Expert Q&A from University of Delaware

The real concern will be the number of mutations on Pirola's spike protein and the recent approval of the boosters that target the current dominant variant, Omicron. We don’t know how effective that booster – which just became available after Sept. 12, 2023 – will be.

Chronic teacher shortages are a systemic problem, which means it’s largely a result of the system in which we educate and support teachers. We know, for example, that many alternative teacher preparation programs — where students come in with a bachelor’s degree outside of the field of education and take only a few courses in preparation for teaching — actually contribute to teacher shortages.

So part of the answer is investing in traditional teacher preparation programs and in financial aid. Our team at CEHD’s Center for Excellence and Equity in Teacher Preparation is working directly with Delaware students from motivation to pursue teaching, through recruitment into UD teacher preparation programs, through graduation from those degree programs and into schools within Delaware, whenever possible. 

For example, our Teachers of Tomorrow program introduces underrepresented high schoolers to the field of education through an immersive, two-week summer institute at UD where they can learn about our programs, meet current students and talk with educators. In partnership with high-needs Delaware school districts and the Delaware Department of Education, our Teacher Residency program allows early childhood education, elementary teacher education and secondary STEM education students to pursue yearlong, paid teaching placements in Delaware schools. Overall, we find that 80% of the students we recruit from Delaware stay in our schools to teach.

The overarching concern for many K-12 teachers and administrators is creating a sense of continuity as children and young adults go back to school. The three big concerns that contribute to this issue are teacher turnover, school leader turnover and the number of long-term substitutes who are not fully prepared to teach in classrooms. These trends were already in place before the pandemic, but the pandemic heightened this crisis.

The majority of their food is reliant on imports, and that adds a different dimension to the word food security. A lot of times in the U.S., when we think about food security, it's having adequate access to affordable nutritious food. But there, adequate access means that the ship is able to arrive at port, that it has food on it, and that the relationship with wherever it's coming from is strong.

In the U.S. we have a school breakfast program and a school lunch program, but if you really think about what the cost of those programs looks like, for a small developing nation, it's kind of out of reach. The Bahamas, in particular, has very little capacity, if any, to monitor food security. Fundamental data that can drive any decision making is just missing, so it's really a matter of helping a country that is desperate for the information but doesn't have the infrastructure or the money to be able to fund it.

Both/and thinking enables more creative, sustainable solutions. Valuing opposing sides and seeking connections between them opens us to more creative and sustainable options. Consider Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. He developed this idea by trying to figure out how an object could be at motion and at rest at the same time. Or consider Paul Polman, CEO of packaged goods company Unilever from 2008-2018. He used both/and thinking to craft the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan, doubling the company’s profits while reducing their environmental footprint. Both/and thinking invites us to approach our dilemmas by embracing, rather than resisting, these paradoxes.  If we want to apply both/and thinking, the first step is to change the question. We usually frame dilemmas as tradeoffs. While in college, I asked an either/or question. Should I study and teach ideas as an academic or use those ideas to have impact as a leader and consultant? Rather than wait for divine intervention, I could have just flipped a coin. In time, I came to ask a different question: How can I study and teach ideas to have a positive impact on people’s lives? A whole new world of possible answers starts to emerge.

Imagine if we changed the questions that we ask around political issues. Today, even everyday conversations sound like candidates arguing their case. What if we changed the question? What if we stopped arguing over who is right and who is wrong? What if instead, we assumed that people with different political views have valid and values-based perspectives, just as we do. What if instead of telling them about our perspective, we ask them to share their experiences and understandings, and see what we can learn from them?