What has persisted and what has not: A longitudinal study of changes in teachers’ experiences of Project-Based Teaching and Learning through the COVID-19 Pandemic

In this qualitative interview-based longitudinal study, we follow and share experiences of teachers from four different high schools in the United States that represent different institutional contexts (Urban, Suburban, Rural, Public and Charter) around how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted their teaching of hands-on PBL (Project-Based Learning) classes. The data is part of a larger study that is aimed at supporting schools transition from traditional to PBL teaching that allowed us to have multiple touch points for this longitudinal study in May 2020, May - June 2021, and December 2021 – January 2022. Following a qualitative inductive and then deductive analysis approach, we ask three research questions: RQ1: What changes to teaching made in response to the pandemic in PBL high schools have persisted? RQ2: What aspects of teaching from before the pandemic have returned in PBL high schools? RQ3: What role has technology played in changes to teaching and learning over the course of the pandemic in PBL high schools? We learn how teachers’ responses to the pandemic afforded them an ability to use technologies as tools in support of teaching and learning, and finding ways to prioritize what is truly meaningful for their students. We also learned that teachers and students missed in person connection with each other and with the communities their projects were situated in, and also realized the limitations of working on screens. We also share our findings around how learning management and specific task-oriented technologies have persisted in use beyond the pandemic. We conclude the paper with a discussion on the dichotomy of the promise of PBL for pandemic-time and post-pandemic education, and how teachers, the hidden work they do every day, and the ethic of care they bring to their practices is by no means replicable by technology.