Toward a "thoughtful lightness": Education in viral times

Anne M Phelan; Dion Rüsselbæk Hansen

doi:10.1007/s11125-020-09536-4

Toward a "thoughtful lightness": Education in viral times

Prospects (Paris). 2021;51(1-3):15-27. doi: 10.1007/s11125-020-09536-4. Epub 2021 Feb 15.

Authors

Anne M Phelan¹, Dion Rüsselbæk Hansen²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy, Faculty of Education, University of British Columbia, 2125 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4 Canada.
² University of Southern Denmark, Campusvej 55, 5230 Odense M, Denmark.

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic has changed our way of life temporarily and perhaps forever. As such, how educators respond to the contemporary situation is not without consequence. Inspired by the writings of Giorgio Agamben, this article argues that, while the way forward is not unambiguous, the Covid-19 situation offers educators an unanticipated opportunity to pause; to reconsider our aspirations; and, ultimately, to reclaim education as an ethico-political activity. To embrace this opportunity requires the interpretation of our current situation as a real state of exception in which the neoliberal order and its utopian-learning culture can be suspended. In a state of suspension, one can begin thinking afresh about the Covid-19 pandemic and what reactions to and conversations about the event reveal about (more desirable) ways of learning and living together in schools and society.

Keywords: Covid-19; Ethico-politics; Giorgio Agamben; Neoliberalism; Teaching.