Pandemic Acceleration: Covid-19 and the emergency digitalization of European education

• Published in: European Educational Research Journal Vol. 21; no. 5; pp. 845 - 868
• Main Authors: Cone, Lucas, Brøgger, Katja, Berghmans, Mieke, Decuypere, Mathias, Förschler, Annina, Grimaldi, Emiliano, Hartong, Sigrid, Hillman, Thomas, Ideland, Malin, Landri, Paolo, van de Oudeweetering, Karmijn, Player-Koro, Catarina, Bergviken Rensfeldt, Annika, Rönnberg, Linda, Taglietti, Danilo, Vanermen, Lanze
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.09.2022
• Subjects: Acceleration (Education); Boundary spanning; COVID-19; Digitalization; Distance Education; Educational Sciences; Educational Technology; educational work; Foreign Countries; Integrated Learning Systems; Interaction Technologies; Interaktionsteknik; Lärarutbildning och pedagogisk yrkesverksamhet; Pandemics; Pedagogik; pedagogiskt arbete; Pedagogy; platformization; Privatization; Public Education; Sociologi; Sociology; soft privatization; Teacher Education and Education Work; Technology Integration; Technology Uses in Education; Utbildningsvetenskap; Sweden; Belgium; Norway; Europe; Finland; Denmark; Italy; Germany; Iceland; Digitalization; boundary spanning; Covid-19; soft privatization; platformization; public education
• ISSN: 1474-9041; 1474-9041
• DOI: 10.1177/14749041211041793

With schools and universities closing across Europe, the Covid-19 lockdown left actors in the field of education battling with the unprecedented challenge of finding a meaningful way to keep the wheels of education turning online. The sudden need for digital solutions across the field of education resulted in the emergence of a variety of digital networks and collaborative online platforms. In this joint article from scholars around Europe, we explore the Covid-19 lockdowns of physical education across the European region, and the different processes of emergency digitalization that followed in their wake. Spanning perspectives from Italy, Germany, Belgium, and the Nordic countries, the article’s five cases provide a glimpse of how these processes have at the same time accelerated and consolidated the involvement of various commercial and non-commercial actors in public education infrastructures. By gathering documentation, registering dynamics, and making intimations of the crisis as it unfolded, the aim of the joint paper is to provide an opportunity for considering the implications of these accelerations and consolidations for the heterogeneous futures of European education.