Higher Education in Emergencies: Best Practices and Benchmarking: Volume 53

Education in an emergency refers to the accessibility of education among populations that have faced an unforeseen situation in their home country resulting in disruption of their normal lives, including the deterioration of the educational system prevalent in that country. Emergency typically arises from armed conflict or natural disasters. The world has been disrupted by more than 50 armed conflicts since the World War. In recent times, the entire world came to a halt due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which in severely disrupted the prevalent education system. Emergency also affects the economic system of a country, and higher educational institution (HEI) struggles due to lack of funds. Lack of funds and other educational resources, as well as lack of physical security or environmental disasters, lead to a sudden halt in the educational system, throwing students into limbo. The book volume discusses how curriculum needs to be adaptive and collaborate with stakeholders to formulate a teaching learning method that is cognizant of the latest technologies and scientific discoveries. Several interventions have been successfully implemented across the globe and have been discussed in chapters contributed by well-known academics working in the arena of imparting education that is resilient and can deliver quality education in times of crisis.

The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated that higher education institutions (HEI) respond quickly and transform their teaching to a remote learning environment. Prior to the pandemic, HEI had already implemented some degree of remote teaching and e-learning. The success of these initiatives depended on the leadership’s decisions regarding their implementation before the pandemic and their rapid implementation during the initial days of the lockdown. This study aimed to assess the level of preparedness and the response of HEI leadership to the health crisis by surveying a global audience of HEI professionals in academic and administrative roles. The results obtained from their responses highlight the areas of success and the concerns if remote teaching will be required in the future. We analyze these findings in the context of the broader implementation of e-learning and remote teaching in HEI.

The ongoing anthropological transformation urges the rethinking of education, underlining the inadequacy of our schools and universities in dealing with hypercomplexity, that is, with the global extension of all political, social, and cultural processes and with their indeterminacy, interdependence, and interconnection. The idea that educational processes are questions of a purely technical/technological nature, solely a problem of skills and know-how, is the “great mistake” of the hypertechnological society, based on the illusion of being able to measure and quantify everything, to eliminate error and unpredictability, and to achieve total control and rationality. It is necessary to rethink education radically because the extraordinary scientific discoveries and the dynamics of the new technologies have completely overturned the complex interaction between biological and cultural evolution, doing away with the borders between the natural and the artificial. Emergence and emergency themselves are structural features of complex systems (living, social, and human systems), rendered hypercomplex through today’s acceleration and virality, regarding not only education and socialization but also the representations and perceptions of all systemic processes. The merging of fields of knowledge and an epistemology of error become essential for the analysis and interpretation of this hypercomplexity and the unpredictability that distinguishes it.

This chapter presents a research study that examined post-disaster authentic university academic care resilience (PAUACR) at a Historically Black College and University (HBCU). PAUACR is a university’s and its students’ capacity to bounce back from post-disaster educational challenges. PAUACR requires a strong caring response and authentic academic care environments. For the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI), PAUACR following Hurricanes Irma and Maria was crucial to ensure students successfully completed the academic year. To assess UVI’s PAUACR, this study utilized a caring about academic caregiving inventory (CAACI). This 49-item instrument was used to gain students’ discernment of post-disaster authentic university academic care (PAUAC). The research employed a cross-sectional exploratory survey research design. The empirical analysis found associations between the structural workings of UVI’s academic caregiving in the aftermath of hurricanes Irma and Maria. These findings offer distinctive indicators of UVI’s PAUACR. Along with the findings, this chapter offers practical lessons of academic resilience drawn from the experience of conducting post-disaster research.

Educating students during emergencies is no longer an occasional occurrence; it has become a common scenario due to mass migration, conflict, poverty, health crises, and climate changes. Educating all students worldwide, migrants and refugees included, improves global security and economic viability, and should be the goal for all stakeholders. Using three illustrative case studies, this chapter provides an overview of the fundamental considerations for implementing learning support structures in uncertain and emergency circumstances. It outlines improvements needed to help educators meet today’s requirements for effective quality education during crisis, including overcoming issues with language, culture, curriculum, teacher training, and national and international policies. It also includes implications for higher education, calling for better approaches to address learning deficiencies, particularly given today’s protracted migrant circumstances.

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, teacher education in Qatar, similar to many countries around the world, witnessed a succession of disruptions to the way it operated. The disruption continued throughout much of 2020, and the need to adapt to arising changes and concerns permeated all aspects of teacher education, particularly the practicum experience. The chapter presents our attempt to investigate the influence of an adapted practicum experience which was based on the synthesis of qualitative evidence (SQD) model on the development of six student teachers’ technology knowledge and skills. Using a qualitative case study research design, we collected data from multiple data sources, including pre–post-interviews and weekly reflection logs. Quantitative data collected from a pre–post-administration of the SQD survey and TPACK (Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge)-practical survey were used to triangulate the qualitative data. Findings from the thematic analysis and descriptive statistical analysis revealed evidence for participants’ increased TPACK-practical knowledge and skills, specifically in the domains of practical teaching and curriculum design. However, an emerging theme revealed that participants considered technology before pedagogy during instructional design. Findings also revealed two challenges to participants’ further development, namely working within a restricted learning environment and experiencing limited mentoring opportunities. We illustrated several implications for the design of the practicum experience and the required institutional support within the context of continued disruption to education and thereafter.