The COVID-19 pandemic and the reconstitution of education

Abstract

The global COVID-19 pandemic has reconstituted every aspect of education. It reconfigured the most basic assumptions and practices of the delivery of learning. It altered the relationships between school, work, and home. It brought about new understandings of the role of schooling in society. It reconfigured relationships between parents, students, and teachers. It grew human uses of, and interests in, digital technologies in social relations, work, and in teaching and learning. It normalized a new educational vocabulary, such as hybrid teaching, asynchronous learning, and simul-teaching. As the ability to travel was halted, the movement of students and scholars was grounded, shuttering industries, while opening up new opportunities to enhance learning via digital technologies and virtual exchange. The pandemic at the same time laid bare the persistent inequalities of educational opportunities and outcomes. There are massive and lasting racial, gender, and socio-economic disparities emergent in and through COVID-19. The pandemic illustrated and increased the fragilities surrounding many marginalized and minoritized communities, while also fueling hate speech, racism, and social divisions. The persistence of educational inequalities was devastingly clear in the uneven access to technologies both within countries and across the world. Within some places, there was a ready supply of technological and financial resources to ensure the tools needed for continuous learning throughout the early period of the pandemic. In other environments, there was a lack of access to computers, mobile technology, and Internet connectivity, leaving young people to contend with major gaps in formal learning. Millions of young people worldwide may not ever return to formal education. Public educators have left and are leaving the profession in millions, while the educational, social and emotional needs of young people remain urgent. Families are increasingly opting to leave public schools in favor of a private education, furthering an already fragile public education system. Educational researchers will be grappling with the magnitude and effects of these vast changes for years to come. Despite the impacts of COVID-19 still unfolding, scholars are taking stock of what we have learned so far in the INTERNATIONAL STUDIES IN SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION 2022, VOL. 31, NO. 4, 397–400 https://doi.org/10.1080/09620214.2022.2138940