Theorising post-truth in the COVID era

Abstract

The focus of this article is on the impacts of COVID-19 related manifestations of post-truth in educational settings in Australia. Within this context, there has been a reorientation of how wellbeing and academic achievement within schools reflect on broader trends within the general public, at local, state and national scales. Individual and communal experiences of adversity have been significantly impacted by phenomena associated with post-truth, particularly misinformation, a climate of anti-intellectualism, as well as fragmented socio-cultural cohesion. In the first section I explore these trends by providing an overview of how post-truth has been construed in Australian contexts, before moving to consider how engagements with post-truth have been shaped by the pandemic. Second, I analyse the close link between educational concerns that emerged from the pandemic era, and the circumstances that have supported the emergence of post-truth. Particular attention will be paid to debates over ‘learning loss’ and the place of teachers within Australian communities as a fulcrum for generating cultural capital and social cohesion. In the final section I consider what lessons these experiences have for education, as a way of cultivating learning communities that are oriented towards generating critical and digital literacy skills