







































 

 

 

 

 

Transforming Pedagogies in Australian 
Schools amid the COVID-19 Pandemic: An 

Activity Theoretic Reflection

Clarence Ng,1 Peter Renshaw2 
 

1. Australia Catholic University, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia 
2. University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4000, Australia

Abstract. “Learning from home” was a collective response to school 
closure in Australia amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In this paper, we 
offer a description of the learning-from-home event, highlighting chang-
es that were required of teachers, students and parents. Drawing on 
Engeström’s cultural-historic activity theory, we reflect on these chang-
es and query the extent to which the changes amount to a transformative 
pedagogy recognizing home and community as a significant source of 
and place for learning. It is argued that cultural knowledge and family 
practices have not been sufficiently acknowledged and utilized in the 
current practices associated with the learning-from-home event. Based 
on the notion of funds of knowledge, we argue that a transformative 
pedagogy should build purposeful connection between school curricu-
lum, cultural knowledge and family practices. This approach is illustrat-
ed using an example of play-based learning where a parent engaged her 
Year 4 daughter in a home café enabling informal learning that met the 
requirements of the school curriculum. This case invites further reflec-
tion on important questions related to what counts as learning and what 
worthwhile learning encompasses. 

Best Evid Chin Edu 2020; 5(2):635-648. 
Doi: 10.15354/bece.20.or023. 

How to Cite: Ng, C., Renshaw, P. (2020) Transforming pedagogies in Australian 
schools amid the COVID-19 pandemic: An activity theoretic reflection. Best Evid 
Chin Edu, 5(2):635-648. 

Keywords: COVID-19; Online Learning; Pedagogy; Educational Change; Activity 
Theory; Funds of Knowledge.

 
 



Ng & Renshaw. Transforming Pedagogies in Australian Schools amid the COVID-19 Pandemic. 

Vol.5, No. 2, 2020 636 

Introduction 
LEARNING from home” has made it possible for Australian students to continue 
their education despite school closure amid the COVID-19 pandemic. ‘Learning 
from home’ encompasses different forms of flexible learning arrangements, in-

cluding online learning, using paper-based learning packages or a combination of both 
online learning and paper-based materials. In this paper, we reflect on pedagogical 
changes associated with ‘learning from home’ arrangements in response to the corona-
virus outbreak in Australia during the period between March and May 2020.  We draw 
on Engeström’s third generation activity theory that situates pedagogy as part of an 
evolving activity system (Engeström, 1987, 2001, 2007). Pedagogy is defined, not as a 
set of teaching skills, but as a structured process wherein acts of teaching are mediated 
by a set of rules, interactions, and use of tools for achieving valued outcomes. This def-
inition highlights the social and contextual nature of pedagogy. It aligns with 
Vygotsky’s sociocultural understanding of learning and teaching, which Renshaw (1998, 
p.83) considered important, as ‘it situates learning (and teaching) as an aspect of interre-
lated historical, cultural, institutional, and communicative processes’. Adopting this 
contextualized perspective, we consider pedagogical changes associated with the learn-
ing-from-home event, which, owing to its unprecedented scale, can be taken as an ex-
ample epitomizing, what Renshaw (1998, p.83) described as, ‘novel forms of collective 
action and community participation that the technologies support’. In this reflection, we 
highlight the question of novelty in relation to pedagogical transformation amid the 
learning-from-home event, examining the extent to which this novel form of collective 
action has triggered ‘novel ways of acting, feeling and thinking’ about pedagogies. 

In the sections that follow, we describe first how education authorities in Aus-
tralia responded to the pandemic and in what ways ‘learning from home’ were taken as 
a temporary solution to school closure. Based on cultural-historic activity theory 
(CHAT), we then argue that due attention has not been given to utilizing home re-
sources (in addition to computing and internet technologies) and parental involvement 
as core components of a transformative pedagogy addressing educational exigencies 
due to the pandemic. At the time of writing, Australian jurisdictions were re-opening 
schools. Although the learning-from-home phenomenon is not perennial, home re-
sources, parental involvement and student agency are important features that can remain 
and be incorporated into teachers’ pedagogical repertoire. The COVID-19 pandemic 
provided a rare opportunity to reflect on current practices and reconsider significant 
pedagogical elements that could transform the learning and teaching processes. 
 
 

 

About the Author: Peter Renshaw, Professor, School of Education, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, 
Australia. Email: p.renshaw@uq.edu.au. 
Correspondence to: Clarence Ng, Associate Professor, Institute for Learning Sciences &; Teacher Education, 
Australian Catholic University, Level 4, 229 Elizabeth Street, Brisbane, QLD 4000, Australia. Email: clar-
ence.ng@acu.edu.au. 
Conflict of Interests: None. 

