TY - JOUR
T1 - Digitalization and beyond: the effects of Covid-19 on post-pandemic educational policy and delivery in Europe
AU - Zancajo, Adrián
AU - Verger, Antoni
AU - Bolea, Pedro
PY - 2022/1/21
Y1 - 2022/1/21
N2 - Education has been extremely affected by the coronavirus disease crisis, with almost all countries temporarily closing their schools in 2020. After the first stage of the pandemic, in which national governments focused on guaranteeing the academic year’s continuity, key international organizations emphasized the need to adopt structural policy reforms to face the challenges posed by the crisis. Based on international and European countries’ policy documents, this paper analyzes long-term responses articulated in the education sector. The analysis has allowed us to identify three preponderant areas of response: the digitalization of the educational system, educational inequalities, and teachers’ development. The agendas and policy instruments that international organizations have so far pushed for in relation to each of these areas do not differ substantially from the agendas and instruments they promoted in the pre-pandemic era. It is still early to assess the deepness of the transformations in course, but in most cases, prevailing responses represent the intensification of change processes initiated before the pandemic. Nonetheless, the type and intensity of country responses vary among the European Union member states. Although the pandemic represents a common thread, countries have experienced the crisis differently according to the characteristics of their educational systems and the main problems the crisis has revealed.
AB - Education has been extremely affected by the coronavirus disease crisis, with almost all countries temporarily closing their schools in 2020. After the first stage of the pandemic, in which national governments focused on guaranteeing the academic year’s continuity, key international organizations emphasized the need to adopt structural policy reforms to face the challenges posed by the crisis. Based on international and European countries’ policy documents, this paper analyzes long-term responses articulated in the education sector. The analysis has allowed us to identify three preponderant areas of response: the digitalization of the educational system, educational inequalities, and teachers’ development. The agendas and policy instruments that international organizations have so far pushed for in relation to each of these areas do not differ substantially from the agendas and instruments they promoted in the pre-pandemic era. It is still early to assess the deepness of the transformations in course, but in most cases, prevailing responses represent the intensification of change processes initiated before the pandemic. Nonetheless, the type and intensity of country responses vary among the European Union member states. Although the pandemic represents a common thread, countries have experienced the crisis differently according to the characteristics of their educational systems and the main problems the crisis has revealed.
KW - Covid-19
KW - crisis
KW - education
KW - policy change
KW - policy responses
UR - https://uom.elsevierpure.com/en/publications/5fc4b1cd-89ad-435d-be20-0ef2b0133ef7
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85130314560&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/912d460e-d519-3509-b0f9-e8d44bd8191d/
U2 - 10.1093/polsoc/puab016
DO - 10.1093/polsoc/puab016
M3 - Article
SN - 1449-4035
VL - 41
SP - 111
EP - 128
JO - Policy and Society
JF - Policy and Society
IS - 1
ER -