essay on perseverance during the pandemic

Read these 12 moving essays about life during coronavirus

Artists, novelists, critics, and essayists are writing the first draft of history.

by Alissa Wilkinson

The world is grappling with an invisible, deadly enemy, trying to understand how to live with the threat posed by a virus . For some writers, the only way forward is to put pen to paper, trying to conceptualize and document what it feels like to continue living as countries are under lockdown and regular life seems to have ground to a halt.

So as the coronavirus pandemic has stretched around the world, it’s sparked a crop of diary entries and essays that describe how life has changed. Novelists, critics, artists, and journalists have put words to the feelings many are experiencing. The result is a first draft of how we’ll someday remember this time, filled with uncertainty and pain and fear as well as small moments of hope and humanity.

• The Vox guide to navigating the coronavirus crisis

At the New York Review of Books, Ali Bhutto writes that in Karachi, Pakistan, the government-imposed curfew due to the virus is “eerily reminiscent of past military clampdowns”:

Beneath the quiet calm lies a sense that society has been unhinged and that the usual rules no longer apply. Small groups of pedestrians look on from the shadows, like an audience watching a spectacle slowly unfolding. People pause on street corners and in the shade of trees, under the watchful gaze of the paramilitary forces and the police.

His essay concludes with the sobering note that “in the minds of many, Covid-19 is just another life-threatening hazard in a city that stumbles from one crisis to another.”

Writing from Chattanooga, novelist Jamie Quatro documents the mixed ways her neighbors have been responding to the threat, and the frustration of conflicting direction, or no direction at all, from local, state, and federal leaders:

Whiplash, trying to keep up with who’s ordering what. We’re already experiencing enough chaos without this back-and-forth. Why didn’t the federal government issue a nationwide shelter-in-place at the get-go, the way other countries did? What happens when one state’s shelter-in-place ends, while others continue? Do states still under quarantine close their borders? We are still one nation, not fifty individual countries. Right?

• A syllabus for the end of the world

Award-winning photojournalist Alessio Mamo, quarantined with his partner Marta in Sicily after she tested positive for the virus, accompanies his photographs in the Guardian of their confinement with a reflection on being confined :

The doctors asked me to take a second test, but again I tested negative. Perhaps I’m immune? The days dragged on in my apartment, in black and white, like my photos. Sometimes we tried to smile, imagining that I was asymptomatic, because I was the virus. Our smiles seemed to bring good news. My mother left hospital, but I won’t be able to see her for weeks. Marta started breathing well again, and so did I. I would have liked to photograph my country in the midst of this emergency, the battles that the doctors wage on the frontline, the hospitals pushed to their limits, Italy on its knees fighting an invisible enemy. That enemy, a day in March, knocked on my door instead.

In the New York Times Magazine, deputy editor Jessica Lustig writes with devastating clarity about her family’s life in Brooklyn while her husband battled the virus, weeks before most people began taking the threat seriously:

At the door of the clinic, we stand looking out at two older women chatting outside the doorway, oblivious. Do I wave them away? Call out that they should get far away, go home, wash their hands, stay inside? Instead we just stand there, awkwardly, until they move on. Only then do we step outside to begin the long three-block walk home. I point out the early magnolia, the forsythia. T says he is cold. The untrimmed hairs on his neck, under his beard, are white. The few people walking past us on the sidewalk don’t know that we are visitors from the future. A vision, a premonition, a walking visitation. This will be them: Either T, in the mask, or — if they’re lucky — me, tending to him.

Essayist Leslie Jamison writes in the New York Review of Books about being shut away alone in her New York City apartment with her 2-year-old daughter since she became sick:

The virus. Its sinewy, intimate name. What does it feel like in my body today? Shivering under blankets. A hot itch behind the eyes. Three sweatshirts in the middle of the day. My daughter trying to pull another blanket over my body with her tiny arms. An ache in the muscles that somehow makes it hard to lie still. This loss of taste has become a kind of sensory quarantine. It’s as if the quarantine keeps inching closer and closer to my insides. First I lost the touch of other bodies; then I lost the air; now I’ve lost the taste of bananas. Nothing about any of these losses is particularly unique. I’ve made a schedule so I won’t go insane with the toddler. Five days ago, I wrote Walk/Adventure! on it, next to a cut-out illustration of a tiger—as if we’d see tigers on our walks. It was good to keep possibility alive.

At Literary Hub, novelist Heidi Pitlor writes about the elastic nature of time during her family’s quarantine in Massachusetts:

During a shutdown, the things that mark our days—commuting to work, sending our kids to school, having a drink with friends—vanish and time takes on a flat, seamless quality. Without some self-imposed structure, it’s easy to feel a little untethered. A friend recently posted on Facebook: “For those who have lost track, today is Blursday the fortyteenth of Maprilay.” ... Giving shape to time is especially important now, when the future is so shapeless. We do not know whether the virus will continue to rage for weeks or months or, lord help us, on and off for years. We do not know when we will feel safe again. And so many of us, minus those who are gifted at compartmentalization or denial, remain largely captive to fear. We may stay this way if we do not create at least the illusion of movement in our lives, our long days spent with ourselves or partners or families.

• What day is it today?

Novelist Lauren Groff writes at the New York Review of Books about trying to escape the prison of her fears while sequestered at home in Gainesville, Florida:

Some people have imaginations sparked only by what they can see; I blame this blinkered empiricism for the parks overwhelmed with people, the bars, until a few nights ago, thickly thronged. My imagination is the opposite. I fear everything invisible to me. From the enclosure of my house, I am afraid of the suffering that isn’t present before me, the people running out of money and food or drowning in the fluid in their lungs, the deaths of health-care workers now growing ill while performing their duties. I fear the federal government, which the right wing has so—intentionally—weakened that not only is it insufficient to help its people, it is actively standing in help’s way. I fear we won’t sufficiently punish the right. I fear leaving the house and spreading the disease. I fear what this time of fear is doing to my children, their imaginations, and their souls.

At ArtForum , Berlin-based critic and writer Kristian Vistrup Madsen reflects on martinis, melancholia, and Finnish artist Jaakko Pallasvuo’s 2018 graphic novel Retreat , in which three young people exile themselves in the woods:

In melancholia, the shape of what is ending, and its temporality, is sprawling and incomprehensible. The ambivalence makes it hard to bear. The world of Retreat is rendered in lush pink and purple watercolors, which dissolve into wild and messy abstractions. In apocalypse, the divisions established in genesis bleed back out. My own Corona-retreat is similarly soft, color-field like, each day a blurred succession of quarantinis, YouTube–yoga, and televized press conferences. As restrictions mount, so does abstraction. For now, I’m still rooting for love to save the world.

At the Paris Review , Matt Levin writes about reading Virginia Woolf’s novel The Waves during quarantine:

A retreat, a quarantine, a sickness—they simultaneously distort and clarify, curtail and expand. It is an ideal state in which to read literature with a reputation for difficulty and inaccessibility, those hermetic books shorn of the handholds of conventional plot or characterization or description. A novel like Virginia Woolf’s The Waves is perfect for the state of interiority induced by quarantine—a story of three men and three women, meeting after the death of a mutual friend, told entirely in the overlapping internal monologues of the six, interspersed only with sections of pure, achingly beautiful descriptions of the natural world, a day’s procession and recession of light and waves. The novel is, in my mind’s eye, a perfectly spherical object. It is translucent and shimmering and infinitely fragile, prone to shatter at the slightest disturbance. It is not a book that can be read in snatches on the subway—it demands total absorption. Though it revels in a stark emotional nakedness, the book remains aloof, remote in its own deep self-absorption.

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In an essay for the Financial Times, novelist Arundhati Roy writes with anger about Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s anemic response to the threat, but also offers a glimmer of hope for the future:

Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.

From Boston, Nora Caplan-Bricker writes in The Point about the strange contraction of space under quarantine, in which a friend in Beirut is as close as the one around the corner in the same city:

It’s a nice illusion—nice to feel like we’re in it together, even if my real world has shrunk to one person, my husband, who sits with his laptop in the other room. It’s nice in the same way as reading those essays that reframe social distancing as solidarity. “We must begin to see the negative space as clearly as the positive, to know what we don’t do is also brilliant and full of love,” the poet Anne Boyer wrote on March 10th, the day that Massachusetts declared a state of emergency. If you squint, you could almost make sense of this quarantine as an effort to flatten, along with the curve, the distinctions we make between our bonds with others. Right now, I care for my neighbor in the same way I demonstrate love for my mother: in all instances, I stay away. And in moments this month, I have loved strangers with an intensity that is new to me. On March 14th, the Saturday night after the end of life as we knew it, I went out with my dog and found the street silent: no lines for restaurants, no children on bicycles, no couples strolling with little cups of ice cream. It had taken the combined will of thousands of people to deliver such a sudden and complete emptiness. I felt so grateful, and so bereft.

And on his own website, musician and artist David Byrne writes about rediscovering the value of working for collective good , saying that “what is happening now is an opportunity to learn how to change our behavior”:

In emergencies, citizens can suddenly cooperate and collaborate. Change can happen. We’re going to need to work together as the effects of climate change ramp up. In order for capitalism to survive in any form, we will have to be a little more socialist. Here is an opportunity for us to see things differently — to see that we really are all connected — and adjust our behavior accordingly. Are we willing to do this? Is this moment an opportunity to see how truly interdependent we all are? To live in a world that is different and better than the one we live in now? We might be too far down the road to test every asymptomatic person, but a change in our mindsets, in how we view our neighbors, could lay the groundwork for the collective action we’ll need to deal with other global crises. The time to see how connected we all are is now.

The portrait these writers paint of a world under quarantine is multifaceted. Our worlds have contracted to the confines of our homes, and yet in some ways we’re more connected than ever to one another. We feel fear and boredom, anger and gratitude, frustration and strange peace. Uncertainty drives us to find metaphors and images that will let us wrap our minds around what is happening.

Yet there’s no single “what” that is happening. Everyone is contending with the pandemic and its effects from different places and in different ways. Reading others’ experiences — even the most frightening ones — can help alleviate the loneliness and dread, a little, and remind us that what we’re going through is both unique and shared by all.

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Writing about COVID-19 in a college admission essay

by: Venkates Swaminathan | Updated: September 14, 2020

Print article

For students applying to college using the CommonApp, there are several different places where students and counselors can address the pandemic’s impact. The different sections have differing goals. You must understand how to use each section for its appropriate use.

The CommonApp COVID-19 question

First, the CommonApp this year has an additional question specifically about COVID-19 :

Community disruptions such as COVID-19 and natural disasters can have deep and long-lasting impacts. If you need it, this space is yours to describe those impacts. Colleges care about the effects on your health and well-being, safety, family circumstances, future plans, and education, including access to reliable technology and quiet study spaces. Please use this space to describe how these events have impacted you.

This question seeks to understand the adversity that students may have had to face due to the pandemic, the move to online education, or the shelter-in-place rules. You don’t have to answer this question if the impact on you wasn’t particularly severe. Some examples of things students should discuss include:

• The student or a family member had COVID-19 or suffered other illnesses due to confinement during the pandemic.
• The candidate had to deal with personal or family issues, such as abusive living situations or other safety concerns
• The student suffered from a lack of internet access and other online learning challenges.
• Students who dealt with problems registering for or taking standardized tests and AP exams.

Jeff Schiffman of the Tulane University admissions office has a blog about this section. He recommends students ask themselves several questions as they go about answering this section:

• Are my experiences different from others’?
• Are there noticeable changes on my transcript?
• Am I aware of my privilege?
• Am I specific? Am I explaining rather than complaining?
• Is this information being included elsewhere on my application?

If you do answer this section, be brief and to-the-point.

Counselor recommendations and school profiles

Second, counselors will, in their counselor forms and school profiles on the CommonApp, address how the school handled the pandemic and how it might have affected students, specifically as it relates to:

• Grading scales and policies
• Graduation requirements
• Instructional methods
• Schedules and course offerings
• Testing requirements
• Your academic calendar
• Other extenuating circumstances

Students don’t have to mention these matters in their application unless something unusual happened.

Writing about COVID-19 in your main essay

Write about your experiences during the pandemic in your main college essay if your experience is personal, relevant, and the most important thing to discuss in your college admission essay. That you had to stay home and study online isn’t sufficient, as millions of other students faced the same situation. But sometimes, it can be appropriate and helpful to write about something related to the pandemic in your essay. For example:

• One student developed a website for a local comic book store. The store might not have survived without the ability for people to order comic books online. The student had a long-standing relationship with the store, and it was an institution that created a community for students who otherwise felt left out.
• One student started a YouTube channel to help other students with academic subjects he was very familiar with and began tutoring others.
• Some students used their extra time that was the result of the stay-at-home orders to take online courses pursuing topics they are genuinely interested in or developing new interests, like a foreign language or music.

Experiences like this can be good topics for the CommonApp essay as long as they reflect something genuinely important about the student. For many students whose lives have been shaped by this pandemic, it can be a critical part of their college application.

Want more? Read 6 ways to improve a college essay , What the &%$! should I write about in my college essay , and Just how important is a college admissions essay? .

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I Thought We’d Learned Nothing From the Pandemic. I Wasn’t Seeing the Full Picture

M y first home had a back door that opened to a concrete patio with a giant crack down the middle. When my sister and I played, I made sure to stay on the same side of the divide as her, just in case. The 1988 film The Land Before Time was one of the first movies I ever saw, and the image of the earth splintering into pieces planted its roots in my brain. I believed that, even in my own backyard, I could easily become the tiny Triceratops separated from her family, on the other side of the chasm, as everything crumbled into chaos.

Some 30 years later, I marvel at the eerie, unexpected ways that cartoonish nightmare came to life – not just for me and my family, but for all of us. The landscape was already covered in fissures well before COVID-19 made its way across the planet, but the pandemic applied pressure, and the cracks broke wide open, separating us from each other physically and ideologically. Under the weight of the crisis, we scattered and landed on such different patches of earth we could barely see each other’s faces, even when we squinted. We disagreed viciously with each other, about how to respond, but also about what was true.

