Reconceptualising relatedness in education in ‘Distanced’ times

Abstract

As schools and universities worldwide tentatively move beyond an initial emergency response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the prospect of socially-distanced learning spaces prompts us to ask how we can maintain good educational relationships. Supporting students in a time of far-reaching changes means acknowledging that certain normalised practices, and the conceptual frameworks embedded within them, have come under significant duress. Resisting the urge to rush to quick solutions and seeing our common vulnerability and uncertainty as an opportunity for growth, we, a multi-disciplinary teacher education faculty, chose to pause and use this moment of recalibration to develop a new set of orienting priorities for teacher educators. We reflect on dynamics of care, control and power inherent in educational relationships and demonstrate how relatedness in education expands beyond the human and the local towards fostering a common sense of global and ecological responsibility.