The American Psychological Association (2020) reported that some 81% of teenage children (13 to 17 years-of-age) were negatively impacted in a range of ways due to school closures in connection with COVID-19, including 47% who indicated that they “didn’t learn as much as they did in previous years” (para. 21). That perhaps many more than 47% of teenage children in the United States did not learn as much as they did in previous years was documented in the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) report which found that “the national average score declines in mathematics for fourth- and eighth-graders were the largest ever recorded in that subject” (Wilburn & Elias, 2022, para. 1). The National Center for Educational Statistics Commissioner commented somewhat hyperbolically that the results showed that “every student was vulnerable to the pandemic’s disruptions” (Wilburn & Elias, 2022, para. 5) and called for a single-minded emphasis on ways to assist students to recover from their trauma and accelerate their learning. Wilburn and Elias (2022) joined those who have pointed out that the learning declines associated with COVID-19 did not occur equitably. The likelihood of a single-minded policy response to change the system and address the achievement gaps exposed by the range of responses to COVID-19 seems small. On the one hand, doubting the sustainability of innovative responses, education historian Larry Cuban referenced the dominant stability of schooling which, if anything, “produces this huge public and professional need to resume schooling as it was” (Young, 2022, para. 18). On the other hand, diverse political agendas will diffuse concerted efforts. Grossman et al. (2021) discussed a pertinent example from Michigan where “public health data, partisanship, and collective bargaining” (p. 637) each played a role in determining school reopening decisions. On this same issue of school reopening, there is credible evidence from Massachusetts that the much maligned and politically explosive masking policies implemented in some schools may have saved lives (Cowger et al., 2022). Roy (2020) asserted that “historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next” (para. 48). The chapters in this volume attest to the willingness of individuals to collaborate in stepping through that portal.

This fourth volume in the Current Perspectives on School/University/Community Research series brings together the perspectives of authors who are deeply committed to the integration of digital technology with teaching and learning. Authors were invited to discuss either a completed project, a work-in-progress, or a theoretical approach which aligned with one of the trends highlighted by the New Media Consortium’s NMC/CoSN Horizon Report: 2017 K-12 Edition, or to consider how the confluence of interest and action (Thompson, Martinez, Clinton, & Díaz, 2017) among school-university-community collaborative partners in the digital technology in education space resulted in improved outcomes for all—where “all” is broadly conceived and consists of the primary beneficiaries (the students) as well as the providers of the educational opportunities and various subsets of the community in which the integrative endeavors are enacted. The chapters in this volume are grouped into four sections: Section 1 includes two chapters that focus on computational thinking/coding in the arts (music and visual arts); Section 2 includes three chapters that focus on the instructor in the classroom, preservice teacher preparation, and pedagogy; Section 3 includes four chapters that focus on building the academic proficiency of students; and Section 4 includes two chapters that focus on the design and benefits of school-university-community collaboration.

COVID-19 has presented huge challenges to governments, businesses, civil societies, and people from all walks of life, but its impact has been highly variegated, affecting society in multiple negative ways, with uneven geographical and socioeconomic patterns. The crisis revealed existing contradictions and inequalities in society, compelling us to question what it means to return to “normal” and what insights can be gleaned from Southeast Asia for thinking about a post-pandemic world. In this regard, this edited volume collects the informed views of an ensemble of social scientists – area studies, development studies, and legal scholars; anthropologists, architects, economists, geographers, planners, sociologists, and urbanists; representing academic institutions, activist and charitable organisations, policy and research institutes, and areas of professional practice – who recognise the necessity of critical commentary and engaged scholarship. These contributions represent a wide-ranging set of views, collectively producing a compilation of reflections on the following three themes in particular: (1) Urbanisation, digital infrastructures, economies, and the environment; (2) Migrants, (im)mobilities, and borders; and (3) Collective action, communities, and mutual action. Overall, this edited volume first aims to speak from a situated position in relevant debates to challenge knowledge about the pandemic that has assigned selective and inequitable visibility to issues, people, or places, or which through its inferential or interpretive capacity has worked to set social expectations or assign validity to certain interventions with a bearing on the pandemic’s course and the future it has foretold. Second, it aims to advance or renew understandings of social challenges, risks, or inequities that were already in place, and which, without further or better action, are to be features of our “post-pandemic world” as well. This volume also contributes to the ongoing efforts to de-centre and decolonise knowledge production. It endeavours to help secure a place within these debates for a region that was among the first outside of East Asia to be forced to contend with COVID-19 in a substantial way and which has evinced a marked and instructive diversity and dynamism in its fortunes.

