Reflections on embodiment and pandemic pedagogies in Greek higher education: lessons from students’ considerations / Reflexiones sobre la corporeidad y las pedagogías de la pandemia en la educación superior griega: lecciones extraídas de las opiniones de los estudiantes

Abstract

Using quantitative and qualitative findings from a study conducted at a large Greek university, the article observes the COVID-19 pandemic pedagogies through students’ perspectives and lived experiences and examines emergent online learning as both an opportunity and a danger. The study reveals students’ divergent views of emergency online learning. These views include both concerns about the further digitalization of higher education eroding the physical space of the embodied learning community on-campus and hopes for a more inclusive and digitalized university based on blended education. Blended systems appeal to students from divergent social backgrounds for a variety of reasons. There are several advantaged students who claim that the further digitalization of higher education will benefit primarily from the integration of academic requirements with digital capabilities. Students from disadvantaged backgrounds support blended learning systems including online learning, which may help overcome economic hardship in a country experiencing protracted crises. While the study points out that advanced technology needs to be encouraged and integrated into higher education learning practices, it challenges the sociotechnical imaginary of a post-coronial university based on platformization and learnification processes, which decentralize educational practices and bring them into students’ homes, away from campus-based educational practices.