Are Schools Replaceable? Creative Destruction in the Post-Pandemic Society

Abstract

Lockdown measures and school closures in response to coronavirus have exposed and amplified the relationship between wealth and richer home-learning environments as well as the digital divides among students and among schools. Simultaneously, innovation processes seem to be occurring in response to the restrictive measures. The purpose of this short essay is to discuss the consequences of COVID-19 for students, pedagogy, and schools, particularly the relationship between socioeconomic conditions and possibilities of innovation in education. Based on Joseph Schumpeter’s concept of creative destruction, we suggest that while some institutions may have the possibility of reinventing themselves by developing blended models of education, for a vast worldwide majority of students, traditional – which is to say, face-to-face and disconnected – schools are irreplaceable.