Pedagogy of care in online teaching and learning environments at tertiary institutions through the eyes of Freire

Abstract

Making the most of online or hybrid teaching platforms is essential to making sure that, in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), higher education settings in developing universities and places are not left behind. While a number of the technological platforms adopted during the Covid-19 lockdown have the potential to reach more kids, they have also overloaded educators and pupils. Therefore, it seems ironic that the same technology that makes it possible for higher education to offer online courses also frequently impedes student progress and places restrictions on the pedagogy of teachers. Regardless of format, the teaching and learning encounter should not come at the expense of caring for the actual student in the ever-changing hybrid teaching model that most tertiary institutions have since adopted. Therefore, the interest of this article is on how ‘care pedagogies’ might improve online teaching and learning at developing universities. In this sense, the role of university teachers should be reflected not only by the number of students engaged in class content, but also by the embodied cultural capital that students bring to online, face-to-face and hybrid learning spaces.