DO you remember the famous words uttered in the Introduction of the Six Million Dollar Man? Their Number 1 astronaut was injured badly which provoked the words “We can rebuild him, and we can make him better than before!”. COVID injured our long laid habits around education and during our completely online phase many of us may have similarly seen this as a potential opportunity to “build it back, better than before!”.  The problem is, now that we’re back, we’re all exhausted, and our old habits become like a warm blanket of familiarity tempting us to just stick with what we know. It’s what Joordens has previously termed the Great Snapback and it is happening now. For those still intent on re-imagining education, how do we do so in such challenging times?

In this talk, Steve will argue that to get behind change people need to feel empowered, and the first step to achieving this may force schools to focus on teaching all in their institutions some basics of mental health and anxiety management.  Humans who feel some degree of control during challenging times are more likely get behind other initiatives.  Following indigenous pedagogical principles, we must see each other as humans first, then as students, staff and faculty.