range of issues and challenges in pre-tertiary education, vocational education, and higher education and describe a variety of innovative solutions developed to tackle these issues. The chapters draw from vari- ous theoretical perspectives and conceptual frameworks and apply different meth- odologies. Some chapters include authors from different countries who collaborated in exploring new approaches during the emergency situation. Given this richness Preface
- 12. vii and diversity, an attempt is made below to identify the themes emerging from the chapters and provide a thematic classification of the chapters. It should be noted that the country mentioned next to the chapter is that from which the issues and solu- tions were reported. Several chapters highlight the challenges in specific contexts and discuss various solutions that were implemented. These include the use of tools, artifacts, strategies, and community initiatives in response to the needs and culture of local schools, institutions, or regions at various educational levels. • Chapter 3 from South Africa. Creating Sustainable Early Childhood Learning Environments for Emergency Situations. (Sechaba M.G. Mahlomaholo, Makeresemese R. Mahlomaholo) • Chapter 8 from Guyana. The Effects of COVID-19 on Rural School Communities in Guyana: New Directions or Old Methods Retooled. (Charmaine Bissessar) • Chapter 9 from Latin America. Mobile Learning for Emergency Situations: Four Design Cases from Latin America. (Daniela Castellanos-Reyes, Enilda Romero- Hall, Lucas Vasconcelos, Belen García) • Chapter 13 from the USA. A Family of K-12 Educators’Innovative Responses to Overcome COVID-19 Challenges. (Hui-Chen Durley, Xun Ge) • Chapter 24 from Germany. Distance Learning and the Influence of Schools’ Organizational Characteristics on The Students’ Perceived Learning Success. (Jan Delcker, Dirk Ifenthaler) A number of chapters are concerned about using innovative approaches to promote professional development in specific disciplines. • Chapter 6 from the USA. Simulated Teaching: An Exploration of Virtual Classroom Simulation for Pre-service Teachers During the COVID-19 Pandemic. (M. Elizabeth Azukas, Jason R. Kluk) • Chapter 16 from the USA. Virtual Making: Transforming Maker Education in a Teacher Education Program During the COVID-19 Pandemic. (Yi Jin, Jason Harron, Helen Maddox) • Chapter 20 from the USA. Implementation of a Digital Live-Action Gaming Experience for Interprofessional Learning and Training. (Andre Thomas, Yun Li, Christine L. Kaunas, Marty Newcomb, Gerard E. Carrino, Lori D. Greenwood, Patrick D. St. Louis, Leroy A. Marklund, Nephy G. Samuel, Hector O. Chapa) • Chapter 23 from Austria. Moving Volleyball Coaches Education Online: A Case Study. (Josef Buchner, Martin Plessl) • Chapter 31 from Hong Kong. Evolution of Clinical Education Under COVID-19 Pandemic. (Alexander Woo, Shirley Ngai) Some chapters focused on teacher and faculty professional development at various educational levels, using different strategies, tools, and approaches. • Chapter 1 from Egypt. Providing Agile Faculty Development in Times of Uncertainty: Case of the American University in Cairo. (Maha Bali) Preface
- 13. viii • Chapter 4 from Tanzania. Teachers Co-creating with and for Teachers: Design and Implementation of an Online Teacher Professional Development Course in Sub-Saharan Africa. (Lucian Vumilia Ngeze and Sridhar Iyer) • Chapter 7 from the USA. Utilizing Rapid Needs Assessment to Strengthen PK-12 Teaching and Learning Affordances in Emergency Remote Teaching. (Lauren M. Bagdy, Jill E. Stefaniak) • Chapter 26 from India. From Emergency Remote Teaching to Effective Online Learning. A Teacher Professional Development Case Study from Higher Education in India. (Ashutosh Raina, Archana Rane, Lucian Ngeze, Sahana Murthy, Sridhar Iyer) The chapters below discuss innovations in course design and resources to support instructors in the design and implementation processes during the pandemic. • Chapter 10 from the USA. Back to Design Basics: Reflections, Challenges and Essentials of a Designer’s Survival Kit During a Pandemic. (Ritushree Chatterjee, Darshana Juvale, Long He, Lynn Lundy Evans • Chapter 11 from the USA. Open, Flexible, and Serving Others: Meeting Needs During a Pandemic and Beyond. (Vanessa Dennen, Jiyae Bong) • Chapter 15 from the USA. All Hands on Deck: Faculty Collaboration in Transforming to Remote Teaching. (Wanju Huang, Jennifer Richardson) • Chapter 17 from the USA. Reflecting on a Year of Emergency Remote Teaching. (Jeonghyun Lee, Farahnaz Soleimani, Stephen W Harmon) • Chapter 29 from Australia. Responsive Online Course Design: Microcredentials and Non-linear Pathways in Higher Education (Keith Heggart) • Chapter 21 from the USA. Transforming Emergency into Opportunity. (Emily York, Diane Wilcox, Jonathan Stewart, Sean Mccarthy, Kenneth Barron) • Chapter 30 from South Korea. Emerging Reform of Higher Education in Post Pandemic. (Insook Lee, Yoonil Auh, Hee Cyber, Eunbae Lee) Some of the chapters examine different theories that can be used to understand or guide online instruction, as well as support students’ online learning experience during the COVID-19 pandemic. • Chapter 5 from the USA. Reopening Campuses: Visualizing the Structure of a System Problem. (Hadi Ali, Ann Mckenna) • Chapter 14 from the Caribbean. Translating Distance Education Theory into Practice. (Leroy Hill) • Chapter 18 from the USA. A Reflection on Online Teaching and Learning Through the Pandemic: Revisiting Creativity. (Jin Mao) • Chapter 22 from Pakistan. Online Higher Education in the Wake of COVID-19: A System Thinking Perspective. (Fawad Sadiq, Muhammad Sadiq Malik) • Chapter 25 from Vietnam. Online Learning Environments and Student Engagement: Meeting the Psychological Needs of Learners During the COVID-19 Pandemic. (Vo Ngoc Hoi) Preface
- 14. ix Certain chapters discuss the impact of government policies and country-wide initia- tives, and discuss the role of institutions and professional organizations in imple- menting the policies during the COVID-19 pandemic. • Chapter 2 from Namibia. Exploring Namibia’s Educational Emergency Response Teaching: A Policy and Practice Perspective. (Perien Joniell Boer, Tutaleni I. Asino) • Chapter 12 from the Caribbean. Intersectionality and Compromise: Enacting Government Policies in the Caribbean. (Camille Dickson-Deane, Laurette Bristol, Dauran Mcneil, Talia Esnard, Lorraine Leacock) • Chapter 19 from Chile. Chilean Perspectives on Educational Experiences and Innovations in Emergency Contexts. (Jaime Sánchez, José Reyes-Rojas) • Chapter 27 from Japan. Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Education in Japan and the Role of the Japan Society for Educational Technology. (Yoshiko Goda, Tomomi Takabayashi, Katsuaki Suzuki) • Chapter 28 from China. China’s Experience of Online Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic. (Xiaoqing Gu, Ling Li) We invite readers to get inspired by the rich collection of chapters and their compre- hensive global perspectives on educational innovations for emergency situations. Without the assistance of experts in the field, the editors would have been unable to prepare this volume for publication. We wish to thank all authors for sharing their knowledge as well as our board of reviewers for their tremendous help with both reviewing the chapters and linguistic editing. In addition, we would like to thank the Series Editors of “Educational Communications and Technology: Issues and Innovations” (https://www.springer.com/series/11824) for guiding the publication process and including our work into the book series. Tallahassee, FL, USA Vanessa Dennen Sydney, NSW, Australia Camille Dickson-Deane Norman, OK, USA Xun Ge Mannheim, Germany; Perth, WA, Australia Dirk Ifenthaler Mumbai, India Sahana Murthy West Lafayette, IN, USA Jennifer C. Richardson Preface
- 15. xi Acknowledgments The coeditors of this edited volume “Global Perspectives on Educational Innovations for Emergency Situations” would like to express their gratitude towards Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT; https://www.aect.org) for their kind support in making this open-access project a success. In order to pub- lish this open-access edited volume, the financial support of the following organiza- tions has been vital. • Association for Educational Communications and Technology (https://www. aect.org) • University of Mannheim, Germany (https://www.uni-mannheim.de) • Purdue University, College of Education, USA (https://www.education.purdue. edu/graduate-students/prospective-students/graduate-programs/ learning-design-technology) • Florida State University, USA (https://www.fsu.edu) Vanessa Dennen, Florida State University, USA Camille Dickson-Deane, University of Technology Sydney, Australia Xun Ge, University of Oklahoma, USA Dirk Ifenthaler, University of Mannheim, Germany and Curtin University, Australia Sahana Murthy, IIT Bombay, India Jennifer C. Richardson, Purdue University, USA
- 16. xiii Contents Part I African Region 1 Providing Agile Faculty Development in Times of Uncertainty: Case of the American University in Cairo �������������������������������������������� 3 Maha Bali 2 Exploring Namibia’s Educational Emergency Response Teaching: A Policy and Practice Perspective���������������������������������������� 15 Perien Joniell Boer and Tutaleni I. Asino 3 Creating Sustainable Early Childhood Learning Environments for Emergency Situations: The Case of Sweden, Kenya and South Africa�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 25 Sechaba M. G. Mahlomaholo and Makeresemese R. Mahlomaholo 4 Teachers Co-creating for Teachers: Design and Implementation of an Online Teacher Professional Development Course in Sub-Saharan Africa���������������������������������������������������������������������������� 35 Lucian Vumilia Ngeze and Sridhar Iyer Part II Region of the Americas 5 Reopening Campuses: Visualizing the Structure of a System Problem�������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 47 Hadi Ali and Ann McKenna 6 Simulated Teaching: An Exploration of Virtual Classroom Simulation for Pre- service Teachers During the COVID-19 Pandemic������������������������������������������������������������������������ 57 M. Elizabeth Azukas and Jason R. Kluk 7 Utilizing Rapid Needs Assessment to Strengthen PK-12 Teaching and Learning Affordances in Emergency Remote Teaching�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 67 Lauren M. Bagdy and Jill E. Stefaniak
- 17. xiv 8 The Effects of Covid-19 on Rural School Communities in Guyana: New Directions or Old Methods Retooled������������������������ 77 Charmaine Bissessar 9 Mobile Learning for Emergency Situations: Four Design Cases from Latin America���������������������������������������������������������������������� 89 Daniela Castellanos-Reyes, Enilda Romero-Hall, Lucas Vasconcelos, and Belen García 10 Back to Design Basics: Reflections, Challenges and Essentials of a Designer’s Survival Kit during a Pandemic���������������������������������� 99 Ritushree Chatterjee, Darshana Juvale, Long He, and Lynn Lundy Evans 11 Open, Flexible, and Serving Others: Meeting Needs during a Pandemic and beyond�������������������������������������������������������������������������� 109 Vanessa Dennen and Jiyae Bong 12 Intersectionality and Compromise: Enacting Government Policies in the Caribbean������������������������������������������������������������������������ 119 Camille Dickson-Deane, Laurette Bristol, Dauran McNeil, Talia Esnard, and Lorraine Leacock 13 A Family of K-12 Educators’ Innovative Responses to Overcome COVID-19 Challenges: Researchers’ Reflexivity Accounts���������������� 129 Hui-Chen Kung Durley and Xun Ge 14 Translating Distance Education Theory into Practice: Developing an Emergency Teaching Framework for a Caribbean University���������������������������������������������������������������������������� 139 LeRoy Hill 15 All Hands on Deck: Faculty Collaboration in Transforming to Remote Teaching���������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 149 Wanju Huang and Jennifer C. Richardson 16 Virtual Making: Transforming Maker Education in a Teacher Education Program During the COVID-19 Pandemic������������������������ 159 Yi Jin, Jason Harron, and Helen Maddox 17 Reflecting on a Year of Emergency Remote Teaching�������������������������� 169 Jeonghyun Lee, Farahnaz Soleimani, and Stephen W. Harmon 18 A Reflection on Online Teaching and Learning Through the Pandemic: Revisiting Creativity������������������������������������������������������ 179 Jin Mao 19 Chilean Perspectives on Educational Experiences and Innovations in Emergency Contexts ���������������������������������������������� 189 Jaime Sánchez and José Reyes-Rojas Contents
- 18. xv 20 Implementation of a Digital Live-Action Gaming Experience for Interprofessional Learning and Training���������������������������������������� 199 Andre Thomas, Yun Li, Christine L. Kaunas, Marty Newcomb, Gerard E. Carrino, Lori D. Greenwood, Patrick D. St. Louis, LeRoy A. Marklund, Nephy G. Samuel, and Hector O. Chapa 21 Transforming Emergency into Opportunity: Unleashing the Creative Potential of Student-Faculty Collaborations to Prototype Better Educational Futures in Response to Crisis�������������������������������������������� 209 Emily York, Diane Wilcox, Jonathan Stewart, Sean McCarthy, and Kenneth Barron Part III European Region and Eastern Mediterranean Region 22 Online Higher Education in the Wake of COVID-19: A Systems Thinking Perspective������������������������������������������������������������ 221 Fawad Sadiq and Muhammad Sadiq Malik 23 Moving Volleyball Coaches Education Online: A Case Study ������������ 231 Josef Buchner and Martin Plessl 24 Distance Learning and the Influence of Schools’ Organizational Characteristics on the Students Perceived Learning Success�������������� 241 Jan Delcker and Dirk Ifenthaler Part IV South-East Asian Region and Western Pacific Region 25 Online Learning Environments and Student Engagement: Meeting the Psychological Needs of Learners during the COVID-19 Pandemic������������������������������������������������������������������������ 253 Vo Ngoc Hoi 26 From Emergency Remote Teaching to Effective Online Learning: A Teacher Professional Development Case Study from Higher Education in India�������������������������������������������������� 265 Ashutosh Raina, Archana Rane, Lucian Ngeze, Sahana Murthy, and Sridhar Iyer 27 Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Education in Japan and the Role of the Japan Society for Educational Technology���������� 275 Yoshiko Goda, Tomomi Takabayashi, and Katsuaki Suzuki 28 China’s Experience of Online Education during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Policies, Lessons and Challenges���������������������������������������� 285 Xiaoqing Gu and Ling Li 29 Responsive Online Course Design: Microcredentials and Non-Linear Pathways in Higher Education���������������������������������� 295 Keith Heggart Contents
- 19. xvi 30 Emerging Reform of Higher Education in Post Pandemic������������������ 305 Insook Lee, Yoonil Auh, and Eunbae Lee 31 Evolution of Clinical Education under COVID-19 Pandemic: Blended Clinical Education�������������������������������������������������������������������� 317 Alexander Woo and Shirley Ngai Author Index���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 327 Subject Index���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 335 Contents
- 21. 3 Chapter 1 Providing Agile Faculty Development in Times of Uncertainty: Case of the American University in Cairo Maha Bali Abstract The move toward emergency remote teaching meant educational devel- opment centers suddenly had to train and support all who teach at their institutions simultaneously. This article will focus on the agile, responsive and value-centric faculty development done locally via the American University in Cairo’s Center for Learning Teaching, the “glocal” opportunities offered via DigPINS (see Bali and Caines, Int J Educ Technol High Educ 15(46):1–24, 2018), and the curation of openly available community-building resources available to educators worldwide. Central to all of these initiatives is that centering equity and care in how we support faculty (Czerniewicz, Agherdien, Badenhorst, Postdigit Sci Educ 2:946–967, 2020) will trickle down to the ways faculty treat their students during the trauma of the pandemic. We conclude that the pandemic has taught us the importance of centering values of equity and care while supporting faculty during a time of uncertainty and trauma (Imad, TIA 39, 2021), that fostering agency and imagination is more valu- able than offering one-size-fits all standard solutions, and that faculty developers need to model adaptability and good pedagogy. Moreover, it is important to nurture and leverage learning communities, take advantage of “glocal” and “open” learning opportunities, and to build capability long-term via developing digital literacies and creativity. 1 Introduction: The Difference with Emergency Remote Teaching When the COVID-19 pandemic forced educational institutions worldwide to move teaching to online mode, the term “emergency remote teaching” (ERT) (Hodges et al., 2020) was coined to differentiate this approach from previous instances of fully online or distance education. For one thing, in the past, online teaching was a M. Bali (*) The American University in Cairo, Cairo, Egypt e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s) 2022 V. Dennen et al. (eds.), Global Perspectives on Educational Innovations for Emergency Situations, Educational Communications and Technology: Issues and Innovations, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99634-5_1
- 22. 4 choice teachers and students made among other options, whereas in this case, it was the only option. This meant that neither teachers nor students had a personal motive to choose online education - beyond the general imperative for “continuity” during imposed lockdowns. Also, most teachers did not have the training or experience of teaching online and the opportunity to design their courses thoughtfully with the help of instructional designers and instructional technologists over several months - everyone had to make the shift almost overnight, or at least within a very short period of time. It would be unreasonable to assume that people teaching online for the first time, and without time to prepare, would suddenly be able to offer good quality online education (Hodges et al., 2020). Faculty development and IT centers that had to support this shift had a sudden exponential increase in the number of educators they needed to support in a short amount of time, and so solutions varied. Another important consideration with emergency remote teaching was the amount of trauma experienced by educators and students alike, from three main sources (as listed by Imad, 2021): (1) the uncertainty of living through a health pandemic, not knowing how to protect one’s loved ones, not knowing how long the situation would last, not knowing about economic impact, etc.; (2) the isolation caused by the government-imposed “physical distancing” in many countries, the stress of being unable to socialize freely with family, friends and colleagues; (3) the loss of meaning, as most people’s long-term plans were put on hold in order to deal with the emergency situation which changed the context of our everyday lives. In order to help educators through this traumatic stress, Imad (2021) proposes the fol- lowing in order to offer trauma-sensitive educational development: help faculty feel they are in control in the face of uncertainty; use communication to help build trust; reestablish or reaffirm goals to create meaning; nurture community; and emphasize care and wellbeing. As a faculty developer in the Center for Learning and Teaching at the American University in Cairo, and one who has a role in public scholarship beyond my own institution, I felt compelled to ensure equity and care for students during this time, and to also offer that kind of equity and care while supporting faculty, and at the same time meet the requirements coming top-down from admin- istrators. How do you give faculty a feeling of control in the midst of uncertainty, while also ensuring a minimal standard of quality as required by administrators? It is also important to recognize the ways in which the pandemic situation exac- erbated inequalities (Czerniewicz et al., 2020), and that educational institutions had a moral obligation to try not to reproduce inequalities in their educational offerings. In Egypt, internet infrastructure varies by location and not just by socioeconomic status. The majority of students are privileged at my private American Liberal-Arts style institution, and AUC ensured that scholarship students had access to their own devices and high-speed internet. Faculty who did not have good internet at home were allowed to connect from their offices on campus. However, there are other less visible inequalities. Not everyone had access to a quiet, private space at home, some students and faculty members had additional care responsibilities at home, and peo- ple suffered from mental health challenges to varying degrees, and the pandemic situation surfaced new mental health challenges and exacerbated existing ones. M. Bali
