Educators as Paradigm Shift Change Agents in a Period of Pandemonium Toward Achieving Charge for Education Pursuits and Dreams During Uncertain Times

Bob Barrett
School of Business at the American Public University

Abstract

While the COVID-19 pandemic moved quickly through the global community as many try to struggle to understand its seriousness, educators were not given the luxury of researching, writing, and lecturing at a normal pace – rather we, as change agents, had to reinvent our teaching modus operandi and assist a huge or monumental re-shifting of educational priorities and create our own “educational paradigm shifts” to meet the needs of all stakeholders, especially our students who looked towards us to be the pillars of light and knowledge. While little time and preparation was given to hundreds of thousands of educators who were forced to the forefront of this battle to win over critical health concerns, ranging from Pre-school up to High school teachers to college professors, all of us had an educational mission. We could not keep our nation’s students at home learning on their own, rather these brave and global educators and to create new pathways and learning paths, as well as construct new organizational learning structures in the campaign of successful transfers of learning and growing. Consequently, they were also enabling many new frontiers for their students to reflect on later in their lives to realize what happened during the perilous COVID-19 pandemonium period. Also, these educators were also learning more about their “inner learner” as well as becoming more “practical learners” themselves to combat the daily adversities and challenges as they faced an ever-changing world as the pandemic continued to escalate. As the winter of 2021 awakened new medical discoveries and various vaccines – it did not move fast enough for educators to let down their guard as they also relied heavily on the wisdom of the medical community in their steadfast commitment to offer quality education, while debating the looming questions when would be a good time to return to a physical (real) classroom, if ever. As many school systems debated this issue and others prepared to return to the physical classrooms, many educators learned many new things about their own inner abilities and skills, equally important, many realized that times were still not safe and legal, political, and economic factors also were critical elements that prevented the timely return to the normal schooling process. Thus, this presentation will focus on where we were, how we got here, what did we learn along the way, and share what we discovered along the way. Finally, further discussion will focus on what new changes needed to happen to best preserve the learning experience, but yet to continue our struggle for quality education in the most productive, conducive, and safe environment for all stakeholders and move victoriously forward and never look back, rather look forward and plan for our future educational needs for all learners.


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