There's no such thing as the 'New Normal' in Education

The post-pandemic period has given rise to a whole range of zeitgeist terms, some of which capture the reality of the current situation, and others which have emerged through popular usage, but serve as a distraction from the work being undertaken by people as they navigate and explore the changed landscape of the workplace and elsewhere. This is not a new phenomenon. Crises over time have given birth to new terms and words which are now part of our English-speaking vernacular.

One of these oft-used and distracting terms is the 'new normal'. It has almost become as ubiquitous in use as the word 'unprecedented'. But, there is nothing normal about this newly re-shaped context in which we find ourselves. To consider a situation (i.e. the workplace) normal is to recognise:

• Things have been in place for an extended period of time, resulting in familiar routines of operation which can be readily anticipated by people;
• That people share a generally accepted view of the reality of the workplace;
• A broadly agreed upon set of practices, systems, actions and processes.

If we accept what we are called to believe about the post-COVID era, then 'new' is right, but 'normal' is way off the mark. Further, to continue to proselytise this so-called 'new normal' is to convey to staff that that they should just accept their new work-life 'lot' and if you're not on the 'new normal' bus (another vapid analogy), then you are professionally abnormal; a Luddite; and/or anti-innovation and anachronistic. You can't talk staff wellbeing and the 'new normal' in the same breath.

I am a Secondary school Principal, so the idea that we are in a new context, where the wave of change is to imminently crash onto us is not lost on me. Schools have had to undertake steps, in rapid fashion, to meet the new and revised learning needs of students. This was a new experience, and in no way were we assisted in this task by our commitment to contemporary pedagogy, STEM or eLearning. The reason why the word unprecedented has been used so often to describe the pandemic response in education is because this has never happened before. This also clarifies why we did not read about schools who genuinely transitioned to online learning at home without complication. Those that did were exercising their PR strategy more than anything else.

There is nothing normal, that is to state "everyday", in schools standing up critical incident management teams to plan for the real possibility of a school closure, hundreds of students maintaining their learning progress while not physically attending school, and teachers adapting their pedagogy for the online environment. Further, most schools don't seek parent feedback at the end of every week, or meet multiple times a day to troubleshoot and respond to unanticipated problems and issues ranging from the technical, to professional learning and student wellbeing. I am yet to see the 'normal' in any of this.

Post-online learning at home, experts and educationalists have beckoned a new paradigm of learning; that after a few months of online learning the dawning of a new way of teaching has been revealed to us all, consigningour pre-COVID methods to relic status. Unquestionably, many schools are engaging in a discussion about differentiated practice, adjusted schedules, increased student agency in the learning process, and feedback methodologies. But this is not the 'event horizon' in education for which many had anticipated.

Education's response to the pandemic has demonstrated and show-cased the flexibility, adaptability and generosity of teachers. There's nothing 'new' about that.