Abstract
This chapter draws upon the methodology of self-study to consider the ways in which a teacher/researcher engaged with students online both prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, the chapter draws on the use of particular visual texts, including comics, film, and additional digital tools, to explore vignettes of the pandemic teaching experience and the unique nature of an online pedagogical infrastructure in a time during which face-to-face interactions were greatly limited.
TopIntroduction
The increasingly digital nature of communication and education has been a phenomenon that has been developing for some time (Lankshear & Knobel, 2011; The New London Group, 1996), since the advent of the Internet in the 1990s – yet, even prior to this time period in the technological developments of the 1970s and 1980s. As someone who is profoundly linked to the work presented in this chapter, the researcher presents both vignettes and descriptions of pedagogical activities and engagement through the lens of self-study (Hamilton et al., 2009), as well as specific notes about particular texts and pedagogical decisions that have been chosen as elements of instruction and reflection in context of higher education in 2020-2022.
The pandemic period has been one marked by trauma, uncertainty, and political division in the researcher’s home country, as well as around the world, and the linking of digital resources, including comics, film, and digital tools, has provided a set of foundational elements/community nexus points for literacy exploration with pre-service teachers in a time of limited communication and, in many cases, limited access to resources. When connections in person could not be attempted for the safety of individuals living in community, online spaces became nexus points for students and families to connect with one another, and with the world of literature and meaning-making. Even now, experiences in person feel shifted and counterbalanced against a previous weight of memory that at once feels real and imagined, possible and yet almost too hard to believe.
Previous work from this researcher has drawn on facets of autoethnographic research, in which the person is the center of study, and in which cultural artifacts and texts are used to explore experiences further, with connective threads to more universal experiences and implications. Work from Hamilton and Pinnegar (2014) has pointed out the intimate nature of self-study in relation to the teaching profession, including the specifics of lived experiences and emotions. In this researcher’s work, a particular focus on comics and film as texts has been a center of the researcher’s focal point, with classroom practices and the choices/instructional design decisions of teachers as threads of additional consideration. In this chapter, the researcher notes the use of self-study as particularly relevant for examining a time period in which time on one’s own, apart from virtual conferencing meetings, was the norm. There is indeed much to explore in terms of emotion related to this time period, even as the world seems at times ready to move swiftly on, barely pausing for reflection.
This textual-centered work is ideal for a researcher who examines the work of words and images in classrooms, and the ways in which such texts work in and of themselves. Unlike other research paradigms, the researcher also makes the intentional choice to only share what is most salient about their experiences and only that which is for a wider audience to consider and consume. This is not intended to be a story in its entirety, but rather a treatment of particular features of those elements of one person’s life (the researcher) and the ways in which the narrative functions of a particular kinds of text (comics, film, and digital resources) afford unique perspectives; and, indeed, how these texts usher a movement toward reconciliation and healing.
The 2020-2022 time period has included a unique set of difficulties, and the researcher notes the affordances of comics, film, and other digital and visual means of narrative to engage in viewing the events of another person’s life to build empathy, or to consider one’s own experiences more closely (Bishop, 1990). Moreover, engaging in composing has the potential to explore woundedness (Dutro, 2011) and reflect on complex experiences in a visual manner (DeHart, 2022b). This chapter is not an indication that these difficulties have ceased at the time of this writing, but an indication that events must still be processed and that trauma must continue to be acknowledged in terms of the sudden move to online learning, the loss of life experienced in the pandemic, and the result of the emotional weight that individuals have carried as the nature of daily life has changed.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Text: The researcher employs the definition from Rosenblatt (1969) : “Text will designate a set or series of signs interpretable as linguistic symbols; thus, in a reading situation, text will refer to the inked marks on the page” (p. 35).
Gutters: The space between panels presented in comics in which transitions occur.
Film: A medium composed on moving images, including diagetic and nondiagetic sounds, elements of cinematography, and visual storytelling.
Comics: A medium that contains a particular set of design features that link words and images in a juxtaposition on a printed or digital page; the term may also be used to refer to shorter published versions of stories in this medium.
Trauma: An individual and collective sense of response to difficult events in life.
Panels: The narrative boxes that are contained within the comics medium, sites for storytelling in words and pictures.
Composing: The act of writing and making, moving beyond the traditional writing process.
Graphic Novels: A longer condensed works that contain single stories, sometimes published in trade paperback or hardback editions.