Teaching and Learning Resilience and Adjuvant Lessons from the COVID-19 Crisis: A Reflective Practitioner’s Perspective

The coronavirus (COVID-19) was devastating to society. In addition to the untold anguish it unleashed on humanity, the pandemic considerably affected teaching and learning. The disruption to the school calendars resulted in a new shift that was constraining for both students and educators during the early stages of the pandemic. It is, therefore, unsurprising that many studies examining this pandemic’s impact tend to focus on its negative consequences. Thus, a less explored topic is the positive spin-offs of the crisis and how humanity transcended the abyss (in the Hegelian sense) amid agony. Therefore, this article fills this gap by examining some of the positive contributions and future possibilities resulting from society’s efforts to mitigate the effects of the pandemic. In terms of the method, the study draws on the author’s teaching experience and student feedback using an interpretative framework based on Driscoll’s What Model of reflection and insights from Resilience Theory and Reflective Practice. The findings highlighted humanity’s ability to bounce back in any crisis despite its magnitude and some of the innovative teaching and learning strategies that resulted in students being integral co-creators in the teaching and learning process. Based on the findings, the study ultimately proposes a five-stage crisis resilience model along a continuum of various cycles. The study contributes to embryonic scholarship that uses the pandemic as a lens to explore value creation and liberating avenues for humanity. Keywords: Resilience Theory, COVID-19, Reflective Practice, Teaching and Learning