A Global Outlook to the Interruption of Education due to COVID-19 Pandemic: Navigating in a Time of Uncertainty and Crisis
Contributed by: Ebba Ossiannilsson
Professor, Dr. ICDE Ambassador for the global advocacy of OER ICDE OER Advocacy Committee, Chair V President Swedish Association for Distance EducatioN
Cutting edge and historically unique research was carried out in Spring 2020, in the spirit of Covid-19. The research was led by Ass. Prof Aras Bozkurt, a faculty member and a researcher in the Department of Distance Education at Anadolu University, Turkey.
Abstract (From the article):
Uncertain times require prompt reflexes to survive and this study is a collaborative reflex to better understand uncertainty and navigate through it. The Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic hit hard and interrupted many dimensions of our lives, particularly education. As a response to interruption of education due to the Covid-19pandemic, this study is a collaborative reaction that narrates the overall view, reflections from the K12 and higher educational landscape, lessons learned and suggestions from a total of 31 countries across the world with a representation of 62.7% of the whole world population. In addition to the value of each case by country, the synthesis of this research suggests that the current practices can be defined as emergency remote education and this practice is different from planned practices such as distance education, online learning or other derivations. Above all, this study points out how social injustice, inequity and the digital divide have been exacerbated during the pandemic and need unique and targeted measures if they are to be addressed.
It was argued that, during the Covid-19 pandemic, with similarities and differences it was emergency remote education that was applied, and that emergency remote education is a branch of distance education as in the case of online learning, e-learning, m-learning, or home-schooling. The differences between emergency remote education and online learning were clarified.
The article started with a background of sub-sections which briefly described major themes that have arisen from the interruption of education during Covid-19 and briefly introduce some background information to better interpret the cases, such sub-sections were:
Trauma, psychological pressure, and anxiety
Emerging educational roles of the parents
Support communities and mechanisms
Pedagogy of care, affection, and empathy
Reasonable adjustment: alternative assessment and evaluation methods
Surveillance, ethics, and data privacy concerns
Digital divid
Inequity and social justice
(Why) Openness: Open educational practices, open educational resources, open scholarship, open science and open data
Gender issues
Essential (soft) skills and competencies to survive in a time of crisis
Based on the considerations outlined above, the main objective of this study was to examine country-specific cases in order to arrive at a global view and to better understand how societies responded to the disruption of education, how they moved from face-to-face education to education at a distance in case of emergency.
Given the main purpose of the study, a qualitative case approach was used, and a collective case study design was chosen. The research context is cross-continental and therefore examined the disruption of education in a real context to "find out how people [and countries in a broader sense] coped and thrived in this environment". To achieve a broader global perspective, each continent was represented by a sufficient number of countries. Through contacts with internal and external networks, authors were invited to contribute to this study who witnessed the Covid-19 days and were therefore able to report cases from their countries heuristically, which was useful for reporting self-experience and observations. In such approaches it was important to be an insider.
Several researchers contributed to this research with their observations and their witnesses, who provided a rich amount of data that needed to be studied and a pluralistic viewpoint gained. This study recognized their strengths and limitations. The strength of this study lies in its ability to examine different cases around the world from different socio-cultural contexts, which allowed a holistic view. However, in addition to its strength, some limitations must be acknowledged. First, the country cases were reported by researchers who were subject to their own interpretation and may be subjective to a certain extent. Second, although each continent was represented by a sufficient number of countries, the reflexes to educational disruption may differ from cases in different countries.
The study contained cases from 31 countries (Figure 1), classified and alphabetized by the continents in which they were located. By June 2020, the world population was estimated at 7,794,000,000 people, and the countries that contributed case reports to this study represent 62.7% of the total world population with approximately 4,888,000,000 people living in these countries.
The research was carried out in 1 months, with some 500 emails, and WhatsApp messages, and we all had some common questions for writing our narratives. The country-based cases provided a general overview of the current situation due to Covid-19, initiatives from the government, reflections from the educational landscape, lessons, proposals and a country-wide evaluation, and references. Such an outline allowed readers to read each case individually and add their own interpretations or to compare and contrast different cases. The study was carried out by networking, collaboration, commitment and trust and in a very good academic atmosphere, and with a professional sharing culture. All country reports were peer-reviewed.
My concluding remarks
The study is contemporary, historical, unique and state of the art research in a time of pandemic crises. Although, terrible and unreal in every respect, Covid-19 did not break the system, but rather uncovered a broken system in the educational landscape. It can and has been argued worldwide that what we called the normal just a few months ago will not be the same, but that after Covid-19 there will be a new normal system. Around the globe, people, organizations, businesses, and companies have changed their lifestyles, businesses, work and learning and study patterns and, to a certain extent, values, ethics and attitudes. Some argued that they have achieved a better balance between work and private time, while others report a greater workload. Vulnerable learners have suffered in some countries, while others have done more. While most educational institutions started the emerging distance learning in the emergency phase, many now argue that lessons have been learned and that they will move towards distance, online learning and hybrid flexible learning.
Even if distance education and e-learning have been on the agenda for some decades, there have been hesitations among academics, and there has been a poor infrastructure for the same. From its starts it was introduced more or less voluntarily, but now with Covid-19 distance and online learning, and training became more or less mainstream, a working infrastructure was established, and most educational organizations took clear leadership for its introduction. Also, at national and international level organizations came together to support and inspire that the introduction of distance learning would succeed in the best possible ways. Initiatives, creativity and culture sharing developed and flourished at all levels, and a global community has been established. There is now a movement that has become mainstream, where digitalization, flexibility, connectivity, infrastructure, leadership and personal learning are priorities. The pandemic demonstrated very clearly the social role of education and learning, but also the role of education for a successful and growing society and economic growth.
The new normality after Covid-19 will be about change, reorientation, transformation, and sustainability. If both study and work have changed their form in a short period of time, digitalization and digital literacy, both individually and organizationally, have also changed and increased. It has been shown that the digital revolution is about people, their habits, behavior and attitudes in relation to the use of new technologies, but also that there is a need for innovative pedagogy and curriculum 4.0. Online education will be a strategic priority in every institution for quality, sustainability and competitiveness. New and innovative partnerships will become increasingly common.
A sustainable society requires access to digital social, ethical platforms and the possibility of rapid change and the promotion of flexibility in learning to help our students develop growth. This will enable us to prepare for the "Futures of Education - Learning to Become" UNESCO initiative. This is the time to learn the lessons when we look at the future of education after Covid-19. What lessons can be learned from the challenges that have emerged during this interruption? How do we ensure that all scenarios for the futures of education are more inclusive and reduce educational and learning gaps?
Suggested citation:
Bozkurt, A., Jung, I., Xiao, J., Vladimirschi, V., Schuwer, R., Egorov, G., Lambert, S. R., Al-Freih, M., Pete, J., Olcott, Jr., D. Rodes, V., Aranciaga, I., Bali, M., Alvarez, Jr., A. V., Roberts, J., Pazurek, A., Raffaghelli, J. E., Panagiotou, N., de Coëtlogon, P., Shahadu, S., Brown, M., Asino, T. I. Tumwesige, J., Ramírez Reyes, T., Barrios Ipenza, E., Ossiannilsson, E., Bond, M.,Belhamel, K., Irvine, V., Sharma, R. C., Adam, T., Janssen, B., Sklyarova, T., Olcott, N. Ambrosino, A., Lazou, C., Mocquet, B., Mano, M., & Paskevicius, M. (2020). A global outlook to the interruption of education due to COVID-19 pandemic: Navigating in a time of uncertainty and crisis. Asian Journal of Distance Education, 15(1), 1-126. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3878572