Pandemic Phase: Where’s Democracy Now?

This essay draws from a pragmatic feminist approach. It outlines the importance of relational ethics and Deweyan democracy to educational practices using the exploitative situation of emergency remote learning and women teachers to show the impact of systems that were in place before the COVID-19 pandemic, but which have become more concerning within those parameters. Such systems include the educational technology industry and the datafication of education. These systems rest in neoliberalism and concern their means and ends with economic gain instead of the importance of human relations. The essay suggests that centering relational ethics and relying on educational democracy can create hope and healing for people within these educational spaces and systems