Recently, someone asked me if we’ve learned anything from the pandemic, and my first thought was a flat no. Nothing. There was a time when I thought it would be the very thing to draw us together and catapult us – as a capital “S” Society – into a kinder future. It’s surreal to remember those early days when people rallied together, sewing masks for health care workers during critical shortages and gathering on balconies in cities from Dallas to New York City to clap and sing songs like “Yellow Submarine.” It felt like a giant lightning bolt shot across the sky, and for one breath, we all saw something that had been hidden in the dark – the inherent vulnerability in being human or maybe our inescapable connectedness .

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But it turns out, it was just a flash. The goodwill vanished as quickly as it appeared. A couple of years later, people feel lied to, abandoned, and all on their own. I’ve felt my own curiosity shrinking, my willingness to reach out waning , my ability to keep my hands open dwindling. I look out across the landscape and see selfishness and rage, burnt earth and so many dead bodies. Game over. We lost. And if we’ve already lost, why try?

Still, the question kept nagging me. I wondered, am I seeing the full picture? What happens when we focus not on the collective society but at one face, one story at a time? I’m not asking for a bow to minimize the suffering – a pretty flourish to put on top and make the whole thing “worth it.” Yuck. That’s not what we need. But I wondered about deep, quiet growth. The kind we feel in our bodies, relationships, homes, places of work, neighborhoods.

Like a walkie-talkie message sent to my allies on the ground, I posted a call on my Instagram. What do you see? What do you hear? What feels possible? Is there life out here? Sprouting up among the rubble? I heard human voices calling back – reports of life, personal and specific. I heard one story at a time – stories of grief and distrust, fury and disappointment. Also gratitude. Discovery. Determination.

Among the most prevalent were the stories of self-revelation. Almost as if machines were given the chance to live as humans, people described blossoming into fuller selves. They listened to their bodies’ cues, recognized their desires and comforts, tuned into their gut instincts, and honored the intuition they hadn’t realized belonged to them. Alex, a writer and fellow disabled parent, found the freedom to explore a fuller version of herself in the privacy the pandemic provided. “The way I dress, the way I love, and the way I carry myself have both shrunk and expanded,” she shared. “I don’t love myself very well with an audience.” Without the daily ritual of trying to pass as “normal” in public, Tamar, a queer mom in the Netherlands, realized she’s autistic. “I think the pandemic helped me to recognize the mask,” she wrote. “Not that unmasking is easy now. But at least I know it’s there.” In a time of widespread suffering that none of us could solve on our own, many tended to our internal wounds and misalignments, large and small, and found clarity.

Read More: A Tool for Staying Grounded in This Era of Constant Uncertainty

I wonder if this flourishing of self-awareness is at least partially responsible for the life alterations people pursued. The pandemic broke open our personal notions of work and pushed us to reevaluate things like time and money. Lucy, a disabled writer in the U.K., made the hard decision to leave her job as a journalist covering Westminster to write freelance about her beloved disability community. “This work feels important in a way nothing else has ever felt,” she wrote. “I don’t think I’d have realized this was what I should be doing without the pandemic.” And she wasn’t alone – many people changed jobs , moved, learned new skills and hobbies, became politically engaged.

Perhaps more than any other shifts, people described a significant reassessment of their relationships. They set boundaries, said no, had challenging conversations. They also reconnected, fell in love, and learned to trust. Jeanne, a quilter in Indiana, got to know relatives she wouldn’t have connected with if lockdowns hadn’t prompted weekly family Zooms. “We are all over the map as regards to our belief systems,” she emphasized, “but it is possible to love people you don’t see eye to eye with on every issue.” Anna, an anti-violence advocate in Maine, learned she could trust her new marriage: “Life was not a honeymoon. But we still chose to turn to each other with kindness and curiosity.” So many bonds forged and broken, strengthened and strained.

Instead of relying on default relationships or institutional structures, widespread recalibrations allowed for going off script and fortifying smaller communities. Mara from Idyllwild, Calif., described the tangible plan for care enacted in her town. “We started a mutual-aid group at the beginning of the pandemic,” she wrote, “and it grew so quickly before we knew it we were feeding 400 of the 4000 residents.” She didn’t pretend the conditions were ideal. In fact, she expressed immense frustration with our collective response to the pandemic. Even so, the local group rallied and continues to offer assistance to their community with help from donations and volunteers (many of whom were originally on the receiving end of support). “I’ve learned that people thrive when they feel their connection to others,” she wrote. Clare, a teacher from the U.K., voiced similar conviction as she described a giant scarf she’s woven out of ribbons, each representing a single person. The scarf is “a collection of stories, moments and wisdom we are sharing with each other,” she wrote. It now stretches well over 1,000 feet.

A few hours into reading the comments, I lay back on my bed, phone held against my chest. The room was quiet, but my internal world was lighting up with firefly flickers. What felt different? Surely part of it was receiving personal accounts of deep-rooted growth. And also, there was something to the mere act of asking and listening. Maybe it connected me to humans before battle cries. Maybe it was the chance to be in conversation with others who were also trying to understand – what is happening to us? Underneath it all, an undeniable thread remained; I saw people peering into the mess and narrating their findings onto the shared frequency. Every comment was like a flare into the sky. I’m here! And if the sky is full of flares, we aren’t alone.

I recognized my own pandemic discoveries – some minor, others massive. Like washing off thick eyeliner and mascara every night is more effort than it’s worth; I can transform the mundane into the magical with a bedsheet, a movie projector, and twinkle lights; my paralyzed body can mother an infant in ways I’d never seen modeled for me. I remembered disappointing, bewildering conversations within my own family of origin and our imperfect attempts to remain close while also seeing things so differently. I realized that every time I get the weekly invite to my virtual “Find the Mumsies” call, with a tiny group of moms living hundreds of miles apart, I’m being welcomed into a pocket of unexpected community. Even though we’ve never been in one room all together, I’ve felt an uncommon kind of solace in their now-familiar faces.

Hope is a slippery thing. I desperately want to hold onto it, but everywhere I look there are real, weighty reasons to despair. The pandemic marks a stretch on the timeline that tangles with a teetering democracy, a deteriorating planet , the loss of human rights that once felt unshakable . When the world is falling apart Land Before Time style, it can feel trite, sniffing out the beauty – useless, firing off flares to anyone looking for signs of life. But, while I’m under no delusions that if we just keep trudging forward we’ll find our own oasis of waterfalls and grassy meadows glistening in the sunshine beneath a heavenly chorus, I wonder if trivializing small acts of beauty, connection, and hope actually cuts us off from resources essential to our survival. The group of abandoned dinosaurs were keeping each other alive and making each other laugh well before they made it to their fantasy ending.

Read More: How Ice Cream Became My Own Personal Act of Resistance

After the monarch butterfly went on the endangered-species list, my friend and fellow writer Hannah Soyer sent me wildflower seeds to plant in my yard. A simple act of big hope – that I will actually plant them, that they will grow, that a monarch butterfly will receive nourishment from whatever blossoms are able to push their way through the dirt. There are so many ways that could fail. But maybe the outcome wasn’t exactly the point. Maybe hope is the dogged insistence – the stubborn defiance – to continue cultivating moments of beauty regardless. There is value in the planting apart from the harvest.

I can’t point out a single collective lesson from the pandemic. It’s hard to see any great “we.” Still, I see the faces in my moms’ group, making pancakes for their kids and popping on between strings of meetings while we try to figure out how to raise these small people in this chaotic world. I think of my friends on Instagram tending to the selves they discovered when no one was watching and the scarf of ribbons stretching the length of more than three football fields. I remember my family of three, holding hands on the way up the ramp to the library. These bits of growth and rings of support might not be loud or right on the surface, but that’s not the same thing as nothing. If we only cared about the bottom-line defeats or sweeping successes of the big picture, we’d never plant flowers at all.

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Endurance got us through multiple lockdowns, and it’ll help us coming out of the pandemic too

Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Durham University

Disclosure statement

Felix Ringel does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Durham University provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation UK.

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The coronavirus, or rather the measurements taken against it, changed our perception of time . For many, the attempts to prevent the spread of the virus resulted in a feeling that time had come to a standstill.

When the pandemic first hit, this notion of stopped time was at the core of a widespread sense of crisis. For a while, many existed in survival mode, reacting to the demands of the day while unable to plan ahead. However, around the world, humans also began to deploy what in my work as a social anthropologist I call temporal agency – the ability to deliberately restructure, speed up or slow down the times we are living in.

Many of us learnt how to trick time in order to get through the new COVID-19 way of life. People restructured their daily lives by establishing new routines. Many had to navigate the differences between home and home office time, when both were spent in the same place. Some of us even learned how to tentatively plan ahead in a reality where the future was uncertain.

Many lockdowns (at least in the UK) later, I’m still impressed by the creative responses to the pandemic, particularly the many ways in which families and friends learned to share time at a distance. However, the one feature I particularly believe we should carry into the post-pandemic future is not that COVID creativity, but perseverance itself.

Endurance, maintenance and tenacity – the ingredients that make up perseverance – are under-appreciated even in times without crisis. However, they kept us going when life was hardest. Humanity surprised itself by quickly adapting to the new pandemic normal, but what counted more was the perseverance we deployed for more than a year without giving up. Creating a sustainable post-pandemic future will depend on it, too.

Missed opportunities

The pandemic taught us to appreciate, and even celebrate perseverance, not least the continuous daily work of all the heroic frontline workers (whose everyday work we’d taken for granted for too long). It also provided us with a chance to reconsider what’s important in our lives and how we want to organise our societies in the future. Many of us were made aware of what counts and what was missed the most.

Prominent amongst those things are the social relations that make us who we are -– with family members, friends, neighbours and colleagues, even those we had all those unnecessary fights with during lockdown.

Read more: Coronavirus: how the pandemic has changed our perception of time

In the post-pandemic future, we should never again take them for granted, nor all the hugs , kisses and handshakes. We avoid doing that by appreciating the work that goes into maintaining these social relationships.

Apart from time for family and friends, we also yearned for other times -– for travel and leisure, for example. We’d taken for granted the distinction between work and leisure, office and home time, and we’ll have to take time again to renegotiate these distinctions. Whatever we come up with in the end, this new work-life balance will also have to stand the test of time – whether it can endure in the future and we in it.

Endurance and exhaustion

During the pandemic, many people had to come up with new ideas and change their behaviour. But once that change had happened, we were forced to maintain and endure our response to the pandemic.

The daily exercises, weekly Zoom calls with relatives or prolonged homeschooling efforts were all examples of endurance. In many places, perseverance shaped the latter part of the pandemic – it was all about making it through a few more dark winter days and resisting general exhaustion and lockdown fatigue.

Endurance is important to society in general. In a recent paper, I looked into why this matters in the context of urban decline in postindustrial cities .

As cities change, their inhabitants are forced to adapt their behaviour to new social, economic and political circumstances. Through this change, the fight to keep something you love alive requires endurance. Sustaining a social club that struggles to find new members or preserving your local community centre from closure entails plenty of perseverance. Maintaining part of your urban infrastructure that suffers from funding cuts – your youth club or local park – is a revolutionary act, because it withstands the change others intended for it.

This work of maintenance and repair is at the core of our societies . It might look less interesting than attempts at making a difference, but without it everything around us would collapse.

The end of this pandemic will not be a sharp cut. It will be gradual and, as humanity will have to pace itself, there will be more need for endurance. In the best case, the experiences of the pandemic will help us determine what this future should look like.

Although the pandemic will at some point be over, there are enough crises yet that demand our attention: economic, social, ecological and political ones as well as potential future pandemics. The same sense of endurance, sustainability and perseverance will have to characterise our responses to those, too.

It is not enough to wait for a shortcut out of climate change or a cure-all for economic decline. A truly sustainable solution to these crises will have to be maintained in new everyday lives and routines. It will have to work with a different understanding of what human agency is all about.

Like during the pandemic, we not only have to establish new ideas, but make them work in the long run.

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Pandemic perseverance: Pursuing your dreams during Covid-19

I always saw the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) as a daunting exam; nevertheless, the fact that so many students would be taking it with me physically gave me some sense of moral support, even if that support was coming from strangers.

I never expected studying for this exam to take such a different turn with the pandemic hitting during my first semester of studying; suddenly, I no longer had the presence of random students trying their best at a beast of an exam, the library corner that I had claimed specifically for MCAT studying, or the friends that I needed to tell me that I could do whatever I set my mind to. Yes, the pandemic shifted the way I had planned to study for this test, but not for a moment did I think that a virus, invisible to the naked eye, could take my focus away from the end goal. In retrospect, our dreams may often take a different path than we initially planned, but we can still arrive where we want.

As a college student, school is so much more than the exams I take and the grades I work towards; it's about people, the walk from biology class to the Activity Center, the spontaneous conversations with professors, and above all, the joy it gives to simply be a recipient of a good education. Even during exams, amongst all the contagious fret and worry that seemed to run through the lecture hall, knowing that friends and strangers were around me, taking the test with me in proximity, had a sort of calming relief as I began my test.

Since the beginning of the Fall semester, I have been studying for the MCAT, a medical school admissions exam. Like many others taking entrance exams, wearing a mask for seven hours was not quite the experience I had imagined. I knew that studying for this test was going to be challenging due to the sheer amount of information that had to be learned, but I hadn’t taken into account the challenge that Covid-19 would bring; I hadn’t fully appreciated what it meant to sit in the library with my friends, cramming for a class. Although I knew my friends across state borders were studying for the exam as well, I couldn’t help but feel a certain demotivation that came along with not seeing them and feeling their energy as we struggled and persevered as a group.

Although my test is now complete, it reminded me of what it means to be in the presence of those who make you feel like while every day may be a struggle, we are always victorious at the end. Covid has been hard for many; as a student, I thought that the convenience of simply having my bedroom as my office would make life so much easier; while that is true to some degree, for me, people matter; the conversations on campus matter; spontaneous moments with professors matter and Covid has somewhat altered that reality, replacing it with a new one.

