Schooling the pandemic: Education after the event

Abstract

Many scholars continue to ponder whether, amidst its devastating consequences, the recent pandemic could create possibilities for a different kind of educational world. As the virus addressed educators in unexpected ways it also pointed toward what is broken in education—its neoliberal enclosure, developmental violence and institutional self-evidence—and the failure to imagine and enact new ways of being and living with the world. In this paper we examine the promise and possibility of educational transformation in these viral times. Drawing on Badiou’s theory of the event and conversations with elementary school teachers, we trace the dynamic of teachers’ experiences during the pandemic and examine the aporetic tensions that characterized their professional lives. Overall, the regulatory climate created during COVID-19 succeeded in neutralizing the new present that COVID-19 introduced, retaining, for the most part, an ongoing but excessive normalcy. However, for some teachers the pandemic became an opportunity to glimpse something unforeseen.

Keywords:

• COVID-19
• teacher experiences
• transformation
• Badiou’s theory of the event

Disclosure statement

The authors report that there are no competing interests to declare.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anne M. Phelan

Anne M. Phelan is Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy in the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.

Cristina D. Vintimilla

Cristina D. Vintimilla is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at York University, Toronto, Canada.

Veronica Pacini-Ketchabaw

Veronica Pacini-Ketchabaw is a Professor in the Faculty of Education at Western University, London, Canada.