As the transition point between middle and high school, ninth grade can either set a student up for long-term success or diminish a student's likelihood of graduating high school altogether. The Ninth Grade Success Initiative is a dropout prevention program, piloted in five Washington State high schools in 2019-2020. We evaluated the effects on…

The COVID-19 pandemic, natural disasters, and political and social movements have required each of us to pause. Collectively they signal a unique moment in our history, and we argue that they provide us with an opportunity to consider what matters most as we move forward. Using poetic representation and Brené Brown's guideposts for wholehearted…

This paper presents a collective self-study that examines what student teachers and a teacher educator learned from our collective work during the initial Covid-19 shutdown. Using a theory of collaborative inquiry grounded in Brené Brown's work on resiliency and vulnerability, we examined our work during this time of great struggle. We learned how…

We analyze tweets authored by educators during the COVID-19 pandemic, which Ibram Kendi has called a viral and a racial pandemic, and illustrate how Whiteness feeds the blaming of children and communities of color for trauma. We evaluate tweets that: (1) misused trauma-informed teaching practice in ways characterized by White saviorism; (2) pushed…

This study examines teacher perceptions of the media and public's portrayal of teachers and teaching during COVID-19 from the initial school closures in March 2020 through the reopening process of the 2020-2021 school year. Drawing upon data from 122 full-time, public-school teachers in Massachusetts, findings include teacher perceptions of such…

While the COVID-19 global pandemic has resulted in numerous lockdowns, understanding how teachers experience the shift to remote learning and the person focussed skills and capacities they employ during this time is vital. We draw from an online qualitative study to examine questionnaire data from 137 Australian teachers. Using the four dimensions…

This autoethnography investigation used guideposts for whole-hearted living as a means of processing grief as a teacher educator during the COVID-19 pandemic. Life stories were drawn upon to understand the social, cultural, and political dimensions of the mental health crisis facing teachers and students. I conclude by asserting that centering…

We used NVivo for inductive semantic coding of 619 Black caregivers' qualitative responses from the RAPID Survey regarding about they were coping with the challenges of COVID-19. Kinship networks and religion/spirituality were the two most frequently mentioned coping strategies followed by government financial support (e.g. stimulus money, food…

This case study documents the experiences and efforts of six K-5 teachers from the Midwest region of the United States to adjust instruction and establish meaningful and productive online learning environments during the pandemic. Two themes emerged from the data reflecting teachers' perceptions about the quality of instruction and insufficiency…

This paper features the emotional experiences of a Vietnamese doctoral student mother in New Zealand named Hoa who was stranded when COVID-19 hit the globe. As a temporary migrant and a mother who was separated from her children, she experienced displacement, nostalgia, mother guilt, and a diasporic feeling. When she managed to return to Vietnam,…