Editorial December 2021

Patrick Lewis

University of Regina

At this writing, the news media has been full of stories about the emergence of a new corona virus variant named “omicron,” not the least of which has been how to pronounce it. That said, the fact that we are still in a pandemic and things may potentially worsen should certainly eclipse the need to learn how to pronounce omicron. COVID-19 has turned the world sideways impacting almost every person and facet of human activity in multiple ways that were heretofore unimagined by most people. Despite humanity’s concerted efforts the virus continues to mutate and infect people at alarming rates across different regions of the world. Certainly, we have become more cognizant of the inequities that persist around the world with access to vaccines, and the significant numbers of folks not getting vaccinated, and the ongoing race to track and analyze new variants. Yet, with all that the virus has done around the world many folks continue to try and aim their actions and life toward some kind of normal. But what seems to becoming abundantly clear is that it is not possible to return to some perceived normal that was imagined prepandemic; we seem to be decidedly in transition toward a quickly changing new reality.

The academy has not been immune to the impact of the pandemic, in fact the academy has experienced many changes and new positionings from the impact: teaching and how we teach, research and how we research, collaboration and how we collaborate, and even operations and how the university operates. No one or thing has escaped feeling some kind of effect from this pandemic, but all the while many of us have striven to continue our research, our teaching, our collaborations, and community service in the academy and beyond. In this issue you will find many good works that are demonstrative of the commitment to research and learning that scholars continue to try and navigate through the pandemic. The Editorial Board invites you to delve into the varied works across several fields of interest held in this issue as you wind your way toward the end of 2021 and look forward hopefully for 2022.

Take care and keep well,

Patrick Lewis

Editor-in-Chief

in education