Cultivating staff culture online: How Edith Bowen Laboratory School responded to COVID-19
Information and Learning Sciences
ISSN: 2398-5348
Article publication date: 15 June 2020
Issue publication date: 27 July 2020
Abstract
Purpose
As educators across the globe are tasked with taking teaching online, this paper shares a culture-centered approach to transitioning to education at a distance. Specifically, in this essay, a focus is placed on how one school preserved their collaborative culture among administrators, teachers and staff. The purpose of this paper is to provide guidance to school leadership during this public health crisis.
Design/methodology/approach
To ensure trustworthiness in this naturalistic inquiry, a triangulation was made of contributing authors’ perspectives to present theory-informed insights.
Findings
This school’s transition to online education was guided by a shared goal to not only move content online but also a rich participatory culture among staff. Critical forms of participation and community practices are presented that were pivotal in supporting teachers through the transition. Insights equip school leaders and administrators potentially remaining online, at least in part, through the next school year.
Practical implications
Schools undergoing the shift to teaching online should attend to cultural shifts and create conditions in which staff members can collaborate at higher levels.
Originality/value
New administrator-level insights are contributed regarding the organizational shift to teaching elementary school online, a minimally researched topic.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the teachers, staff, and administrators at the Edith Bowen Laboratory School for allowing them to share their story and for reviewing this manuscript.
This article is part of the special issue, “A Response to Emergency Transitions to Remote Online Education in K-12 and Higher Education” which contains shorter, rapid-turnaround invited works, not subject to double blind peer review. The issue was called, managed and produced on short timeline in Summer 2020 towards pragmatic instructional application in the Fall 2020 semester.
This paper is part of the special issue, “A Response to Emergency Transitions to Remote Online Education in K-12 and Higher Education” which contains shorter, rapid-turnaround invited works, not subject to double-blind peer review. The issue was called, managed and produced on short timeline in Summer 2020 toward pragmatic instructional application in the Fall 2020 semester.
Citation
Justis, N., Litts, B.K., Reina, L. and Rhodes, S. (2020), "Cultivating staff culture online: How Edith Bowen Laboratory School responded to COVID-19", Information and Learning Sciences, Vol. 121 No. 5/6, pp. 453-460. https://doi.org/10.1108/ILS-04-2020-0136
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited