The Real Learning Loss: A Lost Opportunity to Reimagine Schooling

Abstract Reflections on pandemic schooling and its aftermath have been dominated by narratives of loss. Most notably, there has been sustained attention given to students’ loss of learning and loss of social skills (with implications that this will lead to loss of revenue and a lost generation down the road). This neoliberal view of schooling, which is steeped in whiteness, has led to a narrow understanding of both these problems and their solutions. The solutions that are suggested, informed by whiteness and dominant culture, have significant consequences for all children, but especially BIPOC children. Specifically, there have been calls to focus classroom efforts on raising test scores and calls to add the teaching of social emotional learning skills. In this paper, we critique these moves and argue instead for a more expansive view of possibilities for schooling post-pandemic. Rather than framing this loss as a reason to focus on test scores and scripted curricula, we encourage educators to consider what children have gained and how we might reimagine more democratic, just, and liberatory schooling as a result. We highlight two pedagogical frameworks—community engaged teaching and restorative justice—as viable alternatives to a focus on academic learning loss and SEL.