Caring is a key instructor characteristic in higher education with transformative potential. Instructor caring fosters deep connections with students, both inside and outside the classroom, and has consistently proven to be a potent catalyst for student success. Due to the residual effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of having caring…

The COVID-19 pandemic and the shift to remote, blended, and online teaching and learning presented universities around the world with myriad challenges. This rapid shift into uncharted territory, however, also created an opportunity for faculty developers to lead exploration of new pedagogies, challenging teaching assumptions. In this article, we…

How are educational encounters understood, experienced, and lived? How are they conceptualized? How do they shape our being in and of the world? In this time of apparent distance and disconnect, this volume emphasizes the role of contact and connectedness in education, above all by understanding education as encounters, as embodied, sensory…

Neoliberal practices such as managerialism and academic casualisation impact higher education systems globally. While these practices can constrain any curriculum aimed at enabling transformative learning, this paper shows that they place particular limitations on arts and humanities curricula intent on cultivating criticality and a sense of…

In this critical reflective analysis, we explore the nature of schooling for Black children and youth before and during the COVID-19 pandemic and envision its transformative possibilities. We draw from Black intellectual thought around antiblackness, Black joy, and Brown's humanizing critical sociocultural knowledge to interrogate our own pandemic…

In 2019, The Open University (henceforth, The OU), based in Milton Keynes in the UK, celebrated its 50th anniversary. Since 1971 it has pioneered the delivery of Higher Education in prisons and other secure settings. Some 50 years on, in 2021 there is much to celebrate and still more to learn. In this article we briefly review the establishment of…

This article explores the evolving trajectory of the Teaching Practicum (TP) models within a selected South African teacher education institution (TEI) to accommodate the localised challenges of shifting from face-to-face support of professional learning towards online modes of delivery during COVID-19 times. Over time, even before the onset of…

Distance Education (DE) theorists have argued about the requirement for a theory to be comprehensive in a way that can explicate many of the activities associated with DE. Currently, Transactional Distance Theory (TDT) (Moore, 1993) and the Theory of Instructional Dialogue (IDT) (Caspi & Gorsky, 2006) are the most prominent theories, yet they…

Is distance learning transformational? The author heard this question posed to a panel of faculty members during Distance Education Week activities. After reflecting upon her own students' reaction to her syllabus, her answer to the question changed from an initial, enthusiastic "yes" to a reflective "maybe," given the most favorable environment.…

Despite the recent increases of interest in open education, notably in massive open online courses (MOOCs) (Fini, 2009), it has been continuously asserted that this form of social knowledge production lacks a philosophical or theoretical foundation (Vandenberg, 1975). Similar accusations have been made with respect to distance education, such as…

In this case study, an online community was designed at a secondary school in China for the teachers to prepare their lessons collectively, reflect on their teaching practices, collect comments from peers, and share resources. A survey was administered to the teachers to investigate their perceptions on the online community for their professional…

This paper examines a core leadership strategy for transforming learning and teaching in distance education through flexible and blended learning. It focuses on a project centred on distributive leadership that involves collaboration, shared purpose, responsibility and recognition of leadership irrespective of role or position within an…

The purpose of this collaborative inquiry project was to examine teacher education practices in two early childhood degree programmes in a school of education at a regional university in Australia. All students are enrolled in these online courses as distance learners. The reconceptualised online pedagogy immersed students, peers and their…

This paper examines a core leadership strategy for transforming learning and teaching in distance education through flexible and blended learning. It focuses on a project centred on distributive leadership that involves collaboration, shared purpose, responsibility and recognition of leadership irrespective of role or position within an…

The amount of resources being poured by Western universities, companies, and governments into creating educational content to be exported (via the Internet) to other cultures is astounding. Those assigned to accomplish this task are left with the great challenge of meeting the needs of learners who come from cultures that are foreign to them, and…