What is left? Bracketing the role of school

Abstract

This special issue is being published at a time when the confl ict between technological optimists in education, empowered by the pedagogical experiments of the pandemic, and traditionalists, disgusted by the low eff ectiveness of distance education and hailing a return to the traditional school bench, has been rekindled. In the fi eld of educational theory and research, there has been a resurgence of interest in critical and traditional conceptualisations of schooling. Prominent among these re-emerging themes are Illich's radical propositions concerning deschooling (Bartlett & Schugurensky, 2020), less radical notions of schooling at home (Price, Peersman, & Matherne, 2021), and conventional approaches that emphasise the advantages of re-engaging with formal school education (Asadullah, 2024).