Education and the Pandemic: Engaging in Epistemic Humility to Question Assumptions, Institutions, and Knowledges

Authors

Prachi Srivastava, Western UniversityFollow
Prachi Srivastava, University of Western Ontario

Document Type

Working Paper

Publication Date

5-2022

Journal

UNESCO Education Research and Foresight Working Paper Series

Volume

30

First Page

1

Last Page

12

URL with Digital Object Identifier

https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000381645/PDF/381645eng.pdf.multi

Abstract

Education systems are the formal institutionalisations of the knowledges and values our societies privilege, who they privilege, how, and on what terms. They are imbued with assumptions. These assumptions inform how systems are structured. The pandemic has exposed existing global and local inequalities, non-binary dynamics of inclusion and exclusion, and dysfunctions of education systems. This paper argues that the global scale and severity of the education disruption challenges taken-for-granted distinctions that privilege systems of the ‘West’ as referential for ‘the Rest’. It argues that the existing overarching technicist knowledge regime is inadequate for recovery, and proposes an alternative approach.