Spectra | 2021
Pandemic Pedagogy: Practical and Empathetic Teaching Practices
Abstract
This first-person dissection of pandemic pedagogy, supported by surveillance theory, queer and feminist pedagogical theory, and radically empathetic and nonviolent teaching practices, suggests a better way forward in college and university teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. Outlining anti-surveillance and anti-policing practices, as well as instructors’ roles as enforcers of the neoliberal university’s interests and instructors’ needs usurping best teaching and administrative practices, the article attempts to make sense of interconnected limitations and inequities in higher education which the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent distance and hybrid course delivery models have exposed. The article posits methods to reframe instructor/student interactions in virtual and socially distanced classrooms. In a radical departure from the violent surveillance university model, including an acknowledgement of processes instructors can realistically resist, the article suggests a non-hierarchical and informal ongoing review of teaching practices, a practiced and intentional refusal to engage with neoliberal systems of student control, and an active acknowledgement and decentering of instructors’ feelings when making pedagogical decisions. An accompanying handout, originally presented at the 2020 unConference hosted by the Race, Space, Place Initiative at Virginia Commonwealth University, presents the information in an easy-to-read and dynamic format.