As humans, we have always adjusted and evolved; in fact, the current pandemic is a testament to that very idea. While every day seems to be prey to the routine of yesterday, it is in fact our ability as a species to continue dreaming, pursuing, and reaching that makes us such a unique community.

Too often during the pandemic I have heard many talk about returning to “normalcy” or going back to the “way things were.” While it may seem like the life we have post-Covid will be a return of our old lives and habits, I believe that we are actually heading into a fresh start, a chance to step into a new way of living.

We all learn something every day and that knowledge makes each day quite different than the previous one; perhaps our very evolution is being put to the test during this pandemic. Can we rise from a strange, unnatural event that has shifted our thinking, our mindset, and our emotions? Can we truly dream during a time when the very institutions that facilitate learning have been diminished to a mere screen? I think we can; as a Jamat, as a community, as a global village, I think we will grow from this time and rise to a better version of ourselves that has learned, that has evolved, that has changed for the better.  I know we will. People will always be a part of our lives, because we need each other to survive, to innovate, to create.

This one moment in time may have slightly changed how we interact and how much, but one thing that will remain constant as we evolve is our everlasting need for each other.  

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Seven short essays about life during the pandemic

The boston book festival's at home community writing project invites area residents to describe their experiences during this unprecedented time..

My alarm sounds at 8:15 a.m. I open my eyes and take a deep breath. I wiggle my toes and move my legs. I do this religiously every morning. Today, marks day 74 of staying at home.

My mornings are filled with reading biblical scripture, meditation, breathing in the scents of a hanging eucalyptus branch in the shower, and making tea before I log into my computer to work. After an hour-and-a-half Zoom meeting, I decided to take a long walk to the post office and grab a fresh bouquet of burnt orange ranunculus flowers. I embrace the warm sun beaming on my face. I feel joy. I feel at peace.

I enter my apartment and excessively wash my hands and face. I pour a glass of iced kombucha. I sit at my table and look at the text message on my phone. My coworker writes that she is thinking of me during this difficult time. She must be referring to the Amy Cooper incident. I learn shortly that she is not.

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I Google Minneapolis and see his name: George Floyd. And just like that a simple and beautiful day transitions into a day of sorrow.

Nakia Hill, Boston

It was a wobbly, yet solemn little procession: three masked mourners and a canine. Beginning in Kenmore Square, at David and Sue Horner’s condo, it proceeded up Commonwealth Avenue Mall.

S. Sue Horner died on Good Friday, April 10, in the Year of the Virus. Sue did not die of the virus but her parting was hemmed by it: no gatherings to mark the passing of this splendid human being.

David devised a send-off nevertheless. On April 23rd, accompanied by his daughter and son-in-law, he set out for Old South Church. David led, bearing the urn. His daughter came next, holding her phone aloft, speaker on, through which her brother in Illinois played the bagpipes for the length of the procession, its soaring thrum infusing the Mall. Her husband came last with Melon, their golden retriever.

I unlocked the empty church and led the procession into the columbarium. David drew the urn from its velvet cover, revealing a golden vessel inset with incandescent tiles. We lifted the urn into the niche, prayed, recited Psalm 23, and shared some words.

It was far too small for the luminous “Dr. Sue”, but what we could manage in the Year of the Virus.

Nancy S. Taylor, Boston

On April 26, 2020, our household was a bustling home for four people. Our two sons, ages 18 and 22, have a lot of energy. We are among the lucky ones. I can work remotely. Our food and shelter are not at risk.

As I write this a week later, it is much quieter here.

On April 27, our older son, an EMT, transported a COVID-19 patient to the ER. He left home to protect my delicate health and became ill with the virus a week later.

On April 29, my husband’s 95-year-old father had a stroke. My husband left immediately to be with his 90-year-old mother near New York City and is now preparing for his father’s discharge from the hospital. Rehab people will come to the house; going to a facility would be too dangerous.

My husband just called me to describe today’s hospital visit. The doctors had warned that although his father had regained the ability to speak, he could only repeat what was said to him.

“It’s me,” said my husband.

“It’s me,” said my father-in-law.

“I love you,” said my husband.

“I love you,” said my father-in-law.

“Sooooooooo much,” said my father-in-law.

Lucia Thompson, Wayland

Would racism exist if we were blind?

I felt his eyes bore into me as I walked through the grocery store. At first, I thought nothing of it. With the angst in the air attributable to COVID, I understood the anxiety-provoking nature of feeling as though your 6-foot bubble had burst. So, I ignored him and maintained my distance. But he persisted, glaring at my face, squinting to see who I was underneath the mask. This time I looked back, when he yelled, in my mother tongue, for me to go back to my country.

In shock, I just laughed. How could he tell what I was under my mask? Or see anything through the sunglasses he was wearing inside? It baffled me. I laughed at the irony that he would use my own language against me, that he knew enough to guess where I was from in some version of culturally competent racism. I laughed because dealing with the truth behind that comment generated a sadness in me that was too much to handle. If not now, then when will we be together?

So I ask again, would racism exist if we were blind?

Faizah Shareef, Boston

My Family is “Out” There

But I am “in” here. Life is different now “in” Assisted Living since the deadly COVID-19 arrived. Now the staff, employees, and all 100 residents have our temperatures taken daily. Everyone else, including my family, is “out” there. People like the hairdresser are really missed — with long straight hair and masks, we don’t even recognize ourselves.

Since mid-March we are in quarantine “in” our rooms with meals served. Activities are practically non-existent. We can sit on the back patio 6 feet apart, wearing masks, do exercises there, chat, and walk nearby. Nothing inside. Hopefully June will improve.

My family is “out” there — somewhere! Most are working from home (or Montana). Hopefully an August wedding will happen, but unfortunately, I may still be “in” here.

From my window I wave to my son “out” there. Recently, when my daughter visited, I opened the window “in” my second-floor room and could see and hear her perfectly “out” there. Next time she will bring a chair so we can have an “in” and “out” conversation all day, or until we run out of words.

Barbara Anderson, Raynham

My boyfriend Marcial lives in Boston, and I live in New York City. We had been doing the long-distance thing pretty successfully until coronavirus hit. In mid-March, I was furloughed from my temp job, Marcial began working remotely, and New York started shutting down. I went to Boston to stay with Marcial.

We are opposites in many ways, but we share a love of food. The kitchen has been the center of quarantine life —and also quarantine problems.

Marcial and I have gone from eating out and cooking/grocery shopping for each other during our periodic visits to cooking/grocery shopping with each other all the time. We’ve argued over things like the proper way to make rice and what greens to buy for salad. Our habits are deeply rooted in our upbringing and individual cultures (Filipino immigrant and American-born Chinese, hence the strong rice opinions).

On top of the mundane issues, we’ve also dealt with a flooded kitchen (resulting in cockroaches) and a mandoline accident leading to an ER visit. Marcial and I have spent quarantine navigating how to handle the unexpected and how to integrate our lifestyles. We’ve been eating well along the way.

Melissa Lee, Waltham

It’s 3 a.m. and my dog Rikki just gave me a worried look. Up again?

“I can’t sleep,” I say. I flick the light, pick up “Non-Zero Probabilities.” But the words lay pinned to the page like swatted flies. I watch new “Killing Eve” episodes, play old Nathaniel Rateliff and The Night Sweats songs. Still night.

We are — what? — 12 agitated weeks into lockdown, and now this. The thing that got me was Chauvin’s sunglasses. Perched nonchalantly on his head, undisturbed, as if he were at a backyard BBQ. Or anywhere other than kneeling on George Floyd’s neck, on his life. And Floyd was a father, as we all now know, having seen his daughter Gianna on Stephen Jackson’s shoulders saying “Daddy changed the world.”

Precious child. I pray, safeguard her.

Rikki has her own bed. But she won’t leave me. A Goddess of Protection. She does that thing dogs do, hovers increasingly closely the more agitated I get. “I’m losing it,” I say. I know. And like those weighted gravity blankets meant to encourage sleep, she drapes her 70 pounds over me, covering my restless heart with safety.

As if daybreak, or a prayer, could bring peace today.

Kirstan Barnett, Watertown

Until June 30, send your essay (200 words or less) about life during COVID-19 via bostonbookfest.org . Some essays will be published on the festival’s blog and some will appear in The Boston Globe.

One Student's Perspective on Life During a Pandemic

• Markkula Center for Applied Ethics
• Ethics Resources
• Ethics Spotlight
• COVID-19: Ethics, Health and Moving Forward

The pandemic and resulting shelter-in-place restrictions are affecting everyone in different ways. Tiana Nguyen, shares both the pros and cons of her experience as a student at Santa Clara University.

person sitting at table with open laptop, notebook and pen

Tiana Nguyen ‘21 is a Hackworth Fellow at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics. She is majoring in Computer Science, and is the vice president of Santa Clara University’s Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) chapter .

The world has slowed down, but stress has begun to ramp up.

In the beginning of quarantine, as the world slowed down, I could finally take some time to relax, watch some shows, learn to be a better cook and baker, and be more active in my extracurriculars. I have a lot of things to be thankful for. I especially appreciate that I’m able to live in a comfortable house and have gotten the opportunity to spend more time with my family. This has actually been the first time in years in which we’re all able to even eat meals together every single day. Even when my brother and I were young, my parents would be at work and sometimes come home late, so we didn’t always eat meals together. In the beginning of the quarantine I remember my family talking about how nice it was to finally have meals together, and my brother joking, “it only took a pandemic to bring us all together,” which I laughed about at the time (but it’s the truth).

Soon enough, we’ll all be back to going to different places and we’ll be separated once again. So I’m thankful for my living situation right now. As for my friends, even though we’re apart, I do still feel like I can be in touch with them through video chat—maybe sometimes even more in touch than before. I think a lot of people just have a little more time for others right now.

Although there are still a lot of things to be thankful for, stress has slowly taken over, and work has been overwhelming. I’ve always been a person who usually enjoys going to classes, taking on more work than I have to, and being active in general. But lately I’ve felt swamped with the amount of work given, to the point that my days have blurred into online assignments, Zoom classes, and countless meetings, with a touch of baking sweets and aimless searching on Youtube.

The pass/no pass option for classes continues to stare at me, but I look past it every time to use this quarter as an opportunity to boost my grades. I've tried to make sense of this type of overwhelming feeling that I’ve never really felt before. Is it because I’m working harder and putting in more effort into my schoolwork with all the spare time I now have? Is it because I’m not having as much interaction with other people as I do at school? Or is it because my classes this quarter are just supposed to be this much harder? I honestly don’t know; it might not even be any of those. What I do know though, is that I have to continue work and push through this feeling.

This quarter I have two synchronous and two asynchronous classes, which each have pros and cons. Originally, I thought I wanted all my classes to be synchronous, since that everyday interaction with my professor and classmates is valuable to me. However, as I experienced these asynchronous classes, I’ve realized that it can be nice to watch a lecture on my own time because it even allows me to pause the video to give me extra time for taking notes. This has made me pay more attention during lectures and take note of small details that I might have missed otherwise. Furthermore, I do realize that synchronous classes can also be a burden for those abroad who have to wake up in the middle of the night just to attend a class. I feel that it’s especially unfortunate when professors want students to attend but don’t make attendance mandatory for this reason; I find that most abroad students attend anyway, driven by the worry they’ll be missing out on something.

I do still find synchronous classes amazing though, especially for discussion-based courses. I feel in touch with other students from my classes whom I wouldn’t otherwise talk to or regularly reach out to. Since Santa Clara University is a small school, it is especially easy to interact with one another during classes on Zoom, and I even sometimes find it less intimidating to participate during class through Zoom than in person. I’m honestly not the type to participate in class, but this quarter I found myself participating in some classes more than usual. The breakout rooms also create more interaction, since we’re assigned to random classmates, instead of whomever we’re sitting closest to in an in-person class—though I admit breakout rooms can sometimes be awkward.

Something that I find beneficial in both synchronous and asynchronous classes is that professors post a lecture recording that I can always refer to whenever I want. I found this especially helpful when I studied for my midterms this quarter; it’s nice to have a recording to look back upon in case I missed something during a lecture.

Overall, life during these times is substantially different from anything most of us have ever experienced, and at times it can be extremely overwhelming and stressful—especially in terms of school for me. Online classes don’t provide the same environment and interactions as in-person classes and are by far not as enjoyable. But at the end of the day, I know that in every circumstance there is always something to be thankful for, and I’m appreciative for my situation right now. While the world has slowed down and my stress has ramped up, I’m slowly beginning to adjust to it.

Stories of hope, resilience and inspiration during the coronavirus pandemic

Individuals from around the world share their personal stories of hope, resilience, and inspiration during this time.

Bisma Farooq Sheikh India

Coronavirus Lockdown: Boon or Bane “Treat lock down as Boon rather than Bane. This is a golden opportunity to have a great time with family… It is the best time for dual earner couples to spend time with each other. It is an opportunity for kids to have a great time with parents. It is an opportunity to learn new skills. It is an opportunity to enjoy life. Give time to your hobby like gardening, writing, drawing. It is an opportunity to cherish with friends online, it’s time to enjoy more sleep… Life has too much to offer provided we have the right mindset.”

Aimee Karam Lebanon

“It is not about the virus per se, nor about the stress of being confined at home. It is about a large part of the Lebanese people, who due to the current challenging economic crisis and the confinement decreed in the face of the virus adversity, is suffering from fear, loneliness, deep poverty and hunger in times of a deadly pandemic. Living in Lebanon nowadays is an act of surviving adversities in a country of a panoply of human paradoxes, simultaneously inhaling and exhaling tragedies, irreverence but also magnificent and heroic efforts of solidarity. A sense of fundamental anchor is being created where safety and bonding keep the miracle of life alive. One million dollars in one hour, broke the record on the first day of a fundraising campaign with explosions of happiness. Three associations, sharing the values of transparency, political independence, integrity and non-discrimination, joined forces to organize this fundraising, soliciting the Lebanese diaspora in the United States to join hands to help the most disadvantaged. The sum raised has covered boxes of food for 50,000 families, around 175,000 people for one month. People, with an incredible devotion, are distributing boxes of food with love and compassion towards their compatriots with one uniting message: Food is a human right, no one should be hungry!”

