COVID-19: How it Affected Parenting and Teaching in Higher Education

Even 3 years past initial lockdown, the COVID-19 pandemic is still a relatively new phenomenon in the world of sociology that leaves a lot to be explored. My senior thesis project aims to investigate an unexplored corner in this gap, specifically parenting and higher education. I'm interested in researching teaching instructors (professors, teaching graduate students, etc.) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who had parenting responsibilities through the COVID-19 pandemic while working at the university. I want to explore how the shift to online working/teaching affected parenthood and work/life balance, as well as the return to on-campus teaching. Although it will be an in-depth exploration, I'm specifically interested in what parts of parenting became easier during the pandemic and what instructors miss about the pandemic, and what this reveals about the gaps in higher education work culture.