Toward a “Thoughtful Lightness”: Education in Viral Times

The Covid-19 pandemic has changed our way of life temporarily and perhaps forever. As such, how educators respond to the contemporary situation is not without consequence. Inspired by the writings of Giorgio Agamben, this article argues that, while the way forward is not unambiguous, the Covid-19 situation offers educators an unanticipated opportunity to pause; to reconsider our aspirations; and, ultimately, to reclaim education as an ethico-political activity. To embrace this opportunity requires the interpretation of our current situation as a real state of exception in which the neoliberal order and its utopian-learning culture can be suspended. In a state of suspension, one can begin thinking afresh about the Covid-19 pandemic and what reactions to and conversations about the event reveal about (more desirable) ways of learning and living together in schools and society.