Notes on university experience in times of pandemic: Meanings, relationships and conditions of work and study

Abstract

The global health emergency due to COVID-19 made the governments of most countries to establish the confinement of millions of people and the suspension of multiple activities. The educational field was no exception. In the field of higher education, the institutions undertook a forced migration towards the virtual modality of different academic activities. In Argentina, the public emergency in health matters established by the national government in March 2020 led national universities to develop emergencyremote teaching through information and communication technologies. The article presents a series of reflective notes on the university experience in times of pandemic. The voices of teachers and students collected through class records, narratives and data from a survey at the National University of the South are recovered. The analysis focuses on the senses, relationships and conditions of work and study in the current context of crisis. The contributions of the specialized literature allows us to problematize different aspects of the university experience in times of COVID-19 and to advance in its conceptualization for a better understanding. We seek to inscribe the changes produced in the current context in a structural and long-term view that allows usto recognize the continuity of pre-existing trends, the updating of old tensions and the configuration of new inequalities.