Access and Success in Geoscience Education in the Age of COVID-19

Abstract:

The sudden change in teaching forced by the global coronavirus pandemic impacted students, faculty and families alike. As universities and colleges scrambled to adapt to a near instantaneous change in teaching modalities from on-ground to online, the outlines of the familiar problems of student access and success also shifted dramatically. The geoscience education community has just fully come to understand the scale and scope of approaches to reducing barriers presented to students due to race, ethnicity, culture and gender and the intersections of these, and now with the pandemic new dimensions of access and success were laid bare. Students who previously benefited from many social and structural supports found themselves disenfranchised in new ways, and a handful of students previously at a disadvantage in some cases found new supports. New factors such as access to high speed internet connections at home and having the space and time to focus on education amid radically changed living, family and work situations were suddenly new variables in the mix. These factors cut across cultural, ethnic and racial lines and affected people of all gender identifications. This discussion will highlight the impact of these new barriers and supports and the interaction with existing educational and economic disparities that have played out across the geoscience education landscape during the pandemic, and how educators have worked to respond.