The Coronavirus pandemic has disrupted many industries, education being one. Schools around the world were forced to shut down abruptly and adopt new ways of teaching students that involved keeping them at a distance in order to prioritize health. In partnership with the Salzburg Global Seminar, the World Innovation Summit for Education has created an E-book based around the experiences of educators during the pandemic. ‘Education Disrupted, Education Reimagined’ shares responses from education’s frontline during Covid-19. In our exclusive interview with Dominic Regester, we talk about the inspiration behind the project, while looking at how schools and students can continue to stay safe.

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What sparked the idea behind the ‘Education Disrupted, Education Reimagined’ E-book?

WISE and Salzburg Global Seminar started talking about the idea of a digital convening in March of this year as the scale of the pandemic was beginning to become clear.

We were hearing about some amazing, compassionate, creative and brave responses from education institutions to the pandemic and thought that with our combined networks we could hopefully do something useful for educators around the world.

Originally the idea was to offer a platform for educators to talk about the different ways in which they were supporting their students when schools were closed for public health reasons. It soon became clear that once schools had closed there were some really interesting reimaginings taking place as well.

The idea of using those two framing ideas for the conference series was part of our thinking from fairly early on. After the first convening (15-16 April) we realized this could become a linked series.

We had some very positive feedback from the first event and felt that it had been a useful thing to do. Education responses were evolving and we thought it would be valuable to try and put on a second event in June.

Immediately after the second event, we agreed that there had been such great content that we should ask speakers if they would be interested in contributing short essays to an e-book to help capture the ideas circulating at the time.

Both WISE and Salzburg Global had already worked with Diplomatic Courier (who published the e-book) and it was fantastic when they came into the partnership. There are some amazing contributions in the collection and some really important ideas discussed there which we hope can help education reform thinking in many different contexts.

What measures can schools put in place to ensure education is never halted?

One of the most interesting things I have learned from the Education Disrupted, Education Reimagined series came from research that the American think tank RAND conducted in the Spring.

They found that schools across the US that had a high culture of teacher cooperation pre-pandemic had consistently been better able to support students when schools were shut down. That kind of insight is going to be really useful for future planning, how do we help all schools develop that kind of culture.

How can we tackle the consequences of economic inequality on education?

One of the dominant themes in essays throughout the e-book is the importance of Social and Emotional Learning (or life skills) in both the education responses to the disruption the pandemic caused and in the different ways in which education is reimagined.

There is a lot of really compelling evidence that shows how social and emotional learning has a more significant academic uplift on students growing up in different kinds of disadvantages.

COVID is unquestionably accelerating pre-existing inequalities but if one consequence of all this disruption caused this year is more systems develop or introduce SEL programs, then hopefully we will start to see a reduction in different kinds of inequality. SEL is obviously not the only way of doing this but it is definitely part of the solution. It also provides a bridge to the next question.

How should schools prioritize the wellbeing of students?

Again, I think SEL approaches are a core component of wellbeing responses and this comes through in a number of the essays in the book. Well-being for teachers is just as important as wellbeing for students and there are some excellent and creative examples of schools and systems that have been prioritizing both educator and student wellbeing.

Many schools are reporting that learning is happening but it is happening in different places, in different ways and at a different pace to other years.

Making sure that students understand that this is OK and that education doesn’t have to be as competitive as it has been, is another important trend in a lot of the effective responses.

What is the core purpose of education during Covid19?

As well as working for the Salzburg Global Seminar, I am part of Karanga – the global alliance for social-emotional learning and life skills. Karanga has a vision of a thriving world where all learners are enabled with the skills to succeed in school, work, and life. COVID-19 hasn’t changed that. One of the quotes about education that I find really inspiring is from the German philosopher Hannah Arendt who wrote that ‘education is the point at which we decide if we love the world enough to take responsibility for it’ – COVID19 hasn’t changed that either, in many ways it has reiterated the importance of that idea.