Education post-Covid: Do schools need a transformation?

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We were delighted to host a discussion between Pasi Sahlberg and Greg Ashman, two of Australia’s leading voices in education, moderated by respected journalist Jordan Baker, Education Editor of The Sydney Morning Herald: Education post-Covid: Do schools need a transformation?

Covid-19 has rocked education systems in Australia and around the world. Rather than attend schools in person, many students were learning from home — placing new pressures on teachers and schools. Along with these new challenges are competing visions about priorities and practices of schooling in a rapidly changing world.

Does a business-as-usual approach risk failing to learn from the experience? How does Covid-19 force us to question what’s important in schooling for the future? Do we have to rethink teaching, curriculum, and assessment for the 21^st century?

Pasi Sahlberg is the deputy director and research director of the Gonski Institute for Education at the University of New South Wales. He is a Finnish educator and author who has worked as a schoolteacher, teacher educator, researcher, and policy advisor in Finland. His most recent book (co-authored with William Doyle) is Let the Children Play: How more play will save our schools and help children thrive (Oxford University Press, 2019).

Greg Ashman is Head of Mathematics and Head of Research at Ballarat Clarendon College. He is currently undertaking a PhD in Instructional Design at the University of New South Wales and is the author of The Truth about Teaching: An evidence-informed guide for new teachers (Sage Publications, 2018).

Jordan Baker is Education Editor of The Sydney Morning Herald.