Going the Distance:

The Teaching Profession in a Post-COVID World

by Lora Bartlett, Alisun Thompson, Judith Warren Little and Riley Collins

An unflinching yet ultimately hopeful appraisal of the workplace factors that determine career risk and resilience among K–12 teachers, informed by the lessons of the COVID-19 crisis

In Going the Distance, Lora Bartlett, Alisun Thompson, Judith Warren Little, and Riley Collins examine the professional conditions that support career commitment among K–12 educators—and the factors that threaten teacher retention. Drawing insight from the period of significant teacher turnover and burnout both during and beyond COVID-19 school shutdowns in the United States, the authors offer clear guidance for policies and practices that meet the needs of teachers and nourish a robust teaching workforce.

The work presents vivid firsthand accounts of teaching during crisis that were captured as part of the Suddenly Distant Research Project, a longitudinal study of the experiences of seventy-five teachers in nine states over thirty months, from the school closures of spring 2020 through two full school years. The authors characterize the pandemic as a perspective-shifting experience that exposed existing structural problems and created new ones: a widespread sociopolitical framing of teaching as an occupation constrained by strict regulation and oversight, an overreliance on test-based accountability, a decline in public investment in education, and growing legislative constraints on what teachers could teach.

Identifying contextual differences between teachers who left and those who persevered, the work calls for solutions—including increased teacher voice, collaborative workplace cultures, and reforming school accountability systems—that support teachers to pursue ambitious educational goals in ordinary times and equip them to respond rapidly and capably in times of crisis.

Bartlett, L. (2022). Specifying Hybrid Models of Teachers’ Work During COVID-19. Educational Researcher. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X211069399

Abstract: The term “hybrid” emerged as a common descriptor of pandemic-modified schooling configurations. Yet this umbrella term insufficiently captures the variations among hybrid models, particularly as it pertains to the structure of teacher workdays and related workload demands. Drawing on qualitative research documenting K–12 U.S. teachers’ experience teaching during COVID-19, this brief introduces and explicates three terms specifying structural hybrid models—parallel, alternating, and blended—and their implications for teachers’ work. Differentiating among the models facilitates future analysis of the implications of hybrid schooling for teacher and student experience. Initial analysis indicates teachers experienced one model, blended hybrid, as more challenging than others. This teacher perception highlights the need to discern among the three hybrid models more closely when analyzing schools’ responses to the pandemic. Differentiating among hybrid models may prompt future analysis of hybrid schooling for teacher workload and student learning.