Pathways to Learning
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
Scientific Production : Pandemic and Pandemony Context in Brazil View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Maria Isabel Barros Bellini
The study presents data on a bibliographic review of the production in the area of applied social sciences, especially Social Work in the period 2020-2021 on the Covid-19 pandemic and its consequences in Brazil. The results point to the public policies contemplated in the production as well as the challenges most frequently cited by the authors. Scientific production highlights the neoliberal agenda of the Brazilian government, the setback in the rights built by the Brazilian population and the systematic attacks on science, nature, workers, public policies in the perspective of meeting the excesses of the market to the detriment of the needs of the population. The great challenge pointed out is that Brazil is experiencing a deep crisis that transcends the pandemic through a neoliberal policy that increases the economic crisis and that incessantly brutalizes the working and living conditions of the majority of the Brazilian people, increasing social inequality. This economic crisis justifies fiscal austerity, privatizes public policies, repudiates the State and deifies the market. The production also presents some possibilities of confrontation and resistance as socio-educational actions aimed at the population's access to services and social rights and encouraging collective practices of social control.
New Dimensions in Intercollegiate Forensics: The Role of Place-Based Education (PBE) in the Production of Knowledge
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Korry Harvey, Lydia Haindfield, Gabriel Heintz, Laura Roark
This paper investigates the explanatory and pedagogical value of place-based education (PBE) as an epistemologically unorthodox learning strategy in intercollegiate forensics. This investigation is timely as the COVID pandemic has seen online education become a staple in the teaching-learning process, creating greater distance from more holistically interactive forms of study. Application of PBE as a supplemental model of learning seeks to create opportunities for meaningful engagement, expanding upon traditional modes of preparation and knowledge production. By highlighting situational factors, PBE offers direct engagement with diverse cultures and communities, unique histories, and local environments that would otherwise be inaccessible. It attempts to reconnect and recontextualize the learning process by situating it within pedagogically grounded spaces. PBE would allow participants in intercollegiate debate to move beyond the walls of the classroom and digitized texts to explore topics in a more tangible and self-directed way. Such an unconventional strategy may help counter a common critique of forensics which suggests that its orthodox modes of learning keep ideas stagnant and locked up within the “ivory tower” of the Academy. Our goal is to assess how experiential and place-based engagements might lead to an enhanced understanding of a topic through more diverse forms of knowledge production. We begin with a review of place-based pedagogical models, assess potential strengths and limitations of their application—particularly with regard to identifying any evidence of the value such an unconventional mode of knowledge production might offer in enriching the process of sense-making, and conclude with recommendations for further inquiry.
