Building a Better Normal

This introductory chapter traces some of the impact COVID-19 has had on education in different global contexts. It traces the history of the Universitas 21 Schools of Education Deans Group and its Forum for International Networking in Education and sets the context for the subsequent contributions in this book. It provides points of reflection for scholars and institutions as they traverse through the ongoing challenges of the pandemic.

This chapter examines the University of Connecticut (UConn) Neag School of Education's efforts to improve the recruitment of students of colour through an Early College Experience (ECE) Programme. During the pandemic, the School of Education and the ECE Programme collaborated to train and certify high school teachers to instruct the UConn's lower level undergraduate courses. The programme exposed many students of colour to teaching as a career.

This chapter describes challenges that students, faculty and administrators at the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, ITESM) experienced related to remote learning and isolation. The authors document experiences and strategies of different management teams to act flexibly in times of uncertainty and to support society in general. Ultimately, technology, experience and trust in various levels of leadership as well as horizontal and inclusive communication changed the educational status quo and strengthened the university community.

This case study documents the move to emergency virtual learning at the University of Johannesburg. Prefacing promoting social justice and care, the authors explain how key challenges unique to a university in a developing world context were considered. The findings highlight the importance of agility, adaptability and the role of Ubuntu (i.e. values of compassion, solidarity and sharing) in higher education institutional leadership in a crisis. Furthermore, the authors highlight the need to address how structural inequality and poverty impact the pace of technological infusion in higher education in the Global South.

Lund University (Sweden) teacher education students' reflections constitute the foundation for this chapter. The students wrote about their situation, what they could learn from it and how they could bring these lessons into their future roles. The students' voices on digitalisation and isolation in their learning experiences illustrate the importance of belonging and motivation in education. The authors use students' reflections to consider educational quality and purpose.

In the context of a highly regulated teacher education system, this chapter offers an alternative vision for a ‘better normal’ for teacher education in England. It foregrounds the need for teacher educators and teacher preparation curricula to promote ‘a way of being’ that enables teachers and teacher educators to have agency, develop as ‘thinking’ professionals and be resilient in an ever-changing policy context.

This chapter traces the journey of the Faculty of Education through the pandemic, charting some of the challenges and opportunities in leading teaching and learning, research, international and engagement activities while maintaining its staff's health and emotional well-being. The chapter concludes with six significant educational challenges amplified during COVID-19 that must be addressed. These insights provide a road map for how higher education and academia can emerge from the pandemic fit for purpose and ready to contribute to our nation's and the world's future.

This chapter examines what teacher training has taught us through numerous studies and collaborations on how space can be used to develop a unique culture with students. The principal concept here is that classroom and education design has evolved. The pandemic has spotlighted the physical and virtual spaces we use while learning desired qualities of collaboration, communication, critical thinking and designing for creativity and belonging.

This chapter shares the challenges that scholars experienced during the pandemic and their responses to them. We find that participants responded to complex work and home challenges through ethics of grit and perseverance. Offering a caution against grit mindsets, we argue that academics would benefit from opportunities to develop fuller forms of resilience. To do so, we recommend that higher education institutions co-construct locally and culturally relevant conceptualisations of resilience and enact trauma-informed practice to better support academic resilience in their faculties.

This chapter shares the experiences of two graduate students as they navigated higher education during the pandemic. Engaging in graduate study during the pandemic shaped their socialisation experiences, challenged their understanding of themselves as scholars and impacted their relationships with mentors. This chapter shares personal reflections of their experiences and explores their sense of professional identity and aspirations for the future.

This culminating chapter reviews the impacts of the pandemic on global systems of education. Drawing on the insights of the preceding chapters, this chapter offers three ideas for the future. First, schools of education should engage in innovative learning experiences including in person, online and hybrid learning opportunities. Second, staff support and development are key areas for future growth. Similarly, the third area for future growth is deeper consideration of student well-being and development. The pandemic placed these ideas at the forefront of conversation, and schools of education are positioned to continue that conversation, taking action to create transformative educational experiences.