Can Teachers’ Discretion Enhance the Role of Professionalism in Times of Crisis? A Comparative Policy Analysis of Distance Teaching in Italy and Switzerland during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically changed education with the replacement of in-school teaching with online teaching in both Italy and Switzerland. The article carries out a qualitative comparative analysis of distance teaching policy documents and shows that the considerable discretion with which teachers were left increased their need to leverage skills, experience, and public interest orientation to tackle a crisis. The analysis also shows that the availability of resources can play a key role in stimulating teachers’ professionalization. Most importantly, all these features are identified in both countries, regardless of the institutional differences between them.Note: In the interests of space, street-level theory and the pandemic context underpinning the articles for this special issue are discussed in detail in the Introduction to the issue.