A Trauma-Informed Inquiry of COVID-19’s Initial Impact on Adult Education Program Administrators and Instructors in the United States

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on adult education programs globally, transforming in-person operations to distance, online enterprises often overnight. Many administrators, instructors, and program staff have been inordinately burdened physically, economically, and socially by the pandemic in ways that could be considered traumatic. The pandemic has also revealed how the insufficient access to educational technology and limited digital literacy has affected program administrators, instructors, and adult students alike. Can the pandemic create the opportunity to elevate adult learning and restructure existing policies and practices moving forward? To grapple with the answers to this question, this exploratory qualitative study sought the perspectives and insights of program administrators and instructors in adult education programs in the northeastern United States. Through an online, mostly open-ended questionnaire, self-reflections of lessons learned were analyzed through a trauma-informed lens (Gross, 2020). Through multiple rounds of coding, the following themes emerged: (1) balancing multiple stressors; (2) coping with pandemic uncertainty; and (3) addressing virtual classroom engagement, remote work, and the digital divide. Recommendations for modifying preservice preparation and ongoing professional development and making programmatic policies and instructional practices that promote distance teaching/learning and digital literacy in more trauma-responsive and inclusive ways were proposed as were areas for future research.