Abstract

Covid-19 has led to a ‘perfect storm’ as teachers around the world have battled to provide education in the wake of a pandemic. Organisations such as the OECD, UNESCO, UNICEF and the World Bank (OECD, 2021) have collaborated to collect and process high-level data from government authorities around the world on key factors such as lost learning, distance education, support of students and teachers, assessment and funding. Knowing what has happened is important but understanding why and how is key to actionable learning from the pandemic. A comparative and interdisciplinary education research network was established in 2021 with an initial goal of exploring this topic from the context of early career researchers with personal and professional interests in ten countries around the world. Starting by disaggregating published secondary data and re-applying a critical lens to individual countries, the network reconstructed a preliminary report to identify key themes for a further survey and semi-structured online interviews. The three major themes of interrupted education, differential inequalities and digital poverty resulted in the production of a thematic heat map and interview protocol underpinning the second stage of the research to be carried out with teachers in each of the ten countries. This will allow for a series of triangulated international case studies to illuminate high-level quantitative data using a mixed methods joint display analysis approach. However, the product of the research was not the only goal. The process of establishing the network, of developing an international partnership of experienced and early career researchers prepared to cooperate and collaborate online to develop a research collective was the other goal. The resulting process and product are an example of nascent global interdisciplinary interconnectedness relevant to the conference theme.