Creating Communities Virtually: Educators Cross-Cultural and Multidisciplinary Reflections of COVID-19

Authors

Alankrita Chhikara, Purdue UniversityFollow
Michael Lolkus, Purdue UniversityFollow

Abstract

As a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic, personal relationships and professional communities were instantaneously transformed and thrust into virtual and hybrid settings. In light of these, amongst many, strains on people’s daily lives, teachers and teacher educators have worked tirelessly to provide equitable educational opportunities for their students. We highlight a multidisciplinary effort from curriculum studies and mathematics education to explore the similarities and differences between our personal experiences teaching during a pandemic without a manual or warning from our cross-cultural perspectives. To capture our unique personal experiences working with prospective teachers in multicultural- and social justice-focused courses, we share our reflections from ongoing conversations about our pedagogical practices; our reflections showcase a juxtaposition between voice and voicelessness—power and powerlessness. We close our reflective discourse with implications for the creation of communities in the virtual classroom.

Recommended Citation

Chhikara, Alankrita and Lolkus, Michael (2021) "Creating Communities Virtually: Educators Cross-Cultural and Multidisciplinary Reflections of COVID-19," Journal of Multicultural Affairs: Vol. 6: Iss. 2, Article 6.
Available at: https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/jma/vol6/iss2/6