Pandemic, vaccination and return to in-person classes in Latin America and the Caribbean
Luis Bonilla Molina and Nelson Ortega*
Starting in March 2020, we all participated in an unprecedented event in our lives. When we at Other Voices in Education (OVE) warned, back in 2015, that global society was heading toward a Global Pedagogical Blackout (GPB) marked by the abrupt shift to virtual learning, even younger generations considered this scenario unlikely in the short and medium term. The COVID-19 pandemic forced the suspension of in-person classes across almost the entire continent and the world, allowing the introduction of the educational virtuality paradigm on a planetary scale. One hundred and sixty-nine million students were affected by total school closures in 30 countries of the region.
Suddenly, millions of children and young people were thrust into unfamiliar teaching and learning models. Virtual learning, self-filling workbooks, blended learning, and other experiments created epistemic chaos in schools worldwide. This encompassed cognitive dimensions, but also economic and social ones. It wasn't just about learning, but about affording the tools and resources required to implement this new teaching and learning model.
The International Research Center Other Voices in Education (CII-OVE) was created in 2015. It began its public activities with the launch on February 1, 2016, of the Other Voices in Education portal, a constantly evolving database that captures real-time trends in educational change. It is a member center of the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO) and, through its Global/Glocal Network for Educational Quality project, is part of the Latin American Campaign for the Right to Education. The International Observatory of Educational Reforms and Teacher Policies (OIREPOD) project has developed the International Contact Group to work with teachers' unions and associations worldwide, as well as with groups and individuals involved in critical pedagogies and popular education.
CII-OVE is part of a strategic alliance of Latin American social movements that offers an open online training program, available on the Otras Voces en Educación YouTube channel. It has a team of researchers who work on educational reforms, change, and resistance in the 21st century.
* Luis Bonilla-Molina (VEN) holds a PhD in Pedagogical Sciences with postdoctoral studies in models and proposals for evaluating educational quality and critical pedagogies. He has been a Kellogg Foundation and Ford Foundation fellow as a student in the International Course on Public Policy Formulation at IIPE Buenos Aires, UNESCO. He is a CLACSO research fellow. He served as President of the Governing Council of the UNESCO International Institute for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (IESALC). He was Vice Minister of Strategic Planning in Higher Education and President of the Miranda International Center. He has taught at universities in several Latin American countries. He is a co-founder of Otras Voces en Educación (Other Voices in Education). Email: [email protected]
Nelson Ortega (VEN) holds a Master's degree in Global Planning (VEN), is a Master's candidate in Foreign Policy (ESP), has a degree in Computer Engineering (VEN), a Diploma in Technological Innovation (ESP), and a specialization in Special Economic Zones (CHN). He was Vice Minister of Foreign Trade of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. He is a researcher at the CII-OVE on economic issues and the fourth industrial revolution in education. Email: [email protected ]
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