Experiences and Perceptions of School Staff Regarding the COVID-19 Pandemic and Racial Equity: The Role of Colorblindness

Background: As schools closed across the country to protect against the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, it became clear early on that the burden on students will not be equally shared. Structural racism patterns the lives of people of color that, in turn, increases their exposure to the effects of the pandemic further impacting the quality of education the students of color have access to. It is critical that we examine the ways in which racial disparities in social emotional and educational outcomes have the potential to increase as a result of the pandemic. To that end, this study examines 1) how teachers and school staff experienced the pandemic, 2) their perception of student experiences during the transition to remote learning, and 3) school staff’s perceptions of how racial inequities may be increased as a result of the pandemic.

Methods: The present study is embedded in a research-practice partnership and project goals were determined by the school racial equity team. All 60 school staff at a middle school in the Pacific Northwest were sent an open ended survey in May 2020. The middle school where this present study takes place serves over 700 students, 65% of whom qualify for FRL and who identify as 34% Black, 25% Asian, 19% Hispanic, 10% Multiracial and 9% white. Participant demographics (N=42) were mostly white (N=11) and the remaining participants of color from varied backgrounds (Hispanic, Mixed race, Asian; details are withheld to protect confidentiality). We analyzed three open-ended questions about staff experience teaching while schools were physically closed due to the pandemic. Conventional content analysis techniques were used: codes were developed inductively, and a codebook was developed after the coding team read through all entries. The codebook was then applied to all entries and analytic memos written to summarize main themes. Peer debriefing in weekly meetings was used to discuss the coding process, analytic memos, and reflexivity of the analytic team.

Results: Our findings highlight the deep, but unequal impact of the pandemic on school staff, students, and their families. Teachers are overwhelmed and overworked, struggling to manage multiple roles while working at home. They also have tremendous empathy for the weight of the losses that students have experienced, and concern for the wellbeing of students in difficult living or family situations. However, most white school staff maintained a colorblind analysis of the way the pandemic is affecting their students and did not recognize the role of systemic racism or potential for racial disparities to be increased.

Implications: Findings highlight the role of structural racism in the disproportionate burden of the pandemic on students of color. Despite having tremendous empathy for students, colorblindness prevented most school staff from seeing the role of structural racism in intensifying the impact of the pandemic on students of color, potentially contributing to the widening of racial disparities in educational outcomes.