Written by: Karla V. Kingsley. Department of Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy, University of New Mexico

“…The novel coronavirus has brought education to an inflection point. A pedagogy of social justice (Sleeter, 2015) and critical consciousness (Friere,1970) is urgently needed, one that not only eliminates geographic barriers to learning, but also works to heal the social, psychological, emotional, spiritual, physical, and academic trauma, the soul wounds (Duran & Duran, 1995) inflicted on minoritized students. In electronic learning environments, this means fashioning a culturally responsive, student-centered curriculum that integrates the knowledge, languages, and lived experiences of historically marginalized students. It also includes recognizing that students, families, and teachers are likely experiencing emotions related to grief and trauma due to loss of a loved one or as a result of changes in daily life that can cause feelings of shock, shame, sadness, guilt, denial, and depression. Unfortunately, teachers often do not receive training in how to process loss and grief (Dunn & Garcia, 2020). Yet social and emotional well-being, including self-care, are topics that can and should be taught”…