1st Edition
Understanding Individual Experiences of COVID-19 to Inform Policy and Practice in Higher Education Helping Students, Staff, and Faculty to Thrive in Times of Crisis
Utilizing findings from more than 200 interviews with students, staff, and faculty at a US university, this volume explores the immediate and real-life impacts of COVID-19 on individuals to inform higher education policy and practice in times of crisis.
Documenting the profound impacts that COVID-19 had on university operations and teaching, this text foregrounds a range of participant perspectives on key topics such as institutional leadership and loss of community, managing motivation and the move to online teaching and learning, and coping with the adverse mental health effects caused by the pandemic. Far from dwelling on the negative, the volume frames the lived experiences and implications of COVID-19 for higher education through a positive, progressive lens, and considers how institutions can best support individual and collective thriving during times of crisis.
This text will benefit researchers, academics, and educators in higher education with an interest in the sociology of education, higher education management, and eLearning more broadly. Those specifically interested in student affairs practice, as well as the administration of higher education, will also benefit from this book.
Part I: Setting the Stage
1: Introduction
Amy Aldous Bergerson and Shawn R. Coon
2: Thriving as a Lens for Understanding the Impact of COVID-19 on Higher Education Faculty, Staff, and Students
Amy Aldous Bergerson and Latu Kinikini
3: Interpretive Methods as a Window into Individual Experiences and the Pandemic
Shawn R. Coon and Amy Aldous Bergerson
Part II: The Experiences of Faculty
4: Teaching Online and Caring for Students and Colleagues
Willie Chen, Denise Brenes, and Amy Aldous Bergerson
5: Community, Communication and Expectations for Teaching
Willie Chen, Denise Brenes, and Amy Aldous Bergerson
6: Pandemic Privilege
Amy Aldous Bergerson and Shawn R. Coon
Part III: The Experiences of Staff
7: Working from Home Challenges: Resources, Tools, and Quality
Bobbi Davis and Amy Aldous Bergerson
8: Loss of Organic Community and Decentralized Communications
Sierra Stevens and Shawn R. Coon
9: The Burnout Warning
Marilisa Vega and Shawn R. Coon
Part IV: The Experiences of Students
10: Online Learning During COVID
Diane Lê Strain, Mayumi Kasai, and Chris Wallace-Carrete
11: Mental Health, Motivation, and Emotions
Jessi Gerowitz, Karla Motta, and Marilisa Vega
12: Connectivity, Community, and Sense of Belonging
Shenrui Yang, Karla Motta, and Jessi Gerowitz
Part V: Conclusion
13: Complications for Institutional Thriving Across Stakeholders
Christopher Wallace-Carrete, Amy Aldous Bergerson, and Shawn R. Coon
14: The Way Forward: Rethinking Thriving in Crisis
Shawn R. Coon and Amy Aldous Bergerson
Biography
Amy Aldous Bergerson, Ph.D. is Associate Provost and Dean for Undergraduate Education at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, USA
Shawn R. Coon is a Ph.D. Candidate and Graduate Fellow in the department of Educational Leadership and Policy at the University of Utah, USA.
"Not since the Great Influenza pandemic of 1918 have institutions of higher education faced a health crisis like that brought on by COVID-19. Of course, the societal and technological differences between the pandemics of 2020 and 1918 are vast. The studies conducted for Understanding Individual Experiences of COVID-19 to Inform Policy and Practice in Higher Education provide more than just a snapshot of how faculty, staff, and students at one institution dealt with the terrifying effects of the COVID-19 pandemic but a detailed and insightful analysis of how one institution responded to the crisis. It will be useful to higher education scholars now and to historians in the future."
-- Christian K. Anderson, Associate Professor of Higher Education, University of South Carolina, USA
"This book is an important read for campus leaders who continue to make decisions in times of crisis. From a comprehensive study on one campus, the authors highlight the intended and unintended consequences of crisis decisions and the implications of those on how members of the campus community thrive."
-- Jeni Hart, Dean of the Graduate School and Professor of Higher Education, University of Missouri, USA
