Karen Gross, Edward K. S. Wang
Publication Date: September 27, 2024
Pages: 240
Discover how the crisis of a global pandemic allowed educators to improve learning across the pre–K–adult pipeline. While acknowledging the scale of loss and difficulty the COVID pandemic engendered within the field of education, this book focuses on how sudden and forced changes to teaching and learning created “Pandemic Positives,” which can be captured and brought to scale. In particular: Part I addresses how Pandemic Positives came into being, with special attention to the presence of educator hope and creativity. Part II explores the Pandemic Positives that arose in three settings: when schools were closed, when learning turned online, and when schools re-opened. Part III provides strategies for replicating the Pandemic Positives so they become positive educational game changers. This book is grounded on trauma and mental wellness theory and includes the in-the-trenches experiences and voices of educators. The text features art created by the coauthors and shares both their professional and personal experiences, humanizing and enriching the book. Mending Education completes a trilogy composed of Breakaway Learners and Trauma Doesn’t Stop at the School Door by Karen Gross.
Book Features:
Karen Gross is an instructor of continuing education at Rutgers School of Social Work, a former college president, and served as a senior policy advisor at the U.S. Department of Education. Edward K. S. Wang is an assistant professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School and the director of policy and planning for the Chester M. Pierce MD Division of Global Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital.
“This is a resource that provides realistic solutions that not only address immediate needs but create a roadmap for long-term change in education. Very highly recommended.”
—Readers' Favorite
“Whether you’re a policymaker, an educator, or simply curious about how the pandemic reshaped learning, this book provides a meaningful lens through which to view the challenges and opportunities that now define modern education.”
—Literary Titan
“Mending Education is the third book in a trilogy geared towards education and the systems engulfing the processes of education. The book is important for educators but also people from multiple disciplines, e.g., business, leadership, health care. Every profession thrives on the messages found within Mending Education through its stories of hope, creativity, resiliency, and vision. Educators were role models through the pandemic, showing creativity and positive examples of not just surviving but thriving in hard times. The authors have beautifully highlighted the tangible stories that give hope for education even though the profession is filled with crisis from within and outside. Likewise, the book provides a blueprint that other professions can use to scaffold their own vision, creativity, hope, and resiliency.”
—Barbara H. Long, dean, The Rev. Wilfred E. and Dr. Joyce A. Nolen School of Business and Professional Studies, Bridgewater College
“In their new book, Mending Education, Karen Gross and Ed Wang provide us with a readable yet authoritative review of the challenges and opportunities our education system faces in the aftermath of the pandemic and in the context of multiple ongoing stressors. While never dodging the severity of the issues, they offer a treatment plan built on lessons from the experience of social and emotional learning and from what we have gleaned from resilience studies as applied to the scholastic setting for students and teachers alike. This is a timely and necessary book."
—Gregory Fricchione, MD, director, Benson-Henry Institute for Mind-Body Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, professor of psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
“Mending Education is a book for our times—it recognizes the watershed moment created by the COVID-19 pandemic and examines how to embrace it moving forward. Old paradigms simply no longer fit the current landscape educators are facing. This book addresses the ‘now what’ for educators by offering hope, clarity, and innovative strategies.”
—Douglas Behan, director of continuing education and associate professor of professional practice, School of Social Work, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
“Mending Education is a must-read for veteran educators, preservice educators, and teacher educators. Drs. Gross and Wang center the voices of educators and affirm the multiple ways educators benefited their students and families during the pandemic. By doing so, educators who lived that experience find their creativity with online learning, their novelty for engaging students, and their focus on connecting with students and families not only highlighted but recognized as a path forward.”
—Elizabeth McAdams Ducy, associate professor of special education, Sonoma State University
“We have all bemoaned the COVID pandemic and its lasting negative effects, but Karen Gross and Edward Wang turn that pessimism on its head. This book defines the positive outcomes from the pandemic for education writ large and provides ways to create stickiness for lasting change. The coauthors’ extensive experience in education is augmented by the priceless data gathered through their research survey of teachers and educators. Along with their upbeat voices, their own delightful and smart original artworks are used to engage the reader and illustrate their points throughout, making this a must-have for educators everywhere.”
—Chris Messina-Boyer, educational crisis manager/crisis communications consultant, 20Buttonwood PR Solutions LLC
“In this easily digestible and wonderfully enlightening book, the authors tell us that the first step to enduring change is to name it. Karen Gross and Edward Wang have done just that, essentially putting the innovations emerging from one of the worst tragedies of our lifetime into a bottle for us all to remember and build upon going forward. Although we are cautioned that not all change sticks, in the hands of these authors, we come away with the hope that we are on our way. Mending Education is an important, informative, uplifting, and inspiring read. Thank you!!”
