Changed schools and changed classrooms: Lessons learned from the COVID-19 era

Abstract

This paper reports on the final stage of a mixed methods research study in which the full population of teachers from Adventist Schools Australia (ASA), the third largest school system in Australia, were invited to contribute to an online survey. During the final stage of this study, ten focus group discussions were conducted, and the participants represented teachers from ASA schools in every state and territory in Australia. Teachers in these focus group discussions provided commentary about their experiences during the international COVID-19 pandemic. They were asked to share perceptions of how lockdowns changed learning and relationships within their school and how they viewed the future of education and teaching, post-COVID. Results of the focus group transcript analyses revealed a mixed reaction to life as a teacher returning to a physical classroom after the COVID-19 lockdowns. Multiple changes were noted in their schools and classrooms. While teachers were happy to return to face-to-face teaching and the company of their colleagues and the students, they expressed the need for more resources and professional learning in the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT), alongside concerns about the wellbeing of students, themselves and their colleagues. Now, several years after the COVID-19 lockdowns, the results of this study are offered for consideration by teachers, school administrators and policymakers in the ASA system. The results may also be relevant to those within and outside Australia who experienced the ramifications of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic while also planning how to mitigate the pandemic’s ongoing influence on teachers and student learning.