Lina Fernanda Vélez Botero Colombia

“In Valle del Cauca, Colombia, psychology leaders who represent the partnership built between the Colombian Association of Psychologists (COLPSIC) and various universities in the region have made it possible for mental health attention to be a priority for citizens and healthcare workers. This was developed within the department's mental health committee against Covid-19 and in governmental strategies available for the community. Through the creation of a platform called calivallecorona.com , the Valle and the Paciific Region community not only have access to care services for their physical health with medical personnel, but also, through the module called Emotional Well-Being , they can access free tele-counseling services to promote emotional well-being. It seeks to offer a model of multidisciplinary care for the community during this health emergency, with a focus on mental health prevention and promotion, also integrating the early detection of complications. For psychology, this is an action of great social impact that responds to current global challenges such as making visible the needs of mental health in the face of the emergency, interdisciplinary work for community welfare in a dialogue of knowledge with other professions such as engineers, psychiatrists and doctors, and achieving an inter-institutional alliance with the public and governmental sectors of Colombia.”

Laura Neulat France

“When Pedro found out he was being transferred to a Covid-19 ward, he was overcome with fear. A young physiotherapist specialized in orthopedics; he enjoyed working at one of Paris’s largest hospitals. Now he was going to spend his days around Covid-19 patients, who needed breathing therapy after leaving the intensive care unit – holding them in his arms, keeping his face near theirs. In our weekly tele-session, a few days before he was due to start his new role; I encouraged him to focus on feelings of safety. I suggested he carry an index card with a thought that made him feel strong, such as The FORCE is with me! I further suggested he focus mentally on that mantra on his way to the hospital; also knowing he had it in his pocket, just in case. Pedro had learned to use mindfulness to regulate emotions and we said he was going to put on his protective equipment in mindfulness, focusing on every piece of equipment and telling himself, This cap keeps me safe , etc. Once all geared up, he would tell himself, I am safe . I feel at times we as psychologists must be able to afford flexibility with our boundaries. So parallel to the sessions, every evening I recorded a 10 second video of my street at 8:00 p.m., when we open windows for the applause to thank health workers, and I sent them to him with two words: Thank you . Pedro texted me Sunday evening: Thank you, I am now ready . At the end of his first day in his new role he texted me: I have just finished my day, it all went all right, I felt strong .”

L. R. Madhujan India

“For people who feel safe at home, the isolation period is the best time to plan for the future. Try to be creative. We can survive all this. We have the strength. Soon, new mornings will come. The flowers will bloom and the streets will become active. The sun will shine more brightly. The aroma is fragrant.”

Liza M. Meléndez-Samó Puerto Rico 

“As a university professor, the challenges of moving to virtual classes were not far behind. Even though I had just received a certification in virtual distance education. During this semester I found myself teaching a course on contemporary models of psychotherapy. Two weeks after the quarantine began, the unit I would teach on would be expressive therapies. I was thinking how to translate a dynamic application in the classroom into a virtual activity. At that moment it occurred to me, rather than giving a class, my students needed that space to process the new reality of COVID-19. So, not only did I give a virtual class on expressive therapies, I converted the space into an art therapy live application as well. The goal was that each of them from their homes could express themselves from their homes through four drawings, allowing creativity to flow and emphasizing the process, not the result. By discussing the theories, they analyzed their arts meaning, which in turn promoted laughter and participation among them. Also, the group discussions allowed them to find new meanings, named their concerns and see the positive side of it all. But more importantly allowed them a space to express and reflect on their feelings about everything we are experiencing and how we can count on this tool not only for themselves, but also for their professional work. Curiously, there were repeated drawings, symbols and shapes between them (i.e. spirals). At the end, they told me that this had been the best class they have had online.”

Usha Kiran Subba Nepal

Patience is a Virtue “Once upon a time, there was a very beautiful island surrounded by flowers gardens, streams, and ponds. It was perceived as heaven on the earth peaceful and serine. All birds and animals lived together happily for many years. As the times passed they felt the environment has changed, there were no rains in rainy seasons, the pond was drying, and the garden was dried up and faded. The island has suffered severely from drought. Animals and birds decided to migrate to a new place for livelihood. In the same place, there were a couple of geese, and a tortoise lived on the pond. They were best friends. The geese decided to migrate from there. The tortoise also wanted to move with them, but she was unable to fly. So she pleaded to geese to rescue her from the problem.

It was a great challenge for the geese regarding how it was possible. But they were very kind and did not like to lose their friend so they got an idea to take her together. They brought a long stick with their beaks and asked the tortoise to hold the stick with her mouth tightly. They warned her not to open her mouth at any cost. They flew together and when they reached a new city, city dwellers were wandering to see such an amazing scene in the sky. They called up other people loudly to behold it and enjoy the moment. The tortoise and geese heard a loud noise. The tortoise was much disturbed by the noise and crowd and she opened her mouth to control it. As soon as she did, she had fallen to the ground and passed away.

We conclude the story in Nepali as saying: Bhanne lai Phool ko mala (Storyteller gets flower garland), Sunne lai sun ko mala, (story listener gets gold garland), It will remain in the mind of people forever.”

Oi-ling SIU Hong Kong

“The COVID-19 outbreak has caused immense stress and undermined psychological well-being. Many have been concerned not only about being infected, but also about shortages of hygiene products and food. Wofoo Joseph Lee Consulting and Counselling Psychology Research Centre (WJLCCPRC) at Lingnan University, Hong Kong, promptly launched a press release in February 2020 to advise Hong Kong citizens on how to be resilient to mitigate the psychological impacts of the epidemic. The press release was covered by three local presses and two social media platforms. The online campaign alone reached 146,000 online viewers.”

Zarina Giannone British Columbia

“My story of hope, connection, and inspiration has emerged through volunteerism and giving back to the community that works tirelessly to ensure my safety and wellness. I have coped with the pandemic by working with the British Columbia (B.C.) Psychological Association and the University of British Columbia-Okanagan to spearhead the development of opportunities for doctoral psychology students and trainees to become involved in supporting the recently announced Emergency Telepsychology Services Program, a novel program run by psychologists that provides free telepsychology services to health care workers at the front line of the COVID-19 pandemic in B.C. Some of the ideas that have been raised as potential options for student involvement include developing written clinical content for distribution among health care workers (e.g., coping during COVID-19), offering peer support with other health care students/trainees (e.g., nurses, medical residents), and providing mental health first aid. I have found that getting involved to help alleviate the psychological burden that has arisen due to the COVID-19 pandemic has been an effective way of coping and staying connected. I know that I am not the only one because we have had over 40 students sign up to volunteer in less than 48 hours! This is truly quite remarkable because there are probably less than 100 students enrolled in professional psychology doctoral programs in B.C.!”

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Voices of the Global Community

Student resilience during times of crisis.

Anne Liotine & Michael Magee , Harper College

With dueling crises happening in the nation, we entered a period of social unrest related to festering racial inequalities in American society. Protests, rioting, and looting ensued after the Memorial Day death of George Floyd. This action led to a third crisis that has engulfed the nation. With many campuses prepared to welcome students back to campus soon, protests and hate crimes may become another major issue for students to overcome. FBI data has shown an uptick in hate crimes on campuses (Bauman, 2018), and this was prior to the latest string of racial incidents.

Twenty-first century students have had to overcome many tragic events. The terrorist attacks of September 11 th , Hurricane Katrina, economic collapse in 2008, and multiple natural disasters since then. Students have lost everything due to natural disasters and relied on strangers around the country for support (Magee et al., 2007). Many needed the support of counseling services on their new campuses to enhance and develop their ability to persevere through a tough situation (Fernando & Hebert, 2011). During challenging times where resilience is critical to student success, advisors must be prepared to empower and support students to persist.

Determination and resilience, particularly through times of adversity, to reach a desired outcome can be the hallmark of a successful student. Angela Duckworth and her team of researchers define the term grit as “perseverance and passion for long term goals” (Duckworth et al., 2007, p. 1087). Choosing to attend college is not a small decision, especially for first generation students. As college expenses continue to rise, more and more is asked of our students: studying 2–3 hours outside of their courses, working a full-time/part-time job, and taking care of at-home responsibilities. For a college student to be successful, they not only need to have the passion to complete their courses, but they also need to keep in mind their long-term goal, whether that is earning a certificate, associate’s degree, or continuing their education further. In the Duckworth et al. (2007) study, the researchers wanted to understand why some college students are more successful than others. They found that grit increases with age and students with a higher grit score have lower SAT scores but higher GPAs. Resilience is one component of grit that explains some of these phenomena as well as overcoming adversity in the face of challenges (Perkins-Gough, 2013). Being able to pick yourself up from a failure and keep moving forward exemplifies the definition of grit in that a student who may have a lot going on outside of school, will work harder in their courses to understand material receiving a passing grade in a class.

Another noteworthy researcher is Carol Dweck, who studies growth mindset. Her “research has shown that the view you adopt for yourself profoundly affects the way you lead your life. It can determine whether you become the person you want to be and whether you accomplish the things you value” (Dweck, 2016, p. 6). What Dweck (2016) insinuates is that when you have a growth mindset you believe that you can change innate qualities within yourself, whether that is your personality, intelligence artistic or athletic ability. Failure can help drive you towards your next success because you learn and grow from mistakes. It aids you in coming up with creative solutions to move forward and taking action to confront the problems, rather than believing you cannot come back from it (Dweck 2016).

As advisors, we must encourage and promote grit and growth to encourage resilience and persistence. To do this, advisors first need to look inward and determine how we overcame setbacks while working from home. How have we handled a mistake? Do we work towards a creative solution or dwell on the fact that we have failed ourselves and/or our students? Duckworth has a free online assessment that will help determine our personal grit score (Duckworth, 2020). Determining where we are can help us move forward, and the same goes for our students. We can share this resource during our phone/video appointments to then discuss how to persevere through a challenging course or semester.

When it comes to our student’s long-term goals, we can help them break down their habits. For example, if a student wants to earn all As and Bs this semester, what does that look like? What kind of behaviors can advisors encourage they follow through with when they encounter a paper, test or discussion post that has brought down their grade? As the advisor, it will be important to encourage tutoring, utilizing professor’s office hours, creating study groups with peers, and having enough time to prepare. The objective is to help students think outside the box, as well as how to overcome a setback when they should face it.

Online learning can be challenging for students. This can be even further multiplied by students who may not have a laptop or consistent internet at home. Advisors may hear comments from students like, “I just can’t teach myself this material” or “I am not motivated to do the homework.” Part of building resilience and growing their mindset can be breaking down their goals into simpler tasks. If they want to get all As and Bs in their classes this semester, how far in advance are they studying for their tests? How much time are they devoting to their readings? Papers? Have students create a schedule of when they will be doing their homework for each class, blocking off time as if they must attend classes in person on Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays, or Tuesdays and Thursdays. Having smaller goals will help them to not feel overwhelmed by the bigger picture.

College students have overcome many obstacles throughout the history of higher education. However, this may be the most uncertain time as there is a global pandemic, economic depression (and potential recession), combined with civil unrest. How advisors can best help students is to understand where they are coming from, acknowledge the difficulties they have faced and may continue to face, and then help them pick up the pieces to help them sustain their overall long-term goals. Advisors are not meant to have all the answers, but in order to best serve our students in this current situation, it is critical that academic advisors continue to serve as beacons of hope that can help guide our students through these turbulent waters.

Anne Liotine Academic Advisor Harper College [email protected]

Michael Magee Academic Advisor Harper College [email protected]

Bauman, D. (2018, November 14). Hate crimes on campuses are rising, new FBI data show. The Chronicle of Higher Education . https://www.chronicle.com/article/Hate-Crimes-on-Campuses-Are/245093.

Duckworth, A. L. (2020). Grit scale. Angela Duckworth.  https://angeladuckworth.com/grit-scale/

Duckworth, A. L., Peterson, C., Matthews, M. D., & Kelly, D. R. (2007). Grit: Perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 9, 1087–1101. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.92.6.1087

Dweck, C. (2016). Mindset: The new psychology of success . Ballantine Books.

Fernando, D. M., & Hebert, B. B. (2011). Resiliency and recovery: Lessons from the Asian tsunami and Hurricane Katrina. Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development , 39 (1), 2–13. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-1912.2011.tb00135.x

Fischer, K. (2020, March 11). When coronavirus closes colleges, some students lose hot meals, health care, and a place to sleep. The Chronicle of Higher Education. https://www.chronicle.com/article/When-Coronavirus-Closes/248228

Keshner, A. (2020, May 22). At least 100 lawsuits have been filed by students seeking college refunds – and they open some thorny questions. MarketWatch . https://www.marketwatch.com/story/unprecedented-lawsuits-from-students-suing-colleges-amid-the-coronavirus-outbreak-raise-3-thorny-questions-for-higher-education-2020-05-21.

Magee, M., Cobb, A., Bodrick, J., & San Antonio, L. (2007). Triumph in the face of adversity: Hurricane Katrina’s effect on African American Students’ coping ability with forced transitions. National Association of Student Affairs Professionals Journal , 10 (1), 97–111.

Perkins-Gough, D. (2013, September). The significance of GRIT. Educational Leadership , 71 (1), 14–20. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/272078893_The_significance_of_grit

Cite this article using APA style as: Liotine, A., & Magee, M. (2020, September). Student resilience during times of crisis. Academic Advising Today , 43 (3). [insert url here] 

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• Assisting Advisees as They Transition to College Academics
• Deconstructing the Cafeteria Model: Educational Plans as an Agent of Change
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How to Build Resilience During the Post-Pandemic Transition

Being flexible is key to coping with uncertainty..

Posted April 27, 2021 | Reviewed by Devon Frye

• During the past year, COVID-19 has been a chronic stressor. Research has shown that chronic stressors can be psychologically challenging.
• The confusion and stress of the pandemic have damaged many people's confidence in their own capabilities and ability to make good decisions.
• The science of emotion—and in particular, psychological flexibility—can provide an anchor and compass in navigating this unsettling journey.