- 23. 5 In all of this, it is important to recognize the role of faculty development centers not just as the main source of support for educators at universities, but also their role in modeling good practices for educators to emulate (Bali Caines, 2018). The ERT situation required agility from faculty developers, as “best practices” in previ- ous online teaching for the past 20 years before did not always apply in this case. Faculty developers needed to perform with agility but also to model agility in responding to this uncertain situation; they needed to model trauma-sensitive edu- cational development in order to foster trauma-informed pedagogical approaches that would support and care for students. They also needed to do so while promoting equity and offering educators as much agency and ownership as possible, while try- ing to help maintain quality education for students. Moreover, in a situation where educators needed to provide so much more care to students than usual, faculty development centers became spaces for community support. As Noddings says, “when… the cared-for is unable to respond in a way that completes the relation, the work of the carer becomes more and more difficult. Carers in this position need the support of a caring community to sustain them” (Noddings, 2012, p. 54). As Brenna Clark Gray writes, as faculty developers, “we must do [the work] in a way that cen- tres care, that acknowledges the stress and strain of our moment, that makes the digital humane: no one specifies those things, but they become central to my insti- tutional purpose. The gulf between what the institution prioritizes and what I know is right expands” (Gray, 2018, p. 51). This article shares my experience as a faculty developer at the American University in Cairo’s (AUC) Center for Learning and Teaching (CLT), as a key member working in a team tasked with supporting all faculty members through this shift to remote teaching. Specifically, I will highlight the agility and responsiveness of the different approaches followed at different times during the pandemic, and how they fare in terms of promoting ownership, agency and equity (Bali Caines, 2018), and how they were influenced by trauma-informed approaches (Imad, 2021). Most of the actions were local, centered on my university’s context and in response to administrative recommendations and faculty and student feedback and requests; some of it was of a global nature, responding to what the global community of fac- ulty developers and educators needed, and taking advantage of the possibilities for trans-national and glocal faculty development opportunities because so many worldwide were teaching fully online. 2 Overview of the Agile Faculty Development Approach Two major elements of the emergency situation that require agility are that faculty are diverse in terms of their digital literacies and attitude towards learning new tech- nologies, as well as diverse in terms of who their students are and what their peda- gogical approaches are. This meant that there was no-size-fits-all (Gachago, Pallitt Bali, 2020). Agility was also needed because of the uncertainty of the situation. What was needed, how long it would be needed, how faculty and students would 1 Providing Agile Faculty Development in Times of Uncertainty…
- 24. 6 respond, were all unknown and constantly moving targets. The university adminis- tration was accountable to the board of directors, to the US accreditation agency, Middle States, to Egyptian government decrees, to Egyptian accreditation, and of course to the needs and demands of students, parents and faculty. As a Center for Learning and Teaching, we needed to listen to all of these, synthesize, and recom- mend based on what we know from our experience in digital education, what we know of how other universities worldwide are responding, and what we observed and heard from our own local faculty and students. In order to provide agile faculty development (as I describe it), the Center for Learning and Teaching instinctively and continually went through four phases, all while maintaining an underlying ethic of care and equity: First: Anticipating and imagining what may occur and what kind of faculty development support might be needed in the near and medium-term future, and planning ahead for it. This aligns with Dunn (2018) model for technical intuition. Second: Implementing while offering agency, ensuring that what is needed by the majority of educators is available, but that faculty members have agency to choose something other than one-size-fits-all solutions (see Bali Caines, 2018; Gachago, et al., 2020; Longstreet et al., 2020). Third: Listening, observing, researching, such that members of the Center are not only offering a service to faculty, but also listening to their reactions and concerns, observing how they respond to it, and performing more formal research such as surveys to gather feedback more formally and make decisions based on this feedback. Where possible, we also listened to students and collected feedback formally from them. Of course, there were some strategic decisions taken at the institutional level and not by the center itself (similar to Dunn 2018 Inquiry step). Fourth: Adapting, based on a combination of institutional top-down decisions, faculty and student feedback and needs, and our own expertise as faculty developers following our past experience, what other centers worldwide were doing and our own innovative local solutions to fit our context. This was a cycle repeated multiple times, as we iterated on what we offered and how we offered it. The pandemic situation was first predicted to last 2 weeks, then a few months, then over summer, then over the fall semester, and then over the spring 2021 semester, with small adjustments for “dual delivery” and “partial face- to- face” mode. Plans were adjusted multiple times, due to the statistics on COVID cases and some government decrees for shutting down educational institutions com- pletely during months of high infection rates in Egypt. M. Bali
- 25. 7 3 Practicing Agile Faculty Development at AUC March 2020-December 2020 3.1 Phase 1: Pre-Closure Before the government of Egypt announced that all schools and universities would move fully online, AUC administration anticipated that this may occur and the Center was tasked with preparing all faculty for this move. The Center collaborated with the Learning Management System (LMS) team to offer basic training on the institution’s LMS (Blackboard) and lecture-capture system (Panopto) by offering training timeslots for small groups to work closely with a member of either team, and to rotate across different “stations” focusing on different functionalities. By separating the different functions, this allowed faculty members agency in choosing which “stations” to visit according to their needs. For example, if someone was already familiar with the discussion board of Blackboard, they did not have to sit into that session; if someone did not plan to use Lecture Capture, they did not have to attend that session. This was the “foundation” announced and offered to all. People who were very familiar with the tools could apply for an exemption approved by their department chair. Importantly, I recognized this “mass” foundation offering as insufficient for meeting all faculty members’ needs. With approval, I created supporting documen- tation that recognized that faculty who taught seminar-style courses needed more support for moving their teaching online. They were offered three additional docu- ments: one for how to design and facilitate good online discussions (beyond the technical training offered in the foundation); one with alternative approaches to online interaction, such as collaborative annotation and Google docs; and one with guidelines for creating good synchronous online experiences such as Bb Collaborate and Zoom, even though AUC did not have a license for Zoom at the time. During our in-person training, we offered one-on-one consultations on the spot, and many faculty asked about synchronous video conferencing options, and we consulted with them on possibilities including Google Meet, Bb Collaborate and Zoom. Once the institution listened to faculty reiterate the need for using a synchronous video conferencing tool such as Zoom, and a large number of them asking for this particu- lar tool as some had been familiar with it, the institution eventually bought an insti- tutional Zoom license. Although the Center was not responsible for technical training on using Zoom, our future offerings once closure occurred used Zoom for online workshops, and faculty emphasized how important it was for them that our workshops modeled good synchronous video pedagogy to faculty. On top of all of these offerings, our members were available for individual con- sultations, whether during these initial face-to-face training sessions, or via email or phone. As the pandemic situation progressed and everything became fully online, including training, we offered a one-stop-shop online form for requesting technical or pedagogical consultations. 1 Providing Agile Faculty Development in Times of Uncertainty…
- 26. 8 3.2 Phase 2: Early Phases of Closure As closure loomed imminent, administration asked us to write guidelines for faculty on how to convert various activities and assessments to online mode. We decided to make these guidelines in Google documents, as we recognized that guidelines could change every few days, depending on the situation. For example, at first, the univer- sity was planning to close for 2 weeks, and faculty were asked to postpone exams; later, the closure was extended for a longer period, and faculty were asked to convert in-person exams to alternative assessments; later, as closure went on, faculty were encouraged to convert exams to take-home or open book versions, and eventually, the institution started offering online proctoring software and guidelines shifted to when and how to use this software if deemed necessary. As the situation stabilized, these Google Documents started to have web versions that did not require constant updating. All of the material eventually became available publicly at https://www. aucegypt.edu/online-instruction Agility involved also observing the situation and listening to faculty closely, as well as monitoring the worldwide situation. After initially promoting and recom- mending mostly asynchronous learning in order to promote equity, we recognized that the pandemic situation might require more synchronous teaching, for several reasons: the internet in Egypt improved, and synchronous learning seemed possi- ble - and the institution was able to provide internet support for scholarship students who needed it; the socioemotional isolation from the pandemic needed educational environments to promote community and social connection, and not all educators or students knew how to do this via text in an asynchronous manner, especially in an oral culture such as Egypt’s; and synchronous learning offered a lower cognitive load for both educators and students than asynchronous learning, which would require more time management and preparation time - two things that trauma of the pandemic made more difficult (Imad, 2021). Equity and care looked different in this pandemic. As Farmer (2020) suggests, asynchronous learning becomes appropriate the more autonomous a learner is. Many learners during the pandemic were not prepared for this autonomy, and the trauma of the pandemic made it more difficult to make this shift. In the early phases of closure, the Center offered several webinars to faculty on various topics of interest to them, such as how to balance synchronous and asyn- chronous learning, how to offer seminar-style classes online, and how to design alternative assessments. These offerings were provided via Zoom and faculty told us that they attended not only for the content, but also to watch us model how to use Zoom in pedagogically sound ways. For example, the first session on seminar-style teaching was by request of the newer faculty of the yearlong Faculty Institute of Learning and Teaching, where members shared their own experiences and concerns, modeling a seminar-style class. Moreover, we had two types of “open-ended” offerings on Zoom. One was “morning coffee” and “afternoon check-in”, available most days, where anyone could drop in and chat, an open community space for socialization or quick M. Bali
- 27. 9 trouble-shooting. The other was “Ask Us Anything” drop-in sessions twice a week, where people could come without registering and ask any questions they had, and a group of educational developers would be available to help respond. These sessions provided agile support and also gave CLT opportunities to listen to faculty concerns and feedback. In order to guide further support, the institution gathered survey feedback from students and teachers on a weekly basis at the beginning of the pandemic, and fac- ulty development offerings were adapted, based on this feedback. The one-on-one consultations continued and occasional department-wide con- sultations as well, especially to support faculty with implementing alternative assessments, which we felt would provide more care and equity for students in a time where online timed exams, particularly proctored ones, increased student anxi- ety and stress, particularly those with less stable internet and less private home environments. The affective labor involved in all of this was significant. Faculty were under a lot of stress, as were students, and as faculty developers we needed to offer care and support for faculty to help them offer that kind of care and support for their students. As a center that initially supported a fraction of the faculty body who chose to ask for our support, we were suddenly supporting the entire faculty body, whether or not they wanted it. I remember personally receiving panicked phone calls and text messages from faculty members all day long, from 8 am to 10 pm the first few weeks. 3.3 Phase 3: Preparing for Summer When it became clear that our summer semester (and later the fall semester) would also be online, it became important to ensure that faculty were better prepared for teaching fully online from day one. We recognized that these could not possibly be online courses of the same quality as ones we had previously developed over months with teams of instructional designers and instructional technologists, and that not all instructors would require the same type and degree of support. Therefore, we offered four differentiated options for summer PD, imagining what faculty would need based on past experience, and offering agency for them to choose what they would benefit from the most: First: A self-paced course on Blackboard where faculty could both learn about all the elements of the process of designing an online course, and also see a model self-paced course on Blackboard. Second: A 3-hour synchronous “summer institute” (later “fall institute”) where faculty could work together on developing their lesson plans, syllabi, and offer advice to each other in small groups. This session modeled good use of Zoom (which many of them were planning to use), particularly good use of Liberating Structures (see description in #4 below) for structuring equitable and engaging dis- cussions in large and small groups, and good use of breakout rooms and Google docs for small group collaboration. This session relied heavily on faculty members 1 Providing Agile Faculty Development in Times of Uncertainty…
- 28. 10 learning from each other in small groups, modeling the kind of reciprocity and peer support they could continue to do within their own departments and in their courses as well. Third: Optional technology hands-on sessions on designing their courses on Blackboard and using Zoom breakout rooms. The Zoom breakout room sessions became very popular after people attended the institute, because they experienced good use of breakout rooms and decided to use them in their classes. These sessions were conducted in such a way that every faculty member worked in a small group and was able to practice being the host and creating the breakout rooms themselves, in order to build their confidence to use it in class on their own. Fourth: Glocal PD: Aside from the local PD offered, we also offered some “Glocal Educational Development” opportunities in late spring and early summer. At first, as part of theAMICAL consortium (a consortium ofAmerican-style Liberal Arts institutions outside the US), I co-facilitated several workshops using Liberating Structures. Liberating Structures are microstructures that offer “novel and practical how-to methods to help you include and unleash everyone in shaping [decisions]. LS distribute control so that participants can shape direction themselves as the action unfolds.” (Liberating Structures, n.d.). Moreover, AUC joined four US insti- tutions in offering a more advanced exploration of digital literacies via DigPINS (Digital Pedagogy, Identity, Networks and Scholarship, as described in Bali Caines, 2018), which allowed faculty who were already comfortable with digital teaching and digital literacies who wanted to reflect more deeply with others all over the world undergoing similar changes. We used a combination of asynchronous activities such as Slack, Twitter, blogging and collaborative annotation, and syn- chronous sessions using LS, and faculty could choose which elements to engage with at their own discretion. The above options offered faculty agency, and also offered “care” to faculty and modeled how this care could be reciprocal amongst themselves and how they could encourage a caring environment within their classes, among their students. We received positive feedback on the value faculty members gained from these various PD options, including their success in using breakout rooms (and also feedback from students on enjoying this), the value of interaction with faculty peers in the synchronous workshops, and the value of hands-on technical workshops such as on Zoom breakouts. 3.4 Phase 4: Preparing for Fully Online Semesters Given the success of the summer preparation PD, we offered similar PD in prepara- tion for the fall semester, in addition to New Chalk Talk newsletters that included curations of faculty experiences, and a synchronous workshop towards the end of Spring 2020 in which faculty panelists from various disciplines shared their good practices in teaching online during the Spring 2020 semester. One of the most M. Bali
