Digital Commons Network^™

Meeting The Challenge Of Covid-19: Innovation And Adaptation In Services For Expectant And Parenting Youth In Baltimore, Margo Candelaria, Corey Shdaimah, Jenny Afkinich, Yan (Stella) Zhu

Journal of Human Services: Training, Research, and Practice

To explore perspectives on COVID-19’s impact on access to services for expectant and parenting youth (EPY), qualitative interviews were conducted with seven service providers and two parents. Open coding resulted in three overarching themes. 1. Creativity and adaptation: pride regarding ability to devise necessary modifications. 2. New and ongoing networks: inter-agency collaboration, provider-parent relationships, and parent networks offered material and social support. 3. Communication: varied strategies helped maintain and initiate EPY engagement. In under-resourced environments where providers and EPY must be creative due to scarcity, COVID-19 required that respondents draw on existing networks and strategies to cope with new challenges.

The Importance Of Endrew: Analyzing The Influence Of A New Legal Precedent In Pennsylvania Due Process Hearing Officer Decisions Before And After Covid-19 Closures, David H. Rush

Journal of Human Services: Training, Research, and Practice

In 2017, a new standard for determining substantive violations of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was established with the ruling for Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District. Recently, the United States Department of Education and State Education Agencies have cited the Endrew decision as being important in defining what constitutes a free and appropriate public education (FAPE) under the IDEA, in light of mandated school closures due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Despite its noted importance, there has been limited analysis into how this new legal precedent has influenced special education due process hearing officer decisions. …

Adjustments To Social Work Practice During The Covid-19 Pandemic In North Carolina: Effects On Burnout And Commitment, Aaron R. Brown, Jayme E. Walters, Aubrey E. Jones, Lara Cates

Journal of Human Services: Training, Research, and Practice

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the demand for social workers in the U.S. and abroad has increased. There is demand for more social workers in North Carolina due to ongoing and increasing mental health, substance use disorder, and child welfare needs. COVID-19 has taken a toll on the personal and professional lives of social workers, and research is needed to understand the pandemic’s effects on burnout and commitment among social workers. The present study sought to understand how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the personal and professional lives of social workers practicing in North Carolina and to determine how …

Technology-Based Training With Social Work Students To Enhance Suicide Risk Assessment Skills During Covid-19, Warren L. Miller Jr, Aswood Bousseau, Jesse Capece, Jayashree Nimmagadda

Journal of Human Services: Training, Research, and Practice

The global COVID-19 pandemic has touched every aspect of human life. It has exacerbated how students continue to learn during a global health crisis. Specifically, training students to address mental health challenges (i.e., suicide assessments) during and post-COVID-19 is of the utmost importance. Previous research shows higher education institutions' responses to adjusting to previous world health crises, yet little is known about social work programs pivoting to technology-based training to educate BSW and MSW students to continue serving vulnerable populations in their field practicum during COVID-19. In this study, using the competencies attainment survey, the researchers at an east coast …

"I Just Feel Worn Out”: Constraints To Teacher Agency Throughout Covid-19, Andrew Kipp, Spencer Clark, Carl Fahrenwald, Gustavo Perez

School Leadership Review

COVID-19 created serious and long-lasting difficulties within educational systems resulting in higher rates of teacher attrition in the U.S. Teacher agency, which is the teacher’s capacity to act professionally, is a predictor of teacher attrition. The school environment, through policies and practices, can inhibit teacher agency, and the constraint of agency promotes teacher attrition. As school structures shift to address new post-pandemic needs, there is an increased need to understand how school structures throughout the pandemic inhibited teacher agency and drove teacher attrition. We examine how school systems constrained the agency of three veteran high school teachers from March 2020 …

The Covid Games: Resilience In The Shadow Of A Global Pandemic, Taylor D. Bunn

Journal of Multicultural Affairs

This paper explores the student experience in North Texas through current research and interviews with students, parents, educators, and nonprofit leaders who leaned into the work of meeting basic needs in an extremely challenging time. The chapter begins with data on COVID-19 infection rates in the community and publicly available data from school districts and Texas Education Agency on academic achievement, grounding the chapter in quantitative facts. Next, findings from interviews provide context on the human impact of the pandemic. Parents and educators share their perspectives on the challenges students faced, unpacking what they wish they had known early in …

The Rapid Transition From Face-To-Face To Online Education Due To Covid-19: Observations Of Higher Education Faculty In Texas, Bill Mchenry, Kevin Williams, Ellen Melton

TxDLA Journal of Digital Learning

The COVID-19 pandemic has made a profound impact on education on a global scale. Disruptions and changes in modalities in the delivery of education, both in higher education and pk12 environments, have potentially forever changed the expectations of education systems. This study discusses the rapid transition to online education due to the pandemic from the lenses of higher education faculty in Texas.