This post was written by Robert M. Gordon, Psy.D., and Jed N. McGiffin, Ph.D. Dr. Gordon is a member of the Medicine & Addictions workgroup (established by 14 divisions of the American Psychological Association) that sponsors this blog.

During the past year, COVID-19 has been a chronic stressor , which research has shown to be more psychologically challenging than acute adversity events (Bonanno & Diminich, 2013).

Numerous factors have made COVID-19 potentially traumatic for individuals, including persistent anxiety about being both the agent spreading the virus and the victim of it, the prolonged state of vulnerability and uncertainty as to when the pandemic will end, collective grief and loss, social isolation , and the disruption of daily life (Gordon et al., 2020). The pandemic has precipitated an acute awareness of the fragility of life and aspects of our life that were previously taken for granted (Gold & Zahm, 2020).

In the aftermath of chronic stress or adversity, individuals typically undergo a transition period that involves readjusting to a state of relative safety and adapting behaviors accordingly.

There are a number of unique features of the transition phase. While we are no longer in the acute early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, neither are we in a post-pandemic world. There is a sense of uncertainty of “standing in the spaces” between different identities (Bromberg, 1998). In certain situations, we may feel confident and more like our “old self,” but at other moments, we may experience a lack of confidence —especially when judging which decisions are safe. Much of the tension during the transition phase comes from the anxiety that we are not getting it right, and we may fear that changing patterns and coping strategies developed during the pandemic might be too risky (Shea, 2021).

These psychological challenges have left many individuals feeling unsettled about how best to move forward during this time of uncertainty and unsure what psychological skills might facilitate inner strength and a sense of agency (Shea, 2021). The science of emotion —and in particular psychological flexibility— can provide an anchor and compass in navigating this unsettling journey.

Flexibility as a Mechanism for Resilience

Psychological flexibility is an important and modifiable predictor of resilience and has even been proposed as an explanation for how resilience works (Bonanno, 2021a; Bonanno, 2021b). Being flexible in the midst of a life stressor has been described as a sequence of three stages (Bonanno & Burton, 2013):

• Evaluating the demands of the situation or context
• Selecting a response or coping strategy
• Monitoring the success of an approach and modifying as needed (Bonanno et al., 2013)

Facilitators of Flexibility and Resilience

What then, can we do to improve psychological flexibility and resilience during the current time of transition? At least one answer lies in creating the optimal conditions for being flexible.

Both resilience and flexibility are facilitated by several constructs, such as hope, optimism , grit, perseverance, and mindfulness . These traits indirectly influence outcomes by providing internal resources and increasing motivation for flexibility and problem solving (Bonanno, 2021a).

Hope and Optimism

Hope and optimism are two psychological constructs that focus on an individual’s beliefs about the future (Rabinowitz et al., 2018). While optimism is a stable personality state related to a sense that good things will happen in the future, hope involves the will to effect positive outcomes and the ability to generate flexible problem-solving strategies when facing obstacles to achieve desired goals (Rabinowitz et al., 2018).

Grit and Perseverance

Grit is a personality construct initially described by Angela Duckworth and colleagues as perseverance, persistence, and passion toward long-term goals (Duckworth et al, 2007). Grit enables individuals to engage in effortful activities including studying or exercising, particularly when practicing may not be intrinsically rewarding (Duckworth et al., 2011; Rabinowitz et al., 2018).

Mindfulness

Mindfulness involves the ability to be open and to observe rather than judge or “push away” thoughts and feelings (Harris, 2018). Being mindful enables us to appreciate our common humanity and to reflect on the present moment with awareness, self-compassion, and perspective (Germer et al., 2013).

Strategies to Develop Flexibility During the COVID-19 Re-Entry Phase

The following tips are related to improving psychological flexibility and resilience:

• Cultivate optimism. Questions including “What have you discovered about yourself through the pandemic?” and “Are you aware of any aspect of the COVID-19 pandemic that has changed you for the better?” allow one to construct a more flexible and self-compassionate narrative (Gordon et al., 2020).
• Make a list of things you can and cannot control.
• Accept events as they actually happen during the transition and focus on your reactions and attitudes.
• See your struggles as part of the human condition rather than an isolated experience.
• Your decisions during the transition phase should be consistent with your most important values, what kind of person you want to be, and long-term goals (Harris, 2018).
• Consider context—determine whether you are appraising the situation accurately, then adjust your coping strategy to match the situational demands.
• Self-monitor and give feedback. After trying a strategy, ask yourself “How well is what I am doing working?” “Could I try something else that might work better?”

Concluding Thoughts

Making time to cultivate mindfulness, optimism, and hope can provide the motivation for flexible coping and resilience during the pandemic transition, while harnessing our inner perseverance and grit can help us not give up when we realize that our previous approach to the threat needs to change.

Robert M. Gordon, Psy.D. is the Director of Intern Training and Associate Director of Postdoctoral Fellow Training at Rusk Rehabilitation and Clinical Associate Professor at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. Dr. Gordon has specialties in the areas of neuropsychological and forensic testing and psychotherapy with children and adults with physical and learning disabilities and chronic illness . Dr. Gordon is a member of the COVID Psychology Task Force (est. by 14 divisions of the American Psychological Association working group: Hospital, Healthcare, and Addiction Workers, Patients, and Families that sponsor this blog.

Jed N. McGiffin, Ph.D. received his doctorate in clinical psychology at Teachers College, Columbia University under the research mentorship of Dr. George A. Bonanno in the Loss, Trauma, and Emotional Lab. He has research interests at the intersection of psychology and medicine, including the psychological impact of acute medical events and more broadly the process of psychological adjustment to disability.

Bonanno, G. A., & Burton, C. L. (2013). Regulatory flexibility: An individual differences perspective on coping and emotion regulation. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 8 (6), 591–612. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691613504116

Bonanno, G. A., & Diminich, E. D. (2013). Annual Research Review: Positive adjustment to adversity—Trajectories of minimal-impact resilience and emergent resilience. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 54 (4), 378–401. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.12021

Bonanno, G. A. (2021a). The resilience paradox. European Journal of Psychotraumatology.

Bonanno, G. A. (2021b). The end of trauma: How the new science of resilience is changing how we think about PTSD (1st ed). Basic Books, Inc.

Bromberg, P. M. (1998). Standing in the spaces: Essays on clinical process, trauma, & dissociation. The Analytic Press.

Germer, C. K. & Neff (2013). Self-compassion in clinical practice. Journal of Clinical Psychology: In Session, 69 (8), 856-867. http://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.22021

Gold, E. & Zahm, S. (2000). Buddhist psychology informed gestalt therapy for challenging times. The Humanistic Psychologist, 48 (4), 373-377. http://doi.org/10.1037/hum0000213

Gordon, R. M., Dahan, J. F., Wolfson, J. B., Fults, E., Lee, Y. S. C., Smith-Wexler, L., Liberta, T. A., & McGiffin, J. N. (2020). Existential-humanistic and relational psychotherapy during COVID-19 with patients with preexisting conditions. Journal of Humanistic Psychology. Published online: November 2020. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022167820973890

Harris, R. (2018). The happiness trap: How to stop struggling on start living. Trumpeter Books.

Rabinowitz, A. R., & Arnett, P.A. (2008). Positive psychology perspective on traumatic brain injury recovery and rehabilitation. Applied Neuropsychology: Adult. 25 (4), 295-303. https://doi.org/0.1080/23279095.2018.1458514

Shea, L. M. (2021). The courage to be: Using DBT skills to choose who to be in uncertainty. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 61 (1), 260-274. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022167820950887

The mission of the Hospital, Health & Addiction Workers, Patients and Families working group of the COVID-19 Psychology Task Force is to facilitate coping, resilience in the face of pandemic related stress and trauma

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Resilience in the Face of the COVID-19 Pandemic: How to Bend and not Break

Ernest j. barthélemy.

1 Department of Neurosurgery, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, USA

Nqobile S. Thango

2 Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Surgery, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

Julius Höhne

3 Department of Neurosurgery, University Medical Center Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany

Laura Lippa

4 Department of Neurosurgery, Ospedali Riuniti, Livorno, Italy

Angelos Kolias

5 Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Addenbrooke's Hospital and University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom

6 NIHR Global Health Research Group on Neurotrauma, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Isabelle M. Germano

Introduction.

As a global medical community, we are facing an unprecedented time. The novel coronavirus-19 disease (COVID-19) pandemic has resulted in several nations experiencing a severe health crisis, at the center of which are medical professionals combating an invisible enemy at great personal risk. This has changed the way in which many of us are practicing medicine, and as neurosurgeons we are placed in a particularly challenging situation. Neurosurgeons are accustomed to dealing with critically ill patients and the complexities of making life and death decisions daily, and as such our profession has a long tradition of cultural resilience. This has resulted in neurosurgical trainees acquiring both physical and mental stamina very early in their training while facing extreme situations. These attributes have been called on in an intense manner as we have added to our scope of practice care and service of the critically ill, victims of COVID-19.

At the beginning of the pandemic, little was known about the natural history, pathophysiology, and infectivity risk of COVID-19, especially regarding potential self-endangerment while working with patients. Like other physicians and health care coworkers, we were called to assume the risk of working in a uniquely unknown health care environment. This led to a host of questions regarding our safety and well-being as neurosurgeons on the COVID-19 frontline: How do I protect myself, my family, and especially my parents? How can I build social distance? How can I avoid making mistakes in an unfamiliar working environment? The pandemic has resulted in a major paradigm shift in health care, with physicians in some countries being forced to triage, and many neurosurgeons having to make difficult decisions about the relative risk of neurosurgical intervention in patients for whom we know our treatment would otherwise have a profoundly positive impact on life and quality of life. The scenario might be likened to that of a lifeguard on a sinking ship where not everyone can be rescued, and the ones left behind will knowingly face significant morbidity and mortality; the application of ethical and moral reasoning to neurosurgical problem-solving becomes extremely difficult in these cases.

At the time of publication, we are now 10 months into the pandemic, but the effects still compound on the widely known and acknowledged stresses of neurosurgery training and practice. In the early stages, the challenges that specifically threatened the well-being and performance of neurosurgeons, and neurosurgery trainees within our community, were as follows:

• • Higher risk of contagion for neurosurgeons, similar to other frontline clinicians performing aerosol generating procedures, and therefore the need to separate ourselves from our family members during this time. 1
• • A high death toll paid by the medical community in general and the neurosurgical community in particular. 1
• • Progressive regional suspension of outpatient activity and elective neurosurgery cases with a substantial impact on the lives of patients with conditions that require neurosurgical treatment. 1
• • Far-reaching stresses on entire health systems that will leave an uncertain impact on the future of neurosurgery training and practice. 1

An additional burden is now placed on staff who are facing physical exhaustion from being the backbone of service delivery during the pandemic. Literature has shown that during communicable disease outbreaks staff workforce numbers diminish, this can be attributed to personal stressors, unclear guidelines from administration along with financial stressors and burnout. 2 , 3 In a cross-sectional study among health care workers on factors associated with mental health outcomes, risk groups for depressive symptoms, anxiety, stress, and sleep disorders were nurses, women, and frontline workers directly engaged in the diagnosis, treatment, and care of patients with COVID-19. Consequently, psychiatrists from Italy and Iran recommended early involvement of mental health experts for health care workers with guidance on self-care, regular access to information, and maintaining social contacts and communication. 4 , 5 , 6 In a meta-analysis of 59 articles, the factors associated with reduced morbidity for clinicians were found to be clear communication, adequate rest, and access to adequate personal protection, as well as both practical and psychological support. 7

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the mental well-being of doctors and its direct impact on patient well-being was being recognized as a concern, and a growing body of literature was emerging on this important topic. 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 Neurosurgical training and practice is already challenging in isolation, with the additional stressors stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic it has put neurosurgeons under incredible psychological stress. 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 In the absence of proactive interventions that will foster physician wellness, the increasing threat of this context on neurosurgeon well-being will ultimately put patient safety at increasing risk. In an effort to support our colleagues during this trying time, the WFNS Young Neurosurgeons Forum Resilience Task Force has prepared evidence-based recommendations and advice on developing resilience in an attempt to encourage healthy, protective mechanisms for neurosurgical trainees and practicing neurosurgeons who face the risks and adversity of the current era.

What is Resilience/Resiliency?

From a psychological perspective, resilience is a multidimensional construct that has been defined as the ability to adapt positively to life conditions. Resilience may also be understood as the ability to, “bounce back from hardship and trauma,” and as defined by the American Psychological Association, “the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats or even significant sources of threat”. 17 , 18 This is a dynamic process that evolves over time and implies a type of adaptive functioning that specifically allows us to face difficulties by observing an initial balance or bouncing back as an opportunity for growth. 19

The Neurobiology of Resilience

Within the field of neuroscience, the quest for understanding resilience at a neurochemical level is a rapidly evolving field. Why do humans display such a wide spectrum of responses to life stressors? We readily observe that some people navigate life's gravest challenges with the ability to come out on the other side unscathed, while others who undergo similar circumstances experience psychological trauma that threatens their mental and/or physical well-being. What is it that differentiates the former group from the latter? The contemporary literature on resilience neurobiology suggests that resilience in humans is an adaptive, active process implicating multiple neurohormonal systems and can no longer be simply viewed as the absence of a pathological response to stress. 20 , 21

The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis appears to play a critical role in how humans respond to stress and perceived threat. As neurosurgeons, we have extensively studied neuroendocrine physiology as it pertains to pituitary disorders and the autonomic physiology and pathophysiology underlying phenomena such as the sympathetic “flight or flight response” and chronic diseases such as the metabolic syndrome. The relationship between the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and disorders of mood or memory may however be less familiar to some of us. Other potential neural pathways implicated in the presence and expression of resilience traits include:

• • Cortisol and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA): Glucocorticoid hormones involved in stress and resilience. When exposed to a stressor, the body's hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal system is activated and corticotropin-releasing hormone is released from the hypothalamus, which in turn activates anterior pituitary secretion of adrenocorticotropic hormone, resulting in downstream release of cortisol from the adrenal glands, as well as DHEA to counteract the effects of hypercortisolemia. DHEA exerts a neuroprotective function by blocking glucocorticoid-induced neurotoxicity via interruption of normal uptake in the hypothalamus. 1 20 Numerous studies have suggested that DHEA has a positive correlation with psychological resilience, for example, with high DHEA-cortisol ratio offering putative protection against posttraumatic stress disorder and depression. 20 , 22 , 23
• • Neuropeptide Y: Counteracts the stress-related effects of corticotropin-releasing hormone, specifically at the amygdala. The increase in neuropeptide Y is associated with decrease in stress-induced depression/anxiety. 20

As this field continues to evolve with areas of investigation that include understanding genetic factors in proresilience or predisposition to psychopathology in the absence of resilience, novel psychotherapeutic strategies may emerge to support the development of resilience. 21

How Might the Development of Resilience Support Me as a Neurosurgeon?

