Reclaiming Location in Education: a Response to the COVID Pandemic

Abstract

The school shutdowns necessitated by the 2020 COVID pandemic have highlighted the importance of “located” education. A located education is not determined by medium or physical proximity. Instead, a located education acknowledges the limits of human understanding and sustains mutually beneficial relationships. Recent neoliberal reform efforts have sought to dis-locate education – to strip it of both spatial limitation and the obligations of interdependent care. However, the COVID-related shutdowns have highlight the brokenness of a dis-located education. Drawing from the work of activist Wendell Berry and philosopher Nel Noddings, this article makes the case for located education – an education that recognizes the importance of both place and people.

Guest editorial: educational legacies of the pandemic

“…Perhaps, then, one legacy will be our ability to resist speaking about education in abstractions and instead show that this profession is always deeply human. We can find possibility in recognizing there is no such thing as "education," but millions of educations each deeply located in communities and relationships (Delamarter, 2020).…”