Doing Good Work at School in the Midst of the Pandemic

A guest post by Hiya Jain

Hiya Jain is a recent graduate of the Riverside School in Ahmedabad, India. We invited Hiya to write a post about her experience at Riverside during the COVID-19 pandemic and the social good that was still possible during this year. Below, she describes how her understanding of “good work” evolved this year as a result of two programs:

1. The Inner Sanitation Experience (INSANE), in which graduating students engage in self-discovery and personal transformation during a two-day community. Held just two weeks before final exams, students share perspectives about how they are not meant to “compete” with each other but to “complete” each other.

2. Persistence, a community service program in which students partake in initiatives in the local community.

We thank Kiran Sethi, founder of The Riverside School and Design for Change, for connecting us with Hiya and for the opportunity to feature a student’s personal point of view.

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I am Hiya Jain, a 17-year-old recent high-school graduate from India who wants to pursue Media, Politics, and Economics at an institution abroad later this year. After spending close to 15 years as a student at the Riverside School in Ahmedabad, where I was asked to take responsibility for my own education and allowed to make and learn from my mistakes, I am excited, not afraid, to see what the world has in store for me.  

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the single most difficult thing about lockdown was “perspective,” or rather the lack of it. Sitting in the comfort of my own home, I was almost completely cut off from social interaction, save for Zoom calls. This made my outlook on the world very one-dimensional. In essence, I was only speaking with people who had the privilege of owning an electronic device and had a steady Internet connection. This meant that while I heard of the disparities created by the pandemic, and I saw news reports of an extensive crisis so many people faced, it became so much easier to compartmentalize them away.

Add to the situation the perceived struggles of coping with online school and the many other comparatively insignificant problems of a senior year in lockdown, and doing “good work” became an afterthought. But at the end of the day, “good work” is a choice, as is making the “right decision,” and sometimes even the most well-intentioned people need a reminder of that. Thankfully, I experienced two particular processes at Riverside that served as a reminder for me to do “good work” in the world and that gave me much needed perspective.

First, there was INSANE (link here), an experience that truly lives up to its name. Two weeks before our final senior secondary leaving examinations, my entire class spent a day going through six carefully planned activities for the sole purpose of setting priorities before we graduated. The day started at about 6AM with a bunch of sleep deprived individuals, but by the end, we were more awake and aware than we had ever been. We spent time at a cemetery, picked up trash on the roads, rolled incense sticks, and reflected over our inability to convey the magnitude of our problems to others in the world.

Even with the challenges posed by the pandemic, even if we only got a modified version of the true “inner sanitation” experience, it was still worth it. Why? Because each one of us left asking so many questions, including, “What is stopping us from doing good work?”

The second process, one we undertook for the duration of the year, is called “Persistence.” The name is again fitting because it is something every student participates in during the entirety of high school at Riverside. In the simplest of terms, Persistence is student-driven community service. It can take lots of different forms, but the one that I lead was called “Inclusion,” an attempt to help students under the Right to Education Act reach their target class level academically.  

This was the first time I saw opportunity inequality during the pandemic. Each week, as my student buddy and I struggled through another session with poor technology connection, I realized the importance of the Internet in learning. Despite the challenges, she showed up every class ready to make it work, and I knew I had to at least attempt to match her efforts in doing my best “good work.” 

So, what does “good work” mean? Personally, I find it very difficult to explain or define it because I think that “good work” is often just the result of being a “good person.” And as I reflect on the processes I just described, it is clearer to me that the objective of both Persistence and INSANE was to help us become better people. INSANE showed us the purpose of making morally sound choices, while Persistence illustrated how our actions affect others, thus demanding quality “good work” from us.

In a funny and clichéd way, while I set out to write about learning during the pandemic, I think it turned out to be more like learning from the pandemic. I understand that “good work” is a choice, which seems more obvious and achievable when the little bit of empathy and whole lot of perspective I learned at Riverside.

Teaching Good Work in the Classroom

by Lynn Barendsen

In late October, Shelby Clark and I co-taught two sessions of an online course titled Teaching Good Work in the Classroom. Each two-hour course was designed to offer educators an introduction to materials from The Good Project for classroom use. The syllabus included a brief overview of our research, an introduction to a Good Work activity and dilemma, and an overview of the Good Project Resource Center. Participants included classroom teachers and school heads from public and private schools from around the U.S., as well as attendees from Australia, Brazil, Hong Kong, Italy, Morocco, the Netherlands, Panama, Poland, and Singapore. 

