OVPES Presentations for the Virtual Zoom Seminar on "Education In (and Beyond) the Time of COVID"
Welcome to the video presentations for the Ohio Valley Philosophy of Education Society's Virtual Seminar. Please watch this video as preparation for our online Zoom discussion on Thursday, February 25th, 2021 at 3pm CST. All are welcome.
Please contact Tony DeCesare at adecesa1@depaul.edu to receive a link and password to the Zoom session if you do not have it already.
Presenters:
“‘Quality Matters’ and Matters of Quality: COVID-19 and the Techno-Rationalization of Teaching”
Morgan Anderson, University of Northern Iowa
“(Re)turning to Study Abroad: Reimagining Global Education in the Aftermath of Pandemic”
Paul J. Geis, Kent State University
“From Fringe to Mainstream: Virtual Education in the Post-COVID Era”
Alex Nikolaidis, Ohio State University
Julie A. Fitz, Ohio State University
Abstracts
“‘Quality Matters’ and Matters of Quality: COVID-19 and the Techno-Rationalization of Teaching”
Morgan Anderson, University of Northern Iowa
While questions surrounding the relationship between education and technology have captured the attention of philosophers of education in recent decades, such concerns have taken on new import. Although educational technology had become an increasingly ubiquitous facet of schooling in the years preceding COVID-19, the swift shift to remote instruction rendered necessary by the ongoing pandemic has fundamentally restructured both P-12 and higher education in ways that are likely to last beyond the current crisis. The rapid proliferation of EdTech infrastructure and usage rendered possible by the necessity of social distancing has accelerated the adoption of technologies in ways that would likely have not been feasible in the absence of the pandemic. Specifically, I am concerned with the ways in which the ongoing COVID-19 crisis—by necessitating various iterations of remote instruction—will accelerate the neoliberal, techno-rationalization of schooling, and particularly, the university. As higher education scrambles to navigate the pandemic while remaining financially viable, philosophical, pedagogical, and ethical questions are often jettisoned entirely in favor of economic considerations. A key example of the ways in which online instruction becomes vulnerable to mechanisms of techno-rationalization is the recent proliferation of Quality Matters. Quality Matters (QM), an educational “quality assurance organization,” has gained traction by helping institutions to “deliver” on their “online promise” by attaining a Quality Matters Certification by developing a series of highly standardized courses. Although QM has been around for nearly two decades, as more coursework moves online during—and potentially beyond—the COVID-19 crisis, it is vitally important that philosophers of education offer critiques of such trends toward educational standardization through technology. As such, I explore the proliferation of Quality Matters (QM) and argue that it should be understood as part of the neoliberal, techno-rationalization of teaching at the university level. By prescribing what counts as “quality” instruction, I argue QM functions as a mechanism of both discursive and ideological control that grooms faculty into adopting highly standardized approaches to teaching. I suggest such initiatives warrant attentive scrutiny as higher education navigates this digital landscape.
“(Re)turning to Study Abroad: Reimagining Global Education in the Aftermath of Pandemic”
Paul J. Geis, Kent State University
The current Covid-19 pandemic has brought the field of study abroad to a virtual stop. Contemporary philosophers of education have largely overlooked study abroad in their work. However, the dire circumstances of the pandemic open a unique opportunity for leaders in the field of study abroad – and for philosophers and theorists of education – to rediscover and renew study abroad. Practitioners and scholars within study abroad have long yearned to push back on narrowly prescriptive outcomes, marketization and commodification, and necessary yet restrictive risk management protocols—all of which can compromise and limit students’ educational endeavors abroad. I suggest that learnification can equip these educators with a theoretical, educational foundation for their resistance. Engaging with representative program information, I draw attention to the ways in which problematic discourses of learning permeate study abroad. While learnification provides practitioners and scholars of study abroad with a sound, theoretical framing – one that is educational – for some of what is problematic in the field, it does not offer them educational guidance for the renewal study abroad. As they are called upon to reimagine and restructure academic experiences abroad for intra- and post-pandemic contexts, I propose that they should consider a re-turn to what is at the core to which their field has been shaken – study. Study itself has been a subject of increased interest within philosophy of education in recent years, standing in opposition to or in tension with learning. It is a promising and attainable form of educational engagement abroad, which does not necessitate dismantling the learning regime in its entirety. Drawing from the philosophy of education literature, I engage concepts including wandering and collecting as forms of study that can be engaged abroad. Rather than focus on the lost learning activities under pandemic constraints, study abroad leaders might want to seize on them as new opportunities for study within the cities where the students are based.
“From Fringe to Mainstream: Virtual Education in the Post-COVID Era”
Alex Nikolaidis, Ohio State University
Julie A. Fitz, Ohio State University
The K–12 virtual schooling sector has hitherto been dominated by for-profit providers and attended by students whose families have sought an exit option from the traditional schooling system. Following COVID-related school closures, familiarity with online instruction has the potential to bring virtual schooling into the mainstream. Many families have increased their level of comfort with virtual learning arrangements, and school districts have begun to weigh the viability of continuing their virtual attendance options in order to retain families who might otherwise permanently leave the district to attend a virtual charter school. Full-time virtual schools have long been demonized by even the pro-charter political contingent for their poor academic outcomes and financial scandals, so if these institutions are to become a fixture in the American schooling system we must grapple with the question of what these schools ought to look like in order to be considered legitimate alternatives to brick and mortar schools. In this paper, we suggest ways in which virtual schools might better fulfill educationally desirable objectives given their unique limitations and capabilities. Such considerations include, among other things, their potential for facilitating student growth and development, encouraging socialization and the fostering of democratic communities, fulfilling democratic obligations with regard to transparency and accountability, and navigating considerations of student autonomy and privacy.
