ABSTRACT

The advent of Covid-19, a new and highly contagious form of Corona virus, in late 2019 cast a harsh light on human vulnerabilities and on the provocations (and opportunities) facing humanity. Although many of the more drastic measures applied within educational settings have since ceased to apply, at least for the time being, we are not yet ‘past Covid’: many of the challenges that are discussed here still exist. As we faced unprecedented disruption to economies, societies and education systems, the global health pandemic drew attention to existing inequalities and presented a clear picture of steps required for addressing the education of close to one billion students whose learning was hampered due to school closures. The magnitude of this challenge was and still is starkly manifest with the digital divide on the African continen. Democratization of education has been perceived to include facilitation of both formal and epistemic access (including allocation of new technologies for teaching and learning), reconceptualization of knowledge, truth and learning, recognition of ‘other standpoints for knowledge’ and ‘very different knowledge registers,’ recovery of ‘lost knowledge resources’ and connection of ‘multiple ways of knowing,’ and respectful engagement ‘with indigenous and local knowledges,’ idea that merit critical interrogation.

摘要

2019 年底，Covid-19 是一种新型的高传染性冠状病毒，它的出现突显了人类的脆弱性和人类面临的挑衅（和机遇）。尽管在教育环境中应用的许多更严厉的措施已经不再适用，但至少目前我们还没有“过去 Covid”：这里讨论的许多挑战仍然存在。当我们面临经济、社会和教育系统前所未有的破坏时，全球卫生大流行病引起了人们对现有不平等现象的关注，并清楚地展示了解决近 10 亿学生因学校停课而学习受到阻碍所需采取的步骤。这一挑战的严重性过去和现在都明显地体现在非洲大陆的数字鸿沟上。