- 29. 11 successful newsletters curated the input of 17 faculty members and was published towards the end of Fall 2020 (Addas et al., 2020). We noticed that many faculty members (locally and globally) were saying they were not sure that it was possible to build community in a fully online course— some were able to establish intimacy one-on-one with students but not between learners themselves. While our offerings tried to offer options for doing so, such as creating breakout rooms and modeling Liberating Structures, they did not seem to be enough. People needed more diverse ideas that would suit their teaching philoso- phy, and more modeling of concrete practices. Outside of my role at the Center, I collaborated with OneHE (an organization focused on quality of education globally) via my role as co-facilitator of Equity Unbound (an equity-focused, open, intercultural, connected learning curriculum) to create a website with Community-building Resources, a site that contained demo videos and templates and adaptations for activities educators could use in online class introductions, warm-ups, setting the tone for their courses and maintaining community via ongoing engagement and published here: https://onehe.org/equity- unbound. Our approach centered Intentionally Equitable Hospitality (Bali et al., 2019), where the teacher would view themselves as a host responsible for making sure everyone felt welcome, and ensuring this hospitality was equitable; as such, the site offered adaptations for each activity, knowing that some teachers would need to teach synchronously and others asynchronously; some had access to breakout room functionality and others did not, etc. This site included contributions from educators from all over the world and continues to receive contributions. This site addresses the systemic challenges of the pandemic: not all educators worldwide had access to a faculty development center, and faculty developers were overloaded and burnt out from offering support non-stop for months (Bessette McGowan, 2020). Moreover, previous good practices in online learning did not necessarily apply, especially with the mostly-synchronous approaches applied. This site offered demos and adaptations for activities that could be done synchronously or asynchronously. We received feedback from educators and faculty developers locally and worldwide that these resources were helpful and made it easier for others to imagine how to build community online (see a curation of some of the feedback in Bali Zamora, 2021/2020). 4 Conclusion The success of PD for online education is not only dependent on support for teaching via workshops and such, but also through fostering community support and institu- tional systems for rewards (Baran Correia, 2014). CLT was able to imaginatively anticipate the types of teaching PD needed, and to foster communities locally and internationally to support faculty through their journey, but we are not able to offer substantive institutional rewards. However, by bringing faculty together to learn from each other, we were also recognizing what they had learned and their good 1 Providing Agile Faculty Development in Times of Uncertainty…
- 30. 12 practices, and inviting them to offer it to each other via newsletters and online workshops. In the times of the trauma of a pandemic, where many of people’s choices were stripped away from them, we tried as much as possible to offer faculty members agency in which type of PD they wanted: in terms of modality (synchronous or asynchronous), in terms of focus area (basic technology hands-on, more pedagogi- cal or more reflective such as DigPINS) and at the same time offer one-on-one support to those who need it. We also attempted to build community and foster imagination via the various options and approaches. Listening to feedback and continually adapting, to continue being responsive to faculty members’ needs was key: we did not stick to previous good practices in online teaching (e.g. more asynchronous learning) when we saw faculty needed more; we continued ourselves to learn via our own PD opportunities and bring this back to campus. Moreover, as a faculty developer myself with many online net- works, I was able to co-curate and develop community-building resources as an Open Educational Resource (OER) for all, resources that center care and equity, because I could see they were necessary even though my own institutions did not have resources to develop these: when something is needed and resources are scarce, but something is needed, we need to find other ways. When workshops and self- paced courses are not enough, we need to consider other approaches to PD, such as the video demos and templates and adaptations we used in the OneHE/Equity Unbound site. Community-building online was difficult for educators to imagine and they needed to see various approaches in action and know how to apply them. Agility is necessary for faculty developers at times of uncertainty, and modeling this agility for faculty members is also necessary, but most importantly is that what guides our decisions is our underlying values, which in our case were equity and care for faculty and for students, and not neoliberal dimensions of efficiency and measurability that do not center the humanity of the pedagogical process. References Addas, K., Alatraqchi, F., Aly, R., et al. (2020, November 23). Making online teaching work for you and your students: Insights from AUC faculty. New Chalk Talk, 18(7) https://docu- ments.aucegypt.edu/Docs/llt_clt/Chalk%20Talk/Vol17/NewChalkTalk_Volume18_Issue7- special%20edition(1).pdf Bali, M., Caines, A. (2018). A call for promoting ownership, equity, and agency in faculty devel- opment via connected learning. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 15(46), 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-018-0128-8 Bali, M., Caines, A., Hogue, R. J., DeWaard, H. J., Friedrich, C. (2019). Intentionally equitable hospitality in hybrid video dialogue: The context of virtually connecting. eLearning Mag (spe- cial issue). Retrieved from: https://elearnmag.acm.org/archive.cfm?aid=3331173 Bali, M., Zamora, M. (2021, February 25; Recorded October 2020). #OpenEd20day 2 ple- nary: Equitable emergence: Telling the story of “equity unbound” in the open. https://youtu. be/NEeZvM6_8UE M. Bali
- 31. 13 Baran, E., Correia, A.-P. (2014). A professional development framework for online teaching. TechTrends, 58(5), 96–102. Bessette, L. S., McGowan, S. (2020). Affective labor and faculty development: COVID-19 and dealing with the emotional fallout. Journal on Centers for Teaching and Learning, 12. Czerniewicz, L., Agherdien, N., Badenhorst, J., et al. (2020). A wake-up call: Equity, inequal- ity and Covid-19 emergency remote teaching and learning. Postdigital Science Education, 2, 946–967. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42438-020-00187-4 Dunn,A. (2018,August 14). Technical intuition: Instincts in a Digital World. International Civil Society Center blog. https://icscentre.org/2018/08/14/technical-intuition-instincts-in-a-digital-world. Farmer, H. (2020, August 18). 6 models for blended synchronous and asyn- chronous online course delivery. Educause Review. https://er.educause.edu/ blogs/2020/8/6-models-for-blended-synchronous-and-asynchronous-online-course-delivery Gachago, D., Pallitt, N., Bali, M. (2020). No size fits all: Design considerations for networked professional development in higher education. Proceedings of the Networked Learning Conference. Denmark, online. Retrieved from: https://www.networkedlearning.aau.dk/ digitalAssets/826/826404_22.-gachago-et-al.—no-size-fits-all-design-considerations-for- networked-professional-development-in-higher-education.pdf Gray, B. C. (2018). 2020: The End Is the Beginning, and Yet You Go On. English Studies in Canada, 44(4), pp. 51–54. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/787127 (published 2021). Hodges, C., Moore, S., Lockee, B., Trust, T., Bond,A. (2020, March 27). The difference between emergency remote teaching and online learning. Educause Review. https://er.educause.edu/ articles/2020/3/the-difference-between-emergency-remote-teaching-and-online-learning Imad, M. (2021). Transcending adversity: Trauma-informed educational development. To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development, 39(3). https://doi.org/10.3998/ tia.17063888.0039.301 Liberating Structures. (n.d.). Purpose. In Liberating Structures. https://www.liberatingstructures. com/purpose/ Longstreet, S. C., Ives, C., Sorour, L. S., Martin, P. (2020, November 13). Friday’s plenary: Global faculty development: 5 countries, 11 campuses and why it matters for everyone. In POD Network Conference. Noddings, N. (2012). The language of care ethics. Knowledge Quest, 40(5), 52. Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the chapter's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the chapter's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. 1 Providing Agile Faculty Development in Times of Uncertainty…
- 32. 15 Chapter 2 Exploring Namibia’s Educational Emergency Response Teaching: A Policy and Practice Perspective Perien Joniell Boer and Tutaleni I. Asino Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic challenged educators and education systems globally to rethink education. Using the Context, Input, Process, Product (CIPP) evaluation model we argue that the sudden shift to emergency remote teaching high- lighted the importance of (1) understanding the goals and objectives for emergency remote teaching and how they were communicated to and internalized by stakehold- ers (context); (2) considering the existing internal resources necessary for support- ing the transition to another form of learning delivery (input); (3) asking which aspects of the education system affected the feasibility and effectiveness of the tran- sition (process), and (4) reflecting on the interactions and responses of stakeholders regarding their experiences with the sudden move to fully online learning (product). In this chapter, we use the CIPP to explore the educational response during emer- gency teaching in Namibia. We aim to unpack the decisions, and processes, employed during the COVID-19 lockdown in the country. 1 Introduction The SARS CoV-2 outbreak in January of 2020 caused significant interruptions in the schooling and academic spheres. The lack of continuance of education during the pandemic was a considerable challenge globally, as the pandemic revealed dis- parities in economies and society (Bozkurt et al., 2020). The continual disruption is markedly affecting learning, the drop-out and return rates of learners, particularly the girl-children (Giannini Albrectsen, 2020). Disruption in education days leads to loss of educational gains and lowers the performance of learners. Moreover, it has P. J. Boer (*) University of Namibia (UNAM), Windhoek, Namibia e-mail: [email protected] T. I. Asino Oklahoma State University (OSU), Stillwater, OK, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s) 2022 V. Dennen et al. (eds.), Global Perspectives on Educational Innovations for Emergency Situations, Educational Communications and Technology: Issues and Innovations, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99634-5_2
- 33. 16 lasting impacts on future careers and financial income. In the context of Namibia, when the COVID-19 numbers increased in the country, necessitating limitations of in-person contact, the Ministry of Education initially issued a directive to schools to engage in e-learning during the first lockdown period (Government of the Republic of Namibia, 2004). However, the Ministry soon realized that it was not possible. The focus of this chapter is to reflect on the decision made by the Ministry on Emergency Responsive Teaching (ERT). We argue that the COVID-19 outbreak presents countries with a glaring reality of an implementation gap that must be addressed. In Namibia’s case, there is a disconnect between a clear understanding of the policy implementation and the reality of implementation preparedness when the directive was given for schools to go online. Furthermore, the events of COVID-19 present a larger question of whether a change is needed in the manner we do school and if the pandemic is sufficiently disruptive to initiate innovation in schooling. In keeping these questions in mind, this chapter reflects on the last year and 8 months, evaluates the Namibian Education Emergency Response Teaching (ERT) strategies, and identifies what needs to take place in Namibia to be prepared for future pandemics. 2 Background To place the Namibian ICT of schools in context and given the need to shift to remote instruction, we need to unpack the internal and external resources necessary for supporting this transition. We need to understand what aspects of the context (institutional, social, and governmental) affected the feasibility and effectiveness of the transition. Namibia embarked on an aggressive plan nearly 20 years ago to fully integrate information and communication technologies (ICT) into its education systems as part of the government’s effort to become a knowledge-based economy by 2030 (Vision 2030, 2004). This process included the creation of the Namibian ICT Education policy that the Namibian Cabinet formally accepted in 2004. Accompanying the ICT Education policy was an implementation plan guide, called “Tech/Na!” (Translates into “Technology is ‘good’ or ‘nice’), which was officially launched in September 2006. Crucial in the reflective or evaluative process is asking how the grades 0–12 interactions with learners, families, personnel, and local and government stakehold- ers impact perceived responsiveness to the shift to ERT. To start the conversation, we need to understand the expectations for families, learners, school personnel, local and government stakeholder roles in the implementation of the ICT in Education Policy, the Tech/Na! Implementation plan and related policy documents. The Namibian ICT Policy for Education proposes to prepare all Namibians to par- ticipate in a global economy by being computer literate. It also intends to leverage change in the education system through education professionals using technology practices to bring about quality, equity, and excellence. P. J. Boer and T. I. Asino
- 34. 17 The Namibian ICT Policy for Education lists six broad objectives (Fig. 2.1), of which the researcher assumes basic understandings. The policy document concretizes the expectations by listing examples of what they hope the technology integration will achieve. In the case of teachers, the policy states that they should become confident in using a computer and other ICTs for educational practices. Moreover, they must prioritize their “knowledge and skills on how to use technology as a tool to support learner-centered teaching, continuous assessment, and other forms of interactive learning are imperative” (MOE, 2006, p. 13). The ICT policy objectives resulted in ICT standards and indicators for Namibian teachers in the ICTs in Education (ICTED) standards and new professional stan- dards for teachers. A significant focus on teacher skills and a minimal emphasis on providing teachers with hands-on ICT-based experiences for their learners. Teachers are to integrate technology into the curriculum and to develop cross-curricular activities that involve technology. The policy puts forward the idea that technology is an appropriate vehicle to achieve goals of knowledge, equity, quality, and access for all. In setting the stage and the expectation from the government as laid out above, it is essential to know how the grades 0–12 interactions with students, families, per- sonnel, and local and government stakeholders’ impact perceived responsiveness to the shift to ERT. The lack of the Tech/Na! Implementation plan is only one of the primary reasons for the failure in continuing education during a crisis. Fuhrman et al. (2020) state that it is commonly assumed that more money would buy more Fig. 2.1 The Namibian ICT Policy for Education Goals (MoE, 2006) 2 Exploring Namibia’s Educational Emergency Response Teaching: A Policy…
- 35. 18 educational resources and create better education, which results in better and quality education. However, what is often overlooked is that educational policies are a continuous process and cannot be separated from their execution. As such, com- munities of practice are crucial in pursuing a shared understanding and sharing practices or common perspectives while implementing policy (Honig, 2006). 3 Evaluation Approach Using CIPP Evaluation Model The CIPP Evaluation Model guides the evaluative discussion from a policy and practice perspective focusing on Context, Input, Processes, and Product (CIPP) (Stufflebeam Zhang, 2017). A desktop analysis informs this evaluation where the relevant policies, official communication from the government (especially the COVID-19 briefings), and Ministry of Education communication circulated to the public, schools, and community to parents and community is used to assess the actions of decisions and future planning. The documentation was analyzed, measur- ing the directives to teachers and schools against the Tech/Na! Framework for implementation indicating the holistic “end-to-end” solution as developed by the Ministry of Education. The areas of the Tech/Na! framework is the educational objectives and expectations, Technology Infrastructure and readiness at school; The technical capacity for maintenance, training and user support, content availability, and educational management. Applying the CIPP questions to the available resources lead to the findings. Additional documentation used were past evaluation reports from external stakeholders and recent data reports collected about the ERT at Namibian schools in the past 20 months. 4 Findings The evaluation of findings is discussed in light of three categories related to infra- structure, support, and professional development. 4.1 Technology Infrastructure The first part of assessing the feasibility of the directive is to ask whether the tech- nology infrastructureis sufficient to handle the needs of ERT. Starting by examining the technology infrastructure is important because they are what is needed for suc- cessful implementation. The implementation of the Namibian ICT in Education Policy has mainly been a failure since its inception in 2005. Despite sizeable finan- cial allocation in the Ministry of Education budget, the results have not been satis- factory. For example, little of the procured computers found their way to schools P. J. Boer and T. I. Asino
