Exploring the COVID-19 Impacts on Social Work Teaching and Learning in Hispanic Serving Institutions

Overview: The COVID-19 significantly impacts teaching and learning in higher education. This study explores the impacts of COVID-19 among Social Work students and faculty. Exploring students and faculty perceptions and behavioral responses to teaching and learning provides identification of new or hidden pedagogical obstacles and novel approaches to address the challenges.Proposal text: Background
Higher education entered emergency distance learning due to the COVID 19 pandemic (Pettit, 2020). As students and faculty adjusted, they may have experienced a myriad of emotional and psychological stressors such as a lack of resources, financial and employment loss, isolation, fear, uncertainty, anxiety, and depression (Brooks et al., 2020). All of these factors significantly impact teaching and learning. While the demand for online teaching and learning has been ever increasing and increased in the field of social work to an extent during the last decade, social work has lagged behind other disciplines (Blackmon, 2013). An understanding of social work students and faculty perceptions and responses to teaching and learning during a global pandemic can shed light on the identification of novel barriers and potential effective actions (SchWeber, 2008). Our study explored teaching and learning barriers and responses stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic among Social Work students and faculty of North Texas Hispanic serving institutions.

Methods and Results
Following IRB approval, study data was drawn from student focus groups and faculty interviews at two Hispanic serving institutions in North Texas. Findings of our study include three major themes: Challenges; Adaptations that Helped; and Resource Gaps. Three sub-themes also emerge under Challenges: Learning Challenges, Mental health Challenges, and Environmental challenges. The study findings highlight the essence of Social Work students and faculty’s experience and the challenges they encountered during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although participants experienced different challenges, the study’s emphasis on challenges and adaptations brings a new dimension to the discussion on distance teaching and learning. In-depth information was explored regarding meeting the resource gaps for ensuring the best distance teaching learning education in the Social Work programs.

Conclusion and Implications
Findings underscore the contextual need for prioritizing need-based support and increase capacities and related skills to deliver Social Work distance and remote education during a pandemic. Findings can also guide universities in responding effectively to support students and faculty. Key to this support is an understanding of internal and external factors that influence distance teaching and learning responses. Finally, findings will help Social Work educators reimagine educational opportunities during these times.

References

Blackmon, B. (2013). Social work and online education with all deliberate speed. Journal of
Evidence Based Social Work, 10, 509-521. DOI: 10.1080/15433714.2012.663672

Brooks, S, Webster, R., Smith, L., Woodland, L., Wessely, S., Greenberg, N., & Rubin, G.
(2020). The psychological impact of quarantine and how to reduce it: Rapid review of the evidence. Lancet, 395, 912-920. https://doi.org/10.1016/ S0140-6736(20)30460-8

Pettit, E. (April 20, 2020). A side effect of the COVID-19 pandemic? Reading got a lot harder.
The Chronicle of Higher Education. https://www.chronicle.com/article/A-
Side-Effect-of-the-COVID-19/248568