The Good Work activity introduced during these sessions asked participants to think of someone they consider to be a “Model Good Worker.” In small groups, educators considered the qualities or attributes that might be used to describe the individuals they had in mind, which included co-workers, family members, and paragons they may have never have met. 

Here are a few sample responses:

• “Finds purpose in their work. Their work enriches rather than exploits.”

• “Shares expertise freely with humility.”

• “Is curious, asks clarifying questions to understand, not convince.”

• “Is reflective and invested.”

• “An advocate for others, they stand up for what is right.”

• “Treating all people with dignity, being unafraid to speak out against injustices.”

Many of these responses  are ones we have heard in previous sessions; for example, educators used words such dedicated, honest, passionate, persistent, and fair. In addition, however, we noted  a social justice and advocacy focus present in some of the above comments that is less typical of our previous Good Work sessions. Although just one indication, participants’ comments were, not surprisingly, reflective about both the current political climate and the racial justice movement (internationally as well as within the U.S.).

During this course, educators also had the opportunity to consider an ethical dilemma—one that emerged from one of our research subjects.. This conundrum describes a high school science student who fabricated how she gathered her data because she believed it would give her a better chance at winning a prestigious prize. In small group discussions, participants discussed the dilemma using a “See, Think, Wonder” thinking routine. 

In writing about what they “saw” in this dilemma, some participants wrote that they recognized that this student had worked hard, and they empathized with her situation; others saw that she was hiding the truth; a number saw that she asserted that she had strong values. Many explained that they thought the student believed she was justified in her actions, and some explained that they had been in similar situations with their own students.  When asked what this dilemma made them “wonder,” educators asked what they might say if they were really in the student’s or her teacher’s shoes. Additionally, some wondered about the consequences of having people in powerful roles who are continuing to deviate away from the rules; yet others wondered about issues of equity and access in education. Although these last two considerations have come up in previous discussions about good work, they are not “typical” and have not come up in previous discussions of this particular dilemma.

This session felt notably different than other Good Project workshops I’ve led. Certainly, we were online rather than in person, but that is the nature of most of our work these days.  Educators are experiencing tremendous pressure: within the U.S. and beyond, their work is being viewed under a microscope, and they are constantly asked to adapt and change their plans at a moment’s notice. I, for one, anticipated that participants might be exhausted and negative. Instead, both groups were fully engaged, looking for new ideas, and seemed to enjoy the collegiality of working with like-minded peers—most of whom were unknown to them and may have come distant societies.. As described above, our shared conversation about what is and isn’t “good work” was impacted and deepened by #BLM and the pandemic.

We have also created an asynchronous version of the course, which we have posted in the Good Project Resource Center. Depending on what we hear from educators and researchers, we anticipate creating additional webinars in the future. These might include: introductions to Good Work dilemmas and activities for classroom use with different age groups; an overview of the Good Work lesson plans and suggestions for implementation;, professional development activities for teams of educators or other workers, and more. 

Please have a look and let us know about your interests and needs. We welcome your feedback.

Visiting (or Revisiting) Solidarity

by Lynn Barendsen

I recently had the opportunity to participate in a conference dedicated to Service Learning.  The 23rd International Service Learning Conference was hosted by CLAYSS, the Latin American Center for Service Learning.  My fellow panelists and I addressed “The Importance of Educating in and for Solidarity.”

Prior to this plenary, I had not given much thought to the idea of solidarity.  In my North American mind, the word has vague political connotations, usually associated with unions, demonstrations and the movement in Poland started by Lech Walesa.  In preparation for our conversation, I unpacked the definition, which (according to Webster) is in fact about unity -- based on shared interests or objectives.  Not necessarily political at all (acknowledging of course that these days everything can be political),  the notion of  “solidarity” is in fact connected to three concepts that are central to good work and the Good Project:  alignment (or misalignment); responsibility; and meaning in work.   In this blog, I revisit the concept of solidarity as it’s been informed by conversation and reflection.

During the course of our time together, my fellow panelists and I touched on a number of ideas.  

• Joseph Puig, who studies Moral Education at Barcelona University, stressed that educating for solidarity is urgent.  As he describes it, we are confronting a series of crises: climate crisis, the excess of inequalities, attacks on democracies, COVID 19.  We have to find a way to collaborate because none of these crises will be solved with individual solutions.

  • On the Good Project, we often talk about alignment and misalignment.  Alignment happens when all of the various groups or relevant parties involved want the same things, or work towards a common goal.  Take just one of the crises outlined above:  it seems plausible to imagine that we all hope to end COVID 19.  However, how we make that happen, especially in the US, is not something we can agree upon.  We are horribly misaligned, and efforts to collaborate seem increasingly stalled.  Some states have had much more success than others, and yet the solutions that work in one state are not necessarily applied to others.  Of course for COVID (and climate change, and numerous other crises), we are not just concerned with agreement within a state or a country—unless there is global consensus, all efforts are destined to fail.