—Madelaine Claire Weiss, LICSW, MBA, BCC, licensed psychotherapist, speaker, author of SEL middle-grade book
“I read this book through the lenses of my own mild PTSD after COVID (not a lot of suffering for me, but the pandemic did affect me) and my own equally mild PTSD after UNLV’s school shooting. In addition to the art throughout the book, the lessons learned from COVID that the authors express here are more than just the surface-level 'people can adapt' generalities that infuse so many post-pandemic books. The stories in the book brought the lessons to life, and I am able to use the book’s suggestions about the pandemic’s positives (and how to make those positives 'sticky') to find ways to help my post-shooting colleagues and students heal from the additional trauma that the shooting added to our post-pandemic recovery. This book is thoughtful, creative, and meaningful, and it should be a must-read.”
—Nancy B. Rapoport, UNLV Distinguished Professor, Garman Turner Gordon Professor of Law, William S. Boyd School of Law, Affiliate Professor of Business Law and Ethics, Lee Business School
"Mending Education is a groundbreaking book that offers a fresh perspective on the lasting impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our educational system. Rather than focusing on the negatives, the authors provide a compelling description and analysis of the ‘systemic, positive, and scalable improvements in education’ brought to light by the pandemic. Their insights are both practical and visionary, offering educators, policymakers, and parents a road map to use these hard-won lessons to transform schools into vibrant centers of growth and opportunity. Mending Education is an essential read for anyone invested in reflecting upon an unparalleled moment in the history of education and using these reflections to improve the future of learning.”
—Lois R. Lupica, Maine Law Foundation Professor, emerita, University of Maine School of Law, lead designer, Community Economic Defense Project
Karen Gross, author, educator, and artist, serves as an instructor of continuing education at Rutgers School of Social Work and visiting professor at various colleges in the United States and Canada. A former college president, she also served as a senior policy advisor at the U.S. Department of Education. Edward K. S. Wang is an assistant professor of psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and the director of policy and planning for the Chester M. Pierce, MD Division of Global Psychiatry, at Massachusetts General Hospital. Previously, he was the director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs, Massachusetts Department of Mental Health, and the National Advisory Council, Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration.
Contents
Acknowledgments xiii
Note to Readers xv
Prologue 1
Part I: The Origins of the Educational Pandemic Positives
1. The Perspective of Positives 7
The Lenses We Wear 7
Our Stories 9
Context and Change 10
Pre-Launch Vista 12
2. Hope and Creativity 13
The Unspoken Greats 13
Some Cautions 14
What Is Hope? 14
What Is Creativity? 18
The Interconnectedness of Hope and Crisis Creativity 20
3. The Root System 22
Naming 22
Why the Pandemic Positives Worked 23
Trauma Theory 23
Mental Wellness Theory 26
Social and Emotional Learning 27
Literature Scan 29
Teacher Voices 31
Survey 32
Methodological Comfort Level 33
Part II: Finding and Exploring the Pandemic Positives
4. Closed Doesn’t Mean Closed 37
The Complex Closure Timeline 37
Added Factors Affecting Context 39
A Real Negative 40
Home Delivery 41
Educator Appreciation 42
Pods and Outdoor Learning 43
School Staff Still Worked 45
Nurses 46
Counselors 46
Psychologists 47
Athletic Coaches 48
Food Service Workers 49
Added Insights 49
5. Leaping Into Change 51
The Giant Leap Into Online Learning 51
The Need for Necessities 52
We Responded Admirably 54
6. Change Abounds Through Larger Lessons 57
Opportunities Aplenty 57
Changes in Assessment Approaches 58
Disciplining Differently 61
Mental Health Accessibility and Its Significance 62
Supportive Settings 64
Online Actually Isn’t All Bad 66
Advance Preparation 68
7. Unanticipated Gifts From the Cloud 71
Seemingly Small but Critical Practices 71
Knowing Our Students 71
Seeing Learning Happen 73
Connectivity of People 74
Student Interest 76
Being on the Same Page 76
Students and Educators Being in This Together 79
Strategies to Engage Students 81
Flexing 83
Chunking 84
Decluttering 85
8. Brick-and-Mortar Education Wasn’t Prepandemic Redux 87
The Return 87
Strategies That Worked 90
Maintaining the Strategies 104
Part III: Striving for Stickiness
9. Connectedness, Creativity, and Community Partnerships 107
Positives We Identified 107
The Three-Legged Stool 108
Specific Design Features 108
Explicating the Three C’s 110
It’s More Than Words 112
Long-Term Thinking 114
10. Game Changers and How They Work 115
The Meaning of Game Changers 115
Game Changing Across Time 116
Mental Illness Destigmatization 117
Is Education So Different? 120
Why Some, Not Others? 122
The All-Important Three M’s 122
Let’s Chat About ChatGPT 123
11. The Many Streets That Lead to Stickiness 127
Getting to Sticky 127
Informing Our Thinking 127
The Streets of Change 129
12. The Art of Mending 150
Mending Matters 150
Walking Forward 152
Epilogue: A Conversation (Excerpts) 154
Supplementary Material 155
Epilogue: A Conversation
Survey for Educators
Tables
Related Sources
Endnotes 156
Index 214
About the Authors 222
Professors: Request an Exam Copy
Print copies available for US orders only. For orders outside the US, see our international distributors.