An article by Karine Hindrix
Another educational domain influenced by COVID-19 is adult education. Here we will examine how migrant participants of integration and language courses in Brussels are affected by the pandemic situation. We choose the “capability approach” rather than the “human capital perspective” (cf. blog entry on school education) to adult education. This means we will explore the impact at the level of personal, social, and cultural benefits rather than the mere economic value of adult education and adult learning. Of course, adult education is important for the employability of newcomers and other migrants in our community. Nevertheless, navigating successfully through our society requires more than economic capacities. Furthermore, when we mention ‘adult education’ we mean the structure and organization. When we talk about ‘adult learning’, we refer to persons´ processes of building agency empowerment (Boyadjeva and Ileva-Trichkova, 2018). We will relate this approach to the concept of racial hierarchy (Burden-Stelly, 2020) to understand the impact of the pandemic on the emergence of race as a class.
We have chosen Bon, the ‘Brussels reception office for integration’ as a case study. Bon supports migrants in their integration process in Brussels and is organized by the ‘Agentschap Integratie en Inburgering’ (Agency of Integration and Civic Integration) of the Flemish Community in Belgium. Bon organizes free integration programs and language courses newcomers with a minimum of 3 months residence permit as well as non-newcomers (Bon, 2020). The participant profiles are very diverse: adults of different schooling backgrounds, ages, ethnicities and genders come together in the same classes. Bon has chosen to continue their courses online in order to maintain the support for the integration processes of immigrants in Brussels during the pandemic. In an interview with Leopoldo (interview, 16th December 2020), a senior teacher at Bon, we asked a few open questions about what he observes as (possible) consequences of the pandemic on course participants' learning. Through the lived experiences of participants he describes, we acquire an understanding of the mechanisms that create a setback in these adult agency empowerment processes in the specific context of Brussels.
The way adult education is organized during the pandemic introduces a new structuring factor in the agency aspect of the adult's learning processes in this case. As in school education the technological aspect influences (the quality of) the participants' course attendance. The often unfamiliar ways of using technology and a lack of stimulating home environments disadvantages their participation and learning quality. This is especially the case when participants are illiterate. At the same time, the online distant mode of teaching and learning is creating opportunities to improve digital skills among participants. They wouldn´t acquire this experience in physical classes. Participants’ schooling background nor age are strong determinants for the way they cope with technological means. According to Leopoldo, it is rather their ‘technological capital’ (technological experiences and familiarity).
Another negative effect this “forced” online learning context creates for adult learners is the lack of informal spaces. They add value and benefits to the formal learning activities (e.g. talking to each other, eating together, walking together, etc.). In these spaces participants can usually create social and cultural capital and personal benefits: they get to know each other, develop intercultural skills, improve language skills, support each other and comfort each other. Leopoldo (interview, 16th December 2020) explains that these ‘friendships’ sometimes play a role outside of the courses. Participants assist each other in dealing with organizations or institutions that are important for occupational, administrative, and financial arrangements. Learning from each other is an important part of adult learning. Moreover, they also meet sometimes for recreational activities. As a result of COVID-19 situation, participants lose this social support throughout their integration process. In addition, their personal wellbeing is affected by the absence of physical gatherings during courses and encounters outside the formal activities.
Another kind of learning activities that Bon integrates into their programs are visits to institutions such as Brussels libraries and communal, financial, social security offices in the city. Evidently, these visits have halted because of the pandemic measures. Getting to know these organizations while learning-by-doing is crucial for future legal and administrative arrangements and cultural understandings. During those visits, the adults are also guided through the Brussels transport system helping them to learn how to be mobile in the city.
The interview with Leopoldo (interview, 16th December 2020) informs us about the impact of COVID-19: it takes away personal, cultural and social benefits of migrant participants by the shift to adult learning in online distance education. This comes often on top of losing their jobs but not their subsistence costs. Here again, we observe that the pandemic reinforces the reproduction of racial hierarchy in our society (Burden-Stelly, 2020). The pandemic situation could be understood as a setback in the development of basic aspects of migrants' agency empowerment needed to participate fully and freely in our society.
The participants of these courses of Bon are a group in our society experiencing (extremely) difficult economic situations and they are in dire need of developing capabilities. Government actors could arrange additional mediating efforts and projects to guarantee building capacity by adult learning in this COVID-19 crisis. This case of Brussels adult education as part of the Flemish Community's integration measures illustrates how the consequences of COVID-19 influence the way our capitalist society is pursuing racial directions in its organization (Robinson, 2000).
References
Agentschap Integratie en Inburgering. S.d. About Bon. Consulted 15th November 2020. https://www.integratie-inburgering.be/en/bon-home
Boyadjieva, P., & Ilieva-Trichkova, P. (2018). Lifelong learning as an emancipation process: A capability approach. In The Palgrave international handbook on adult and lifelong education and learning (pp. 267-288). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Burden-Stelly, C. (2020). Modern US racial capitalism. Monthly Review, 72(3), 8-20.
Hindrix, K. (2020). Change in education, no change in taking on the burdens of COVID-19 impact. https://raceandthepandemic.wixsite.com/home/post/change-in-education-no-change-in-taking-on-the-burdens-of-covid-19-impact
Robinson, C. J. (2000). Black Marxism. The Making of the Black Radical Tradition. University of North Carolina Press.
(Access to the interview in French can be requested from Karine Hindrix)