The response that human beings exhibit to extreme stress and trauma is varied and complex. Currently, as health care workers functioning during a global pandemic, each time a neurosurgeon or neurosurgery resident enters her or his hospital environment, she or he is exposed to a potentially life-threatening situation. As described earlier, the development of habits that enable neurosurgeons to adapt well in the face of these threats can protect them from pathological consequences of poor adaptations to ongoing professional stresses and threats.

Can Resilience/Resiliency be Developed?

Much of the literature fails to show a consistent relationship between demographic variables and resilence. 24 Resilience and resiliency therefore appear unlikely to be strongly associated with a physician's age or gender. It is encouraging to note that several modifiable factors likely favor and augment the development of resilience. As a multifactorial construct that includes a variety of gene-environment interactions, the heritability of resilience has been found to range between 33% and 52%, suggesting that environmental factors can significantly influence the trait of resilience. 25 Moreover, several studies suggest that resilience and resiliency can be increased through behavioral interventions. 18 25

Developing Resilience During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The development of resilience may begin with acknowledging that negative emotions, such as grief, anger, sadness, or anxiety, are natural consequences of being human in the midst of a crisis, and not necessarily a problem to be fixed. Emotional responses to crises or adverse events are usually finite; they have a beginning, middle, and end.

When emotional responses begin to interfere with one's ability to live a productive and fulfilling life, the gold-standard intervention is structured psychosocial support. As the demands on a neurosurgeon's time can make it challenging to readily identify sources of such support, consider beginning by scheduling conversations with trusted colleagues, and lowering one's threshold to accept invitations for conversations with other colleagues. Remember that experiencing negative emotions during crisis is normal but failing to constructively express those emotions to others when they occur or recur can aggravate the negative experience. 25

Although many recommendations for the development of resilience may appear to be “common sense,” some may not be as intuitive to the practicing neurosurgeon or neurosurgical trainee, especially when engaged delivering health care during a uniquely threatening time. We therefore present, summarized in, Table 1 , Table 2 , Table 3 , Table 4 lists of evidence-based recommendations for fostering resilience during, and beyond, the COVID-19 pandemic. Table 5 summarizes a reading list from the positive psychology and personal development literature that the WFNS Young Neurosurgeons Forum Resilience Task Force proposes as additional reading on the topic of the development of neurosurgeons' resilience.

Table 1

Recommendations from the American Psychological Association 25

Table 2

Recommendations from Charney and Southwick, “10-Step Prescription for Resilience” 26

Table 3

Recommendations from Southwick and Charney 2012 18

Table 4

Recommendations from Leibniz Institute Resilience, “The 10 key recommendations for strengthening mental health during the coronavirus pandemic” 27

Table 5

Recommended Reading List

Change your Perspective and be Supported

There is a strong association between certain personality traits and the ability to function in a stressful environment. These include a positive attitude , optimism , effective management of one's emotions , and the ability to observe failure as beneficial feedback . 28 , 29 These traits tend to synergize with an environment that is supportive, and should therefore not be viewed as sufficient, in isolation, for optimal stress management. 30

Conclusions

Left unaddressed, the challenges and uncertainties that medical professionals are facing in the current era can have dire consequences in the long run. Pathological responses, such as lasting bouts of depression and/or anxiety, substance abuse, addictive behaviors, or even suicide, can occur, with ensuing negative impact on the social networks in one's professional and personal life. 31 It is important that we encourage self-care within the neurosurgical community to ensure that we continue to be productive, happy surgeons that offer high-quality care to our patients.

The WFNS YNF Resilience Task Force would be happy to hear from any neurosurgeon and neurosurgeon-in-training around the world regarding any wellness-related concerns around training, dealing with the pandemic, or coping with burnout, as well as any further recommendations for the development of resilience that may contribute to our neurosurgical community. Please send inquiries or comments to Ernest J. Barthélemy, M.D., M.A., M.P.H. (corresponding author).

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Ernest J. Barthélemy: Conceptualization, Data curation, Writing - original draft. Nqobile S. Thango: Conceptualization, Writing - original draft. Julius Höhne: Writing - review & editing. Laura Lippa: Writing - review & editing. Angelos Kolias: Conceptualization, Writing - review & editing.

Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare that the article content was composed in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

METHODS article

Study of resilience in learning environments during the covid-19 pandemic.

• 1 School of Computing Science and Engineering, VIT Bhopal University, Bhopal, India
• 2 Asia Pacific University of Technology and Innovation, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
• 3 Department of Mathematics, University of South Pacific, Suva, Fiji

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused a great change in the world. One aspect of the pandemic is its effect on Educational systems. Educators have had to shift to a pure online based system. This shift has been sudden and without any prior warning. Despite this the Educational system has survived and exhibited resilience. The resilience of a system can be determined if the system continues to operate or function as effectively as before a change. Resilience in a system implies the ability to work and develop when the forces in the environment are unexpected, abrupt and sudden as well. The environment may change or evolve but the underlying system must keep functioning, developing and responding. Resilience is a trait in a system. It is a set of characteristics in the system that enables it to sustain itself in the face of change. A resilient system can cope and prosper in the face of change. For the domain of education, the Covid-19 pandemic served as a phenomenal change event and a wakeup call to the education fraternity. As a social system, resilience meant that the people in the educational environment continued to function albeit differently. The environment, meaning the processes, hierarchy and the intricate social ties in the system contributed to the resiliency of the system. Thus the measure of resilience in education has three major facets—people, the technology which facilitates the process and the process environment. This work aims to understand the resilience of the teachers due to the Covid-19 pandemic, especially how learning continued and what contributed to this continuity. Resilience research and understanding is as important as the pedagogical and technological aspects in an Educational system as it is a trait that encompasses the people, the socio-economic system and their relationships. In this work, we analyzed resilience as trait, its relevance in an Educational system, factors that make up resilience in an Educational system and finally the relevant research about resilience in Education during Covid-19. Based on the results of our literature review we formed a model for Educators. A survey was conducted among educators of three countries namely Malaysia, Fiji, and India to determine the essential elements of resilience that were relevant to the continuity of an educational system from the point of view of teachers. We arrived at a set of factors that are relevant to the teachers in the educational systems which can be an impetus for policy makers to focus on and develop. The major results from the study are the need for Educational systems to focus on three facets—internal, interpersonal and external aspects of teachers and strengthen factors such as support for teachers, strong academic leadership, trust of teachers, increase self-motivation, enhance communication with stakeholders and emphasize systems that enhance student-teacher communication. The future areas of research are also discussed in the work.

Introduction

For decades, educational systems have rarely changed willingly and swiftly. However, the Covid-19 pandemic changed this mind-set, whereby online distance learning (ODL) and emergency remote teaching (ERT) became a normal mode of learning and physical in-class teaching and learning became abnormal.

Let us first trace the challenges faced by educational systems during the Covid-19 pandemic.

As a part of a multi-country study, Reimers and Schleicher (2020) listed the key factors ensuring the continuity of academic learning for students, supporting the students who lack skills for independent study, ensuring continuity and integrity of the assessment of student learning, ensuring support for parents so they can support student learning, and ensuring the well-being of students and of teachers.

The educational response of China’s system was studied by Xue et al. (2020) and factors such as ensuring the well-being of teachers, standardizing online teaching, motivating teachers, communication with teachers and parents and focus on the mental health of students were listed as important factors.

Pokhrel and Chhetri (2021) analyzed various publications during Covid-19 and emphasized the role of e-learning tools, mindsets of teachers and students, challenges of access, affordability, students with disability and guidance and highlighted the opportunities for creative learning that are available for the faculty. The challenges for universities in terms of access, opportunity, need for preparedness of teachers, issues in student’s difficulties to adjust, need for resources for teaching and opportunities for teachers to innovate were focused on the research spotlighted by Mseleku (2020) .

In Bond (2020) , the teacher focused skills, support for teachers, student focused factors such as motivation, self-regulation, support by the institutions, need for a proper learning environment and the need for peer support was discussed. The work by Carrillo and Flores (2020) summarizes the research during Covid-19 and emphasized teacher centric factors such as social presence, cognitive presence, participation in online communities, and teaching presence.

The above publications were literature reviews during Covid-19 and brought out the challenges for Educational systems and teachers. The common factors that emerged are

• Teacher centric

o Motivation

o Support (moral, health and technical)

o Strong notion of backing and trust

• Student centric

o Academic process communication

o Affordability

o Presence of teachers in terms of teaching and moral support

• Communication

o All stakeholders on overall aspects

o Teachers and students in a supportive manner

There was also a lot of focus on resilience as one of mitigating factors during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The work by Appolloni et al. (2021) focuses on the actions by institutions in Italy and highlights the resilience in the educational system in Italy. The key findings were the need for strong leadership, effective communication with all stakeholders, a sense of community among the faculty, and administrative support for the system.

Naidu (2021) advocated the need for a rethink and reengineer the educational and institutional systems to avoid future catastrophes. Giovannini et al. (2020) focused on the institutional parameters and explained that in a resilient society, not only the individuals are important but the support by institutions, well-crafted policies, social ties, etc., are crucial for success.

In Bartusevičienė et al. (2021) , the student and faculty perceptions about the migration to online learning during Covid-19 were examined. The factors experienced in the transition were resources, support and competencies. The three capabilities (anticipation, coping and adaptation), and the transitions the University took were traced. The key aspects that emerged was that resilience depended on availability of resources, continuous professional development, continuous communication with teachers and students, support networks, adaptation and building the knowledge base.

Nandy et al. (2020) focused on the resilience at a Higher Education Institution (HEI) level. The focus was on the interventions the HEIs can take to address risks and transition to a post pandemic environment. Their suggested steps for HEIs to follow included identifying the factors that helped the institutions tide over the crisis, skill mapping to identify the needs of training, examine the strength and weakness of the Educational system, appreciation of faculty and documenting the lessons learned.

Beale (2020) focused on the academic resilience from a student centric view and traced factors such as self-efficacy, coordination, sense of control, composure and perseverance. Some of these factors can be postulated to focus on institutional resilience as well. In a similar vein, Sánchez Ruiz et al. (2021) analyzed student’s perceptions of educational resilience of a university and found that blended learning methodologies facilitated the university’s resilience and improved the quality of learning. In systems where the adoption of blended learning was done prior to the pandemic, the resilience and adaptation in the eyes of students was higher.

Thus we have traced the relevant publications that focus on resilience in academic environments during Covid-19.

The common factors that emerged are

• Strong leadership

• Support for faculty

• Continuous professional development

• Communication with stakeholders

• Well-crafted policies

• Sense of community

Let us examine the foundations of resilience and trace the relevant studies about resilience in education and the Covid-19 pandemic.

Resilience is a property of a system that helps the system adapt to change so as to function as effectively as before or better. Resilience studies seem to start with disruption and return to normalcy and have helped many natural systems survive over the years. In its most simplistic sense, resilience is “an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change” (Merriam Webster). The American Psychological Association (APA) defines resilience as the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats or significant sources of stress—such as family and relationship problems, serious health problems or workplace and financial stressors. The term refers to how one copes, manages emotions, and seeks support in challenging times. The APA also stresses that building resilience takes time and intentionality. In engineered systems, the major terms surveyed in literature ( Cottam et al., 2019 ) focus on the ability to complete a mission in the face of current and future adversity. The common assumption is the ability of the system to maintain stability and keep functioning at a level of acceptability in the face of threats and perturbations.

Biggs et al. (2015) focus on the seven essential principles of resilience encompassing diversity, managing connectivity, feedback, encouraging learning etc.

The work of Kaye-Kauderer et al. (2021) focuses on resilience during the Covid-19 pandemic and explains that positive effects, cognitive reappraisal and social support can be factors which can help the individuals cope with the pandemic.

The classification of student resilience in Theron (2021) focused on a range of factors at a macro level in terms of students and educational institution. In Educational institution level, leadership, infrastructure, organizational climate, the supportive network, peer support, resilient teachers, teacher-student and student-student relationships, adaptive assessment approaches are focused on. The student resilience with respect to online education was explored by Simons et al. (2018) as internal challenges to managing studies, persistence factors such as faculty feedback, motivation and self-belief, support such as tutors, students, friends, family etc.

McIntosh and Shaw (2017) classified student resilience in terms of internal and external factors. The internal factors encompass self-management and emotional ability. The external factors focused on social integration and the support networks.

Morales-Rodríguez et al. (2021) , analyzed the relation between stress and coping strategies during Covid-19. This is an interesting aspect of the university setting as the resilience, stress and coping mechanisms are together important.

The Connor Davidson resilience scale ( Connor and Davidson 2003 ) is one of the earliest known measures providing a measure of an individual’s resilience. It has been applied in a variety of contexts in Covid-19 scenario as well ( Ferreira et al., 2020 ; Alameddine et al., 2021 ; Zysberg and Maskit 2021 ).

An allied work in the same direction is the Academic Resilience Scale ( Cassidy, 2016 ) providing a measure of student academic resilience to the challenges in HEIs. This comprised of major factors such as perseverance, reflection, emotion responses and measures the self-efficacy of students. Fullerton et al. (2021) focused on the personal resilience resources and their interaction in an academic setting. The focus of study was mental toughness, self-esteem, self-efficacy, optimizing, meaning in life and adaptability. The role of academic leadership on motivation, burnout and performance were correlated with academic resilience by Trigueros et al. (2020) based on a study of students. One of the important postulates in Kimhi et al. (2020) is the importance of psychological attributes on resilience and recovery from Covid-19.

