Rethinking the Purposes of Schooling in a Global Pandemic: From Learning Loss to a Renewed Appreciation for Mourning and Human Excellence

A main goal of this paper is to complicate "learning loss" as the only, or even the main, thing schools should be concerned about as they respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. While schools have a responsibility to make sure students who are enrolled in school are learning, this cannot come at the cost of ignoring the other substantial losses students are also contending with. Following the work of Jonathan Lear, I make the case that schools should engage students in a process of learning how to mourn for their individual and our collective losses, while also considering ways that school can move beyond narrow conceptions of the purposes of school and to a deeper appreciation for the ways that an education can promote human excellence. As this pandemic wears on, it becomes harder and harder to do anything but endure. One goal of this paper is to serve as a reminder that schools can do more than endure: they can envision new possibilities for schooling that promote conceptions of wellbeing that go beyond fear of learning loss.

Changing Teacher Educational Contexts: Global Discourses in Teacher Education and Its Effect on Teacher Education in National Contexts

Teacher education has gathered interest globally and nationally among teachers, educators, researchers and policy makers. Madalinska-Michalak, O 'Doherty and Assuno Flores (2018) observe that regional/ national, social, economic, political and historical factors impact upon teacher education and 'it is also impacted by global problems and tendencies' (pp. 567). This paper builds on these debates and examines the effects of global discourses of teacher education in the national contexts of developed and developing countries, for example, Guyana, Japan, South Africa, United States of America (USA) and the United Kingdom (UK). This includes consideration of teacher education and training before and during the current global COVID-19 pandemic (UNESCO, 2020). The paper concludes that teacher education continues to be under scrutiny due to global and national expectations, the demand of and how they are positioned in preparing teachers for the 21st century. Notwithstanding, as globalisation becomes more integrated in societies globally teacher education curricula not only has to retain its emphasis on standards, but equally its agility to ensure that the needs of all learners are met.

What Can COVID Teach Us? An Essay

This essay explores the broader implications for education of the COVID-19 pandemic. It asks: What can COVID teach us? The case is made that COVID is inviting us to consider a relational universe, and what a pedagogy of presence would look like. It takes a futures perspective and is therefore, unabashedly speculative. It draws on the author's many years as both a teacher and as a university lecturer in cultural change and futures studies. The essay speaks to the pedagogical imagination as a tool for rethinking learning and our collective futures. The paper concludes that love, intimacy, and presence are very much part of educational and cultural discourses and that though currently eclipsed by a technocratic and neoliberal discourse, they are being called forth as a possible response to the Covid pandemic.

Spaces and Prospects for Student Empowerment in the Debt-Ridden Greek Education System. Future Possibilities for Change According to Student's Views

This paper presents a research project that was conducted in Athens, Greece in 2018 and 2019. The main objective of this project was to address students' views on Greek society and education in the context of the socio-economic crisis, their prospects, and their aspirations for educational and social transformation. The paper concentrates on students' views on education and discusses the role of schools in creating democratic societies. It provides a closer insight into possible ways of thinking about education, and food for thought for any attempts to deconstruct or initiate radical change in the education system. It looks at the potentialities and possibilities of deploying critical pedagogy as a mode of resistance for transformative and empowering education within the Greek education system. It concludes that during times of multiple crises, critical pedagogy is clearly relevant and has a responsibility to rethink its views and practices, build active resistance and engage in fostering educational and social change that can lead to a more just, equal and fair society.

Imagining Decolonial Desires of the Public Good

Considering the legacies of exclusion, white supremacy, and genocide found within the walls of U.S. higher education, the public good construct is also embedded in exclusion, white supremacy, and genocide. The fact that existing notions of the public good remain intact and unquestioned of its origins means that the public good is not for all individuals of our society, particularly Black, Indigenous, Asian, Latinx, gender diverse, and ability diverse folks. Through a relational praxis, we engage in freewriting and Blackout poetry to share three solidarity narratives. This process and action detailed in this article come from a space that imagines the impossible -- a decolonial desire for the public good.

ECOSYSTEM APPROACH TO LIFE-LONG LEARNING

The world is constantly changing and facing us with challenges to which we do not know the solutions. COVID-19 forms a clear example of this development. To be able to react properly on this type of development Life-long learning forms a crucial element in this. In this discussion paper, four inherently related concepts were brought together: life-long learning, cooperative learning, the Adaptive Cycle of Resilience (ACoR) model and ecosystems. By combining these concepts, we intend to rethink our learning structures. In this light, two questions are raised. One, how do we make sure we are prepared for unforeseen events like COVID-19? And two, what is the role of evaluation in the process of preparing for the unknown? How do we know what to evaluate? The main concepts are structured into a proposed integrated ecosystem architecture to facilitate life-long learning, which contributes to laying the foundation of the development of ecosystems in which life-long learning is the main objective. © Proceedings of the 2021 AIS SIGED International Conference on Information Systems Education and Research.

Higher Education for Democracy: The Role of the University in Civil Society

Democracy and higher education are inextricably linked: universities not only have the ability to be key arbiters of how democracy is advanced, but they also need to reflect democratic values in their practices, objectives, and goals. Framed by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the ongoing crisis of structural racism, "Higher Education for Democracy" explores academe's role in advancing democracy by using a cross-national comparison of Los Angeles, New Delhi, and Hong Kong to develop strategies that universities can employ to strengthen democracy and resist fascism. William G. Tierney argues that if academe is to be a progenitor in the advancement of democracy, then we need to consider five areas of change that have been significant across national contexts amid both globalization and neoliberalism: inequality, privatization, the public good, identity, and academic freedom. Taking a comparative approach and drawing on scholarly literature, archival research, and interviews, "Higher Education for Democracy" aims to understand these changes and their implications and to position higher education in defense of democracy in a globalized economy framed by fascism.