ELIZABETH STRINGER KEEFE
PROJECT SOLVE
PI: Elizabeth Stringer Keefe
Researchers: Rebekah Louis, Stonehill College; Patricia Mason, South Shore Educational Collaborative; Lisa D'Souza, Assumption University
Data Coordinator: Liam Rutter Stokes, Freetown-Lakeville Public Schools
The coronavirus pandemic of 2020 forced PK-22 teacher and teacher educators’ sudden use of technology into educational and instructional planning and decisions. It became clear that this national crisis was a signal: US teachers and teacher preparation programs would need to embrace non-traditional, innovative, and progressive approaches to maintain the integrity of instruction while developing digital teaching competence.
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Project SOLVE was formed in response to this national crisis - a group of regionally-based group of teacher educators, researchers, and PK-22 practitioners who came together to share ideas and develop strategies to address the unexpected issues, changes, and tensions that arose for education as a result of the health crisis.
Using an inquiry approach as the frame, this group had multiple goals. The first goal was to work collectively - teacher educators in collaboration with PreK-22 schools - to help build momentum in a time where no clear solutions existed or were being offered. This was critically important to the initiative, and we worked to develop regular spaces where collaborative communication about new and emerging challenges helped to ensure shared decision making. The second goal was to identify the challenges that teachers and teacher educators were experiencing, and then to develop/propose potential solutions, resources and guides, while keeping an overall focus on equity and inclusivity throughout the work. The third goal was to determine the state of the field through a multiyear national mixed methods research study, aimed at understanding teachers' pandemic experiences.
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PROJECTS
2020
A resource guide developed during the quarantine portion of the pandemic, intended to support and enhance the expertise of our
incredible teaching force in the US. Our aim was to offer solutions
and resources for the major challenges facing teachers and teacher educators.
MULTI-YEAR NATIONAL MIXED METHODS STUDY
2020-Present
This is a multi-year national study that employed an explanatory sequential mixed methods design, using both qualitative and quantitative methods, to examine teachers’ pandemic experiences. The study sought to understand teachers' pandemic experiences using a researcher created survey and follow up interviews. During phase one of data collection, the quantitative phase, a researcher-created survey was used to gauge a range of respondents' (n=623) pandemic teaching experiences. The researcherÂ-created survey was designed based on a previously piloted and validated researcher-created educator survey (Keefe, 2017). The survey was specifically designed to target educators' training, preparedness, knowledge and available resources for remote, online, and hybrid models; access, equity, or inclusivity challenges/issues they encountered or experienced; and the resulting effect on their practice, morale, and ultimate commitments to the profession. Survey data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, data visualization and thematic coding. Following coding and analysis of survey data, we selected interviewees from a subset of survey participants in order to gain further insight into their responses.
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In phase two of data collection, qualitative data were collected via follow-up interviews and analyzed to elaborate on the quantitative data by exploring select participants’ views in greater depth. Follow up interviews helped to explain respondents’ resulting teaching transactions, pedagogical shifts, and commitments to the profession more deeply. Following analysis of qualitative results, we conducted a combined analysis of both datasets following the methodological tradition of sequential explanatory mixed methods research.
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Publications from this project are in preparation!
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VOICES FROM THE CLASSROOM:
2022
Research symposium at the New England Educational Research Organization Annual Conference in Portsmouth, NH. This symposium focused on the voices of teachers across the United States as they shared their experiences from the pandemic. Four important themes emerged from our research: teacher burnout, teacher departure, teacher adjustment, and teacher resilience. While the pandemic ultimately impacted participants differently, specific factors emerged as contributing to their long term career decisions, adjustments, and resilience. These findings may offer significant information for teacher preparation programs and PreK-21 schools as we consider the future of the teaching profession.