Building back better: Lessons learned from a year with COVID 19 caused changes to school and teaching

As part of the large-scale ‘COVID-19, Building Back Better’-project, primary school (grade 0-6) stakeholders (students (N = 2.427), parents (N = 153), school staff (N = 176) and school leaders (N = 14)) answered the open-ended survey-question: ‘What have you learned during the COVID-19 pandemic that could be used to make school and teaching better in the future?’. The responses are inductively organised. The analysis points at several learning potentials from COVID-19 and suggests different politically and ethically feasible focus points for quality teaching and education after COVID-19 (e.g. more efficient teaching/worktime, a focus on students’ and school staff’s well-being in school, outdoor teaching/outdoor time, movement in teaching, online teaching, new and creative teaching methods, clear and simple structure, shorter school days, no parents at school, improved school-home collaboration and information/communication from school). We discuss the feasibility of implementing the suggestions and argue for cooperative procedures paying attention to contradicting perceptions when reimagining education in the future.