- 36. 19 and instead, they languished in a warehouse for years (Isaacs, 2008). The bulk of the N$nine million consignment of computer equipment was meant to be distributed to 40 schools but has not reached the intended schools to date. The government pro- posed the creation of “Namibia’s National Education Technology Service and Support Centre (NETSS) in the capital city of Windhoek. This central technology nexus provides the distribution point as well as the maintenance and technical sup- port for all education technology in Namibia” (Jackson et al., 2011, p. 86). This centre was supposed to aid in the distribution; however, the Ministry had issues in creating the Namibian Education Technology Service Support Centre (NETSS). When they eventually resolved the centre, it was ineffective and lacked the budget- ary funding dedicated to repairs and support to the schools. The lack of success was captured in the Global e-Schools and Communities Initiative (GeSci) evaluation report in 2009 concerning the implementation process, which was not positive. 4.2 Technical Capacity Secondly, we needed to know whether the Ministry support staff has sufficient tech- nical capacity to handle the needs of ERT. In the technical implementation of pro- viding connectivity to the Schools, the Ministry of Education partnered with the country’s Telecommunications provider and established an agency called XNET, whose mandate was to serve as a connectivity provider for schools and educational institutions. XNet was successful in connecting schools to have WIFI, albeit mainly in the administrative block of schools. Many schools still do not know of the dis- counted pricing provided by XNET for school connectivity to the Internet. In the beginning phases of the Tech/Na! Implementation external funding was provided for the manager to assist in the implementation process. The manager position was to be integrated into the organizational structure of the Ministry, which did not happen, and this lack of leadership tragedy may have primarily attributed to the lack of implementation of ICTs in the schools. Further capacity was to be built to develop a database of e-content lesson plans for teachers to use. Initiatives in this regard were individually attempted with Namibia College of Open Learning (NAMCOL), creating content in NOTESMASTER as an open-access learning management system (LMS). NAMCOL is a State Owned Educational institution created to provide learning opportunities for adults and out-of-school youth. The Notesmaster’s initiative in Namibia is one of the winners of the United Nations World Summit Awards 2015, so it seemed logical to expect that it would play a role in the pandemic era education system. Hence, the Ministry expected that the teachers would recommend the NotesMasters as the eLearning delivery of content during the first pandemic lock- down in March of 2020. However, this did not occur mainly because of additional concerns, such as the curriculum not being updated to the newly introduced curriculum. 2 Exploring Namibia’s Educational Emergency Response Teaching: A Policy…
- 37. 20 4.3 Sufficiency of Teacher Professional Development The third aspect that we needed to know was how to assess the success of the direc- tive and whether the ongoing teacher professional development was sufficient to enable ERT before the pandemic. The National Institute for Educational Development (NIED) has offered various training to teachers in designing learning content and online assessments. Despite budgetary constraints, the training contin- ued despite no local e-content online. The training not only focuses on online mate- rial creation but also ICT use and integration in the classroom. The unfortunate situation is that very few teachers are being trained, and it is entirely insufficient to respond to the directive of the Ministry during the lockdown. Many teachers used ICTs during their teacher training, but that does not mean that ICT for personal use translates to teachers being able to create content online and facilitate teaching and learning online (Kacelo et al., 2019). In the in-service professional development programs, the Ministry has made efforts to empower older teachers to receive ICT literacy training through the International Computers Driver’s License (ICDL) training. ICDL consists of several components to be completed and to write an exam or test to get the certification. Unfortunately, this training initiative has been infrequent and interrupted, and as such, most teachers still need to be trained. It is important to note that ICT use or Technical proficiency (i.e. ICDL training) does not necessarily equate to the cogni- tive proficiency of teachers to provide e-learning teaching support to learners (Kacelo et al., 2019). 4.4 Experiences of Stakeholders Fourth, it is most important to find out the experiences of teachers, learners, support personnel, and administrators and what they struggled the most with ERT? Evidence from teachers reveals that the lack of access and connectivity was the biggest chal- lenge amongst teachers and community, learners, and parents. Teachers complained that learners had no self-regulated learning (SRL) and lacked the internal motiva- tion to learn independently (Boer et al., 2021). Teachers recognized that their lack and confidence in using ICTs were highlighted/exposed during the pandemic. The lack of confidence to use ICT and the fear of the CoV-SARS-2 virus infections lead to an inability to teach. Many teachers used their commodities as excuses due to fear. After the failure of the eLearning directive, the Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) strategy resulted in printed workbooks being collected by parents. Additionally, the social media platform, WhatsApp, was used to communicate with the parents when they could not collect learning materials and to send audio record- ings to explain the material and give instructions. P. J. Boer and T. I. Asino
- 38. 21 5 Conclusions and Evaluation Impacts When evaluating and reflecting on the events and experiences of the education sys- tem during ERTs, we need to ask how we can adapt our processes to respond to such operational challenges in the future. For teachers to be flexible and pliable and still deliver quality education in a crisis is challenging. Investment should be placed in the training of teachers and specifically for teachers to understand systems thinking and develop a more sustainable and uninterrupted approach to education. Schools, principals, and teachers understand their role and function in a larger system that can address the issues of change and adapt fast. Focus on proper ICT literacy train- ing for learners and teachers. The MoEAC can provide ICT equipment, resources, and technical support to teachers and learners, positively increasing the perceived readiness of teachers to teach online. One way to address the challenges is to create an educational technology/learn- ing design coordinator at schools. This can be a leadership function like the heads of departments but focusing on the school’s instructional leadership. Most impor- tantly, is also asking how feedback from learners, teachers, and school support teams inform ERT needs in the future. A clear plan to train ICT integration in teaching needs to take top priority. This plan needs to include learning design on creating online materials and online facili- tation tools. Teachers also were aware that their traditional teaching style and role would change significantly when they moved to an online platform (Boer et al., 2021). They admitted that they did not have the required IT equipment to teach online. Teachers said that e-learning is helpful to improve teaching and learning but raised concerns about students’ ability to study on their own or to be self-directed in their learning. Concerns were also raised about the learners’ time management skills. Most importantly, teachers believed that community engagement is key to the continuance of education. Moreover, the integration of technology in schools is a complex process that, if pursued correctly, can yield benefits that can be harvested in emergencies. However, many view technology integration merely through the lens of finances, forgetting that “throwing money at schools” is not always an effective method of solving prob- lems (Fuhrman et al., 2020). Among the approaches that could be employed is more cohesiveness in policies and legislation that would strengthen teacher qualification, regulations for preparation in a pandemic to reduce disruption in education for learners. Many parents in a higher socio-economic level have taken their children out of “regular” schooling systems and enrolled them into a homeschooling system pri- marily offered online and web-based. It is crucial in the research of policies and legislation. Deficits of resources and knowledge help partly explain the problems that policies experience in their implementation and resulting in poor performance of learners and a poor educational system. This, however, does not diminish the importance of causal research in what happens in the teaching and learning interac- tion in the classroom or any other learning environment (Fuhrman et al., 2020). We have very little direct evidence about what teachers do and how their actions affect 2 Exploring Namibia’s Educational Emergency Response Teaching: A Policy…
- 39. 22 students’ learning. Such knowledge is essential to develop the right policies, train- ing, and interventions when national and international crises such as the CoV- SARS-2 pandemic occur. Educational policies that marginalize the use of technology in schools fail to take advantage of the tremendous range of skills, experience, and resources that learners bring with them to school (Kozma, 2011). Such educational policies must consider informal learning and the value it brings into a formal learn- ing environment. If governments prioritize educational transformational policies, they need to consider the economic rationale and respond thereto (Kozma, 2011). References Boer, P. J., Marais, J., Sheya, H., Halweendo, J. M. (2021). The Perceptions of English Teachers, at a selected Combined School in Erongo Region, on their readiness to conduct online teaching during the COVID-19 lockdown in Namibia. The Namibia CPD Journal for Educators, 6(1), 185–210. https://doi.org/10.32642/ncpdje.v6i1.1558 Bozkurt, A., Jung, I., Xiao, J., Vladimirschi, V., Schuwer, R., Egorov, G., Lambert, S., Al-Freih, M., Pete, J., Olcott, D., Jr., Rodes, V., Aranciaga, I., Bali, M., Alvarez, A. J., Roberts, J., Pazurek, A., Raffaghelli, J. E., Panagiotou, N., de Coëtlogon, P., … Paskevicius, M. (2020). A global outlook to the interruption of education due to COVID-19 pandemic: Navigating in a time of uncertainty and crisis. Asian Journal of Distance Education, 15(1), 1–126. Retrieved from http://www.asianjde.com/ojs/index.php/AsianJDE/article/view/462 Fuhrman, S. H., Cohen, D. K., Mosher, F. (2020). The state of education policy research. Routledge. Government of the Republic of Namibia (2004). Namibia Vision 2030: Policy framework for long- term national development. Office of the President. Giannini, S., Albrectsen, A., (2020). Covid-19 school closures around the world will hit girls hardest, Retrieved from https://en.unesco.org/news/ covid-19-school-closures-around-world-will-hit-girls-hardest Honig, M. I. (Ed.). (2006). New directions in education policy implementation: Confronting com- plexity. Suny Press. Isaacs, D.. (2008, February 14). School computers rot in store. The Namibian, Retrieved on 20 April 2012 from http://www.namibian.com.na/index.php?id=28tx_ttnews[tt_ news]=44475no_c ache=1. Jackson, S. J., Pompe, A., Krieshok, G. (2011). Things fall apart: Maintenance, repair, and technology for education initiatives in rural Namibia. In Proceedings of the 2011 Conference (pp. 83–90). Kacelo, P. M., Boer, P. J., Chainda, A. M. (2019). The impact of international computer driv- ing license training on the use of information and communication technologies in the class- rooms by teachers in the zambezi Region. The Namibia CPD Journal for Educators, 5, 87–108. https://doi.org/10.32642/ncpdje.v5i0.1244 Kozma, R. B. (2011). ICT, education transformation, and economic development: An analysis of the US National Educational Technology Plan. E-Learning and Digital Media, 8(2), 106–120. Ministry of Education (2006). Education and training sector improvement programme (ETSIP). Retrieved from https://planipolis.iiep.unesco.org/upload/Namibia/Namibia%20eTSiP%20 2007.pdf P. J. Boer and T. I. Asino
- 40. 23 Ministry of education. (2006a). ICTs in education implementation plan guide. Retrieved from http://www.tech.na/download/implementationPlanGuide.pdf. Stufflebeam, D. L., Zhang, G. (2017). The CIPP evaluation model: How to evaluate for improve- ment and accountability. Guilford Publications. Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the chapter's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the chapter's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. 2 Exploring Namibia’s Educational Emergency Response Teaching: A Policy…
- 41. 25 Chapter 3 Creating Sustainable Early Childhood Learning Environments for Emergency Situations: The Case of Sweden, Kenya and South Africa Sechaba M. G. Mahlomaholo and Makeresemese R. Mahlomaholo Abstract Early Childhood Education (ECE) is understood to take place between birth and the age of 9 including preschool as well as primary school years. It is also at this stage that the greatest damage can be inflicted on the vulnerable growing child. This chapter through literature and data from one country internationally, one on the African continent and South Africa explores challenges of teaching and learning, at early childhood environments during the pandemic. These serve as bases for mapping out how these nations continue to survive and lay foundation for the future productive citizenry in their respective contexts. Issues of race and social class are laid bare so as to come up with plausible strategies to create sustainable early childhood learning environments. These are understood to be contexts where economic development of all in an environmentally sustainable manner for the social inclusion of all are emphasized. The chapter over and above the research lit- erature also examines strategies as well as theories of sustainable early childhood learning environments by way of making recommendations for South Africa in its search for solutions under such emergency situations. 1 Introduction and Background This chapter explores the challenges and the corresponding responses in teaching and learning at early childhood learning environments during the pandemic. International,continentalandnationalprioritiessuchastheSustainableDevelopment S. M. G. Mahlomaholo (*) University of Mpumalanga, Siyabuswa, South Africa e-mail: [email protected] M. R. Mahlomaholo University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pinetown, South Africa e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s) 2022 V. Dennen et al. (eds.), Global Perspectives on Educational Innovations for Emergency Situations, Educational Communications and Technology: Issues and Innovations, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99634-5_3
- 42. 26 Goals (SDGs), theAfricaAgenda 2063 and the National Development Plan in South Africa are considered for guidance in response to the challenges of the pandemic especially among the ECE contexts. These priorities facilitate the creation of sus- tainable early childhood education both directly and indirectly. Sustainable early childhood learning environments therefore are contexts that foster optimum and quality growth and development of children from birth, at least until third Grade in a Primary school (Ardoin Bowers, 2020). These contexts as shall be demon- strated in this chapter, include the use of community classrooms for effective media- tion by able others, be they parents, siblings, friends and/or teachers (educators), etc. (Marcus, 2020). The above places huge premium on effective facilitation through appropriate curriculum and learning content, as well as good management through supportive structures of governance. When the pandemic struck, almost all economies experienced a huge shock as a result of the lockdown that became necessary as a measure to respond to the spread of the virus. Factories and businesses were shut down, and so were schools, includ- ing ECE centres (Barua, 2020; Cunliffe et al., 2019). People had to observe social distance to avoid droplets falling on and being inhaled by others in their immediate environment. To date a few of the schools and centres for ECE across the world have reopened. However, most people across the globe are compelled by their respective governments to wear masks when they are in public spaces (Buheji et al., 2020). For purposes of this chapter, this exploration is conducted in Sweden, Kenya and South Africa. The three countries represent some of the best practices in early child- hood education across the globe (Al-Samarrai et al., 2020; OECD, 2020). In Sweden—with a total population of ten million inhabitants—almost all children (about 98%), between the ages of 4- and 9-years old attend creches, nursery, kinder- garten and/or formal primary schools (Naumann et al., 2013; Smidt Lehrl, 2020). The levels of unemployed are around the 10.2% mark. Before the pandemic, chil- dren were cared for at these creches, kindergartens and primary schools during the working day to enable the parents to attend to the demands of their employments and/or businesses (Hort et al., 2019). 1.1 Challenges of ECE in Sweden During the pandemic to date, one of the main challenges was to ensure that Swedish children continued to learn effectively. Caregivers and teachers of these children were still not adequately trained to mount effective teaching using remote technolo- gies as was necessary during the lockdown (Kavaliunas et al., 2020). They required training in transferring their whole curriculum content online and to make it attrac- tive and interactive for the young early childhood learners (Valeriani et al., 2020). Even parents did not have sufficient teaching and learning skills to support their children in these new learning contexts. They were required to know the content of the curriculum and to manipulate remote learning software in a manner that enriched their children’s learning experiences (Gustavsson Beckman, 2020). The greatest S. M. G. Mahlomaholo and M. R. Mahlomaholo
