When we think of the return to presence (whether in offices, schools or in life in general) most of us think of the when, as Y where: What days of the week? What will the schedule be? Will there be different shifts? What changes will there be in my work-study space? What are the security measures? What protocols will we have? what to follow ?, etcetera. Behind these questions is a very diverse mix of excitement, uncertainty, joy, anxiety, expectation, and fear. For many people, the return to face-to-face activities is like seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, the beginning of the end of the pandemic, a wink of hope and “normality” after these long, complicated months. I know several people who cannot wait to return to the office, finally remove the mask and return to life as we knew it before. On the other hand, for other people, myself included, just thinking about it scares us.
Although the mask is extremely uncomfortable (more when summer arrives and the heat is tightening), I confess that I am not ready to stop using it because it gives me a feeling of security and protection that, in part, is true since it is indeed essential in situations such as a pandemic, but for those of us who are introverts, that protection goes beyond their health use. That is why a stage without masks make me sick. But my attitude is extremely selfish and ignorant.
In all these months of the pandemic it never crossed my mind that perhaps that person whom I judged for not wearing a mask was not doing so out of negligence but because he has a physical condition that prevents it or that another person who was wearing a transparent mask He did not do it out of vanity or fashion, but because it is the only way he has to communicate with his daughter, his friend or his partner. This last case, above all, is the one that most denotes my ignorance and I checked it yesterday when I read this article by Pau Rodríguez on how the mandatory use of masks has been so complicated and disabling for people who are deaf or have a hearing impairment. “In the life of a deaf person, reading the lips of others is not important, it is fundamental”, says María Ángeles Muñoz who is deaf just like her two daughters and her husband. Like a bucket of cold water, this is how I can best describe the feeling I had when reading this article in The Journal of Education. A necessary slap on the wrist to get out of my bubble.
In addition to masks, the widespread adoption of the classes online Through video conferencing he also hindered the educational experience of thousands of hearing impaired students. If factors such as connection, audio or ambient noise already intervene in the experience of any user who attends a video conference, imagine the case of people with hearing disabilities. “When the clarity of what is heard depends on a hearing aid or an implant, a conversation with a single person is not the same as a classroom with its 30 students and their noises. But things get even worse in a videoconference class, ”says Pau Rodríguez.
But if for some people the online classes have been terrible, for others they have been a blessing. And it is that, in contrast, also yesterday I read another article in Input Magazine It made me reflect on how the same scenario can be so different for many people, depending on the glass with which it is viewed, as the famous poem by Ramón de Campoamor says.
Many students (and teachers) hate virtual learning and can’t wait to get back to the classroom. But for Anja K. Herrman, who wears a Wheelchair, “It was a gift from heaven.” In the article, written by Anja herself, the high school student describes your educational experience prior to the pandemic: difficulties to get to school, obstacles to enter the building itself, classrooms that are not designed for people with disabilities, indifference on the part of teaching and administrative staff and, in general, a self-absorbed society. That is why, for Anja, the last few months of online learning have been “wonderful and liberating”.
And like these examples are many other cases that help us see the world from different perspectives. There are also the exhausted moms who can no longer handle the workload + online classes + childcare and housework; immigrant moms who, in addition to all of the above, have to help their children learn at a distance, in a language they don’t speak. In short, as I have said before, the pandemic has added multiple layers of challenges to which we have been carrying for years.
All this has left me thinking, especially with the imminent return to presence. We have many questions and concerns about how this comeback will be, there are many expectations and uncertainties in the air. The truth is that the experience will be different for many people and there is no single formula. Taking this into account, how can we make this comeback more inclusive? How can we be more empathetic and compassionate with the different experiences and realities of the people around us? In short, this return to face-to-face is not going to be easy, but it represents a huge window of opportunity to change what we have been doing wrong until now, what we have not taken into account until now, to incorporate what we had not even taken into account. happened before. To recognize that our experience is not the only or the most valid.
And you, how are you doing? What has been your experience?
Karina Strong
Editor-in-chief, Observatory of Educational Innovation
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