• Puig went on to emphasize that solidarity can bring with it a sense of belonging, a feeling of companionship, as people who are members of the group understand the same reality.   The group could be a nation, a team, a religion.  We have solidarity with those who are part of that reality. Puig emphasized that of course, this can be negative or can turn negative when turned into an “us vs. them” scenario.

  • Feelings of “companionship” or “belonging” can happen with individuals who are very different from ourselves.  I’ve observed high school students from 15 different countries and varied socioeconomic backgrounds working together on service learning projects. As part of the Global Citizens Initiative, rather than be separated by their differences, they gained a sense of shared community and purpose. They felt they “belonged” and as a result, felt a responsibility to one another.  We’ve learned from our Good Project research that sense of responsibility to something greater than oneself is unusual in US high school students (see, for example Fischman et al, Making Good).  Clearly service learning is not the only way to create positive belonging as opposed to confrontation and distrust;, but at its best, and at least in one powerful case, it may be that service learning can produce a  sense of community, or solidarity, and help to inform one’s own identity as a result.

• Alberto Croce, Director of VOX in Argentina, argued that there is an inherent activism in service learning, often teachers who embrace the “cause” go beyond a formal commitment.  As a result, Croce suggested that the service learning experience often becomes a collective, shared experience.

  • In our Good Work research, we spoke with many educators who were deeply committed to their students.  Their work often went “above and beyond” - beyond regular hours and beyond “formal” commitments.  The shared experiences between teachers and students can be positive experiences for both; teachers often describe learning from students, feeling a deep sense of meaning in their work; students identify teachers as role models for a lifetime.   And yet teachers who give too much of themselves (especially in these days of remote learning),  may well suffer from burnout and exhaustion.  Having a religious basis for work, or having colleagues that share the same mission, whether frankly religious or religious in spirit, can sometimes spell the difference between continuing and dropping out.  In any case, finding balance has perhaps never been more important—and rarely been more challenging.

These kinds of understandings about solidarity are in many ways foreign to citizens of the United States, who are sometimes all about independence, and to whom any reference of a “collective” starts to raise eyebrows. (Of course, this is much less true about Latin America, and even less true about Canada)  In fact, a heightened awareness about collective solutions and shared responsibility might well benefit our increasingly divided country. 

Perhaps we might also be able to consider the simultaneous weight and rewards of meaningful work as we think about issues of balance in today’s COVID working world.  If those involved in service learning express a strong sense of community, it may well teach us something about the third “E,” engagement, and how these service workers they find meaning in what they do.  They are engaged, at least in part, because they feel a part of something bigger than themselves.  They express a sense of belonging.  With that heightened sense of community comes an additional sense of responsibility, specifically, a responsibility to the community or communities of which they feel a part.  As we adjust to our new work realities, we can learn much from the concept of solidarity if we embrace rather than shy away from collective solutions.

Parents as Educators: A 'Good Work' Perspective

by Kirsten McHugh

Typically, parents and teachers have complementary roles, and can function in relative independence from one another. This has not been a typical year. In 2020, except in places where children are physically back at school full-time, parents (whether they felt they signed up for the task or not) have had a new assignment thrust upon them--that of teacher. For many, in addition to being “good parents”, and/or “good workers”, parents are now figuring out how they can also be “good teachers” to their children. There is now a lot of serious discussion among parents who are understandably overwhelmed by this proposition. 

The average parent has little to no experience being in a teaching position—save for the chaotic few months last spring when the entire educational system was abruptly thrust into remote learning. At the time, most jurisdictions were forced to use clunky but readily accessible educational platforms implemented as a stop-gap at the start of the pandemic. 

The summer break has provided school systems with a chance to integrate their curricula with more specialized online learning software. Teachers have explored new tools to assist in their technological pedagogy while simultaneously transferring in-person teaching materials into digital formats. There has been a lot of debate over whether and how schools will reopen and if so, whether or not parents will send their children in or keep them home (that is, if this is a decision they have the luxury of making). There has been far less discussion about how to support parents as they prepare for the fall: circumstances have given them a new role within the educational system, but are parents able to take it on? Should they?

We here at The Good Project are not experts in how to balance all of the competing demands on parents, but we hope that our tools and ideas can provide some ways for parents to think about how they plan to approach the situation. As an example, parents might consider approaching the situation through the lens of the 3 E’s of Good Work: excellence, ethics, and engagement. 

