ABSTRACT

The importance of commercial products increased in schools during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly as leaders grappled with school closures. Pre-COVID principals viewed their schools as mainly procuring commercial services for administrative support and teacher professional development. After school closures, principals came to emphasise commercialisation as technological infrastructure, online learning platforms, video conferencing software and/or digital tools for community engagement. This shift was borne out of necessity as principals found themselves having to make ‘snap decisions’ as to the products that could best support their school communities. This is a specific form of ‘triaging’ as the pandemic required leaders with pedagogical and curricular expertise to make technical decisions. In systems where increasing autonomy has been offset by decreasing central support, the concern is that issues of access and utility of commercial products can be pernicious in rewarding the privileged and effectively punishing the least advantaged within public systems.

摘要

在 COVID-19 大流行期间，商业产品在学校的重要性有所增加，尤其是在领导者努力应对学校停课的情况下。COVID 之前的校长认为他们的学校主要为行政支持和教师专业发展采购商业服务。学校停课后，校长开始强调商业化作为技术基础设施、在线学习平台、视频会议软件和/或用于社区参与的数字工具。这种转变是出于必要，因为校长们发现自己必须就最能支持学校社区的产品做出“快速决定”。这是一种特殊形式的“分类”，因为大流行病要求具有教学和课程专业知识的领导者做出技术决策。