Author: Desiree Cremer

By Desiree Cremer, EdD

Everyone has their thoughts and ideas about distance learning. Some see its misgivings while others thrive. Regardless, as of now, distance learning is my reality. My school will continue with distance learning for the entire third quarter. Teachers adapt and mold to their circumstances. At first, there are the usual hiccups, and with practice, a flow emerges, soon familiarity. Teachers do what we usually do, teach.  

Our students show up, at least the majority do. Parents and teachers have to be on their toes because of schedule changes, maybe for testing, or just accomodating the many “mandate stuff” that is so ordinarily common in a public school. As soon as the students log on, we enter into another world, our digital classroom. The camera provides me a view into their world, and they have a view into mine. We see each other, and I get a snapshot into their world. 

Distance learning and COVID-19 expose our educational institutions’ old cemented practices, such as evaluating student achievement. We need to reevaluate the metric under COVID-19. We hear from educators, is it measurable? Well, a student who logs on from a cramped studio apartment with spotty internet might need to log on a couple of times. The student sitting with younger siblings around a table all distance learning helps them with their technological needs. These students show up, and they are present, for they are teaching us during these challenging and uncertain times that we need a different metric.   Students who log on and remain engaged while the television blares in the background and noisy conversation swirl around them. Students who learn in bedroom corners, closets, outside, and in bathrooms. Students who log on from a driving car, sitting patiently in the backseat, listening to the lesson. A teacher pretending that it is not happening just in case it may shame the student. These students have the determination to learn and adapt, rising above their circumstances. They deserve a medal for their perseverance. Educators, what metrics do you have for their resilience? I suggest you include in your assessment empathy, compassion, and logging on as a fortitude for what you determine as a success.

Distance learning has deepened my appreciation for some of my students; I am impressed by their resolution. In contrast, learning online and looking at my students on the screen shows that life continues behind them. One can hear the busy household noises indicating the sounds of survival. It is what happens behind them that frames the story of distance learning. Before the pandemic, we saw our students and had no idea what happens with them beyond the classroom. This pandemic reveals inequities in education, technological access, and poverty. And as educators, we see it and have discussed it repeatedly in the past few months. There is no manual or playbook for evaluating education in the COVID-19 world. However, as educators, we could lighten up and stop holding our students to the pre-COVID-19 metrics. We all learning through discovery during these uncertain times.  

Reflected on my educational doctoral professional practice program at the University of Hawaii

by Desiree Cremer, Ed.D.

On the first day, the doctoral candidates sat in a circle around a pillar that interfered with the spatial design; somehow, awkwardly, it blended in with the environment. Introductions and sharing went around the room. It was so powerful and intense to listen to the incredible stories from the candidates. It completely overwhelmed me.

When it came time for me to speak, my voice was finding its way through the inner tunnels of my packed emotions, hidden, and suppressed. I felt my body trembling in my introductions, and the quiet inner voice got louder as tears flowed down my cheeks, saying my name proudly. Desiree Cremer from Cape Town, South Africa, my parents sacrificed for me to be here. My goal is to earn my doctoral degree in education because I believe students should have access and equity to the arts. Growing up under apartheid, I never had this opportunity.

This introduction was my release and emancipation in the doctoral program. I found a diverse generational family. An educational family that shares stories celebrates, argue, laugh, disagree, and then move on. The process of our doctoral educational journey I describe as a wave that washes onto the beach and then pulls back and keeps on coming. I rode this wave with my community of practice family. We took all our classes together, worked in groups, shared ideas, and pulled each other along during challenging times. Out of these interactions and collaboration, I developed unexpected relationships beyond the educational doctorate program, moving together from one course to another for three years, bonds you. Power shifts between teachers and principals quickly dissipated as relationships developed out of the shared collaborative experience.

The interdisciplinary nature and diversity are the program’s strengths. It opened safe spaces for emerging leaders and provided a platform for many voices. The support I received within the program gave me the courage to do an autoethnography for my dissertation, revealing, at times painful, yet empowering. Some of the course offerings profoundly affected my practice and gave me the mechanisms to speak evaluatively about a dance education program.

After the Ed.D., I returned to my school to teach dance, back to my job. Everyone around me wanted to know why I was at school. “You have a doctorate, you supposed to be out there,” and the conversation went, “Use that doctorate.” I started questioning myself, am I supposed to leave, get another job? Should the Ed.D. program provide support to their doctorates after graduation? How can they help? Who receives access?

The Ed.D. gave me beautiful moments, such as presenting my dissertation at Oxford Brookes University in England alongside some of my doctoral families. For now, I love what I do, providing access and equity to all who want to experience the movement of dance. During this pandemic, I am working on finding mind and body balance. And along the way, unexpectedly, discovering another voice, the blog.