The End of Innocence

Abstract

The global pandemic has dramatically impacted the lives of billions of children all over the world, creating a massive disruption in education and exacerbating existing multidimensional inequalities. Given the ubiquity of the virus’s reach, is COVID-19 the end of childhood innocence? Building on an understanding of childhood as social practice, I describe how childhood innocence has been enacted through, and pivotal to, education as a social practice since the late 19th century. I consider how the pandemic is challenging the normative views of childhood that have long informed teaching and learning and outline the possibilities for reimagining childhood and schooling in ways that could promote a radical transformation of public education for a post-pandemic world.