Eighteenth International Conference on Technology, Knowledge, and Society

Abstract

“We get only about 25 percent or less of what we use in our jobs through formal learning. […] The other 75 percent of learning happens as we creatively adopt and adapt to ever changing circumstances.” (Grebow, 2002, para. 14-15). How teachers’ creative adoption and adaptation to the COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped immigrant language learning is at the heart of the findings presented in this session. With the support of the Avenue-LearnIT2teach project, English Second Language (ESL) teachers enabled the rapid responses of many Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) programs to site closures, resulting in an unprecedented uptake of Online Learning (OL). The project rapidly changed course to support teachers to adopt Blended Learning (BL) courseware and adapt teaching practices to the new OL reality. This session discusses the just-in-time and sustained teacher training, and its impacts on adult education programs based on the professional development evaluation model by Guskey (2000). The validity of pre-pandemic BL research reported on in the Migration and Language Education Journal is also reflected upon in the context of the rapid transition to remote instruction. This session also answers the call by Burde, Lahmann, and Thompson for more Education in Emergencies (EiE) research that addresses the “continued absence of research on education and disaster risk reduction” (2019, p. 82) and extends it to include adult education, specifically immigrant settlement and language learning. Recommendations to increase the capacity of adult education programs to respond to future crises conclude the session.