- 43. 27 challenge was the tender age of the children. They still required optimum parental support. Their levels of self-regulation that would enable them to learn on their own and progress successfully therein, were still at the rudimentary stage (Valeriani et al., 2020). Even in Sweden which could be considered to be relatively homoge- nous in terms of language groups, there were still ‘foreign and underclass’ language minorities who came from the Romani, Yiddish, Sami, Tornedalian and Finish groups (Sundberg, 2013). The Swedish education system promised equity to all in the provision of resources and opportunities, but the immigrants and some of the minority groups still experienced levels of exclusion due to their socio-economic status and language (Sundqvist, 2019). 1.2 Challenges of ECE in Kenya Some of the challenges mentioned above, faced early childhood education (ECE) provision in Kenya as well (Ngwacho, 2020). While Kenya’s population stands at 54 million, it is five times the size of Sweden. Its Gross Domestic Product is USD 98.84 billion compared to Sweden’s USD 534.61 billion (Okyere, 2020). This explains the differentials in terms of ECE resources provisioning. In spite the lim- ited wealth, the good performance of the Kenyan’s ECE provisioning up until the advent of COVID—19, is attributed to the support and pioneering work of the Netherlands based Bernard van Leer Foundation—BvLF which secured more fund- ing from the World Bank and partnered with the Kenya Institute of Education—KIE (Burns et al., 2021). The latter organisation, closely linked to the Kenyan Ministry of Education, worked together with the BvLF to ensure that ECE reached many of the rural children in Kenya who would otherwise be left out due to the relatively low levels of the economic output of the country (Burns et al., 2021; Makokoro, 2021). The pandemic seems to have reversed the gains that Kenya had made on the ECE front as many children stayed out of schools during the lockdown (Schwettmann, 2020). Catering for 13 language groups also compounded the problem. The govern- ment was extremely cautious to protect lives of learners, but the provision of ECE was dealt a huge blow as the country did not have sufficient resources to sustain remote teaching and learning (Gikandi, 2020). The provision of hand sanitizers and big-enough teaching and learning spaces for socially distanced in-person interac- tion were limited (Cunliffe et al., 2019). Kenyan population has 100% access to radio broadcast, and about 65% to TV programmes. This means that although ECE learners could be reached through radio programmes, the same could not be said about TV broadcasts. On the other hand, Kenya has 85% internet penetration which is a little less than in Sweden (UNICEF, 2020). This implies that many do make use thereof, however the poorer households suffered more during the lockdown due to limited access to these resources. The greatest challenge in Kenya is still the train- ing of caregivers and teachers of ECE as advanced skills are required to design and upload relevant, effective and interactive materials for learners to access ubiqui- tously (Roy, 2021). Parents in Kenya left their children without sufficient support 3 Creating Sustainable Early Childhood Learning Environments for Emergency…
- 44. 28 when the lockdown eased as they had to go to work and/or give attention to the management of their businesses. In spite of the relatively small size of the Kenyan economy, the level of unemployment is very low at around 7.2% (UNICEF, 2020). 1.3 Challenges of ECE in South Africa The South African situation seems to be in the middle between that of Sweden and Kenya. It aptly captures the challenges of ECE experienced across the globe. This also highlights the extremities of South Africa, inherited from its apartheid past. Its population of 60 million is close to that of Kenya while its GDP of USD 302.61 billion approaches that of Sweden. Its unemployment rate of 32.6% which is higher than that of both Sweden and Kenya, was exacerbated by the pandemic. The pan- demic found SouthAfrica deeply divided between, and further exacerbated the class distinction between the affluent and the poorest communities. The levels of unem- ployment among the mainly African and poor were very high and continue to rise as a result of the lockdown (Ebrahim et al., 2019). The above anomalies occurred in the provision of the ECE. Inequalities on the basis of race were thus reproduced, as learners from mainly African communities lagged behind educationally, economically and otherwise. They are afflicted by poverty, malnutrition, high mortality rates and antisocial behaviours (Ebrahim et al., 2019). During the pandemic children from these communities did not learn as their homes did not have internet connectivity or electricity (Hanson, 2021). The mainly white communities with a sprinkling of African middle-class, could continue with some kind of learning offered via remote learning technologies. The Black people’s homes were not conducive to any kind of learning. Learners did not have own bed- rooms to study quietly in. Their entire homes are crowded and noisy and lacking any form of support (Ebrahim et al., 2019). Parents are themselves poor and not edu- cated. Caregivers at their informal creches have no formal teacher training, qualifi- cations or expertise (Ebrahim et al., 2019). Curriculum for ECE in these communities is still under construction, thus nothing was or could be uploaded for use by learners during the lockdown (Ebrahim et al., 2019). The challenges of violence and abuse are prevalent in these communities making remote learning almost impossible (Ebrahim et al., 2019). In the more affluent communities, the situation is more or less similar to what obtains in Sweden. ECE provisioning is well entrenched, inter- net connectivity and provision of remote learning is widespread. The challenges to teaching and learning at ECE during the crisis of the pandemic in the countries described above, made this chapter urgent and necessary as we attempt to formulate responses and solutions to this huge problem that threatens whole communities across generations. S. M. G. Mahlomaholo and M. R. Mahlomaholo
- 45. 29 2 Framing the Responses: Sustainable Development Goals, Africa Agenda 2063 and the National Development Plan To guide the responses to the challenges highlighted above, this chapter assumes that, if early childhood learning environments are sustainable, then they can with- stand and survive the deleterious effects of the pandemic (Ardoin Bowers, 2020). This assumption is based on the 17 United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals -SDGs which the entire humanity bound itself to and agreed to operationalise (Munro Arli, 2020). This notion focuses on fostering economic development of all individuals in all countries. It also advocates that economic development should be environmentally sustainable (Daher-Nashif Bawadi, 2020). The SDGs also aim at ensuring social inclusion of all, irrespective of ability, gender, race, socio- economic status, religion or any marker (Craig Ruhl, 2020). The point we are making is that sustainability in early childhood education ensures that there is unending economic development of all, in an environmentally respectful manner towards social inclusion of all (Marcus, 2020). The notion of sustainability is important for this study because it has been cas- caded into the powerful priorities of the Africa Agenda 2063 (Neuman Okeng’o, 2019). These emphasise the crafting of a prosperous continent, with a strong educa- tion as its basis (Nhamo, 2017). The SDGs and the Africa Agenda 2063 found fur- ther expression in South Africa’s National Development Plan - NDP (National Planning Commission of South Africa, 2011). Its Chap. 9 stipulates very specifi- cally the targets and the outcomes for educational practice starting with early child- hood learning environments - ECE (Batala, 2021). Furthermore, the idea of learning environments is adapted from De Corte and Barry Fraser who recognise the impor- tant influence of the learning individual’s contexts in the development of academic performance (Boekaerts et al., 2002; Humphrey et al., 2020). Provision of quality early childhood education during and beyond the pandemic is thus the focus of this paper. This argument is mounted and guided by these international and national considerations to ensure adequate response during and after the pandemic. 3 Responses to the Challenges The three countries constituting the focus of this chapter, seem to present a coherent and logical continuum of responses to the challenges discussed above, as well as the principles of the international and national ideals referred to in response. This con- tinuum describes a multipronged approach that can be adopted and adapted accord- ingly for countries experiencing neglect of ECE, especially during the pandemic. For example, Kenya’s approach of organising households and neighbourhoods into what is theoretically known as community classrooms seems to lay the basis for this multipronged strategy. Even though the leaders and communities in this country did not use this concept, the similarities between how they responded to the challenges 3 Creating Sustainable Early Childhood Learning Environments for Emergency…
- 46. 30 of teaching and learning during the lockdown and how the notion of the community classrooms is described and operationalised, are very striking. The case in point is that of BvLF in Kenya that brought together and engaged many stakeholders in neighbourhoods and communities to establish and extend the reach of the ECE (Burns et al., 2021; Makokoro, 2021; Ngwacho, 2020). These included local, tradi- tional, municipalities, provincial and national governments, and ministries, as well as faith-based, non-governmental including community-based organisations. Individuals and collectives from these community classrooms provided safe spaces where ECE children who had challenges from their homes and could not attend school due to the lockdown could learn (Burns et al., 2021; Makokoro, 2021). Individuals and families in the community who have internet connectivity, com- puting gadgets, conducive learning spaces, and other learning support resources made these available to those children who come from the households deprived of such (Makokoro, 2021; Ngwacho, 2020). Teachers, professors, parents, university students and other community members who have expertise in teaching, curriculum design and skills to use remote teaching and learning resources volunteered them to these collectives in their neighbourhoods. In this way children, especially those who come from deprived homes, continued to learn effectively (Burns et al., 2021; Makokoro, 2021; Ngwacho, 2020). Parents and other members of the communities provided support like, basic hygiene and caring, feeding, mentoring and coaching as well as looking after the general well-being of these children. Thus, closed formal classrooms of 30 or so, were replaced for a while by a number of smaller ‘distrib- uted’ community classrooms of say 5 to 10 learners per each of the 5 sites, who continued to be taught and cared for remotely. This approach still requires the obser- vance of the Covid- 19 protocols, such as masking, social distancing, sanitising, regular washing of hands as well as compliance with high standards of hygiene (Makokoro, 2021; Ngwacho, 2020). Elements of this approach while particularly relevant in poor and deprived contexts were also found practised in relevant affluent neighbourhoods of Sweden. For this approach to succeed, a well organised structure has to be in place to initi- ate, maintain, organise, lead and evaluate. The Bernard van Leer Foundation in Kenya served as such a structure until the local community leaders in conjunction with the Ministry of Education took over the responsibility (Burns et al., 2021; Makokoro, 2021). Such a structure needs to be guided by democratic principles so as to ensure inclusion of all and protection of each and every child’s right to learn, including remotely. Advocacy to the national leaders to ensure that principles of equity, social justice, freedom, peace and hope are enshrined in the policies and legislativedirectivesarethusmadeandassuredthroughsuchstructures.Furthermore, such a structure requires funding in order to support the community classrooms in the form of Covid- 19 protocol compliant supplies (e.g., sanitisers, masks, etc.), remote teaching and learning resources, continuing professional development of care givers and teachers, consumables, and personnel recruitment and payment costs, to mention a few (Burns et al., 2021; Makokoro, 2021; Ngwacho, 2020). This therefore means that the government through its relevant ministries, business and S. M. G. Mahlomaholo and M. R. Mahlomaholo
- 47. 31 any other funding agencies have to be involved in order to ensure the sustainability of these community classrooms as learning environments. Through such structures professional development initiatives took place in Sweden, Kenya and South Africa (Croese et al., 2020). What differed among these initiatives were the levels of sophistication dependent on the levels at which ECE care givers and teachers entered the projects. South Africa provided a good example of response at this stage where universities came together to provide their expertise in terms of mounting professional development programmes for the teachers so that they could be able to design curriculum relevant to remote teaching and learning contexts (Ebrahim et al., 2019). SouthAfrican universities provided excellent exam- ples of how care givers and nurses are trained in designing curriculum and teaching and learning materials. In Sweden it has been demonstrated that for teachers and care givers to be com- petent and to function effectively in remote teaching and learning contexts they need to be empowered in, and be able to cultivate particular skills for themselves, as well as among their learners (Pellegrino Hilton, 2012, pp.731–734). These are skills that will sustain them when their ‘more able others’ are not with them to pro- vide in-person support in their remote teaching and learning contexts. These include critical thinking skills “for processing and cognitive strategies” such as those for “problem solving, analysis, logical reasoning, interpretation, decision making, executive functioning” (Pellegrino Hilton, 2012, p. 731). Interactions between ECE facilitators like caregivers and teachers on the one hand, and their charges on the other require these skills for them to be effective. Remote contexts according to the Swedish ECE researchers and practitioners put a lot of emphasis on care givers and teachers as well as learners to lay bases for the cultivation of these skills as early as possible. Content and facilitation strategies have these as the targeted outcomes. Learners through remote teaching technologies are taught the content as exempli- fied from South Africa. This is coupled with training in skills to facilitate remote teaching as well as the mentioned critical thinking skills. Collaborative group skills that promote communication are also included in the curriculum for teacher devel- opment programmes as well as for the ECE learners (Pellegrino Hilton, 2012, p. 734). Both teachers/caregivers and learner are taught ways of collaboration among themselves and with other stakeholders in their respective community class- rooms. Teamwork and cooperation through internet coordination as well as skills to show “empathy, perspective taking, cultivation of trust, service orientation, conflict resolution and negotiation” (Pellegrino Hilton, 2012, p. 732) constitute another set of skills being emphasised in remote teaching and learning contexts as argued and demonstrated through research. Intellectual openness that includes the follow- ing is at the centre of remote teaching and learning, namely, flexibility, adaptability, artistic and cultural appreciation, personal and social responsibility, intercultural competency, appreciation for diversity, capacity for lifelong learning and Intellectual interest and curiosity (Pellegrino Hilton, 2012, pp. 731–734). Electronic and freely accessible materials that facilitators of teacher development programmes as well as teachers and caregivers can use are placed on the websites. 3 Creating Sustainable Early Childhood Learning Environments for Emergency…
- 48. 32 Even ways of accessing these are disseminated in the distributed community class- rooms for use by all during the crisis situations and beyond, for the creation of sustainable ECE learning environments. 4 Conclusion The chapter has demonstrated that there are lessons to be learned from countries that practice good ECE strategies during the pandemic. However, if their strategies are integrated logically to cater for all contexts, even better results can be achieved. These can then lead to the creation of sustainable early childhood learning environ- ments through remote platforms. Central to the argument being pursued is the value and importance of community classrooms that engenders networking across con- texts to include even non-conventional partners. The chapter proposes that commu- nity classrooms could be the centre piece of ensuring learning continues during crisis situations, in all contexts. Universities, or any duly responsible agency can take the responsibility of putting together such a structure that depends mainly of volunteers to initiate but is fostered by circumstances on the ground. University seems to be best placed to initiate due its community engagement offices. References Al-Samarrai, S., M. Gangwar P. Gala (2020), The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Education Financing, World Bank, Retrieved May 27, 2020, from https://openknowledge. worldbank.org/handle/10986/33739 Ardoin, N. M., Bowers, A. W. (2020). Early childhood environmental education: A systematic review of the research literature. Educational Research Review, 31, 100353. Barua, S. (2020). Understanding Coronanomics: The economic implications of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Available at SSRN 3566477. Batala, L. (2021). Global, continental, and regional development agendas–what does it mean to domesticate or localise these? The Thinker, 87(2), 37–42. Boekaerts, M., Fraser, B., De Corte, E., Phillips, D., Anderson, L., Postlethwaite, T. N. (2002). The international academy of education. Retrieved February, 4, 2006. Buheji, M., da Costa Cunha, K., Beka, G., Mavric, B., De Souza, Y. L., da Costa Silva, S. S., … Yein, T. C. (2020). The extent of covid-19 pandemic socio-economic impact on global poverty. A global integrative multidisciplinary review. American Journal of Economics, 10(4), 213–224. Burns, D., Howard, J., Ospina, S. M. (Eds.). (2021). The SAGE handbook of participatory research and inquiry. SAGE. Craig, R. K., Ruhl, J. B. (2020). New realities require new priorities: Rethinking sustainable development goals in the anthropocene. Environmental Law Beyond. Croese, S., Green, C., Morgan, G. (2020). Localizing the sustainable development goals through the lens of urban resilience: Lessons and learnings from 100 resilient cities and cape town. Sustainability, 12(2), 550. Cunliffe, G., Holz, C., Mbeva, K., Pauw, P., Winkler, H. (2019). Comparative analysis of the NDCs of Canada, the European Union, Kenya and South Africa from an equity perspective. University of Cape Town. S. M. G. Mahlomaholo and M. R. Mahlomaholo