Uncharted Territories: Covid-19 And Other 2020 Events That Changed Lives Forever, Justina Ogodo

Journal of Multicultural Affairs

The year 2020 rolled in with pomp and pageantry like any other year in human history. I assume that many like me had high hopes, possibly made new year resolutions. I looked forward to the new year with great expectations—planned trips, events, graduations, weddings, and even new writing goals and aspirations. But the year had its own plan, taking an unexpected turn. I am a science educator, wife, and mother of three black children; I walked into the uncharted territories of COVID-19 and other 2020 events that changed lives forever. I tell this story of my lived experience with a …

We Didn’T Return To Campus: Covid-19 Pandemic As An Opportunity For Critical Reflection On The Essence Of Education, Marisol Diaz

Journal of Multicultural Affairs

For many students across the United States, their last day on school campuses was the week before spring break of 2020. Due to the rising concern over COVID-19, most schools across PK to higher education moved to remote learning. This article is a critical reflection by the author in which she shares her experiences as a professor in higher education at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The author questions the role of education, using a critical framework and a Marxist analysis of capitalism, to center the function of the education system during COVID-19. From the author’s perspective, economic interests …

In The Shadows Of Covid-19: Challenges That Plagued Teachers Amidst A Pandemic, Alexis M. Segura

Journal of Multicultural Affairs

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, some teachers have been struggling to maintain their morale, passion, and love for their profession. They are juggling a myriad of tasks and expectations whilst simultaneously attempting to heal from an ongoing shared trauma. Additionally, the pressure to maintain the same level of rigor, eagerness, and success that existed before COVID-19 is immense, resulting in teachers feeling powerless, voiceless, and invisible. Not only has this pandemic forced teachers to place their own lives and health at risk, but in the rush to return to traditional schooling, it has pushed teachers to their limit—often …

The Show Must Go On: Challenges, Questions, And Pedagogical Pivots In Response To Covid-19, Patrick S. De Walt

Journal of Multicultural Affairs

On March 18, 2020, many universities and university systems had or were in their initial stages of transitioning to virtual teaching as a result of COVID-19. This transition had varied effects on all aspects of the university community. This paper explores this transition through the teaching experiences of a tenure-track professor during the pandemic. The examination of six sections of a capstone undergraduate course over the course of three semesters was conducted. Through self-reflection, many of the challenges faced shifting from face-to-face to a virtual environment were discussed. Among some of the challenges and limitations experienced when teaching nontraditional and/or …

Creating Communities Virtually: Educators Cross-Cultural And Multidisciplinary Reflections Of Covid-19, Alankrita Chhikara, Michael Lolkus

Journal of Multicultural Affairs

As a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic, personal relationships and professional communities were instantaneously transformed and thrust into virtual and hybrid settings. In light of these, amongst many, strains on people’s daily lives, teachers and teacher educators have worked tirelessly to provide equitable educational opportunities for their students. We highlight a multidisciplinary effort from curriculum studies and mathematics education to explore the similarities and differences between our personal experiences teaching during a pandemic without a manual or warning from our cross-cultural perspectives. To capture our unique personal experiences working with prospective teachers in multicultural- and social justice-focused courses, we …

Trauma-Informed Supports For Rebuilding School Communities, Nancy S. Stockall, William H. Blackwell

Journal of Human Services: Training, Research, and Practice

This manuscript describes four principles of trauma-informed supports that can guide school leaders in rebuilding school communities that have been fractured by the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on the work of Hobfoll et al. (2007), these principles are: a) promoting a sense of safety, b) addressing safety within behavior support practices, c) building relationships, and d) promoting self-efficacy and instilling hope. As schools slowly reopen, there is a risk that the re-opening will signify that the crisis has ended and schools can return to their previous policies and systems of support. However, the lingering and long-term effects of the isolation and …

Emotionally Agile Leadership Amid Covid-19, Adrianne Wilson

School Leadership Review

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically changed the job requirements of school leaders and has negatively impacted the academic outcomes for students (Kuhfeld et al., 2020). As a result of the ongoing demands and stress caused by this pandemic, school leaders are at an increased risk for physical and mental health problems (Boyatzis & McKee, 2005; Brackett et al., 2018; Murphy, 2011; Sorenson, 2007) and, as a result, are less likely to continue in their profession long-term (Brackett et al., 2018; Farrace, 2020).

In an effort to subvert the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as future crises, this …

Pandemic Policy Preparedness: Unintentional Student Discrimination In The Wake Of Covid-19, Jerry Burkett, Danielle Reynolds

School Leadership Review

Educational leadership requires a set of skills and practices that are shaped by professional ethics. Professional ethics are the dynamics of both personal and professional ethics and requires educational leaders to understand how these ethical codes drive interactions and decisions especially in difficult situations (Shapiro & Stefkovich, 2016). Anderson (2014) argues that educational leaders may not have the deeper understanding of social justice necessary to “better scholarship, but also to better practice” (pp. x) due to the current expectations of leaders including increasing test scores and accountability ratings and addressing social and emotional learning.

Adding to the current expectations of …