Lessons from the Pandemic: Revealing the Perennial Fault Lines Within Education

May 26 | 11:40 am– 12:40 pm

The first panel discussion of ARM is grounded in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown. It aims to stimulate an academic discussion focused on education by shedding light on the current state of it from the perspectives of persons involved in ground level work in affected areas. Thereafter, there will be an analysis of the sociopolitical state of the pandemic to reveal fault lines that exist within the bedrock of education. We will then take a look at the relevance of STEM habits and scientific practices for all, with the hope that the educators who form the panel and educators who attend and participate in the same can together begin an ongoing conversation towards the building of a more sustainable education.

Design

The discussion will be led by three panellists:

• Dr. Murali Krishna Mallepaku, Assistant Professor, Azim Premji School of Education, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (Hyderabad Campus)
• Mr Saurav Shome, Academic Coordinator, Azim Premji School, Uttarkashi and Research Scholar, Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, TIFR,  Mumbai
• Prof Nagarjuna G., Faculty at Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, TIFR, Mumbai

It will be moderated by Dr. Deepa Chari. The moderator will open the discussion and pose some guiding questions that elicit the panellists’ insights. The panellists will then give their responses on the topic for around ten minutes each after which the webinar will be open for questions by webinar attendees.

Thematic Guidelines/Questions

Theme 1

• What is the ground reality at this point from the context of education?
• What are the contradictions that are revealed to us because we are confronted with the pandemic?
• Are we suffering only from the consequences of the pandemic, or is there a deeper systemic malady that has always existed?

Theme 2

• Why are STEM habits relevant at this juncture?
• How does public understanding of science become important at a time like this, and what are some steps that can be taken to ameliorate it?
• Amidst the pandemic, how do we make sense of the proliferation of information in the media? What is reliable info at this point?

Theme 3

• What is our role as science educators amidst the context of COVID as well as lockdown?
• How can the objectives of education be reimagined in light of issues currently in consideration?
• Looking at COVID as a contemporary socioscientific issue, how do we frame it given the aim of the narratives we build around it is to impact public policy?

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