“ 



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Vol.5, No. 2, 2020 637 

COVID-19 Outbreak in Australia and School Closure 
In Australia, school closures began in late March 2020, following a wave of pandemic-
triggered restrictions including social distancing requirements, business closures, travel 
bans, and compulsory quarantine of travelers returning from overseas. Despite school 
closure, Scott Morrison, the Prime Minister, insisted that learning should be continued.  

‘One thing that I know teachers are united on, with their parents, is we do not 
want one of those things to be the loss of a child's education, giving up a whole year of 
their learning’ (SBS News, 15 April 2020).  

Education authorities in different Australian jurisdictions supported this stance 
wherein the concern about ‘a loss of learning’ justified creative arrangements to enable 
‘learning from home’. Complicating this novel education scene was that children of 
essential workers, such as medical professionals, were allowed to attend school, result-
ing in two cohorts of students – those who learnt from home and those who attended 
school. In this discussion, our concern was about the majority group of students who 
continued education using the mode of ‘learning from home’. 

The term ‘learning from home’ refers to different kinds of flexible learning ar-
rangements that schools and teachers used to assist students to continue education at 
home.  These flexible arrangements include online learning, using of pre-set learning 
packages, televised lessons, and their combinations. Teachers put together learning ma-
terials enabling learning through paper-based and online-based modes over a short peri-
od of time while the threat of coronavirus infection intensified. This involved redesign-
ing lesson plans and resources, careful structuring of learning activities, and developing 
new assessment tasks for online and self-guided or parent-guided learning. It was in-
deed a professional feat as Australian teachers made this possible within a short time 
amid the outbreak, which has inevitably fomented teachers’ concerns about unexpected 
workloads (Heaney & Breen, 2020). Recognising the immensity of tasks associated 
with ‘learning from home’, education authorities across the country have provided ur-
gent support and advice in relation to sample lesson plans, design of online learning 
activities and learning packages, and guidelines for delivering online lessons or ‘learn-
ing from home’ (see an example of departmental guidelines from Queensland, 
https://education.qld.gov.au/curriculum/learning-at-home; see examples of learning 
packages from New South Wales, https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/ 
learning-from-home/learning-at-home/learning-packages). In Queensland, the Depart-
ment of Education partnered with different TV networks to deliver televised lessons for 
lower primary and pre-school students in order to assist parents with ‘learning from 
home’, especially those who did not have IT skills or were disadvantaged due to cultur-
al, economic and linguistic constraints. Parental guidelines were provided to encourage 
parents to minimize distraction, provide learning spaces, and manage screen time and 
online safety for their children (see an example of parental guidelines from Victoria, 
https://www.education.vic.gov.au/parents/learning/Pages/home-learning.aspx). In many 
cases, parents were expected to play the role as a monitor to ensure that online lessons 
and learning activities were completed in accordance to a set plan (see ABC News, 

https://education.qld.gov.au/curriculum/learning-at-home
https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/learning-from-home/learning-at-home/learning-packages
https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/learning-from-home/learning-at-home/learning-packages
https://www.education.vic.gov.au/parents/learning/Pages/home-learning.aspx


Ng & Renshaw. Transforming Pedagogies in Australian Schools amid the COVID-19 Pandemic. 

Vol.5, No. 2, 2020 638 

2020a). Students’ engagement and attendance through online learning were monitored 
(Kelly, 2020). In some cases, students were told that their parents would be informed if 
they did not finish all the learning tasks diligently. For students who did not have com-
puting devices for online learning or who did not have internet access at home, the de-
partments of education and charitable organizations across the country offered internet 
dongles and mobile devices to many disadvantaged students. Nevertheless, the issue of 
digital divide remained the most pressing concern amid the pandemic. In particular, the 
negative impact on disadvantaged students was pronounced, as ‘only 68% of Australian 
children aged 5 to 14 living in disadvantaged communities have internet access at home, 
compared to 91% of students living in advantaged communities’ (Graham & Sahlberg, 
2020).  

