THROUGH THE COVID-19 LOOKING GLASS: COPING SKILLS FOR STEM EDUCATORS IN THE TIME OF A PANDEMIC AND BEYOND

Abstract

The 2020 pandemic led to the immediate lockdown of schools and universities worldwide with far-reaching implications for educators and learners. Individual stories of lockdown and isolation are documented using direct quotations from discussion forums, emails, live chats, and structured journal entries from the Blackboard learning management system. A ‘qualitative sense’ of a common narrative of turmoil and success within this ‘new [ab] normal’ is established. Educators’ contrasting accounts of uncertainty and hope are highlighted. The notion of anticipatory anxiety as a result of social lockdown restrictions is covered in terms of its impact on mental health and wellbeing, with special reference to the neuroscience that underpins this phenomenon. Strategies for the management of stress-related autonomic nervous system activation, as well as for building resilience and coping skills in classrooms, are highlighted, along with the need to address issues of cognitive dissonance and fatigue caused by increased online/blended teaching demands during uncertain times. The online format was found to be potentially impersonal and cold without the essential ‘human factor’. Despite technology in education there has to be human and social interaction, as well as support online. The most benefit was derived from live sessions and social interaction. Keywords: mental health, well-being, progressive education, psycho-social issues, coping strategies