Engagement

Engagement might be the most challenging of the 3 E’s for parents to embody in their support of remote learning during the current crisis. This is a stressful time for each and everyone one of us. The pandemic and the upheaval of our regular lives has been jarring. This stress is a direct obstacle to engagement. 

The scenarios parents now face are wide-ranging. For one, the age of the children plays a huge role in parents’ experiences during this time. Parents of young children, such as myself, are trying to keep little ones engaged and entertained, those of older children are trying to find ways to balance staying involved without hovering. Parents of college-aged students have their own set of issues. Many want to treat their “children” as the adults they are but are torn about what the “right” thing to do is in such unprecedented times.

Another consideration is whether or not one or both parents are working and if so, whether that work is full-time, part-time, in the home or outside of the home. Some parents are still able to access childcare and/or in-person schooling (at least at this point), while others are not so fortunate. 

I have a toddler and a preschooler at home. This year our preschool chose to remain closed, and childcare is unavailable. We will attempt to work on pre-K skills with my oldest, while desperately trying to keep our youngest from her favorite activities of mayhem and destruction. My husband works full-time outside the home, and I fit remote working hours into mornings, evenings, nap-time, and (mostly) weekends. One other team member has an elementary school aged child who is learning remotely at home. With both parents working full-time jobs also remotely, there is frustratingly little time to fully engage as “assistant teachers.” Another team member has college-aged “children.” She has described an entirely distinct set of issues around learning to let go in order to allow these young adults to make their own decisions in how they approach their schooling this year. Her family has had multiple conversations about sharing and balancing household tasks (cleaning, laundry, preparing meals, walking the dog) as well as negotiating tight space for 4 separate but often simultaneous Zoom meetings. We also have a grandfather on the team who is working on “higher education capital“ with his high school age grandson, while his wife (grandma) is working on the 3Rs with her younger granddaughters.  They hope to aid in relieving parents and cementing generational bonds.Parents who work in “essential” roles often don’t have the luxury of being physically present. Some parents who are unable to stay home must ask older siblings and family members to watch over their youngest children. These examples are but the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the range of experiences for parents at this time. 

How can each of us be “engaged” as parent-teachers while also staying “engaged” with our work? The unfortunate truth is that we can’t be fully engaged in each role at once. One thing we can try to do is be as present and positive as possible when we are able to turn our attention to supporting children’s school work. This is admittedly a tall order, and it won’t always be attainable. Think of it as how you would like to play out the role of parent-teacher on your best day, but know that there will be highs and lows. I can admit as a parent that we will all certainly be exhausted and stressed while working through the coming months. However, when we can muster it, we should try to be positive in our support of children’s learning. 

I am personally trying to think of this E as a quality over quantity. If parents are engaged when available and can make that engagement visible, manifest, the learning may be contagious. We all remember the teachers who inspired us and those who seemed less than enthusiastic about their subject matter. Which approach motivated you to apply yourself? 

Parents might also check in with children (or the whole family) to make sure they are aligned in their understanding of what is “engaging”.  It's important for the parent to adapt their ideas to what the child needs in order to spark interest and engagement (parent-child fit) particularly for young children, and to focus on things that are relevant to their lives for older teenagers.

Finding ways to involve children’s peers will be important (though admittedly difficult to do) at a time of social distancing. As one example, parents may consider socially distanced nature walks or outdoor discussions when the weather permits. Gamification has a huge pedagogical following; many online resources incorporate this type of interactive play as a means of increasing engagement in learning. Our own research hub, Project Zero, has curated a set of resources and tools for remote learning applicable to a range of subjects and grade levels. 

Excellence

Excellence in good work terms means to set the bar high and aim to master the field or role. For all the reasons previously discussed, most parents cannot expect to become masters of subject matter or pedagogy. Luckily, many parents have gone through the same grades and subject matter as their children. That being said, as time has passed, that knowledge is presumably eroded, and new information of all sorts has also likely emerged. 

Fortunately, this isn’t 1918. We have a wealth of information readily (and often freely) available. In person research at libraries may be off limits at the moment, but sites like Khan Academy, Coursera, and edX offer a slew of classes for little to no cost. If students are struggling with a particular topic, it is possible to supplement learning in short-time and without expending additional financial resources. 

This could also be a great time to sub-in grandparents or other available close trusted friends or relatives over Zoom or Facetime. It seems that spare time is either a feast or famine for those who are quarantining at home. If you know someone who is feeling a little stir crazy and looks like they could use a little break from nurturing their sourdough starter, see if they might be game for playing remote tutor from time-to-time. It may be a win-win for at least an hour! 

