Collegial Conversations at a Time of COVID-19

Steve Alsop,Darren Hoeg

doi:10.33137/jaste.v11i2.34536

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, citizens and social institutions have been called into action. Questions of the future of school and an appropriate educational response to the pandemic have been widely discussed and debated. As scholars of science education, subjects particularly relevant to educating about the virus and its transmission, we discuss the roles and responsibilities of science education during pandemic. The format of this paper is a dialogue. We discuss theoretical positions related to science education and the pandemic, inequalities and injustices, recent anti-Black racism protests, and concrete pedagogical responses. As our discussion progressed, we increasingly recognize teachers and students as crucial agents in developing community-grounded, critical place-based, educational responses, recognising and addressing injustices related to differential global and local realities experienced during the pandemic.

Highlights

Steve Alsop and Darren Hoeg are colleagues in the Faculty of Education, York University
Our conversation was a way of getting to know each other, in addition to discussing how we might contribute to an educational response to COVID-19
As Paulo Freire termed it, ‘dialogue’, is a dialogical form in which knowledge is co-created by those in conversation, instead of imposed on an individual or group, as is often the case with research methods, and school curriculum. We see this format as a model, and starting point, to foster discussions among educational communities that must develop educational experiences in a time of COVID-19

Summary

Introduction

Steve Alsop and Darren Hoeg are colleagues in the Faculty of Education, York University. They share academic backgrounds in science education. Our conversation was a way of getting to know each other, in addition to discussing how we might contribute to an educational response to COVID-19.

Results

Conclusion