Grievers, Skeptics, Pragmatists, Converts, and Champions: Social Work Educators’ Transition to Online Teaching

Abstract

Despite the surge in online social work education programs throughout the last two decades, the body of literature examining the pedagogical transition to virtual environments from social work educators’ perspectives remains nascent in form. To grow this area of inquiry, this interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) examined the lived experiences of 17 social work educators across the United States who transitioned from solely on-ground instruction to partially or completely online teaching prior to July 2019. Analyses of participant interviews generated a framework that organized social work educators’ perspectives into the typologies of Grievers, Skeptics, Converts, Pragmatists, and Champions. These typologies emerged as a result of the multi-systemic forces that generated new conceptualizations of educators' roles and identities as they transitioned into the virtual landscape. Amid the current pandemic necessitating abrupt shifts to online education delivery, this framework offers clarity to social work educators as they make sense of their own experiences adapting to online teaching.