Pandemic or Paradigm shift? Part 1

A series of reflections on young people, learning and social change to enable a new consciousness to arise from this time

The opportunities that CoVid-19 is creating for mankind is provocative. At a time, when we are dealing with so many different serious and real issues – are we perhaps able to indulge and think differently. If we are willing to re-imagine, take action and weave in a shift towards a better world, as a society we could mobilize much more . Young people – the growing up years and their learning experiences have been fascinating me since my oldest son was born 15 years ago. Incidentally, it was about the same time a group of young entrepreneurial technology novices created some of the giants in our world today – Google, Facebook that have re-shaped the way we live, work and learn.

Home-based Learning driven by the lock-downs and “circuit-breakers” around the world are surfacing many issues for all parts of societies. The inequity of education and access to learning is the obvious one – as many children are unable to access to learning resources. For children from rich households, the access to computers and resources ensure some continuity in their experiences and learning. For more poorer children, where school is “safe space” to escape their heavy burden of chores at home, domestic violence or simply the possibility of learning and connecting with friends is felt deeply. Friendship and social interactions are often deep experiences children from low-income communities crave for in terms of further engagement. Families of differently abled children, are burdened further as they have less resources to rely on to allow for development of their children and young adults in their care. 

The other places of tension are around educators and schools to provide high quality learning experiences at home. At the moment, my children are interestingly navigating the same learning goals and outcomes using a zoom call or a power-point sheet to fill or even perhaps to read an article or watch a video. Worksheets have moved towards a digital platform – most of the outputs are completed in 20% of the time. The richness of peer-to peer dialogue, the lack of play and experimentation is staggering. In addition, the opportunities for children to exercise agency to engage in real-life experience to creative-problem solve in an empathic and team-based manner is rapidly diminished. These are critical skills for the future in a change-based order. Inevitably, the children take much of the time and opportunity to quietly slip onto “Houseparty” or whatsapp chatgroups or Google meet to “hangout” and connect – rarely on the study topic. And if truly bored – in a game room environment.

Parents who now have a broadening role in supporting their children’s development – for the first time in very long time are confronted with many new realities all at the same time. They are juggling a busy new work environment that is 100% online only – with long hours on calls whilst trying to develop new skills to support themselves and their colleagues. Organisations and businesses are under tremendous pressure reconciling the tension of managing their sustainability yet drive innovation and creativity. And the added load of living in confined in small spaces at home with children needed much more time and attention. And dealing with their own anxieties and fears of the diseases. For the first time, a large proportion of adults are in the “sandwich generation” of caring for their parents and children, whilst navigating this period of tremendous uncertainty and change. 

The well-being of teachers and school leaders are critical in this time, to navigate this period of complexity. Many teachers are parents themselves, and are burdened with learning new tools which they are unfamiliar in using. The new learning environment challenges many assumptions in their instructional practice.

For the first time in the history of the world of learners, we will have a cohort of children without the standard certification from the GCSE, IGSCE, IB or the A-levels. Do we hold onto the premium we have placed in education which is pure acquisition of knowledge or do we need to be thinking further and wider. A young 17 year old, Hannah Sheehy very recently provocatively questioned the purpose of exams in this context – as she had spent most of her precious teenage years ace-ing tests! Therefore, are teachers given the freedom and creativity to navigate and innovate new learning experiences.

In this conundrum of issues, there is an opportunity to be bold and seize the “big” opportunities whilst managing the immediate short term needs. Not doing more, and yet doing smarter. However in order to be able to be effective we need to shift some deep under-lying belief systems:

Creating opportunities to unleash the agency of children, young people and teachers. Seeing children and young people as powerful humans that are contributors of knowledge and co-creator of new outcomes and solutions. We are able for the first time, have time to create learning opportunities, conversations during meals to inspire and unleash Agency and changemaking at home with young people. This changemaking storytelling video by 19, year old Garvita Gulhani showcases the tremendous opportunity and potential to shift the way young people grow up. There are now over 50 Young Ashoka Changemakers globally that started new initiatives in their adolescent years. The agency to contribute and solve problems is a dexterity that will remain with her for life. So for every teacher and parent as you examine learning outcomes – ask yourself alongside the content outcomes, what is this young person able to contribute or construct in this context? Is this the opportunity to consider Flip Classroom opportunities? Or tear the walls down in learning environment between subjects to create an integrated learning experiences? Or could we re-shape and introduce more innovation in our content like Design Thinking learning activities or Creativity Labs or Hackathon? Do school leaders have agency to allow for innovation and creativity in their schools? Or do we stick to the old rules with exams, fixed curriculum outputs and results for the year? Do we allow ourselves to experiment and perhaps fail, yes fail? Or do we stick to the old rule and submit to the simple act of digital use of zoom, google etc?

Changemaking at home with as a family and learner community – we are in the first time globally experiencing a common problem with a shared resolve to solve the problems that are emerging everyday large and small. How do we develop conversations and changemaking actions? Changemaking is the act of taking initiative to solve a problem. The first step is to develop empathic practices at home – make time to have meals and time together. Hearing each other stories – uninterrupted and developing perspectives around important topics affecting your street and community. As ourselves what action can we take to solve this problem, in for ourselves, for our family or our community. This extends our muscle further into the important new skills we need as a society – creative problem-solving, empathy, sophisticated manner of working together as a team and developing new leadership. This could be a skills building workshop at home for young and old – a lifelong learning experience. Building a new team as a family, where all voices are co-contributors and creators for new solutions – can be a novel new team building exercise. In the OECD 2030 Learning Framework, one of the key transformative competencies for the future is Taking action and responsibility for the future with real life learning experiences. We have the opportunity to create this very real life experience for our children and learner community

Well-being as young people, parents and educators – Thriving in a time of rapid change, where fear and anxiety is constantly present requires a new state of being. If we have had systems, structure and rules to help us with our daily routines. We now have different assumptions every day around the problems we are trying to solve. Living in confined spaces with limited mobility and routines, mean having the resilience and ability to develop new habits and practices. Tips by several professional development specialists have invited us to do a creative act or activity everyday during this time. Start something new that involves tinkering and re-discovering old simple hobbies like cooking and cleaning. At the same time, we may be dealing with ageing parents who are alone, or in hospital. Dying alone is a conversation we are starting to have with each other, which causes pain and grieving. And in this intense period, our childhood trauma and fears could start surfacing and becoming visible. Daily well-being routines become important for us to navigate these times.