A collection of podcasts to do with the global Covid-19 Pandemic and its impact on education.

The Pandemic and Education: Worldwide Podcasts

As schools close in order to contain the spread of COVID-19, some students are in a better position to continue learning from home than others. Even when students aren’t grappling with the fallout of a pandemic, they face disparities in their educational experiences and opportunities due to their differences in family income, differences in racial, ethnic, or other important demographic characteristics, and differences in access to technology. Some state and local education leaders are proactively adopting culturally responsive practices to dismantle social and institutional barriers that inhibit student success. 

For this episode of On the Evidence, a principal and an education researcher share insights from research and the field on implementing culturally responsive practices. Our guests are:
 
•	George Guy, Jr., who has spent more than 20 years in education and currently serves as the principal of Rosa International Middle School in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Guy has also helped lead efforts to identify and employ culturally responsive practices in his district and beyond, and; 

•	Steven Malick, an education researcher at Mathematica who spent nearly a decade as a middle school math teacher and a coach of new teachers; 

For more information on improving educational equity through culturally responsive practices in schools, check out this free four-part webinar series conducted by the Mid-Atlantic Regional Educational Laboratory at Mathematica: https://event.on24.com/wcc/r/2055500/23F4AF51F3BEF736E0DE4C689CBFD066/606716

Want a quick primer on using culturally responsive practices in education? The Mid-Atlantic Regional Educational Laboratory at Mathematica has a four-page fact sheet: https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/edlabs/regions/midatlantic/app/pdf/RELMA_Culturally_responsive_pedagogy_fact_sheet.pdf

33 | Culturally Responsive Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic

For more than thirty years, interactive audio instruction (IAI) has been used to improve education in remote and impoverished communities around the world. In this episode, EDC’s Kit Yasin and Carrie Lewis discuss why IAI is so well suited to deliver education to millions during the pandemic, and how Ministries of Education can begin implementing these educational programs at scale.

How can interactive audio instruction support primary education during the pandemic?

The coronavirus has pushed families, schools and researchers into new ways of doing things. 

Listen to John Potter (UCL) talk about how the COVID lockdowns are prompting new questions about children’s play, and the experience of remote schooling. 

We also talk about the future of academic travel, and new UCL research into academics’ experiences of moving to online teaching and home-working.

Working from home, learning at home, and pandemic play  (John Potter)

A journey that begins in Nepal and takes us through some of the world’s most vulnerable areas affected not only by war, conflict and displacement, but also the coronavirus.

“...when you come back home to your family, it is very difficult to be absolutely silent and not to share those stories…” 

Dr Humera Iqbal talks to Dr Tejendra Pherali about his work, which focuses on the role of education in conflict and peacebuilding in emergencies and fragile environments. We hear about his wide-ranging and demanding work that has taken him back home to his native Nepal, and the likes of Afghanistan, Somalia and Colombia.

Tejendra talks about out how those in developing areas have been disproportionally affected by COVID-19 - how are students and educators being supported by policymakers, NGOs and governments? Many countries are providing distance education through digital and broadcasting platforms however, there is uncertainty over levels of access and outcomes.

And what implications will the pandemic have on the UN Sustainable Development Goals, particularly Goal 4 - ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong opportunities for all?

Full show notes and links: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/news/2020/jul/whats-going-happen-education-conflict-zones-after-pandemic-rftrw-s03e04

What’s going to happen to education in conflict zones after the pandemic? | RFTRW

“In times of crisis we need to be creative” 

Simone Eringfeld (Cambridge University) is part of a new generation of education researchers beginning to re-imagine what it might mean to work in higher education. 

We talk about Simone’s recent ‘Quaran-chats’ project documenting higher education lockdown experiences, Cambridge’s new ‘Post Pandemic University’ initiative, and the pros and cons of beginning an academic career in the 2020s.

Working in the 'post-pandemic’ university (Simone Eringfeld)

Emerging issues and the latest ideas from across the world of education research. Hear from a range of academics about their current research in schools, universities and beyond. Hosted by Neil Selwyn from Monash University, Australia.

Working in the 'post-pandemic’ university (Simone Eringfeld)

Meet The Education Researcher