- 49. 33 Daher-Nashif, S., Bawadi, H. (2020). Women’s health and Well-being in the United Nations sustainable development goals: A narrative review of achievements and gaps in the Gulf states. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(3), 1059. Ebrahim, H., Waniganayake, M., Hannaway, D., Modaise, M. (2019). Curriculum, pedagogy and assessment: A handbook for early childhood education. Gikandi, S. (2020). Literature and the Right to Be Human. PMLA, 135(5), 847–858. Gustavsson, J., Beckman, L. (2020). Compliance to recommendations and mental health con- sequences among elderly in Sweden during the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic—A cross sectional online survey. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(15), 5380. Hanson, V. D. (2021). Mexifornia: A state of becoming. Encounter Books. Hort, S. E., Kings, L., Kravchenko, Z. (2019). The Swedish welfare system: The neoliberal turn and most recent struggles over decentralised top-down re-regulation. In Routledge handbook of European welfare systems (pp. 466–482). Routledge. Humphrey, N., Lendrum, A., Wigelsworth, M., Greenberg, M. T. (Eds.). (2020). Social and emotional learning. Routledge. Kavaliunas, A., Ocaya, P., Mumper, J., Lindfeldt, I., Kyhlstedt, M. (2020). Swedish policy anal- ysis for Covid-19. Health Policy and Technology, 9(4), 598–612. Marcus, R. (2020). Ending violence against children while addressing the global climate crisis. London Overseas Development Institute. Makokoro, P. (2021). The establishment and outcomes of African early childhood development networks and conferences, 1990–2009 (Doctoral dissertation). Munro, V., Arli, D. (2020). Corporate sustainable actions through United Nations sustainable development goals: The internal customer's response. International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing, 25(3), e1660. Naumann, I., McLean, C., Koslowski, A., Tisdall, K., Lloyd, E. (2013). Early childhood edu- cation and care provision: international review of policy, delivery and funding. Final report. National Government Publication. Neuman, M. J., Okeng’o, L. (2019). Early childhood policies in low-and middle-income coun- tries. Early Years, 39(3), 223–228. Ngwacho, A. G. (2020). COVID-19 pandemic impact on Kenyan education sector: Learner chal- lenges and mitigations. Journal of Research Innovation and Implications in Education, 4(2), 128–139. Nhamo, G. (2017). New global sustainable development agenda: A focus on Africa. Sustainable Development, 25(3), 227–241. Pellegrino, J. W., Hilton, M. L. (Eds.). (2012). Education for life and work: Developing transfer- able knowledge and skills in the twenty-first century. National Academies Press. OECD. (2020). Key country policy responses. OECD website. Retrieved June 25, 2020, from https://oecd.github.io/OECD-covid-action-map/data/CoronavirusUpdate_AllCountries_ Public.xlsx Okyere, C. Y. (2020). The effect of internet services on child education outcomes: Evidence from POA! Internet in Kenya. Journal of Development Effectiveness, 14, 1–15. Roy, S. (2021). Restructuring institutional care: Challenges and coping measures for children and caregivers in post-COVID-19 era. Institutionalised Children Explorations and Beyond, 8(1), 65–78. Schwettmann, J. (2020). Covid-19 and the informal economy. In Impact and response strategies in Sub-Saharan Africa. Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES). Smidt, W., Lehrl, S. (Eds.). (2020). Teacher–child interactions in early childhood education and care classrooms: Characteristics, predictivity, dependency and methodological issues. Routledge. Sundberg, G. (2013). Language policy and multilingual identity in Sweden through the lens of generation Y. Scandinavian Studies, 85(2), 205–232. 3 Creating Sustainable Early Childhood Learning Environments for Emergency…
- 50. 34 Sundqvist, P. (2019). Sweden and informal language learning. In The handbook of informal lan- guage learning (pp. 319–332). Wiley Blackwell. UNICEF. (2020). UNICEF humanitarian action for children 2021: Overview. UNICEF. Valeriani, G., Sarajlic Vukovic, I., Lindegaard, T., Felizia, R., Mollica, R., Andersson, G. (2020, December). Addressing healthcare gaps in Sweden during the COVID-19 outbreak: On com- munity outreach and empowering ethnic minority groups in a digitalized context. In healthcare (Vol. 8, No. 4, p. 445). Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute. Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the chapter's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the chapter's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. S. M. G. Mahlomaholo and M. R. Mahlomaholo
- 51. 35 Chapter 4 Teachers Co-creating for Teachers: Design and Implementation of an Online Teacher Professional Development Course in Sub-Saharan Africa Lucian Vumilia Ngeze and Sridhar Iyer Abstract As schools closed during the Covid-19 pandemic, different digital plat- forms were available for remote teaching. However, the majority of the school teach- ers were not trained on how to use different digital technologies to continue their teaching. Rather than waiting for technology experts to provide such training, one approach is co-creation, that is, to identify teachers who are adept at using technol- ogy in their teaching and mentor them to create materials for training other teachers. Co-creation is collaborative and is created by peers and hence easier for adoption. This chapter reports on a four-week online course developed by co-creators (teach- ers mentored by a trainer) for school teachers (course participants). The course aimed at introducing participants to different electronic and digital technology tools to engage students remotely. Selected teachers co-created the lessons, activities and resources, including guidelines, tips and procedures that participants could use while preparing their own lessons. Participants reflected on how the course changed their mindset in using different technology tools and how they were able to engage students during and beyond the course duration. A model to engage teachers as co- creators and co-facilitators of such training programs evolved. 1 Introduction The closure of schools due to Covid-19 affected approximately 1.7 billion students who then had to keep learning even from their homes (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2020). Ministries of Education in different Sub- Saharan African countries tried different approaches to continue remote teaching (Association for the Development of Education in Africa Report, 2020). These L. V. Ngeze (*) · S. Iyer Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, India e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s) 2022 V. Dennen et al. (eds.), Global Perspectives on Educational Innovations for Emergency Situations, Educational Communications and Technology: Issues and Innovations, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99634-5_4
- 52. 36 approaches helped to engage students whose families could afford tools and equip- ment with support from their parents/guardians (Belay, 2020). However, many schools did not manage to engage students because of reasons such as poor Internet connectivity and lack of teacher training to use technology (Dube, 2020). While some teachers managed to engage students using technologies, mostly mobile apps and other tools (Dzinamarira Musuka, 2021), many teachers were left behind as they did not have knowledge of the available technologies to engage students (Association for the Development of Education in Africa Report, 2020). In order to address this gap, the authors who are also the mentors decided to use their expertise as faculty members. As teachers with training abilities in technology integration in education from the region, they both engaged school teachers to design, develop and implement a professional development online course. They aimed to respond to two evaluative questions: (1) What are the teachers’ experi- ences when learning from a co-created online course for teacher professional devel- opment?; and (2) What are the experiences of the co-creators of an online course for teacher professional development? The course was carried out in two phases, each phase focusing on different aspects of the course. In the end, a proposed model for designing such training pro- grams evolved. 2 Phase 1: Creation of the Course 2.1 Teachers’ Experiences and Needs Assessment The first step in the first phase of this course was to identify activities that teachers were engaged in during the pandemic and determine the topics on which there was a need for training. Teachers were surveyed by asking “What are you doing during this Covid-19 pandemic when schools are closed?” A total of 735 (502 males and 233 females) teachers from different Sub-Saharan African countries responded to the survey. It was found out that 99.3% of the total participants possessed mobile devices (smartphones, or tablets) which made it easier to access the online resources. Some of these respondents engaged students using electronic broadcasting systems, while other teachers started using mobile apps to share learning resources with their students and others mentored other teachers. Some teachers said that: “I am working at home and I tried to help children by using online, radio and TV programs for teaching”, Rwanda English primary school teacher. “I am preparing questions and answer to send to my pupils and they answer and send back to me to mark them through WhatsApp”, Tanzania primary school Mathematics and ICT teacher. “I am mentoring teachers remotely and calling in and students to the progress of their assignments”, Liberia school teacher. L. V. Ngeze and S. Iyer
- 53. 37 These respondents acknowledged where help was needed and knowledge of technology tools in these times would help. Having known what teachers were engaged in, the next activity was to complete a needs assessment. The responses produced five topics to be offered over 4 weeks (1) the use of radios and television at home showed a need to develop a topic on distance education technologies and effective ways they can be used; (2) the posses- sion of smartphones by most teachers meant that there was a need to include a topic on how to use smartphones in teaching and for professional development; (3) the sharing of resources using mobile apps such as WhatsApp implied including a topic on mobile apps in teaching and learning; (4) a topic on emotional intelligence was introduced as a way for teachers to address the well-being of their students, and (5) a need to learn how to create activities that engage students on the content led to the final topic on techniques to engage students. Table 4.1. shows the weekly topics and the goal of each topic. 2.2 Course Co-creators The second step was to identify teachers who had the requisite expertise to deliver the topics. For this purpose, an online Google form was shared among teachers to identify names of volunteering teachers to develop resources and activities for 1 week. Questions asked about teaching experience, experiences with online courses, experience in recording video lessons, their experience of using mobile apps (Edpuzzle, Padlet and Google form) in teaching their classes, and their avail- ability to engage participants in the course. Each teacher was allowed to select only one topic from Table 4.1. Twenty two teachers responded to the survey and they were selected against the following criteria. 1. At least 5 years of teaching experience; 2. Completed at least 2 online courses and Table 4.1. Weekly topics and goals Week Topics of the week Goal Week 1 Distance educational technologies To engage students remotely To introduce teachers to distance education technologies commonly found in households Week 2 Smartphones in teaching and Professional development To find ways to effectively use mobile devices in class and for their professional development Week 3 Mobile apps for teaching and Learning To use the differently available mobile educational apps in teaching and learning Week 4A Emotional intelligence for Educators To use emotional intelligence in controlling emotions and promoting Well-being Week 4B Techniques to engage students To use active learning strategies while teaching 4 Teachers Co-creating for Teachers: Design and Implementation of an Online…
- 54. 38 3. Experience in recording videos using mobile phones. Moreover, motivation to volunteer and availability to engage participants online for the duration of the course was determined through close-ended questions on the Google form. Three teachers from Tanzania were selected as the course co-creators. • Teacher A, Geography and ICT secondary school teacher who developed content for the topic Smartphones in Teaching and Professional Development (offered in Week 2) and Mobile Apps for Teaching and Learning (offered in Week 3). • Teacher B, Geography tutor who taught the topic Emotional Intelligence for Educators for Week 4A. • Teacher C, History and English secondary school teacher who developed and taught the topic Techniques to Engage Students (for Week 4B). 2.3 Course Design and Development The third step was to mentor the co-creators to produce the online course. Table 4.2 shows the activities performed in 2020 by both the mentor and co-creators at differ- ent stages. The mentor carried out multiple online orientation meetings to help the co- creators develop their topics. An introduction to online courses, their components and topic selection were discussed in the first orientation meeting. This meeting helped the co-creators understand the different components of an online course and why each topic was selected. After the orientation, the co-creators recorded their video lessons with video editing being completed by two multimedia experts. Activity March April May June Phase 1 – Co-creation Process Needs Assessment - Gather details from expected participants, requirements and expectations Identifying co-creators from the shared online survey First orientation meeting – mentor action Lesson content design and sequencing Lesson video recording and editing Second orientation meeting – mentor action Creating activities and assessment by co-creators Phase 2 – Online Course Implementation Moodle Customization and Course Setup Third orientation meeting – mentor action Course Start Course orchestration – both mentor and co-creators End of the course Table 4.2 Activities and duration of the co-creation process Each grey-shaded box indicated the time (month) in which that activity took place L. V. Ngeze and S. Iyer
- 55. Another Random Document on Scribd Without Any Related Topics
- 56. are His handiwork. Why should we suspect that He will be indisposed to give us whatever may be needful for the existence thus created? Will He, by neglect, frustrate His own purpose? The greater gift can only be sustained and made valid by the lesser ones. Without food and raiment the body must decay, and its life must perish. God does not give imperfectly. Another point is this, that anxious care answers no good purpose. It is useless. If we could by means of it gain an exemption from future evil, common prudence would dictate it as a wise expedient. But it is not so. Christ puts this consideration very strongly. No amount of foreboding can add a single moment to our life, for the boundaries of our life have been fixed by God. The future is utterly unknown to us; and foreboding will not help us in the least degree to forecast its difficulties and its trials, though it may unfit us for the endurance of them. Whether we are cognizant of it or not, God will take His plan with us, and will carry it out. If we could not believe in the love that He hath towards us, the thought of this would be a dark sorrow; but, assured of His love as we may be, we can also be assured that He will do all things well. At any rate, no over-anxiety of ours will facilitate the order of life we long for. “The morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.” It will have anxieties enough of its own in spite of every effort of ours to set it free from them. Every day, to the end, will have its own “evil,” and the “evil” of each day will require all our strength for coping with it. So that anxiety for the morrow will not remove care from the morrow; it will only take strength and joy from to-day. Trust in God, and all that He gives you of trouble for to-day will be accompanied by the gift of the strength necessary to enable you to bear it. But do not expect Him to give you strength to bear unnecessary sorrows—sorrows of your own making—the sorrows which spring from worldliness and unbelief. “As thy day”—the day that now is—“so thy strength shall be.” A third point is, that, reasoning from analogy, we may be sure that God will provide for us. He feeds the birds, and He clothes the lilies. They can do nothing for themselves; yet how well are they provided
- 57. for! “Are not ye much better than they?” A wonderfully simple, beautiful, and effective argument this! How grand the view it gives us of God’s position in His universe! What knowledge must be His! What power! What vastness—what variety of resource! What minuteness of kindly, loving interest! Who would not gladly entertain such a conception of God and of His Providence as this, in preference to the atheism and the materialism which have intruded so grievously into the science of our times? “Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?... Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?” Thus, God is not content with giving what is simply necessary for life; He gives for beauty also. Showing His goodness in such a manner to objects inferior to man, why should man suspect that the same goodness will be denied to him? Observe, that Christ does not teach that birds and flowers are better than men because of their immunity from toil. His meaning is, that creatures which do not and cannot toil—creatures which do not and cannot forecast the future— are clothed and fed; will God neglect the nobler creatures to whom He has given the power of thought, and whom He has put under the obligation to labour? Even with these higher powers, man is still as dependent as any of the inferior creatures around him. Will his needs be overlooked, while theirs are supplied? Such a question is all the more pertinent when we remember, that whilst they live for a day, he was created for eternity, and needs the special gifts which can shape his present life into a preparation and a discipline. An additional point is, that unholy anxiety is essentially ungodly, irreligious, unworthy of the position and the professions of a Christian man. “Take no thought,” no anxious thought, “saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek.” Anxious
- 58. thought, therefore, is the characteristic of heathenism, and must be excluded from the religion which is true. It is the spirit of the world, not the spirit which is of God. We see this clearly enough when we compare the amount of thought and care which we bestow upon our earthly interests with that which we devote to the interests which are spiritual and eternal. What anxiety we give ourselves about the future of our health, the future of our business, the future of our worldly position, the future of our children’s secular education, the future of their rank in society! Is it not ten times as great as that which we bestow upon our Christian consistency, our religious usefulness, our growth in grace? If we could hold the balance steadily, which would prove to be the preponderating scale? Our Lord puts the case in an indirect manner, no doubt; nevertheless, it is impossible to avoid the implied conclusion. That conclusion is this: “If you suffer yourself to be anxiously absorbed in earthly things, you rank yourself with ‘the Gentiles,’ to whom this world is all.”— Besides, such anxiety is ungodly because it is untrustful. Heathens, who cannot blind themselves to the fact that their gods leave them for the most part, if not entirely, to themselves, may be excused if they feel that there is room, yea even necessity, for anxious foreboding. But how different should it be with those who know the one living and true God, and who can recognize Him as their Father! Surely He may be trusted as knowing His children, recognizing their needs, loving them, and tenderly caring for them. Taking anxious thought implies the weakness, if not the extinction, of faith.— Moreover, its impiety is seen in the fact that it is a practical subordination of the spiritual to the secular. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” Let the most important things have the first attention. Give due scope to the higher aspirations of the soul, and the lower ones will shrink into their due proportions, and will take their proper place. God will give the earthly as it is needed to those who first seek the heavenly, and the true spirit of religion will make us rich by making us content.