In Dohaney et al. (2020) a systematic outline of capabilities of resilient Individuals and institutions are given. Flexibility, adaptability, collaboration, digital literacy, quick thinking and pedagogical soundness are the hall marks of individuals. Institutional factors are communication strategies, leadership, emergency response plans, support for faculty, community building and motivation.

Liu et al. (2017) provided a framework and theoretical basis postulating that moderate exposure to adversity seems to increase resilience which is seen as a personality trait and a time based evolution. Their multi-level model of resilience focused on the following:

1) core resilience–individual factors

2) internal resilience–interpersonal factors, and

3) external resilience–socio-economic factors

Thus we can see resilience from its definition, principles, dimensions and various studies during Covid-19. The key factors that emerged can be organized as

• Individual–positivity, motivation, self-belief, emotional ability, perseverance, self-reflection,

• Interpersonal–social support, support system, peer support, stakeholder support

• Institution–leadership, organizational climate, community building

From the above we can infer that educational resilience comes from the teachers, the system in the academic environment and the relational capital with the community. We seek to focus on the narrower subset of this and explore teacher centric resilience of the academic environment with respect to three characteristics, namely—internal, interpersonal and external factors.

The selection of the three characteristics comes from the Literature reviewed so far and summarized again in Table 1 and shown in Figure 1 .

TABLE 1 . Factors in Teacher resilience.

FIGURE 1 . Smart Learning and Resilience.

This paper adopts a view to discuss teachers’ resilience with regards the following:

• Internal which encapsulates resilience related to mindset, upskilling, motivation, positivity, reflection, and adapting

• Interpersonal–consisting of resilience related to relationships or communication with learners, between peers and with the parents/guardians.

• External resilience which includes trust, support and institutional measures.

Methodology

The primary method of research was the survey method. The data for this study was collected using a survey instrument built by the authors which secured a reliability of 0.829 using the Cronbach alpha test. The survey was distributed using an online method, where teachers from Fiji, India and Malaysia were provided a link to the survey created using Google docs which addressed constructs related to their teaching experiences during the Covid-19 scenario.

A total of 102 teachers (belonging to all sections of the educational environment—tutors, teachers, educators, professors) responded to the survey which was made up of 58 percent males and 42 percent females (See Table 2 ). As a follow up, interviews with a cross section of teachers who responded to the survey were also carried out.

TABLE 2 . Gender of respondents.

The survey was conducted at the end of January 2021 and as follow up, interviews with a cross section of teachers who responded to the survey were also carried out. This coincided with the schools/colleges reopening for face-to- face classes in some institutions while ODL and ERT mode of teaching continued in parallel in many institutions. The timing was deliberate as we wanted to study the scenario when teachers could reflect on the past year (as opposed to being in the moment during Covid-19) and give constructive thoughts on their challenges and learning.

Table 3 shows the domains of the respondents with the highest respondents in math, science, computer science and engineering (the STEM domains) representing 55%; followed by English and Language (24%) and others such as Chemistry, Geography, Social Sciences (21%), whereas Table 4 shows the countries represented by the participants and Table 5 their years of experience.

TABLE 3 . Domains of respondents.

TABLE 4 . Country represented by participants.

TABLE 5 . Number of years of experience.

The study respondents belong predominantly to three different countries viz, India, Fiji and Malaysia. The domains the respondents belonged to were diverse. The experience levels are also diverse with educators from all the levels of seniority participating. We wanted to pursue a multi-country study with Educators from different domains and experience levels. This help us understand the factors in Education that matter and also capture a snapshot of the resilience in the Educational systems during Covid-19.

In the next section, we will show the factors in resilience that emerged from the study. The results are shown in terms of internal, interpersonal and external resilience.

Internal Resilience

For internal resilience, the responses were linked to the following parameters: mindset and upskilling or reskilling of the participants. For upskilling and reskilling, the participants were asked to respond on the upskilling and re-skilling efforts undertaken by them with regards digital and pedagogical skills with regards the following parameters:

▪ Management of administrative work online

▪ Training efforts on how to teach online

▪ Video editing skills for online learning

▪ Mindset changes undertaken with regards online teaching

▪ Skills development related to various technology skills

Table 6 shows the types of skills the participants improved during the transition of the teaching and learning process amid Covid-19. A large portion of the participants improved on various technology skills for teaching and learning such as learned how to teach online, learned video editing, improve various technology skills and learned how to manage my work online after the Covid-19 pandemic.

TABLE 6 . Percentage improvement in techno-pedagogical skills as a result of remote teaching and learning in a Covid-19 pandemic.

The biggest change for teachers that they expressed was the mindset change. 97% of the teachers felt that this was the most important skill that was needed. This was followed by learning how to teach online which was expressed by 96% of teachers. The open mindedness part was remarked upon by 85% of the respondents followed by the pedagogical skills 82%. These are logical conclusions.

Interpersonal Resilience

Interpersonal resilience ( Table 7 ) in this study referred to how teachers continuously communicated with learners and connected them with their peers as well as communications with parents/guardians. manage their learners and provided support in times of difficulties.

• Engaging students so that they were attentive

• Communication with students through positive or advise based (scolding) measures

• Use of questioning techniques in classes

• Use of interactive media

TABLE 7 . Interpersonal resilience.

The strongest interpersonal resilient attribute ( Table 1 ) amongst the 102 teachers was the teaching methods that promoted questioning with more than 65% agreeing that this was the best method. Use of praise or scolding was not that effective with only 30% of teachers advocating the effectiveness of the approach. The methods such as dialogue and pure lecturing were also not that effective as with only 37% of the overall respondents agreeing about the methods. Interactive media based methods promoted engagement through a social presence, livening up the classes and increasing interest among students.

The result shows an interesting paradigm on inter-personal resilience viz. the major methods that showed results. Questioning is a method that showed student and teacher presence. This also meant a personal touch and empathy. The use of interactive media based methods helped the teachers in reaching students. The medium of the web could be better used with even normally reticent students engaging in classes.

External Resilience

External resilience is exhibited when participants are able to continue to perform when there is institutional trust in them, knowledge of latest policies/ordinances, new infrastructures are well supported and rules are well communicated, especially when the teachers were working from home (WFH).

From Table 8 , it can be seen that a total of 61% of teachers agreed that the management and leaderships’ trust pushed them to be resilient to conduct their classes although they were working remotely despite the fact that the online assistance from their institutions was low (approximately 27%). When asked if the institution supported them in the teaching and learning process, during the Covid-19 pandemic, 72% said yes (see Figure 2 ). However, family support was seen as the highest (86%), followed by students (68%) and friends/colleagues (66%). With regards working from home, teachers managed to keep up with their resiliency in ensuring that they did not compromise on the use of innovative methods to engage learners.

TABLE 8 . External resilience.

FIGURE 2 . Factors related to external resilience. Note. 1 = Strongly Agree and five Strongly Disagree.

From the above we can conclude that the teaching community had support from the system. They had a good range of support from the institution and the community of learners.

In this work, we have done a survey on the resilience of 102 teachers from three different countries, namely India, Malaysia and Fiji and traced the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on their resiliency to continue the teaching and learning process. We mapped the resilience according to internal, interpersonal and external factors. We will discuss the findings below.

In our work, variables such as institutional support, peer support and student support are modeled as coping mechanisms for stress. We build on Morales-Rodríguez et al. (2021) whose focus was stress and coping strategies. We seek to examine resilience as a composite trait. Our work is similar to the Connor Davidson Resilience scale ( Connor and Davidson, 2003 ) and aspects of Connor Davidson scale are incorporated in the survey questions.

The data showed positively that teachers made an effort to upskill themselves during the pandemic. Teachers made an effort to upskill themselves in techniques to engage learners in online learning especially on how to use live session technologies, the use of mobile phones, LMS and lecture recording; learn how to edit videos and change their mindsets to ensure they were able to better serve their students. These findings are important in relation to internal resilience as they were the core attributes of online learning that impacted teaching and learning in a remote online learning environment. The findings on internal resilience corroborates with Kimhi et al. (2020) , Connor and Davidson (2003) , Fullerton et al. (2021) , Beale (2020) .

The interpersonal resilience in teaching focuses on the communication with students and the way this communication takes place. From the data, we found that around two thirds (65.6%) of respondents did adopt methods that helped drive engagement among students. The primary method of communication was questioning based techniques. One of the interesting aspects in the innovative teaching methods aspect is that more than 75% used interactive media based communication method to engage with students. These teachers also devised new strategies. Resilience also means having the ability to design ways to ensure an acceptable level of student engagement.

The data showed that the trust and support from institution, family, colleagues and students enabled teachers to exhibit a high external resilience ( Figure 3 ). Literature shows that trust especially positive effects, cognitive reappraisal and social support can be factors which can help the individuals cope with the pandemic ( Kaye-Kauderer et al., 2021 ). The trust is also related to the support by institutions, well-crafted policies, and maintenance of social ties, for success in the job ( Giovannini et al., 2020 ). Further, the work by Appolloni et al. (2021) testifies that strong leadership, effective communication with all stakeholders, a sense of community among the faculty, and administrative support for the system were important to maintain external resilience.

FIGURE 3 . External resilience.

Limitations

The following are limitations of this study. The geographic scope is tilted towards Malaysia. The mitigating factor is that the study respondents were from all the domains of education not just STEM and all strata of experience and seniority.

Nonetheless, the study does provide some indicators. The indicators are that trust by institutions, support by family, institutions, friends and students are a big factor. This may have given a boost to upskilling and thus innovative methods in teaching. We were able to find this in interviews but were unable to establish this thread using data.

This work outlines teacher resilience as a factor during the Covid-19 pandemic. Given the widespread adaptation that was needed by teachers in a short period of time, it was important to understand the internal, inter-personal and external factors that affected teacher resilience during the pandemic. This is an important result. Factors of Educational resilience showcase not only the areas for educational systems to strengthen but shed light on aspects that do not make much of a difference. Trust is an important factor. Communication networks (teacher-teacher, teacher-student) help teachers a lot. The role of student champions is not a factor. Technology used in the respective domains is not a factor. The major contribution of this work is thus to showcase Teacher resilience in terms of internal, interpersonal and external categories. This aligns with the existing literature in Table 1 . The factors in teacher resilience are important for administrators. Every aspect of the teaching eco-system has an implication from this study. From internal resilience, the factors of strengthening self-reliance, well-being, motivation, learning skills and technical skills are showcased. From inter-personal resilience, the need for the pedagogy to incorporate teaching presence, communication between teachers and students and technologies that can foster that emerge. One interesting dynamic of the presence is that many teachers were concerned at not being able to reach the students who could not communicate (silence, non-participation) and had limited technology. Trust and support networks for teachers are a key factor that emerged in external resilience. Strong leadership is also another factor that emerged. The results of this study cannot be generalized, but it gives a panoramic view of the importance of resilience in educational systems during a pandemic and how to be more prepared in future. This study has also thrown a few areas for further researchers to pursue. Teacher resilience and its role in enhancing learning is an area of interest. The relation between smart and innovative learning and teacher resilience is something that we could not establish in this work. Teacher resilience is a ripe area worth pursuing as a domain and our future work will seek to pursue this with data analytics as a base as well.

Data Availability Statement

The datasets presented in this article are not readily available because The datasets have the potential to contain private data. Hence depending on approval of all the authors, we can furnish anonymized datasets. Requests to access the datasets should be directed to BS, [email protected] .

Ethics Statement

Ethical review and approval was not required for the study on human participants in accordance with the local legislation and institutional requirements. The patients/participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study.

Author Contributions

All authors listed have made a substantial, direct, and intellectual contribution to the work and approved it for publication.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s Note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Keywords: Resilience, Covid-19, education, educational system, teacher

Citation: Raghunathan S, Darshan Singh A and Sharma B (2022) Study of Resilience in Learning Environments During the Covid-19 Pandemic. Front. Educ. 6:677625. doi: 10.3389/feduc.2021.677625

Received: 08 March 2021; Accepted: 14 December 2021; Published: 28 January 2022.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2022 Raghunathan, Darshan Singh and Sharma. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Bibhya Sharma, [email protected]

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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How the pandemic has changed teachers’ commitment to remaining in the classroom

Subscribe to the brown center on education policy newsletter, gema zamarro , gema zamarro professor, department of education reform - university of arkansas @gema_zamarro andrew camp , andrew camp distinguished doctoral fellow and graduate assistant, department of education reform. - university of arkansas @andrewcamp_ dillon fuchsman , and dillon fuchsman postdoctoral fellow, sinquefield center for applied economic research - saint louis university @dillonfuchsman josh b. mcgee josh b. mcgee associate director, office for education policy - university of arkansas, chief data officer - the state of arkansas @jbmcgee.

September 8, 2021

The 2020-2021 academic year was unlike any other. After nationwide school closures during the spring of 2020, schools reopened in the fall using combinations of in-person, hybrid, and remote learning models. Teachers had to adapt to unexpected conditions, teaching in unprecedented ways, using synchronous and asynchronous instruction, while also being challenged to establish connections with students, families, and colleagues. Health concerns added to the mix as some teachers went back to in-person education during the height of the pandemic. As a result, teachers’ levels of stress and burnout have been high throughout these unusual pandemic times , raising concerns about a potential increase in teacher turnover and future teacher shortages.

A RAND survey, fielded in early January 2021, found that nearly one-quarter of teachers indicated a desire to leave their jobs at the end of the school year , compared with an average national turnover rate of 16% pre-pandemic according to NCES data . In our research brief , we use new survey data from the nationally representative RAND American Teacher Panel (ATP) to provide additional insights into these issues.

