Reimagining Education in a Pandemic: Children and Young People as Powerful Educators

COVID-19 has caused unprecedented levels of worldwide disruption to the education of children and young people, who have been among the worst affected by the socio-economic impacts of the global pandemic. However, it is crucial to acknowledge that children and young people are not passive victims. Conversely, during lockdown it has been impossible to ignore the ways in which so many children and young people have emerged as powerful educators. Our youngest citizens have been at the forefront of protests regarding Black Lives Matter and systemic racism, climate change and, in the UK, class-based bias in examination results during COVID-19. The lessons they have taught us have resulted in policy change at local and national levels and created conversations across the generations about desirable futures and the importance of making change happen.

This chapter uses examples from a Social Justice Makerspace in a New York City school and a Student-led Education for Disaster Risk Reduction in Naarm (Melbourne), Australia, to explore how more relational, creative and democratic approaches to education can continue to recognise and support children and young people’s power to initiate, develop and lead change and create more inclusive, socially just futures for us all.