Adaptation of Environmental and Sustainability Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The delivery of environment and sustainability education in pre-service teacher programmes was challenged due to the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown conditions. In this chapter, we examine our histories and experiences as three academics adapting environment and sustainability education during forced remote learning. While there is research regarding remote learning, an examination of the unique circumstances that transpired when shifting to forced remote learning conditions during a pandemic is necessary. Using collaborative autoethnography, we explore meaning making and how we adapted our thinking and delivery from outdoor experiential activities to remote learning activities whilst trying to create meaningful experiences for our students who were restricted in their environments. Drawing on Yuval-Davis' theory of situated intersectionality, we recognise that adapting to forced remote learning gave us an opportunity to lean on each other for support despite the various academic stages we occupied. Our diverse histories and experiences re-emerged in a collective and yet different learning space. The situated intersectionality of our collaboration and the physicality of our present locations enhanced how we learnt and worked together by deepening our own understanding and practices. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022.

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the care burden of women and families. (Special Issue: COVID-19 as a catalyst for a sustainability transition.)

While women were already doing most of the world's unpaid care work prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, emerging research suggests that the crisis and its subsequent shutdown response have resulted in a dramatic increase in this burden. It is likely that the negative impacts for women and families will last for years without proactive interventions. What we commonly refer to as "the economy" would not function without the (often unrecognized) foundation of work provided by the "care economy": the reproduction of everyday life through cooking, raising children, and so forth. The paid economy has slowed not only because people are physically not allowed into workplaces, but also because many families currently need to raise and educate their children without institutional support, which is reducing remunerated working hours and increasing stress. It has long been recognized that gross domestic product ignores the care economy and heterodox economists have promoted alternative economic systems that could value care work and facilitate a fairer sharing of domestic labor while promoting environmental and economic sustainability. This policy brief builds on recent work on the care economy to explore implications of the COVID-19 pandemic and opportunities for addressing the burden of unpaid care work.