As the Book Series Editor of Comparative and International Education: Diversity of VoicesâThe World Council of Comparative Education Societies, I am delighted to present this volume entitled Values, Education, Emotional Learning, and the Quest for Justice in Education edited by Yusef Waghid and Ahoud Al-Asfour based on peer-reviewed and revised papers presented at the 5th WCCES Symposium, which was hosted by Cornell University (USA) and held virtually through Zoom due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. The symposium was held from November 16â18, 2022 on the theme The Future is Here: Transforming with Urgency Education Systems for Equitable Rights to Quality Learning.
The COVID-19 pandemic has been unrelenting for more than 3 years now, causing severe hardships to people and losses across the globe. The education systems have been disrupted continually with several schools scrambling to adapt to the online mode of learning or returning to some sort of pre-COVID normalcy. The results of short-term approaches to learning have not been productive in most instances. Neither the teachers nor the school administrators had any prior experience with mainstream online teaching and learning. Nor were the students prepared, equipped and ready to switch to a non-traditional brick-and-mortar mode of learning. Therefore, with limited or even no professional support, most of the teaching and administrative staff did what appeared to be the most appropriate choiceâcontinue with the same curriculum, assessments, and teaching methods by using Zoom-type synchronous delivery tools. Yet, this is not a domain that lends itself to improvisation with positive outcome. Thus, while prima-facie it may appear to be an easy adaptation for teachers as well as learners, who can comfortably log into their systems, assuming they exist and function, from their home and continue the teaching-learning process that has existed for centuries. The general perception was to âmanageâ the period of the pandemic, which was expected to last for a few weeks, or a few months at worst. However, to the chagrin of the academic community and other stakeholders of education systems, this pandemic has lasted unabated for more than three years and has shown little signs of fast and total elimination globally. Despite major breakthroughs, vaccines have not been providing consistent coverage especially against the new variants of the virus, which has been able to mutate due in part to the uncoordinated and incomprehensive approach to vaccination worldwide.
The problems in the hastily devised online teaching and learning mode started manifesting in many forms. One of them is about the accessibility of hardware and software required to conduct such teaching-learning sessions.
Teachers, who hitherto enjoyed the privacy of physical classrooms, without any interference from parents of students, were left âexposedâ to increased scrutiny of their teaching in the online mode. The vehement claims about âpersonalizedâ attention to each student in the class by the teachers fell flat in most instances. Many parents with literacy capacity, working from home, intently listened to/ watched the online teaching sessions of their wards, only to realize that several teachers were not at par with their expectations. Some of the parents reported assumed/perceived or actual issues to the school management, which in turn put more pressure on the already stressed-out teachers.
Furthermore, the intermittent reopening of the schools for physical attendance, with constantly changing guidance on vaccination requirements, mask mandates, and quarantine rules for infected teachers and students further exacerbated the situation. While still based on anecdotal accounts, there are news reports from several parts of the world that the teachers have started to switch to other professions and are leaving the teaching profession in droves (Dianteil & Assié-Lumumba, in press). The pandemic has exacerbated the already stressful teaching conditions with minimal pay packages for teachers, especially in the developing countries.
The age-old invigilated assessment systems that worked in physical classroom settings, proved difficult to implement in the virtual space. Resistance on part of educators to modify the assessment systems, to be in line with new requirements, when memorization on part of learners is not essential anymore, has further posed a problem for teachers used to what is considered the badge of academic ârigorâ. Relatively few academics had hitherto paid attention to a whole body of research in online curriculum, assessments, teaching and learning already developed during the last few decades after the advent of the Internet.
Yet, clearly, the future is here in terms of disruptions in the mode of learning and producing knowledge. Thus, the academic community must reinvent curricula, teaching methods, and assessments for quality education for all, especially as according to scientists there is possibility of more pandemics down the line after COVID-19. It will be useful and even a necessity for comparative education researchers to compare what worked and what did not during this tough time of the pandemic. There is a need to devise new educational systems today to get ready for the uncertain future dotted with pandemics and contribute to exploring possibilities for optimal learning. It is hard to acknowledge that we are already in the pandemic age and we must act now rather than wait for the future.
Participants of the 5th symposium who presented papers were invited to revise and submit them for consideration in WCCES publications outlets:
WCCES Symposia have become a regular feature of between-congress events in providing continuity to academic discourse in contributing to past and emerging issues within the comparative education community. Following the 1st symposium in 2018 hosted by the University of Johannesburg (South Africa) and in 2019 by UNESCO International Bureau of Education (IBE) in Geneva (Switzerland), two books have been published. The 3rd symposium was held in 2020, 4th symposium in 2021 and the 5th symposium was held in November 2022. For the 4th symposium, 18 member societies of WCCES served as co-conveners. A record number of 19 member societies of WCCES served as co-conveners of the 5th symposium. This level of collaboration validates my vision for the Council at the time of my election as its President in 2016, and again in 2019 for a second term, which has extended due to COVID-19 pandemic.
In addition to this volume in the Book Series, we will continue to publish revised and accepted papers of the 5th symposium in the WCCES Journal in another issue to be released in the middle of 2024, moving towards the XVIII World Congress of WCCES to be held at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA on July 22â26, 2024.
I wish you good health, safe living in this tumultuous global environment and happy reading.
NâDri T. Assie-Lumumba Series Editor, WCCES Brill Book Series Editor, Global Comparative Education: Journal of the WCCES President, World Council of Comparative Education Societies (WCCES) Professor, Cornell University Ithaca, New York USA
Reference
Dianteil, E., & Assié-Lumumba, N. (Eds.) (in press). Leveraging social and human sciences for crisis response: Lessons from COVID-19. UNESCO.