COVID-19 and the Responsibilities of Lecturers/Teachers: Toward Greater Epistemological Access

• In Event: South African Teacher Education's Response to the Pandemic: A Critical Reflection!

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare the acute inequalities in South African society and the pivot to online learning by some universities exposed a digital divide in the country. When students returned home during lockdown periods there were sharp differences among students vis-à-vis access to devices, data and connectivity. In this paper we propose what the responsibilities of lecturers/teachers are in the migration to online teaching/learning in the context of a deeply divided and unequal society. Our conceptual exploration is guided by Morrow’s (1994) distinction between epistemological access and formal access. Methodologically, a literature review and a concomitant conceptual analysis were conducted.
Morrow (1994) invoked the notion of epistemological access to distinguish it from the notion of formal access or the right to education. He argued that granting students admission (formal access) to the university does not mean that they gain access to the knowledge that the university distributes (epistemological access). In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and the move towards online teaching/learning, we expand Morrow’s notion of formal access to include adequate access to IT and connectivity. During the pandemic, through collaborative efforts of universities, telecommunication companies and the government access to devices, data and connectivity was to some extent addressed. However, such access does not mean that epistemological access is guaranteed.
Epistemological access depends on systematic teaching that makes possible organised systematic learning. Systematic teaching requires labour on the part of teacher/lecturer that involves selecting and sequencing information to ensure continuity and progression in learning. Epistemological access is dependent on curriculum responsiveness that is not only restricted to disciplinary responsiveness but also to economic, cultural/institutional and learning responsiveness. Designing curricula that are responsive is an arduous and time consuming task and assumes that academic and support staff have sophisticated levels of both technical and pedagogical competence.
During lockdown periods, students were in different contexts: some in affluent homes with adequate access to a variety of resources, and others in crowded homes in townships, with limited access to the affordances of online learning, limited access to amenities, etc. This impacts on epistemological access. Pendlebury (2010:74) writes: “[W]ithout teachers’ temporal attunement to the cognitive, emotional and contextual conditions for systematic learning, the possibilities for learners’ epistemological access … are severely curtailed.
This research is significant and timely as it deals with the complex nature of the lecturer/teacher who has the responsibility to develop online teaching/learning opportunities so that all students gain epistemological access. Such responsibility is ever more exigent and taxing in a context such as South Africa where there exists a deep digital divide as a result of wide-spread socio-economic injustices.
References
Morrow, W. 1994. Entitlement and achievement in education. Studies in Philosophy and Education, 13(1): 33–47.
Pendlebury, S. 2010. Time for hedgehogs as well as foxes: Some temporal aspects of epistemological access to basic education. In Shalem, Y and Pendlebury, S (eds.), Retrieving teaching: Critical issues in curriculum in curriculum, pedagogy and learning (pp.65-75). Lansdowne: Juta.

Authors

• Petro Du Preez, North-West University

• Lesley Lionel Leonard Le Grange, Stellenbosch University