Epidemics and public health emergencies have been a periodic occurrence in human history, from the black plague, to the Spanish flu to the different diseases caused by corona viruses like SARS, HIV and now CoViD-19. Each of these incidents has had both civilizational impacts that caused countries and peoples to change lifestyles to adapt and survive.
Today’s Global pandemic puts us in a related scenario, whether the virus was engineered or was a natural evolution jumping from bats to humans.
I can still remember a story when the Americans came to Zamboanga City and some old folks alleged that they spread cholera and dysentery through infected clothes that they provided and gave to people in communities, and that it then spread affecting barrios, forcing many Filipinos to stay away from communities not because they were unwanted but because they had to make sure they would not get infected by cholera or dysentery.
Today’s Global pandemic puts us in a related scenario, whether the virus was engineered or was a natural evolution jumping from bats to humans. It has created a new behavioral ethic among many of us, avoiding crowds, maintaining a safe distance (humans are social creatures and therefore physical distance would be a norm), being very careful with whatever we touched, feeling a bit allergic when we notice someone sneezing or coughing, and even considering isopropyl alcohol/disinfectant a basic human need.
With these transitions in behavior, we would also be looking at how this global pandemic has affected our lifestyles in the way our livelihoods and social relationships engage. We soon evolve digital conversation, albeit from being digital migrants to becoming a digital native overnight in the space of more or less three months. Daily economics has become digital, where people procure daily necessities on Lazada, Shopee or local apps that would do the marketing for them, food deliveries like Grab or transporters like Lalamove and NinjaVan would bring whatever you need at doorstep. In a way, needs are immediately gratified by digital businesses.
But man is still a social creature, driven by the need to engage and to help, much is yet to be discussed or studied in the impact in two areas: developmental work and education. Developmental work has been primarily community-oriented work, where you immerse in communities, talk with people and assess their needs and deliver interventions, this takes time and effort and much human interaction. Education has always been on the forefront of technology, wherein research and develop creates more tools for industry at the same time provides an environment for students to learn new theories and actual practice (PRAXIS). From traditional face to face learning (where a teacher spoon-feeds information) , to facilitated (mentoring) and blended learning (part mentoring and part self-learning) , then finally towards virtual learning.
With the new trend in social and behavioral dynamics dictated by the new normal, the challenge to developmental workers and educators would be how to translate their old work habits and protocols to the new norms dictated.
Most likely that developmental workers cannot compromise on a few things on how they do immersion and interventions on the ground, this would mean however that many of their programs would have to be redirected towards community health and sustainability until a vaccine for CoViD-19 would be available. This would also mean project deliverables would take longer, considering one has to consider both social distancing and the new normal of discouraging huge group meetings.
Lobbying and advocacy work will be more challenging as engagements with policy makers as well as communities will be delimited due to the need to keep a safe distance (to prevent transmission of illness). Data security and connectivity would become one of the most important tools they would have to rely on.
As developmental workers shift through the engagement process they may be able to develop new project monitoring and evaluation tools that would ensure efficient implementation and delivery of programs and would be more familiar with the dynamics of data sourcing and interpretation.
Educators and educational institutions would be hurt by the new normal, not all schools have the infrastructure nor the technical capacity to involve in online or blended education, many smaller schools would suffer, as private schools depend on numbers of students per class this would also affect financial viability of schools. Smaller schools unless they evolve may have to close down.
The new normal for education requires us to unlearn what we have always known: rows of desks, heavy bags, mass lectures, public exams, and (broken) parent-teacher communication. Unlearn those, and we can establish the new normal of education.
The paradigm of educators of imagining education as student desks, bags of books carried by students, lectures and exams as well as parent teacher conferences would have to shift. As everyone is busy writing about online classes being the new standard of learning in the new normal, this may not be totally the case, it may be part of the process of learning so that those involved in the path of education and institutions would not be locked in a capsule but there are several other things to look at to define the new normal for educators.
First is the transition from public space to personal space in the area of learning spaces. While we are used to have students go to institutions to learn (with the concept of the Institution as the space of learning), the process of learning could be generated or done within the confines of ones personal space, whether this be ones residence or an area where there is a stable internet connection. This would also imply that social interactions would also transition from prominently physical person to person contact, it would migrate (one certain levels) to a virtual level (considering that todays digital natives have already been transitioning to it for a long time, we digital migrants would also evolve to this, whether we like it or not the process of interaction with colleagues, students and mentors would still continue, as our medium of communication would have simply shifted from physical to virtual
Second is teaching methods would shift from a standardized method of instruction to a customized system attuned to a learners needs. In the Philippines, this has been started by what is known as Competency Based Training (CBT) at the Technical Education Skills and Development Authority (TESDA). In a typical setting all learners are taught the same content, listen to the same lecture, same activities and perform same home work and project work after which they will be subjected to evaluation by a same set of rubrics and standards. Customized learning may mean that although learning goals may be the same for a class, each student may progress through the required curriculum at varying speeds and using resources that may suit their learning needs.
Access online or learning resources may vary from household to household and sharing learning materials may prove to be a challenge to educators, but they may have to design lessons appropriate to the needs of their learners and provide flexibility to understand and gain mastery over the subject
Third is change of responsibility in the learning process, as this may mean that like in the case of homeschooling, family members become involved in the learning process of the new normal. The educator doesn’t simply provide the process he will also have to create a scenario where family members will be empowered to help facilitate learning and realization of their student. Parents may not be trained educators but they can provide concrete experiences and scenarios to demonstrate concepts taught in the lessons.
Lastly, shift in evaluating students. This may mean that as educators our evaluation methods should be more on the formative and output process (learning and demonstration) rather than an expected result(grade from an exam). This may mean that educators may have to transition from exam-basedevaluation towards project based evaluation where concepts can be demonstrated as proof of learning.
One must always remember that in the new normal technology is primarily an enabler of learning and what we may have to use in the present context.
Once the development community and the academe get past through these trying times, the challenges to community development, education and revitalization won’t magically disappear. Considering that events like CoViD-19 may pop up unexpectedly and wreak havoc on the local and the global economies, inequities and inefficiencies become more pronounced in many countries, so much more in the Philippines and with this knowledge we can be prepared to work smarter in addressing this crisis.
Crises like this take us back to our personal values and mission. They expose our true moral imperatives, and push us to respond with serious change for the greater good. The opportunity we have today (unlike in the time of the Spanish influenza epidemic) is that we have the information, tools, and a more diverse base now. We can create a different future. That difference can only be made if we commit to real long-term programs that are centered on human development as our north star.
We don’t have to live in fear. For the sake of our children, for our neighbors, for our families, and for our communities, there is a purpose. We engineer change that decides how much better we can be when this crisis is over. This crisis has created a scenario to show the best of us and what real collaboration looks like in the face of global need. Maybe…..let’s get it right this time.
(The author is a developmental worker, community worker and educator and a cultural historian. He is part of a network of community development organizations and has been doing community work for half of his life.)
