Co-Realizing COVID Co-Teaching Concerns Recognizing Present Challenges to Student Equity in Remote Education

When the COVID-19 pandemic began to affect in-person schooling, teachers around the world expressed a balance of optimism for new possibilities in instruction along with trepidation at the challenges which lay ahead. Shortly after March 2020 and into the 2021 school year, even 2022 for some, remote instruction became the norm for many educators. As the pandemic persisted, the optimism teachers first exhibited began to wane considerably as several challenges to student access arose. These issues (e.g., Internet connectivity, crowded living spaces becoming workspaces, children and adults simultaneously working at home, etc.) pose significant threats to equity in education, and they ironically become troublesome in courses whose objectives include analyzing and discussing inequity in education. This article presents a modified retelling of an end-of-course discussion between a graduate student and his adviser after they spent a semester co-teaching in a remote setting. The dialogue includes positive moments of instruction as well as recognized challenges to equity. The article concludes with suggestions for further research on synchronous remote instruction.