“‘Quality Matters’ and Matters of Quality: COVID-19 and the Techno-Rationalization of Teaching”
Morgan Anderson, University of Northern Iowa
While questions surrounding the relationship between education and technology have captured the attention of philosophers of education in recent decades, such concerns have taken on new import. Although educational technology had become an increasingly ubiquitous facet of schooling in the years preceding COVID-19, the swift shift to remote instruction rendered necessary by the ongoing pandemic has fundamentally restructured both P-12 and higher education in ways that are likely to last beyond the current crisis. The rapid proliferation of EdTech infrastructure and usage rendered possible by the necessity of social distancing has accelerated the adoption of technologies in ways that would likely have not been feasible in the absence of the pandemic. Specifically, I am concerned with the ways in which the ongoing COVID-19 crisis—by necessitating various iterations of remote instruction—will accelerate the neoliberal, techno-rationalization of schooling, and particularly, the university. As higher education scrambles to navigate the pandemic while remaining financially viable, philosophical, pedagogical, and ethical questions are often jettisoned entirely in favor of economic considerations. A key example of the ways in which online instruction becomes vulnerable to mechanisms of techno-rationalization is the recent proliferation of Quality Matters. Quality Matters (QM), an educational “quality assurance organization,” has gained traction by helping institutions to “deliver” on their “online promise” by attaining a Quality Matters Certification by developing a series of highly standardized courses. Although QM has been around for nearly two decades, as more coursework moves online during—and potentially beyond—the COVID-19 crisis, it is vitally important that philosophers of education offer critiques of such trends toward educational standardization through technology. As such, I explore the proliferation of Quality Matters (QM) and argue that it should be understood as part of the neoliberal, techno-rationalization of teaching at the university level. By prescribing what counts as “quality” instruction, I argue QM functions as a mechanism of both discursive and ideological control that grooms faculty into adopting highly standardized approaches to teaching. I suggest such initiatives warrant attentive scrutiny as higher education navigates this digital landscape.
“(Re)turning to Study Abroad: Reimagining Global Education in the Aftermath of Pandemic”
Paul J. Geis, Kent State University
The current Covid-19 pandemic has brought the field of study abroad to a virtual stop. Contemporary philosophers of education have largely overlooked study abroad in their work. However, the dire circumstances of the pandemic open a unique opportunity for leaders in the field of study abroad – and for philosophers and theorists of education – to rediscover and renew study abroad. Practitioners and scholars within study abroad have long yearned to push back on narrowly prescriptive outcomes, marketization and commodification, and necessary yet restrictive risk management protocols—all of which can compromise and limit students’ educational endeavors abroad. I suggest that learnification can equip these educators with a theoretical, educational foundation for their resistance. Engaging with representative program information, I draw attention to the ways in which problematic discourses of learning permeate study abroad. While learnification provides practitioners and scholars of study abroad with a sound, theoretical framing – one that is educational – for some of what is problematic in the field, it does not offer them educational guidance for the renewal study abroad. As they are called upon to reimagine and restructure academic experiences abroad for intra- and post-pandemic contexts, I propose that they should consider a re-turn to what is at the core to which their field has been shaken – study. Study itself has been a subject of increased interest within philosophy of education in recent years, standing in opposition to or in tension with learning. It is a promising and attainable form of educational engagement abroad, which does not necessitate dismantling the learning regime in its entirety. Drawing from the philosophy of education literature, I engage concepts including wandering and collecting as forms of study that can be engaged abroad. Rather than focus on the lost learning activities under pandemic constraints, study abroad leaders might want to seize on them as new opportunities for study within the cities where the students are based.
“From Fringe to Mainstream: Virtual Education in the Post-COVID Era”
Alex Nikolaidis, Ohio State University
Julie A. Fitz, Ohio State University
The K–12 virtual schooling sector has hitherto been dominated by for-profit providers and attended by students whose families have sought an exit option from the traditional schooling system. Following COVID-related school closures, familiarity with online instruction has the potential to bring virtual schooling into the mainstream. Many families have increased their level of comfort with virtual learning arrangements, and school districts have begun to weigh the viability of continuing their virtual attendance options in order to retain families who might otherwise permanently leave the district to attend a virtual charter school. Full-time virtual schools have long been demonized by even the pro-charter political contingent for their poor academic outcomes and financial scandals, so if these institutions are to become a fixture in the American schooling system we must grapple with the question of what these schools ought to look like in order to be considered legitimate alternatives to brick and mortar schools. In this paper, we suggest ways in which virtual schools might better fulfill educationally desirable objectives given their unique limitations and capabilities. Such considerations include, among other things, their potential for facilitating student growth and development, encouraging socialization and the fostering of democratic communities, fulfilling democratic obligations with regard to transparency and accountability, and navigating considerations of student autonomy and privacy.