This open access edited volume is a comparative effort to discern the short-term educational impact of the covid-19 pandemic on students, teachers and systems in Brazil, Chile, Finland, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, Spain, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States. One of the first academic comparative studies of the educational impact of the pandemic, the book explains how the interruption of in person instruction and the variable efficacy of alternative forms of education caused learning loss and disengagement with learning, especially for disadvantaged students. Other direct and indirect impacts of the pandemic diminished the ability of families to support children and youth in their education. For students, as well as for teachers and school staff, these included the economic shocks experienced by families, in some cases leading to food insecurity and in many more causing stress and anxiety and impacting mental health. Opportunity to learn was also diminished by the shocks and trauma experienced by those with a close relative infected by the virus, and by the constrains on learning resulting from students having to learn at home, where the demands of schoolwork had to be negotiated with other family necessities, often sharing limited space. Furthermore, the prolonged stress caused by the uncertainty over the resolution of the pandemic and resulting from the knowledge that anyone could be infected and potentially lose their lives, created a traumatic context for many that undermined the necessary focus and dedication to schoolwork. These individual effects were reinforced by community effects, particularly for students and teachers living in communities where the multifaceted negative impacts resulting from the pandemic were pervasive. This is an open access book.

Children at risk of marginalization in education are found in all societies. At first glance, The lives of these children may appear poles apart. The daily experiences of slum dwellers in Kenya, ethnic minority children in Viet Nam and a Roma child in Hungary are very different. What they have in common are missed opportunities to develop their potential, realize their hopes and build a better future through education.A decade has passed since world leaders adopted the Education for All goals. While progress has been made, millions of children are still missing out on their right to education. Reaching the marginalized identifies some of the root causes of disadvantage, both within education and beyond, and provides examples of targeted policies and practices that successfully combat exclusion. Set against the backdrop of the global economic crisis, The Report calls for a renewed financing commitment by aid donors and recipient governments alike to meet the Education for All goals by 2015.This is the eighth edition of the annual EFA Global Monitoring Report. The Report includes statistical indicators on all levels of education in more than 200 countries and territories.

Modernizing Global Health Security to Prevent, Detect, and Respond explores the history of public health surveillance, current governance and legal structures. The book explores global public health and the challenges in preventing, detecting and responding to emerging threats. It describes a vision for the future of global public health, with an aim of charting a way forward that includes an understanding that epidemics are expected, but pandemics are preventable. Major topics covered include global health security, epidemic/pandemic prevention, detection and response, One Health and zoonosis, virus outbreaks of Ebola, Zika, MERS-CoV and COVID-19, manmade public health threats and environmental health, and more. This book provides the context researchers, practitioners and graduate-level students need in public health to better understand what was, what is and what could be for global health security. Highlights emerging threats to public health (e.g., disease, climate change, antibiotic resistance, PFAS) Discusses new approaches to global health security Leverages technological innovations to advance public health Includes practical examples and case studies from around the world

Modern technology has infiltrated many facets of society, including educational environments. Through the use of virtual learning, educational systems can become more efficient at teaching the student population and break down cost and distance barriers to reach populations that traditionally could not afford a good education. Virtual Reality in Education: Breakthroughs in Research and Practice is an essential reference source on the uses of virtual reality in K-12 and higher education classrooms with a focus on pedagogical and instructional outcomes and strategies. Highlighting a range of pertinent topics such as immersive virtual learning environments, virtual laboratories, and distance education, this publication is an ideal reference source for pre-service and in-service teachers, school administrators, principles, higher education faculty, K-12 instructors, policymakers, and researchers interested in virtual reality incorporation in the classroom.