Guest Editorial: Dynamic Accounts of Digital Divides: Longitudinal Insights into Inequitable Access to Online Learning

Educational access is the first step to realising education as a universal human right. Yet, education remains a luxury for many. Contrary to expectations, the advent of online learning has not resolved this fundamental injustice as out-of-school learning and early drop-outs remain widespread phenom...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEducational Technology ＆ Society Vol. 26; no. 4; pp. 104 - 107
Main Author McIntyre, Nora A.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Palmerston North International Forum of Educational Technology ＆ Society 01.10.2023
International Forum of Educational Technology & Society, National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan
International Forum of Educational Technology & Society
Subjects
Access to Education
disadvantage
Distance learning
Editorial Note
Education
educational access
Electronic Learning
longitudinal research
online learning
social justice
Longitudinal research
Social justice
Educational access
Disadvantage
Online learning
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Summary:Educational access is the first step to realising education as a universal human right. Yet, education remains a luxury for many. Contrary to expectations, the advent of online learning has not resolved this fundamental injustice as out-of-school learning and early drop-outs remain widespread phenomena. Rather, digital divides have hit hard in exacerbating social inequalities, with help from Covid-19. This special issue takes a critical look at online learning in its potential to rebalance and hinder universal educational access. It includes four papers focused on differing positions of disadvantage. Based on these papers, this special issue highlights that - although it is possible for disadvantaged learners to compensate for inequities - socioeconomic and infrastructural constraints often prevail, and will continue to unless critical changes are made to the educational ecosystem. Furthermore, the Special Issue calls for future work that takes process-level changes into account in order to generate recommendations that are better grounded in iterative change and causality: only then can actionable and impactful changes be made for a more equitable future of online learning.
ISSN:1176-3647
1436-4522
1436-4522
DOI:10.30191/ETS.202310_26(4).0007