e-Learning Quality during the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond: Ontario's Policy Response to School Closures and Implications for Critical Democratic Education

According to Naomi Klein's (2007) conceptualization of disaster capitalism, neoliberal policies tend to emerge and take hold during times of crisis and shock. In the months following March 2020, public education policies emerged in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, e-learning, a delivery model that was strongly opposed by teachers, students, and parents prior to the pandemic, was implemented as a solution for Ontario public schools which were closed longer than schools in any other province or territory between 2020-2021. This study examined how Ontario's e-learning policies defined quality and implications of this conceptualization for critical democratic education.