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Abstract
Worldwide, COVID-19 has affected the most deprived communities the hardest and exposed many systemic inequalities, leaving nations vulnerable and destitute. The need for quality education, while heeding to international mandates, including enacting the sustainable development goals (SDG), has become more apparent in promoting equitable and inclusive education for all, which remains a challenge in South Africa with its inherited inequalities. The purpose of this study was to understand how the COVID-19 challenge refocused the commitment of five principals from rural schools in two education districts of the Northern Cape province of South Africa to address resurfaced historic inequalities, including digital access and fluency to attain an equitable learning environment. Semi-structured emailed interviews were conducted with the participants. A thematic analysis of their experiences of the pandemic through the lens of flexible learning theory, revealed that teachers and learners often experienced discrimination-related stress, especially with virtual learning approaches, as schools often cannot offer remote services to advance learning. Furthermore, the participants voiced their uncompromising commitment to inclusion while engaging teachers and learners in identifying possible problems and proposing solutions post-COVID-19. Though the current crisis seems to have perpetuated and deepened existing inequalities in disadvantaged rural South African schools, some school principals are hopeful that as the reality has now been laid bare, it may prompt more urgent action. The paper recommends that school principals and teachers will have to refocus teaching practices towards flexible, inclusively delivered teaching through working collaboratively across disciplines so that they build their personal resilience and advance their technological skills to meet the demands of remote and online learning during a pandemic and beyond.
Highlights
Education is broadly known as an indispensable apparatus for growth, a means of attaining equal opportunities, inclusion of the marginalised – an additional influential transformative power to support human rights, accomplishing sustainability and building a better future for all (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization [UNESCO], 2017a)
Scholars acknowledge that the notion of inclusive education has moved beyond uniquely referring to persons with special educational needs (SEN) to extend to all persons at risk of exclusion or marginalisation in society
Several themes related to flexible, inclusive learning cultures and promoting inclusion and equity were derived from the data and included (1) principals’ commitment to inclusion and equity; (2) fostering inclusive learning cultures and (3) principals advancing flexible learning and practising care
Summary
Education is broadly known as an indispensable apparatus for growth, a means of attaining equal opportunities, inclusion of the marginalised – an additional influential transformative power to support human rights, accomplishing sustainability and building a better future for all (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization [UNESCO], 2017a). Launched in 2015, the 2030 Agenda with its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) offers a structure that all United Nations (UN) member states vowed to achieve (United Nations [UN], 2015). Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4), which aims to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all” (UN, 2015) will serve as a guide for this paper to unpack how school principals may enact transformative, inclusive learning cultures in their schools. Owing to COVID-19, causing visible and aggravated prevailing disparities and inequalities in education resulting in an unparalleled financial, social and educational catastrophe has increased the challenges in attaining SDGs
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