What are we saving? Tracing governing knowledge and truth discourse in global COVID-19 policy responses

Abstract

As the world went suddenly into lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, sending individuals to their homes and shutting businesses and institutions, the closing of schools posed big problems. The majority of the world's children were out of school, leading to the longest sustained period of school closures in history. We saw educators turning towards responses not aimed at collegial and community-engaged strategies for education in an emergency but at online learning cast as education/ business as usual. This study explores the logic driving this global response through analyses of the documents released by three key global education actors: (1) the OECD and its paper A Framework to Guide Education Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic of 2020; (2) UNESCO's Global Education Coalition #LearningNev-erStops; and (3) the World Bank's Guidance Note on Education Systems' Response to COVID-19; and Guidance Note: Remote Learning and COVID-19. The authors of this article draw on Carol Bacchi's approach to poststructural policy analysis to make visible the key concepts and binaries used within policy texts and to understand the "technologies of saving" that were invoked in each policy response, locating the education programmes, activities and actors within knowledge practices in educational reform. This article explores the World Bank, OECD and UNESCO responses using an analysis of knowledge harmonisation and difference among these institutions as well as their location as key norm-setters and governing actors in the field of education. The authors argue that all three responses privilege private-sector providers of digital technology. The consequence of these responses is that technologies of saving have centred on privatised, corporate edu-business and edu-tech aimed at online education delivery, bringing significant risks for the erasure of local knowledges. The authors' study suggests that local policymakers, including community-based and national actors, must be invited into the discussion to envision other possibilities and to name the potential destructiveness embedded in the international organisations' actions.

The COVID-19 pandemic, the Sustainable Development Goals on health and education and “least developed countries” such as Nepal

“…They not only emphasise the importance of global cooperation for achieving the SDGs, but also caution that emerging issues such as the trade embargo between China and the United States (US), vaccine nationalism and significant cuts in bilateral funding for developing countries will have an adverse impact on poor countries. Similar observations are made by Lynette Shultz and Melody Viczko ( 2021 ), who argue that supranational organisations have endorsed tech corporations as saviours of failing education systems, but ignored the role of national governments.…”

“…Supported by neoliberal reforms such as public–private partnerships at the global level, private investors are now regarded as new stakeholders in policymaking, financing, and management of health and education (Shultz and Viczko 2021 ). In Nepal, “new private health institutions including academic institutions” (GoN 2014 , p. 3) cater to the needs of the elite class, which includes political leaders, bankers, top-level bureaucrats, businesspeople, and the top-level employees of international institutions.…”

Problematizing Access to Higher Education for Refugee and Globally Displaced Students: What’s the Problem Represented to Be in Canadian University Responses to Syrian, Afghan and Ukrainian Crises?

“…Faculty, staff and current students impacted by the war are represented as deserving of compassion. This response addressing both refugees and members of the universities' community blurs the boundaries of binaries of us/them, but still maintains university practices in technologies of saving (Shultz & Viczko, 2021).…”

E-Learning and Managing Its Crisis Under Covid-19 for the Countries of the World

“…We are witnessing today how the world is turning to digital knowledge, [21] keeping pace with the rapid transformations at all levels, perhaps the most important of these transformations is "e-learning", which has brought about a scientific revolution in the field of learning [22]. This form of education saves the countries of the world from the collapse of the educational system in light of the spread of the "Covid-19" pandemic, which disrupted the wheel of life in all countries of the world [23].…”