This blog post, by Dr Dyi Dieuwertje Huijg and Dr Kelsie Action, was originally published for the flipped conference ‘Building the Post-Pandemic University’ (published 10 Sep 2020, panel on 18 Sep 2020)
Digital and distance learning in the pandemic university has created access to higher education teaching (HET) for disabled[1] students – and staff, to some extent – where this was not offered before by Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). Despite disabled learners’ need for proper digital access, HEIs insisted for years that digital learning was impossible. When faced with the pandemic, they rapidly pivoted; within weeks they transitioned to digital and distance learning. After years of debates about mobile phones and computers in the classroom, all of a sudden students were ‘allowed’ to always use their digital device; and, at least hypothetically, learning and teaching while lying down became an option. At the same time, disabled students and staff, as well as disability practitioners, have addressed the access gap in the pandemic university, which nevertheless seems to have low priority in policy. Unsurprisingly, there are concerns how this will develop in the post-lockdown university.
This blog post, though, is not concerned with either the pandemic or digital learning as such. Speaking as disabled and neurodivergent university teachers, rather, we take this moment of rupture created by the pandemic as an invitation to consider how ‘relaxing’ pedagogy can improve the teaching and learning experience for disabled – including neurodivergent[2] and sick[3] – as well as other marginalised students and teachers. We have a twofold objective here: first, we problematise, what we call, the Uptight Pedagogy of HET; and, second, we propose a Relaxed Pedagogy as an alternative approach.
… continue reading on the Post-Pandemic University’s website …