- 59. To Christians this teaching, taking it as a whole, covers the entire ground of their secular life, and much more than that. Look at two or three samples of the cases to which it applies. 1. To personal secular positions. “What will the future be? Shall I live to be old? When I am old, shall I be provided for? Will health and strength be continued to me according to my years?” Leave that! Do your work to-day. For this you may have the needful strength from God. Do not trouble about anything further. Use prudently the means which God has put into your hands for providing for the future, and then commit their safe keeping to Him. If you have no such means, still trust. There are many promises on which you may implicitly and calmly rely. 2. “How about my children? Will they grow up to be manful, good, godly; a seed to serve the Lord, and a generation to call Him blessed; my comfort, my pride? Or will they take evil ways; prove, like so many more, vicious, ungodly, and bring down my grey hairs in sorrow to the grave?” Leave that! Do your duty to your children to-day. Train them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Use a wise and godly forethought on their behalf. Pray for them. Instruct them. Set before them a Christian example. You may trust the rest with God, calmly and thankfully expecting the fulfilment of the words: “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” 3. “What about my religious future? If I make a Christian profession, shall I be able to live consistently with it? Shall I have strength to resist temptation? What if I should fall? Can I so live as not to dishonour the Church and the cause of Christ?” Leave that! Nurse your Christian graces to-day. Lay up spiritual strength in reserve. That is required by a wise forethought. But having done so, leave the rest. God will take care of it all. You may stedfastly trust that He will gloriously complete the work which He has graciously begun. 4. “My Christian work—what about that? Shall I be permitted to go on with it for a few years longer, and thus to have some opportunity
- 60. of realizing my ambition as a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ? Or shall I be called away comparatively early? And if so, what will become of all the plans and projects upon which I have expended so much thought and prayer and toil?” Leave that! Do your work to- day, and be not anxious about the rest. When to-day merges into to- morrow let the new to-day bring its own work with it, to be done in the day. Nothing more of solicitude than that is needful. You are not indispensable to God; nor are you essential to the work which by His will you are doing. If it be worth doing, and you be separated from it, He will find a suitable successor, or as many successors as the accomplishment of the work may require. 5. “How about the prosperity of the cause of Christ in the world? Will it go steadily forward, or will new and fiercer foes rise up against it?” Leave that! Do all you can for it whilst you are here, and entrust the rest, as you entrust your own work, to God. Do not hinder it by wasting time in forebodings which ought to be spent in service. 6. “What of death—my own death? Shall I have grace enough to support me when the time comes?” Leave that! No doubt you will; but do not be anxious about it. To-day you are “the living;” be “the living to praise the Lord,” and trust the needs of your dying hour to Him. The words of Christ recorded in these verses must have startled His hearers. They taught new truth concerning life, and, beautiful as they were, the truth they taught was strange. It would have been so strange as to be without weight, if He had not first taught equally new and equally beautiful truth concerning God. How does Christ here speak of God? “Your heavenly Father.” The heathen instructors had not taught that! Pharisees and Sadducees had not taught that! But Christ was now in the world; He had come forth from the Father, and He could say to men: “Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of these things.” Thus the whole teaching of these verses on the subject of Providence and of Faith becomes plain and demonstrative. The great requirement is for us to love Him filially as He loves us paternally; and then, from that point, all is clear. We are
- 61. dependent, but He will provide. There are present difficulties, and probably there will be future trials; but all takes the form of wise and holy discipline under His guiding and beneficent hand. How do we arrive at the conviction of the Fatherhood of God? Sin stands in the way, and conscience craves something more than a mere authoritative announcement. Sin is the forfeiture of all claim to the Divine favour. What right have we to expect that His providence will be to us a providence of love? There is but one answer: to trust a God of providence, we must believe in a God of grace. Paul puts the whole philosophy of this in a single sentence: “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” Our present subject, therefore, calls for the gospel, and cannot be completed without it. “Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.” “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” And, “If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him?” But let us ever remember that we have higher wants than those of the body. The soul needs food, and God has supplied “the bread of life”; it needs raiment, and God has given to us the robe of righteousness wrought by Christ; it needs a home, and we have “a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” With these provisions, then, shall we forecast the future with fear, or with hope? Which shall it be? O holy trust! O endless sense of rest, Like the beloved John, To lay my head upon the Saviour’s breast, And thus to Journey on!
- 62. XI. CONTENTMENT. “Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me.”—Philippians iv. 11-14. My purpose is to define and to recommend the Christian virtue of contentment. I shall endeavour to show that its acquirement is a duty, and that its possession is a joy; but I shall also have to show that as a duty it is not practicable, and that as a joy it is not attainable, except on Christian grounds. I trust that all this will be made abundantly clear by the following observations. I. Let us glance at the character of the man whose words are now before us. There is in the words the ring of a high moral tone which is irresistibly attractive. Yet the effect they produce upon us must depend very much upon the kind of man who wrote them, and the condition or conditions of life through which he had to pass. We should be pained by such words as these if they came from the lips of a man whom the world would consider prosperous. When the conditions of a man’s life are easy and comfortable, to make a profession of contentment would be an abuse both of language and of sentiment. Such a case is not one for content, but for devout and hearty gratitude mingled with a sense of humiliation under the thought, which ought to be present to every such man, that he
- 63. deserves no more than others, though God gives him more than many others possess. We should think sadly of these words if they came from a stoical man. Contentment is not the listlessness of indifference. It is self- conscious, and finds in itself its own joy. Indifference is loss— deterioration. It implies the blunting of sensibility. The heart that is callous to grief is closed against gladness also. We should pity the man who uttered these words from mere weakness of character, devoid of aspiration, enthusiasm, or resolve. In his case, content would be mere good-for-nothingness. The world is full of uncomplaining men and women who do not cry, not because they are content, but because they are spiritless, and consequently because they are crushed down and hopeless. There are other circumstances which would disparage contentment. We will not mention them now; they will be suggested as we proceed. Now Paul was every way the kind of man to give the noblest meaning to the words we are considering. His whole constitution, make, rendered him susceptible of the highest earthly enjoyment. Mentally, morally, and socially, he was prepared to accept and to appreciate the best that this world could offer to him. He had great powers of thought, reflection, imagination, and will. He had great tenderness and generosity of heart. Proofs abound that his social instincts were full of life and strength. He was pre-eminently a man to be touched by kindness or unkindness, by gratitude or ingratitude, by love or hatred. And what was his experience? It was not the one-sided experience of a man who has known only one condition in life. On the contrary, he had been familiar with almost the highest and the lowest. On the one hand, he had enjoyed the love, and the tender, fervent gratitude, of many of his converts; and on the other hand, he could speak of the bad conduct, the ingratitude, and the vexatious
- 64. opposition of others. He had the manifold sorrows of a martyr’s life of bonds, imprisonments, scourgings, and stonings, to which must be added the prospect of a martyr’s death. He was not a man of one kind of experience only, to which habit had accustomed him. He had known the terrible alternations of life, and had learned to be content under them all. “I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.” Moreover, Paul was a man of prodigious activity. Contentment is easy to a sluggish nature, but it must have been a difficult acquirement to one in whom brain, heart, hands, and all the powers of life were continually on the move. Couple with this incessancy of action the loftiness and ardour of his aspirations. He was not only capable of an intense enthusiasm in any work which he took in hand, but his whole impulse was an energetic straining forward and upward. These considerations give something of marvellousness to the contentment which the apostle here avows for himself; and they suggest that it must have rested on some underlying conviction— some established condition of soul which it is desirable for us to discover and identify. The language he uses is in the utmost degree significant. There is no haste about it, nor is there any exaggeration. It is the expression of the result of a severe and protracted mental and moral training, under the influence of the Spirit of God. “I have learned.” The lesson has been a difficult one, but I have mastered it. “I have learned.” The “I” is emphatic. “Whether others have learned the lesson or not, I have learned it.” The apostle does not speak either hesitatingly or slightingly of his attainment. Thus, when he says, “I know both how to be abased, and how to abound,” he goes on to use a word which means, literally, “I have been taught the secret,” “I have been initiated into the mysteries”—both of satisfaction and of hunger, both of plenty and of want. Such language implies that his contentment was one which had not been easily acquired. He had not passed into it by a single step only. I do not suppose the process was a very
- 65. slow one, but it was a process. The lesson had to be spelt out, word by word, often syllable by syllable, perhaps sometimes with tearful eyes and a bleeding heart. And so these words are a record of attainment such as this world cannot snatch. The man who could so speak of himself was in possession of the best knowledge. He had graduated and taken honours in the highest university. II. The practical importance of this lesson of contentment must be obvious to all. Two considerations will enable us to see its importance clearly. 1. Our earthly life is a scene of change. No position is secured to any of us in this world, nor is it in the power of any of us to remain always, and safe from molestation, in a coveted state of action, or of existence, or of enjoyment. Some men never get into a state of positive happiness, and, in the experience of many, the transitions from high to low positions are startling, romantic, painful, mysterious. Events which men call accidents are constantly changing the aspects of things, and certainly the most marked characteristic of our life is vicissitude. This is a truth which is known and recognized by all, and possibly it is one which is felt acutely by not a few who are here at this time. 2. The changes to which we are exposed are temptations to disquietude of heart, and consequently to discontent. This is true in a peculiar sense of those who look only to the present world for satisfaction, but it is also true to a certain extent of the Christian. And why? Partly because he is seldom perfectly free from unworldliness of desire and of hope; partly because he does not always read aright the meaning of his discipline, and keep in mind the truth that because it is Divine it must be always wise and good; and partly because he looks too much to “second causes,” not only in disappointment and sorrow, but also in success and joy, forgetting the hand and the purpose of God. So that a Christian who has passed through the numerous and various vicissitudes of life, and whose faith, like a tree in successive
- 66. storms, has gained strength from every blast—whose hopes have brightened while the clouds of life were lowering, and whose experience by discipline has become enlightened, rich, and mature— is one of the noblest, though, alas! one of the rarest, sights in the world. Such a man was Paul in a pre-eminent degree. Reverses did not sour him. He had often to contend against the hostile hand of his fellow man, but persecution did not embitter him. He could retain through all his absorbing interest in the salvation of human souls and in the glory of God. His troubles did not shut him up in himself. He did not always talk about them, as though he wanted everybody to pity and help him; on the contrary, he was a peculiarly brave and joyful man. He looked upon joy not simply as a possibility, nor simply as a privilege, but as a duty, the neglect of which by a Christian was shameful. He knew that whatever of earthly good might slip away from him, or be snatched away, there was something immeasurably better which was his for ever—God, Christ, immortality, heaven. “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?... Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” III. What has been said will help us to form a true idea of the state of mind which the apostle here avows for himself, and in doing so to avoid some mistakes. We have seen that contentment is neither stoicism, nor want of interest in life nor sluggishness of temperament, nor weakness of character. We further say, that Paul does not mean that he considers all conditions in life alike desirable, that there is nothing to choose between them, that it is altogether immaterial whether men be well or ill, strong or weak, rich or poor, high or low, masters or slaves. Paul was not insensible to the advantages of outward comfort, or to the disadvantages of poverty. Nor does he mean to teach that a Christian may not use all means
- 67. which are intrinsically legitimate and right for improving his condition, in so far as he has those means at his command, or the possibility of obtaining them. What he means is that his happiness is not essentially dependent on external circumstances. An illustration of Solomon’s words, “A good man is satisfied from himself,” he carries within him everywhere the elements of his own well-being. So that being the man he is, being the man God has made him to be, being the man whom the Holy Spirit is fashioning by His grace, through the instrumentality of the discipline of life, with a hope that does not make him ashamed, because he has the love of God shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost given unto him—he is happy enough even in the midst of privations and difficulties. His contentment is not indifference to his work, but industrious fidelity. It is not the narcotizing of aspiration; for a man may ardently aspire, and yet be content until it is time to rise. Still less is it complacency with his own moral and spiritual condition, or with that of the world around him; for he says that he “forgets the things that are behind, and reaches forth to the things that are before,” and he “greatly longs after men in the bowels of Jesus Christ.” But with all his appreciation of life’s comforts, with all his aspirations after personal perfection, and with all his longings to be useful in his day, he is not disconcerted by difficulties and disadvantages;—he has learned in whatsoever state he is, therewith to be content. We must guard ourselves, however, from applying this example of contentment to troubles of our own making. God entrusts every man, more or less, with the means of blessing himself, and of maintaining his own honour among his fellow men. But by sin, or by mistakes of conduct arising from a culpable carelessness, we may lose our position of advantage; and when we do so, we are not entitled to the comfort arising from the thought that, as all events are in God’s hands, we must just take things as they come, and be satisfied! The sin which has brought mischief must be deplored; its consequences must be accepted as a Divine correction, and Divine help must be sought so that the chastisement may be sanctified. And if on the lower ground we become less worldly, holier, and more
- 68. Christ-like, God will have the greater glory and will give the deeper peace. IV. And now for the secret of the apostle’s contentment, and the lessons that we are to learn therefrom for ourselves. Paul says, “I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me.” The language is peculiar; what does it mean? It means that, in whatsoever condition he might be, he had Christ for a Helper and a Friend; that Christ’s companionship with him was constant, full, tender; that His sympathy was great, minute, comprehensive, cheering, exalting, all-sufficient. So complete was his identification with Christ that he tells these Philippians that living or dying he was Christ’s. But how did this come about? Once he persecuted the Christ whom he now glorifies. And even now his happiness has nothing of the miraculous in it. It does not belong to him merely as an apostle, or in the same way as his “inspiration” or other special, supernatural gifts with which he is endowed. It is the work of God’s grace—grace imparted to him through the same channels along which it may come to us. The secret is this: Paul was a Christian—a converted, regenerated man, a believer in Christ, under the influence of the Holy Ghost; and the result was accomplished by such simple means as faith and hope and prayer. Paul had felt, as we all feel, that there is in man a soul as well as a body, an eternal life as well as a temporal. He had also felt, as we all feel, that he was a sinner, condemned and hopeless before that holy law which he had broken, and the judgment of which he must one day meet. But, in obedience to the message of the gospel, he had accepted Christ as his Saviour, through whom he had received the forgiveness of sins, Divine sonship, and sanctifying grace. So that he had to regard himself as henceforth under training for heaven, the training administered by a Divine hand. He knew that the present life, with all its changes, was the thing that was wanted for his spiritual education, that nothing was accidental, that no changes were chances, and that all changes made up one great organized system of discipline, in which “all things were working together for
- 69. good.” Thus he could cherish in his heart a contentment which would cover all his experiences. There are ills which certain men can bear patiently, but a Christian contentment learns to bear all ills cheerfully; unmurmuring and acquiescent when sorrows multiply, and when mercies one by one are taken away. This contentment under Christian conditions is a duty, not perhaps of very easy attainment—Paul himself does not say that it is that—but it is a duty, as being the natural fruit of faith and trust. Every Christian should be able to say: I will not cloud the present with the past, Nor borrow shadows from a future sky: ’Tis in the present that my lot is cast, And ever will be through eternity. “Sufficient to the day the present ill,” Was kindly utter’d by a heavenly Voice, And one inspired to tell his Master’s will Hath bid us alway in the Lord rejoice.
