Education in uncertainty: Academic life as Indigenous health scholars during COVID-19

Abstract

As the COVID-19 crisis continues to develop, communities around the world find themselves living in new and uncertain times. School and university closures are significantly disrupting the lives of students, educators and researchers alike. With the sudden shift to online learning platforms, the limitations on research projects and the lack of standardised policies and procedures, many concerns arise surrounding the unequal impacts of this crisis. This article brings together diverse perspectives on the effects of COVID-19 on post-secondary life for students and scholars engaged in the field of Indigenous health research. The authors reflect on how this time has impacted them as a graduating student, incoming PhD student, junior faculty member and mid-career faculty member respectively. Their experiences of teaching and learning at a large, research-intensive university in Toronto, Canada have been profoundly transformed, and will continue to change the way they work, research and interact at the graduate level. Working with Indigenous communities and organisations requires relationship building, collaboration and ceremony. In these unprecedented times, scholars cannot simply continue "business as usual". They must adapt everything, including how they teach, learn and work with Indigenous peoples, who are particularly vulnerable to this pandemic. Reflecting on the impacts that have already occurred and those that are still likely to come, the authors discuss what changes may need to be made in academia to support diverse actors within their scholarly community. They suggest changes to their scholarship with Indigenous communities in Canada to help them continue to work in a respectful, reciprocal and culturally appropriate way.

Same Old New Normal: The Ableist Fallacy of “Post-Pandemic” Work

“…For every professional who has managed to publish and advance and otherwise convince people of some basic value, there are countless others silencedby persistent exclusion, by willful denial of accommodations, and ultimately by death (see Galloway et al, 2020). The fact that dying often makes others finally heed our voices (Siegel & Tani, 2021) never becomes less dystopian or grotesque.…”

COVID-19 Related Shifts in Social Interaction, Connection, and Cohesion Impact Psychosocial Health: Longitudinal Qualitative Findings from COVID-19 Treatment Trial Engaged Participants

“…Amid the pandemic, the United States (US) has observed an estimated 29.2% to 35.0% increase in the prevalence of major depressive disorder, and an estimated 25.6% to 28.8% increase in the prevalence of anxiety disorders [ 1 ]. The pandemic’s burden on mental health is associated with multiple intersecting factors, including economic decline resulting in increased job insecurity [ 3 , 4 ]; housing precarity [ 5 , 6 ]; childcare disruptions and school closures [ 7 , 8 , 9 ]; increased risk of interpersonal violence [ 10 , 11 ]; and general disruption to daily routines [ 12 ]. Furthermore, the burden of COVID-19 disease, and its psychosocial sequelae, has disproportionately impacted certain populations, such as children and youth [ 12 , 13 ], cisgender women [ 14 , 15 , 16 ], minoritized communities [ 17 , 18 ], people who use drugs [ 19 ], older adults [ 20 , 21 ], people with disabilities [ 22 , 23 ], and LGBTQIA+ individuals [ 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 ].…”

Evaluation of final examination performance at Czech University of Life Sciences during the COVID-19 outbreak

“…The closure of educational institutions has significantly disrupted the dayto-day lives of millions of students, teachers, and researchers. Moreover, with the sudden transition to online learning platforms, the limitations on research projects, as well as lack of standardised policies and procedures, the researchers are concerned about unequal impacts of the crisis (Galloway et al, 2020). Several authors investigated the overall perception of distance learning by the students, e.g., Lu, Le and Vu (2020), Ho et al (2021), or Eltayeb et al (2020).…”