Cost-effective and user-friendly, mobile phone-assisted methods have remained underutilized in qualitative social science research. The scarce methodological guidance, together with recruitment and ethical challenges, has arguably stifled advancements in this area. COVID-19 exposed the need to better equip researchers with the expertise and tools…

While education has historically enjoyed widespread bipartisan support, the aftermath of the pandemic, among other factors, has dramatically reshaped the field's political climate. This transformation, marked by increasing political tensions that impact students, schools and teachers, signifies a shift away from traditional educational policy…

In this policy brief, we use research findings to illuminate experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic of U.S. rural college students from poor and working-class backgrounds. We offer institutional, state, and federal policy lessons gleaned from such experiences. We show how rural, poor and working-class students' higher education success was…

The period of the coronavirus pandemic (SARS-CoV-2), which hit Poland in early March 2020, has become a great challenge for the whole education sector. The limitations in the functioning of schools, imposed on all teachers, including RE teachers, created the immediate need to adapt to new conditions and start remote teaching. Some of these…

Direct Admissions is a system developed and piloted recently in the US that defaults graduating high school students into post-secondary admittance by data-matching their profiles (transcripts, standardized test scores, and prerequisites) with institutions' preset eligibility criteria. As applicant and institutional interest in direct admissions…

Outstanding federal student loan debt exceeds $1.6 trillion and is owed by about 45 million borrowers. Since taking office, the Biden Administration has taken various actions to address student loan debt. These actions have ranged in scope (both in terms of borrower populations affected and associated modification costs), rationales, and the…

Health professional education (HPE) has been affected significantly by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to a combination of disruption to healthcare systems, changes to workforce needs, the effects on tertiary education provision and a necessity to innovate. While a challenging time, these were also opportunities in disguise. There is evidence that HPE…

The status quo is no longer an option. School leaders need to model care, courage, and open communication. Superintendent Jennifer Gallagher reflects on three important components of adaptive and effective leadership--communication, care, and courage--that she found helpful in navigating her district through the challenges of the pandemic.

Students' mental health problems are a growing concern in higher education. In recent times, these concerns have doubled due to the significant socioeconomic, political, and technological changes in the world. With the emergence of the ongoing novel COVID-19 pandemic, students in higher education are faced with increased mental health challenges.…

The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent teaching adaptions highlighted issues of equitable student access. Resulting pivots in response to the pandemic, however, offer opportunities to adapt pandemic related pivots to traditional learning environments in ways that will increase student access. This brief manuscript highlights different ways students…

The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically impacted opportunities for internships in parks, recreation, tourism, and sports. The government mandated numerous agencies to close. Many agencies that remained open reduced staff, froze budgets, shifted programs online, and discontinued internships. The senior internship for Parks, Recreation, and Tourism…

Mathematical concepts are regularly used in media reports concerning the COVID-19 pandemic. These include growth models, which attempt to explain or predict the effectiveness of interventions and developments, as well as the reproductive factor. Our contribution has the aim of showing that basic mental models about exponential growth are important…

This article explores the impact of the dual pandemics of COVID-19 and White rage on critical consciousness-raising. It argues for a reimagining of our democracy as a practice for collective liberation. This article then outlines a framework for social justice that moves beyond liberalism to self-interrogation, centering historically minoritized…

Although public K-12 student enrollment dropped by 3% nationwide in 2020-21, the school year that marks the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the patterns differ for specific areas and types of schools. This paper describes the COVID-19 and Equity in Education (CEE) Enrollment Explorer tool, which was developed to help policymakers and educators…

The COVID-19 pandemic revealed what educators, policymakers, and researchers have long known--namely, that learning opportunities and outcomes are intimately intertwined with other aspects of children's and families' lives. The list of social forces outside the education sector that can affect learning is endless and includes economic experiences…