- 70. XII. JOY. “Rejoice in the Lord alway; and again I say rejoice.”—Philippians iv. 4. Whatever may be the impression produced by these words, no one can read them attentively, and be indifferent to the admonition they convey. They speak to our most real life, a life of mingled sunshine and shadow; and they speak in the name of a religion which is divinely holy and solemn. They have a marvellous power in awakening feeling, and if we could but know the emotion they excite in each of us, we should find them to constitute a perfect test of our actual experiences, as well as of our religious condition. In any religious assembly, there must of necessity be two widely different states of feeling. Some souls are happy, and others are depressed. To the first class, the words before us come with sweetness, adding joy to joy; to the second, they come with pain, the pain of contrast and of longing. Hence the question might be asked, “To whom are they addressed? Are they spoken to the happy alone? Must they be suppressed when we speak to the sad or to the miserable?” They are addressed neither to the one class alone, nor to the other alone. They were spoken to all hearts in the Philippian church, without distinction of condition; and without distinction they are also spoken to us. If there be any special stress in them at all, it is when they are addressed to the sorrowing, as we shall see by-and-by. The words themselves supply a hint as to how this may be. The joy that is recommended is “joy in the Lord.” It is therefore a Christian joy; and those to whom the apostle recommends it, whatever may be the diversity of their circumstances, are first of all, last of all, anyhow,
- 71. under any condition, Christians. Paul knows that joy is an inevitable consequence of the possession of true Christianity in the heart, that it is the natural outcome of Christian faith, that it ought to be a pervading experience of the Christian soul through all the forms and circumstances of its life. And so he offers the same exhortation to all. Nor is it a recommendation merely: it is a command, and it strikingly takes its place among the great Pauline precepts. For the proof of this, turn to these precepts as we have them at the close of his first epistle to the Thessalonians. (See chap. v. 14-22.) No one will suppose for a moment that the exhortation to rejoice can be applied in any sense to unbelieving men, to men of the world, to the ungodly. Granting that they have a joy peculiarly their own, it is of such a nature, and is so conditioned by the life of every day, that it would be cruel to bid them “rejoice evermore.” The worldling has too many disappointments, struggles, and cares, for a permanent and unbroken joy such as that. He may think himself fortunate for rejoicings that come now and then! Besides, how could Paul recommend a rejoicing which is not “in the Lord,” which is the only rejoicing possible to the unbeliever? Paul’s joy is consistent with every duty of the religion he preached; but to that religion the unbeliever is opposed. His rejoicing cannot be acceptable to the Lord. It is spurious. It has no true, substantial source. To such a man the apostle might rather have said, “Weep!” Christian joy is an inheritance closely fenced around; and hard as it seems to enjoy any good things in which others cannot share, we must say, “Unbelieving men and women, it is not for you.” The way here is through the strait gate, and along the narrow road. No joy can be “joy in the Lord” which does not contain the following elements— 1. Purity. The objects that excite it must be pure. It must be free from all carnality and from all sin; it must spring from the soul’s sympathy with God, with His truth, with His goodness. Holy in its objects, it becomes a sanctifying power.
- 72. 2. Calmness. It is freedom from turmoil of heart, from disquietude of life. It suffuses our feeling and our conduct with peace—peace that “flows like a river.” Hence, it is the condition of a quiet, steady Christian experience. 3. Seriousness. It does not depend on self-forgetfulness, or on a forced thoughtlessness. It is deepest in the most reflective, and is strengthened in all by an honest and habitual self-examination. 4. Humility. There is a sort of arrogance and self-sufficiency in worldly joy. Christianity puts man in his true place, and teaches him to refer all his peace to God. 5. Love. Love to man and to God; the latter as the natural effect of gratitude, the former from deep pity for his spiritual destitution, or from sympathy in a common experience of happiness. 6. Permanence. It is not a fitful, occasional, moody thing. Secondary sources of joy may fail, but God, the primary Source and Giver of all joy, remains; and the relationship between the believer and Him abides, so that the grounds of peace and of hope are everlasting. Now it is clear that these are not the elements of a worldly joy. We do not care to reduce all that joy to a common level, and to say that it is invariably and equally destitute of all these qualities of purity, calmness, seriousness, humility, love, permanence. It is enough to say that it is not “joy in the Lord.” It does not consciously or actually spring from Him; it is not maintained by communion with Him; and it does not pay to Him its tribute of love, consecration, and praise. This exhortation to Christian joy is one of the most common in the writings of Paul. Happy Christians may wonder why it is repeated so often. Why urge it at all? Is it not the first, the necessary, the constant result of faith? Why specially insist upon it as a duty? If faith be weak, give us reasons by which faith may be strengthened; but, once in the conscious possession of eternal life and of peace with God, let the results naturally follow. Are they not sure to come?
- 73. One would suppose so; but, alas! Paul knew, and we have reason to know, that we are very inconsistent! There is often a divorce between our professed beliefs and the results that should flow from them. Then, too, our faith is often unconsciously held. It is too merely traditional; it lacks freshness and vitality. We may well, therefore, be thankful that God, who has given us such motives for joy, should still recommend it to us. Even with a very sincere faith may circumstances arise which shall trouble our hearts. Our joy is constantly threatened, and almost unconsciously we sometimes come to feel that we have none. I know many Christians of whom the last thing we could affirm would be that they are joyful Christians. Hence the exhortation. It takes the form of a command. Why? 1. We owe it to the love and mercy of our God. Joy is the sign, the expression, and the ornament of gratitude. A faith without joy is an altar without perfume. God’s abounding grace realised in the heart demands this return. If we be not joyful, what does the fact mean? Do we lightly esteem His great love? Are we afraid it may fail? 2. Joy is a means of testifying our gratitude. Without joy, faith is barren and inefficient, or else its fruits are rare and without savour. The gospel represents good works as the fruits of faith, and fruits grow not on the trunk, but on the branches; and joy is one of these. A worldly joy gives vigour to the heart in the pursuit of worldly objects. Christian joy prompts the heart to devotedness to God. 3. The world is mightily influenced by our joy. The idea that religion is a sad, gloomy thing is widely spread, and is a hindrance in the way. Men know that our beliefs ought to produce joy, and, if they fail to do so, they become themselves discredited. A true Christian is really at the source of all true joy. The world yields him most because he is nearest heaven. Joy is a proselyting power. 4. True joy cannot be imitated. The world’s gaiety is the effect of temperament and circumstances, not of reflection; it repudiates and shrinks from thought. Christian joy deepens the more thoughtful
- 74. men become. The grounds on which it rests are felt to be the surer the more they are examined. Let us look at one or two more of the characteristics of Christian joy. 1. It does not avoid contact with men, but it can, if need be, live alone. It can flourish in the heart that is alone with itself and with God, and can find its food in meditation and prayer. It blossoms where other joys fade. 2. It is devout. It loves the places where its Author is worshipped, but it can sing its praises everywhere. The heart in which it resides is a temple. It sings even in the midst of cares and tribulations, like Paul and Silas in the midnight gloom of the prison at Philippi. 3. It is at the furthest remove from frivolity. It rejoices in serious things, even in such serious things as sorrow and death. It looks up and on with hope. It rests in God. It knows that Christ, its Source, can never be separated from it. It thinks itself rich enough in the possession of God’s great love. 4. It triumphs over the hindrances by which all other joy is thwarted. As to remembrances of the past, all that needed to be forgiven is forgiven. As to actual trouble, it can take hold of God. As to forecasts of the future, that, in its truest blessedness, is secure. Who would not be a Christian? And who, being a Christian, can refuse to be glad? Eternal Source of Life and Light, From whom my every blessing flows, How shall my lips extol aright The bounty that no measure knows? Sweet are the gifts Thou dost accord; Still best when best we love Thy ways: But one yet add, all bounteous Lord, And teach me as I would to praise.
- 75. To praise Thee ofttimes with my tongue; To praise Thee ever with my heart; And soon, where heavenly praise is sung, Oh, let me take my blissful part! Then, Lord, not one of all the host That hymn Thy glory round the Throne, How e’er exalted there, shall boast A strain more fervent than mine own.
- 76. XIII. SICKNESS. “Lord, behold, he whom Thou lovest is sick.”—John xi. 4. Much contact with sickness of late has set me thinking about it; about the place it occupies in the Divine dispensations of our life, and the lessons it may teach. The subject will find an easy entrance into our meditations. Most of us have known what sickness is, and all of us have in prospect that which will prove to be our last. In all the sorrow that affects the people of God there is more or less of mystery, which deepens in proportion as those who suffer become mature in their Christian life, and advanced in holiness. Yet there are some obvious truths in relation to it which are not hard to discern, and to some of these it will be profitable to turn our thoughts now. I. Sickness, in common with all our ills, is a solemn witness to the existence of sin. If we trace it back to its first cause, we shall find it to have originated in “the transgression of the law.” It would be contrary both to the letter and to the spirit of the gospel to see in each sickness the direct result of a particular sin. Yet cases of this kind are not so rare as we suppose. Many men, even professing Christians, suffer in consequence of sins known only to God and to themselves; secret luxuries and excesses, or a trifling, perhaps half unconscious, with some of the simplest laws of Nature. Let not this be altogether overlooked. Moreover, whilst we are not at liberty to suppose an immediate connection between some particular sickness and some particular sin, there is a general connection between sin
- 77. and suffering. There would have been no sickness in the world if there had been no sin. There was none in Eden: there will be none in heaven. Sickness is a witness to the disorder which sin has created. The Christian is a forgiven man, but the secondary consequences of sin remain. In a sinful world, the sins of others react upon him in various ways. He himself, though forgiven, is not yet perfect. There will always be enough of the sense of sin even in the most devout heart, to bend the sufferer in humiliation beneath the thought that in a thousand ways he has deserved the discipline of sorrow. II. Sickness, however, affords equal testimony to the love of God. The Christian has ample reason for knowing that it is a Father’s hand that smites, and that the blow is tempered with gentle mercy. We suffer less than many have suffered before: less than many are suffering now. The Old Testament gives us some notable examples of suffering—Job, David, etc.; so also does the New Testament— Paul, for instance. And what were the sufferings of these compared with those of Christ, who wept and bled and died, not for Himself, but for us? In all ages better men than we have suffered more. Consider what we have deserved, and what, but for the mercy of God, we must have had to bear. If the sufferings of life are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to follow, neither are they worthy to be compared with the doom which must have followed, if God had not loved us with an infinite and everlasting love. Nor is it beneath the subject to mention the alleviations which are granted to us, and which we must all trace to the Divine Hand— sleep, the suspension of pain, sympathy, and, most of all, the hopes of the gospel. These are common-place considerations, but we must entertain them, if our gratitude and trust are to be strong and simple. But we must enter into particulars a little further for the sake of evolving truth still more immediate and personal. III. Sickness is often a special grace from God, and is a providential answer to the secret desires of our own souls. Not, indeed, the
- 78. answer we ask, or the answer we expect; rather, indeed, the answer we would gladly avoid: but still an answer. The cardinal want of man is salvation. Who does not know that sickness has often been sanctified to that end? The cardinal want of the Christian is sanctification—preparedness for heaven; and every Christian knows how seriously this is impeded by a crowd of difficulties, real enough, but which we have a propensity to exaggerate; generally, the daily occupations and cares of life—a family to be provided for, a competency to gain, favourable opportunities to be looked for and seized, daily mischances, and the like. Meanwhile we are conscious of our spiritual wants, and there is a painful conflict between the claims which are temporal, and those which are spiritual. How many Christians are living a life of absorption in the world, yet harassed with occasional regrets, fears, desires, connected with better things? To these sickness is a Divine reply. It is as though God said: “Dear child, I know thy difficulty. Thou canst not of thine own determination leave the world; come away now. Leave thy labour, thy anxiety, thy dreams. Shut out from the world’s noise, listen to Me, to thy soul, to heaven, to eternity. Not that thou mayest do thy duty less faithfully do I thus check thee, but that thou mayest learn the true subordination of things to one another; not the spiritual to the temporal, but the temporal to the spiritual. That is why I put this affliction upon thee.” Oh, verily, blessed is sickness when viewed from the station where we rest and refresh in the fevered journey of life—a truce after battle, a parenthesis in life’s tale, into which God puts His own deep-meaning and gentle word. Let us remember this for our brethren’s sakes and for our own. IV. Sickness, as a special proof of God’s love, is charged with a mission to bring to us some special gifts and graces. It is above all things a means of blessing when we associate with it the idea of discipline, however stern. There is not a single Christian virtue that may not acquire strength on a bed of sickness, and there are not a few Christian virtues which probably must be learnt there, if they are ever to be learnt perfectly at all. Among these note the following:
- 79. 1. Patience. This is specially the fruit of sorrow. No soul can know what patience is until it has learnt what suffering is. To this effect Paul and James both teach, putting suffering before the Christian as a veritable cause of joy because it produces patience. How many elements in sickness would be aggravated by the absence of this beautiful grace! How quickly we come to feel that all worry is useless, and that we must simply wait the good pleasure of the Lord! How commonly too, the existence of this virtue strikes the beholder. It is not apathy, it is not stoicism; it is submission. When the sickness is past there will still remain much in life to try us; but if we have learnt the lesson, we shall know how to apply it. 2. Entire dependence upon God. This is sometimes hard to realize in days of health and vigour, but in days of sickness we feel that the sentiment is impressed upon us with especial weight. We know that it is He who casteth down and lifteth up. We use means for recovery, and this is right; but we learn that without His blessing the best and the most skilfully applied of these are of no avail. This sense of dependence on God should be the habit of the mind; and having acquired it in sorrow we shall not repudiate or forget it in joy. 3. Unworldliness. In a sickness which is protracted, and the issue of which is uncertain, we learn to put the proper estimate on things. We find and we feel that we have here no true home and no true satisfaction, and that we must look above. At such a time we perceive that the real is the spiritual and the eternal. As we groan in this tabernacle, we obtain our true relief in the contemplation of things unseen. 4. The confidence of faith. The possible issues of our sickness are momentous, and the question comes: “Of what quality are my hopes? Is the religion that has given me joy and strength in health able to support me now?” And how often the blessed answer is “Yes!” God gives us strength equal to our day. The Father’s smile, the presence of the Saviour, simple trust in the Cross—these are realized as they never have been before. And if health should return, it will be with the calmly, soberly delightful feeling of a religion in the
- 80. heart that has stood the test. This is the experience of not a few whom I have known. All this has a mighty influence on others besides the sufferers themselves. They preach, and preach effectively, through their sorrow and the grace by which they bear it, and get blessing out of it. Thus their sickness becomes an occasion on which, an instrumentality by which, God conveys the blessings of His grace to their brethren. To all of us, whether in sickness or in health, the subject suggests some important lessons. It suggests thankfulness for such health as we have. Others are suffering: why not we? Multitudes are languishing in pain to-day; most of us are well. Let us bless God, and seek His grace that we may use this gift of health, with all His other gifts, to His glory. It suggests sympathy for those who suffer. How dependent they are on our kindness, our gentleness, our love. Let us give it to them in full measure. Specially, let us give expression to our sympathy for them by prayer on their behalf. It suggests faithfulness to the vows made in the time of our trouble. How much holier would all of us be to-day if none of those vows had been forgotten!
- 81. XIV. JESUS ONLY. “And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only.”— Matthew xvii. 8. The visible glory has vanished; Moses and Elias have disappeared; the cloud is gone; the Voice has been heard; and Jesus has assumed again the form of His lowliness. A few moments ago Peter, in a half- unconscious ecstasy, was saying: “Lord, it is good for us to be here: if Thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles; one for Thee, one for Moses, and one for Elias.” And now they are coming down from the mountain to the turmoil at its foot, and they who wished to tabernacle so gloriously above must descend again to their fishing- nets below. The change seems sudden and sad. We feel inclined to exclaim, “What a loss!” But though they come down, Jesus is with them. Herein lies the substance of what I want now to develop. Our life has its resting-places, exposed to startling, rude alternations; but it has also, in the midst of all, its grand solace. I. The first of these truths is one of such common experience, that we have no need to do more in support of it than to point to well- known facts. I shall try to generalize them by referring merely to three points. 1. To our external personal circumstances. Sometimes we are prosperous, cheerful, happy. We say, “The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.” Incidents occur which seem to transform our ordinary life. We succeed in our pursuits. We are in health. Our domestic happiness is undisturbed.
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