Abstract
After closing public schools in early 2020 to slow the spread of Covid-19, attempts to provide continuity of education in Germany by means of digital tools faltered in variety of ways, with insufficient competence and inadequate technology leading to inequitable access and uneven implementation. Understanding how German teachers were caught unprepared in this time of crisis, especially in comparison with their European neighbors, requires an examination of their habitus as discussed by Bourdieu and Wacquant (1992) that accounts for their behaviors beyond existing models regarding technology acceptance. Drawing on existing sociological and media-related studies, this contribution will describe the attitudes of German teachers and educational decision-makers in light of their digital, cultural, and educational habitus to provide a partial explanatory account for the current state of affairs. It will show how traditional skepticism for innovation among teachers in general, and German teachers in particular, is reinforced by demographic and sociological characteristics of the German teacher population and the nature of German schooling. After describing extant conditions regarding digitally mediated educational experiences during the initial Covid-19 phase in Germany based on emerging data, this article will subsequently identify prospective issues in this area in the near future. While the transition to digital teaching and learning has the potential to bring about a number of challenges, early data suggests that a possibility of significant positive development may occur as well. Based on these indications, the article will conclude with implications for teacher professionalization going forward.
Highlights
While the emergence of Covid-19 disrupted all facets of daily life around the world, education was one of the sectors most severely affected by the sudden imperative to move teaching and learning from primarily face-to-face interactions to distanced structures
Habitus alone does not account for the lack of digitalization found in German schools in 2020
By examining the situation through the lens of habitus, it is possible to gain a deeper understanding of the circumstances that existed as schools rushed to close in March 2020
Summary
While the emergence of Covid-19 disrupted all facets of daily life around the world, education was one of the sectors most severely affected by the sudden imperative to move teaching and learning from primarily face-to-face interactions to distanced structures. The emphasis on ‘industriousness’ (Kaiser 2002) and the rejection of ‘fun’ (Roeder 2001) in German schools invalidates the authentic interests of learners, including those that might, especially in terms of digital literacies, be considered playful (Blume 2020b) Those youth from better situated and better educated families who use digital media in ways that align more closely to that of the teachers, valuing digital tools for their informational and communicative affordances, are more likely to gain their teachers’ recognition than those learners from less advantaged backgrounds whose digital competencies focus on opportunities for ‘entertainment’ (Henrichwark 2009; Niesyto 2009). These are further complicated by attitudes towards, and consequences of, legal violations
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