Abstract
This qualitative study documents how Puerto Rican English teachers innovated and adapted their teaching of writing in the aftermath of Hurricane María, ongoing earthquakes, political unrest, and COVID-19. In 2019, The still recovering- from two hurricanes, which killed more than 3,000 people- the Puerto Rican population was hit with leaked text messages that allegedly evidenced offensive jokes - about the government’s relief response- between then governor, Dr. Ricardo Roselló, members of his cabinet, and lobbyists. This resulted in mass protests that lead to the politician’s resignation during the summer of 2019. In early January, earthquakes rocked the island amassing uncountable damages to the southern part of the island and the entire electric grid. Then, in March, the interim governor Wanda Vazquez, issued an island wide lockdown via executive order.
Through a phenomenological lens, this paper presents the results from ten, semi-structured interviews with K-12 English teachers who described the relationship between their understanding of resilience and their teaching in the aftermath of these extraordinary. Emergent themes that are discussed include: Defining Resilience and Coping. These experiences serve as a basis for a discussion about teaching writing in extraordinary times, despite of the existing gap in disaster pedagogy research, particularly in the Puerto Rican and Caribbean contexts. Reflections on these emergent themes and findings document teachers acting as first responders regardless of the type of school they work in. Additionally, the chapter presents recommendations second language teachers of English can incorporate in the teaching of writing.
Recommended Citation
Irizarry Ramos, Elenita
(2020)
"Puerto Rican English Teachers’ Perception of Student Resilience in Extraordinary Times,"
Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education: Vol. 9:
Iss.
1, Article 17.
Available at:
https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/wte/vol9/iss1/17