We study data from 1,045 teachers from a survey administered in March 2021. About 30% of teachers in our sample reported teaching fully remote for the majority of the school year, 49% reported that they taught in a hybrid model, and 21% reported teaching fully in person. A large majority of teachers in our sample (71%) reported they had to switch instructional models at least once during the 2020-2021 school year, and the average teacher switched models twice. To see how teachers’ attitudes may have changed through the pandemic, we compare the March 2021 data to responses to a pre-pandemic survey of 5,464 teachers administered mid-February to mid-March 2020.

We find that, during the pandemic, teachers have become less certain that they would work a full career in the classroom. In March 2020, 74% of teachers reported that they expected to work as a teacher until retirement, while 9% said they did not expect to, and 16% did not know. In contrast, in March 2021, 69% of teachers reported they expected to work as a teacher until retirement, while 9% reported they did not expect to, and 22% said they did not know.

Teachers’ reported probability of leaving their current state or the profession within the next five years also increased from 24% on average in March of 2020 to 30% in March 2021. This change was due to a reduction in the percentage of teachers reporting a zero probability of leaving and a corresponding increase in the percentage reporting chances above 50%.

Furthermore, a high proportion of teachers reported having considered leaving or retiring during the 2020-2021 academic year. In March 2021, 42% of teachers declared they have considered leaving or retiring from their current position during the last year. Of these, slightly more than half say it was because of COVID-19.

Although the proportion of teachers that considered leaving or retiring was similar across different experience levels, those approaching retirement (55 or older) considered leaving at higher rates. Among teachers 55 and older, 34% said they considered leaving or retiring because of COVID-19, compared to 23% for all respondents. Compared to teachers younger than 35, teachers approaching retirement were 11 percentage points more likely to say they have considered leaving or retiring because of COVID-19. Importantly, teachers nearing the retirement age were as likely as younger teachers to report having considered leaving or retiring for reasons other than COVID-19.

In addition to approaching retirement age (being 55 or older), having to change instruction modes and health concerns were also significant predictors of the probability of considering leaving or retiring. Having to change instruction mode at least once during the year is associated with a 13-percentage-point higher probability of having considered leaving or retiring. Finally, compared to teachers who report a 0% chance of getting COVID-19, those who think they have a 50% chance are 10 percentage points more likely to have considered leaving or retiring.

In contrast, the mode of instruction did not appear to relate to teachers’ considerations of leaving or retiring. While in-person teachers (15%) were less likely than those teaching fully remote (23%) or hybrid (26%) to report that they considered leaving or retiring because of COVID-19, a higher proportion of in-person teachers (27%) reported having considered leaving or retiring for other reasons than fully remote or hybrid teachers (14% and 18%, respectively).

Despite high considerations of leaving or retiring during the pandemic, teachers report that more of their colleagues have considered leaving than have left their teaching jobs. We asked teachers to report the number of their colleagues that have considered leaving or retiring because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and then we asked how many of those colleagues left or retired. On average, teachers reported that around 40% of their colleagues that considered leaving because of COVID-19 ended up leaving.

The 2020-2021 academic year was a trying year for teachers and, as a result, teachers reported a higher probability that they will leave the profession than they did before the pandemic. However, so far, teachers’ considerations of leaving were more common than actually doing so, and teacher attrition rates have not increased . It remains to be seen whether this will persist as the pandemic continues and the Delta variant presents new challenges for the 2021-2022 academic year

Our results highlight three potential problem areas. First, a larger proportion of those approaching retirement age reported having considered leaving or retiring because of COVID-19, which could be problematic if schools begin to lose their more-experienced teachers. Second, most teachers had to change instructional mode at least once during the year (and many experienced multiple disruptions), and having to change instructional modes was associated with an increased probability of considering leaving or retiring. Finally, COVID-19 health concerns were also associated with an increased probability of considering leaving.

Teacher turnover is often bad for students , and a teacher shortage might be particularly disruptive in certain subjects or jurisdictions that are already strained. Even if teachers do not leave, higher levels of job dissatisfaction and intentions to leave could affect teacher effectiveness and could harm students’ academic progress . It is, therefore, important to get a better understanding of the factors that explain the increase in teachers’ considerations to leave so that we might find ways to better support teachers during these challenging times.

Addressing health concerns while trying to minimize school disruptions and changes in teaching mode could help increase satisfaction and retain teachers. Increasing school vaccination rates would certainly make a difference. In this respect, the recent FDA approval of a COVID-19 vaccine could open the door for vaccine mandates, and approval of a COVID-19 vaccine for children under 12 would allow a much larger share of the school-age population to get vaccinated. In the meantime, we should work together to control community spread, adopt school mitigation methods, and facilitate a supportive work environment to help teachers navigate the uncertainty of yet another school year in the pandemic.

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Opportunity or Obstacle

Museums in kingston during the covid-19 pandemic.

• Rehleigh Giesl-Butler Department of History, Queen's University

The purpose of my research study was to determine the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and subsequent virtual transition, on the public outreach of museums in Kingston. While preliminary secondary research findings were indicative of a growing body of research on the topic of museums during COVID-19, very little focused on Canada, and less so on Kingston. The existing body of research was thus used to highlight the general importance of museums before, during, and after the pandemic in addition to their significance as vessels for community interaction. The main method for collecting research was through structured interviews with museum professionals in Kingston. Each individual interviewed provided a unique insight into the obstacles and opportunities that resulted from the pandemic at a number of museum institutions in Kingston.

In a virtual world, the COVID-19 pandemic offered some museums a chance to catch up. Whether that meant creating their own website or utilizing social media platforms, the strategies museums implemented in the wake of the virtual transition proved to be beneficial and necessary to their survival. What were originally obstacles (i.e., lack of technological skills, and digital presence) were effectively and creatively transformed by museums into opportunities - opportunities to expand with their audience and connect in new ways. Overall, this research emphasized the resilience and perseverance of museums as they uphold their significance and relevance as members of the local Kingston community.

Authors who publish with this journal retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication of the work.

 Inquiry at Queen's Undergraduate Research Conference Proceedings is Queen’s University Library's Journal Hosting Service . ISSN: 2563-8912

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Studies: Pandemic Aid Lifted Scores, But Not Enough To Make Up for Lost Learning

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Nearly $200 billion in emergency school funding spent during and after the pandemic succeeded in lifting students’ achievement in math and reading, according to two papers released Wednesday. Test score increases in both studies, which were conducted independently of one another, indicate that states and school districts used the money to effectively support children, even as learning in some areas improved faster than in others.

But the social scientists who authored the research argue that federal dollars could have been spent in ways that would have helped scores bounce back faster. The per-dollar returns of ESSER, the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund, measure up poorly in comparison with those of previously studied efforts to boost achievement, from reducing class sizes to implementing more rigorous curricula.

Dan Goldhaber, the lead author of one of the studies and the director of the Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research , said he believed the crisis conditions of the pandemic made it “hard to spend the ESSER funding in thoughtful, effective ways.”

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By his own estimate, 35% of the math recovery achieved during the 2022–23 school year was directly attributable to ESSER funding. Fully 87% of English recovery was credited to ESSER, though he found that gains in that subject were statistically insignificant. Still, he said, that upward movement was limited.

“Candidly, I think the impact was small, and there are some reasons why it wasn’t larger,” Goldhaber said. “Only 20% of ESSER money was even earmarked for learning loss, and I don’t think there was a lot of oversight of whether that 20% was well spent.”

Only 20% of ESSER money was even earmarked for learning loss, and I don't think there was a lot of oversight of whether that 20% was well spent. Dan Goldhaber, CALDER

The findings offer a split verdict on the post-COVID academic recovery, while somewhat strengthening the case that putting more resources into schools can elevate their results. The advances measured in both studies are virtually identical not only to one another, but also to earlier, wide-ranging estimates of the impact of additional money on schools.

ESSER was one of the best-known and longest-lasting pillars of Washington’s pandemic response. Years after stimulus checks and free nasal swabs stopped arriving in the mail, many districts are still spending down the aid they received through the program. The last of the supplemental aid will not expire until this September, four years after schools first began to reopen for in-person instruction.

How Districts Can Keep High-Impact Tutoring Going After ESSER Money Expires

Notably, however, both papers project that American students will not have returned to their pre-COVID learning trajectories by then, and that the cost of a full restoration could amount to hundreds of billions more. With no sign of any further assistance coming from Congress, that bill will need to be picked up by states — if it is paid at all.

In the meantime, ESSER’s backers can point to real, if incomplete, progress.

Stanford sociologist Sean Reardon helps lead the Education Recovery Scorecard , which released a second study on Wednesday. In an interview, he noted that the federal cash injection was the equivalent of only about one-quarter of the country’s annual K–12 spending, spread over multiple years. While it might have been used more efficiently to stem further learning loss, he added, both national and state leaders were simultaneously focused on goals like reopening schools and alleviating the severe emotional distress that many children are still facing.

One can certainly imagine ways to spend the money that would lead to even more learning gains. But that wasn't entirely what was on policymakers' minds. Sean Reardon, Stanford University

“One can certainly imagine ways to spend the money that would lead to even more learning gains,” Reardon said. “But that wasn’t entirely what was on policymakers’ minds when they sent out the money.”

‘A huge missed opportunity’

To pinpoint the impact of additional money on COVID-era learning, the two studies take advantage of differences in how the federal funding was awarded to individual districts.

The total ESSER expenditure was fueled by three laws setting aside $13 billion in March 2020, $57 billion in December of that year, and a further $122 billion the following March. Because there was no data showing where learning loss was most concentrated at that time, dollars were allocated to school districts based on their pre-pandemic grants from Title I, the Department of Education’s main program benefiting disadvantaged children.

But not all districts received comparable amounts, even if they served similar numbers of needy students. Instead, a number of regulations governing Title I — including rules that ensure small states receive minimum allotments, as well as larger sums being granted to states with higher per-pupil spending — introduced significant spending gaps between different schools. Those disparities were significantly magnified as each new emergency funding bill was passed, said Harvard economist Thomas Kane , Reardon’s co-author.

“With the second two ESSER packages, the federal government was essentially pushing $175 billion through pipes that were meant to handle $16 billion in Title I,” Kane said. “So what might have been a $500 or $600 difference per student in Title I dollars became a $5,000 or $6,000 difference in ESSER funding per student.”

The Stakes Are Only Getting Higher for Pandemic School Aid Spending

Both Goldhaber and the Education Recovery Scorecard team accessed standardized test results from the Stanford Education Data Archive, which compiles student scores from different local exams to allow for cross-state comparisons. In each of their studies, $1,000 in ESSER spending per student was found to raise math scores by 0.008 of a standard deviation (a scientific measure showing the distance from a statistical mean).

In the world of education research, an improvement of that size is considered small: something like one-tenth of a medium-sized effect. But the average conceals substantial variation across different states, and many school districts received much more than $1,000 per student.

As an example, Reardon, Kane, and their collaborators identified 704 districts in which over 70% of students were eligible for free and reduced-price lunch — a commonly used proxy for poverty — then compared the results for those that received unusually large ESSER allocations (more than $8,600 per pupil) to those that received much less (less than $4,600 per pupil).

$190B Later, Reason to Worry Relief Funds Won’t Curb COVID’s Academic Crisis

The differences were striking. The working-class district of Brockton, Massachusetts was awarded $3,224 per student from the second and third ESSER funding bills, and its students’ math achievement improved by the equivalent of .06 grade levels between 2022 and 2023; but in Dayton, Ohio, per-pupil funding increased almost three times as much ($11,444), and math scores jumped by a factor of 10 (.65 grade levels).

Goldhaber argued that figures like those cast considerable doubt on the proposition that the U.S. government’s emergency relief to schools was mostly wasted.

“One of the ideas that’s out there is that we spent $190 billion and got nothing,” he said. “I don’t think that’s the right answer.”

Given what we know now, any new federal dollars for recovery should probably be structured differently. Marguerite Roza, Georgetown University

Yet he also voiced disappointment that neither Washington nor states had directly measured what kinds of ESSER spending (tutoring programs or school renovations, improved ventilation or increased staffing) were correlated with higher performance. Despite its huge cost and high stakes, Goldhaber concluded, ESSER was simply “not designed to learn from what districts do.”

“To my mind, that makes it a huge missed opportunity. We can see that there are pretty big differences across states and districts in the degree of catch-up.”

‘Who’s going to pick up the reins?’

While the studies can shed little light on the most successful aspects of ESSER, they will be collectively seen as a major contribution to the research on school finance reforms. This is true both because of the scale of the government’s intervention — perhaps the single greatest natural experiment on the effects of windfall cash on schools that has ever been attempted — and the consistency of the papers’ results.

Not only do the findings of both studies mirror one another, they also hew closely to those of an influential meta-analysis , published in January, that gathered the results of dozens of previous experiments in increased school funding. That paper also pointed to an average test-score increase of about .032 standard deviations per $1,000 spent over four years, or roughly .008 annually.

As Relief Funds Expire, Harvard’s Kane Says ‘Whole Generation’ Still Needs Help

Marguerite Roza, head of Georgetown University’s finance-focused Edunomics Lab, called the coinciding findings “reassuring.”

Yet she also noted the “wildly expensive” cost of sending operating aid to states that was not specifically dedicated to learning recovery. According to Goldhaber’s calculations, the government would need to spend an additional $450–$650 billion to fund a full return to levels of academic achievement last seen in 2019; Reardon and Kane tallied a likely cost of just over $904 billion.

Whether or not those figures represent the true price tag, Roza said, states that intend to replace federal dollars should be more consistent in disbursing them and more stringent about what they pay for.

“Why repeat the same strategy given how unevenly the dollars were distributed and how uneven the effects were on districts and states?” Roza asked. “Given what we know now, any new federal dollars for recovery should probably be structured differently.”

Our results are basically saying that there was a positive effect, but it wasn't enough. Now who's going to pick up the reins? Thomas Kane, Harvard University

But in Kane’s view, that recommendation may be too optimistic. With just a few months left before the deadline to spend ESSER funds, he observed, too few state authorities had even committed to picking up the torch of learning recovery.

“In most states, there hasn’t even been a discussion started about what the state role will be now that the federal money is running out,” he said. “Our results are basically saying that there was a positive effect, but it wasn’t enough. Now who’s going to pick up the reins?”