Good teachers don’t just know their subject, they also know how to effectively translate the information to their students. To be sure, parents won’t become master teachers overnight but, if they have the bandwidth, they can learn enough to at least consider themselves “apprentice teachers.” Again, there are amazing resources available online (some for-profit, while others are free). Another approach parents may consider is to speak with their children’s current and previous teachers to get a sense of what the strategies will be this year, and what has worked well for their child in the past. 

These are just a few examples that we hope can help parents to feel more confident and prepared. That being said, what parents can and cannot take on is entirely relative. Parents need to be flexible and patient with themselves as they navigate the school year. 

Ethics

As a society, we haven’t really had a chance to fully consider the ethics involved as parents help support student learning at home. Surely, parents will need to model ethical standards with their children while they precariously balance the twin roles of nurturer and educator. Children look to parents while developing their own moral compasses and this intensive time of parenting and teaching will expose both the good and the bad. As an example, both online and in-person learning is subject to cheating. Now it will be up to parents along with teachers to ensure that children learn the importance of academic honesty in their work.

Parents who have the means to hire tutors or join in private learning pods might reflect on their privileged position in society. Educational inequity has been a long-standing problem in our country and the pandemic is unfortunately exacerbating the issue. One way of modeling ethical behavior is to consider underwriting those who are less financially secure. This could take the form of donations to local schools for those less privileged; encouraging fellow learning pod members to sponsor the inclusion of a dedicated student who lacks the necessary resources; or contributing to funding towards childcare for essential workers. Many of these essential worker-parents may not be able to afford the expenditures tied to creating a fully functional remote learning environment; but it’s their work that keeps the rest of our society running. There are many obstacles to learning during a pandemic and these are just a handful of ideas of ways that you might consider your responsibility to those outside of your immediate social circle. 

Again, these are just a few examples of how parents might take ethics into account. New scenarios and dilemmas will likely present themselves over the course of the year and with them creative ways to “do the right thing” will also emerge. 

Whether you are a parent, a teacher, neither, or both, what do you think? Do you have any additional idea of ways you plan to embody the 3 Es? Which do you expect to be the most challenging for your family? 

Check out our Value Sort tool to help you think through how your own values might relate to the questions of the 3Es and how you might approach a new role in your own life.

Announcing: New Animated Dilemma Series

Elena is a high school student in New Jersey who immigrated with her parents to the United States from Mexico at a young age. She is proud of her Hispanic heritage, and she volunteers at a cultural center after school to share her culture with others. However, Elena notes that Hispanic people are treated unfairly in America, something she has witnessed personally with her father, who often has a difficult time staying employed in the construction industry. She is currently required by her school to take part in a senior internship experience, and she is applying for a few different opportunities. Elena is worried she will be discriminated against in her job search like she has seen happen to her father. She wonders if she should “hide” certain aspects of herself, such as her full name and experiences related to her ethnicity, from her resume when she is applying for the internships in order to eliminate the possibility that she will be discriminated against by hiring managers.

What would you do if you were Elena? If you were her friend, what would you advise Elena to do in this situation?

This dilemma and others are part of a new set of animated videos produced by The Good Project.

In the currently four-part series, we spotlight the following dilemmas from our collection, all of which are based on true stories from our research:

• Beyond the Science Club

• Tough Love

•   Money Troubles

• Hiding Your Heritage

Each of the stories concerns a central character who faces a challenging circumstance or difficult decision related to their work or an area of passion. For example, Tough Love is about a driven young gymnast who sometimes feels pressure to attend grueling practice sessions even when she is exhausted. Money Troubles is about a nonprofit leader who must decide whether to return donations to supporters after the promise of a matching grant falls through.

Intended for use with students ages 12 and up, educators can use these videos in a variety of ways in both in-person and virtual classrooms. For example, the videos can serve as:

• The basis of a group discussion or individual reflection, in real-time or on a discussion board, about the predicament or choice each character faces, taking into account the “3 Es of good work” (excellence, ethics, and engagement)

• A chance for students to make personal connections to similar situations that they may have encountered in their own lives, or an example that students can emulate as they make their own storyboards, comic strips, or videos about their own dilemma

• Inspiration for a role-playing game or debate, assigning students to play the parts of different interest groups in each dilemma and engage in perspective taking and conflict resolution

You can view all four of the videos in the slider below, and check back in the future for additional videos to be added to our resources under our Videos page.