Editor's Note

Teaching During Challenging Times

Jessica Leveto, Ph.D.

Kent State University at Ashtabula

I'm exhausted. Like many of us, I am working from home and have been for almost a year. I am also raising two young children in virtual preschool and kindergarten while helping my adult son navigate college. I am familiar with teaching online. This past year has been different because I am working with many students that prefer face-to-face classes. I am also seeing that even my students that are seasoned in online coursework are struggling. I am continually searching for ways to improve my craft, engage and inspire. I realize we are all exhausted.

As fall turned to winter, the days grew shorter and the air colder, our lives grew more challenging.

We've lived through four years of increasingly political divisiveness, but we knew this was different by early January. Then came actualized violence at the Capitol, and it was paralyzing. As many of us were preparing for spring term to start, busy crafting creative new pedagogical ways to inspire and engage - we stared at our televisions, watching an insurrection in slow motion. Time was not in slow motion, but January felt like it for many.

Day to day activities take longer right now. Everything takes longer right now. We have had to wrestle with our grasp of structural trauma while aiding in the comprehension, framing, and understanding for our students.

Days are growing longer once again. Spring is around the corner, even though, as I type, the weather is cold for most of the country, a reminder that extreme swings in our climate are another structural trauma that sociologists work to understand and heal. As a discipline, we make sense of the chaos. We seek out patterns, study, teach and heal. As the saying goes, we have our hands full.

Currently, our mental bandwidth is being tested. As sociologists, we are trained to understand the impact of structural forces on the individual. As sociologists, we have a unique ability to make sense of intersecting crises we are living through at this moment. For many of us, we do this while juggling more responsibilities than ever. As we have in the past, we will continue to teach, grow and build resilience during challenging times. We will utilize our sociological tools and expertise to facilitate healing, build knowledge and generate new frameworks for generations to come.

I hope the articles in this edition of Teaching/Learning Matters will aid you in your journey of teaching during challenging times.