‘Learning from home’ has indeed magnified some perennial educational prob-
lems in Australia, such as digital gap, educational inequalities, and literacy undera-
chievement. To evaluate the effects of school closure on students from vulnerable back-
grounds, the Federal Government called for a series of quick research and expert reports 
(e.g. Lamb, 2020; Masters, 2020) to examine critical issues such as digital divide, edu-
cational inequality and achievement gaps. These reports highlighted risks for vulnerable 
students from various disadvantaged backgrounds of falling further behind in academic 
achievement compared to their advantaged counterparts during the pandemic (Duffy, 
2020). A significant decision made by the Federal Government, in response, was to 
cancel the national test of literacy and numeracy (NAPLAN) that was originally sched-
uled to conduct in May 2020.  

Importantly, the learning-from-home initiative has revealed core elements of 
education in Australia. First, teachers were recognized and celebrated for their crucial 
role in educating children (ABC News, 2020b). Such recognition is in marked contrast 
to a decade of policy focus on top-down accountability that fostered mistrust of the 
teaching profession. Teachers’ professionalism, generosity and care for the students 
were widely acknowledged and celebrated in the media during school closure. Second, 
the cancellation of the national test of literacy and numeracy amid the pandemic indi-
cates that national tests such as NAPLAN have limited value in progressing learning for 
individual students. In this unprecedented time, the most important task was to enable 
meaningful learning to continue, but not testing, though an important concern was how 
best to assess Year 12 students and facilitate selection for university education. Third, 
home remains the most important place for learning to occur. In this sense, the govern-
ment has rightfully sought expert advice on facilitating ‘learning from home’ for vul-
nerable students from disadvantaged backgrounds. This of course highlighted the prob-
lem that some homes are less conducive to learning than others. Due attention, however, 
has not been given to positioning home, a significant place of education, as a solution or 
part of the solution to complex educational issues. The pandemic has inadvertently set a 
spotlight on ‘home’ as a significant source of and place for learning. This means that 
any meaningful solution needs to consider influences derived from home and ways that 
the home can be incorporated in the solution designed to overcome the problem of 
school closure. 



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Vol.5, No. 2, 2020 639 

 

Figure 1. A Triangular Representation of An Activity System. 
(adapted from Engeström, 1987, p.78) 
 
 
 

Reflecting on Pedagogy for “Learning from Home” 
Using Activity Theory 
The pandemic has made it possible to experiment with online delivery of school educa-
tion at a large scale in a short period of time. As education researchers, we are interest-
ed in reflecting on the systemic change in practice and exploring how the pandemic 
might facilitate a rare opportunity for transforming pedagogies. The key questions are: 
What has been changed? Were these changes transformative? These questions are im-
portant as we may face a second wave of infection and there is a need to prepare for 
a n o t h e r  u n p r e d i c t a b l e  e v e n t  t h a t  m a y  l e a d  t o  s c h o o l  c l o s u r e .  

We draw on Engeström’s cultural-historic activity theory (CHAT) to assist our 
reflection and exploration. CHAT is used because it conceptualizes pedagogy not as a 
set of teacher skills but as contextualized actions and practices in an activity system. 
Importantly, CHAT alerts us to take a holistic perspective to pedagogy by examining it 
as an emergent process derived from the interaction between components of an activity 
system as a whole. CHAT draws attention to the dynamic link between what teachers 
are trying to achieve, what they do, how students learn and resist learning, how other 

Subject Object Outcome

CommunityRules Division of Labour

Mediational Tools



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Vol.5, No. 2, 2020 640 

stakeholders contribute to learning/teaching, and how norms and rules are implemented 
and resisted. Figure 1 shows a triangular representation of a typical activity system that 
Engeström used to highlight essential nodal components of an activity system. These 
nodal components include subject, object, tools, rules, division of labour and a commu-
nity. Human actors (subjects) interact with each other using relevant cultural tools in 
their participation in an ‘activity’ in order to achieve a shared goal (an object) which is 
arguably the most important element separating one activity system from another. Ac-
tors’ interaction and mediated use of tools are governed by norms and values (rules) 
agreed between the members (community) who share a common interest on the object 
and play different roles within an activity system (division of labour).  It should be not-
ed that the whole activity system is always in a dynamic state fraught with contradic-
tions, as members interact with each other to achieve a goal that might be understood in 
different ways. An activity system is therefore “the minimal meaningful context” for 
understanding human actions and development (Kuutti, 1996, p.28).     

Using CHAT, we are able to avoid a reductionistic treatment of pedagogy, as it 
draws our attention to multivoicedness (different members), historicity and continuity 
(enduring institutional goals and practices) in pedagogical construction and develop-
ment.  Pedagogical change may involve a new educational goal, use of new technolo-
gies or a new curriculum, new rules (e.g. pre-requisite for university entrance), new 
partners who assume a particular role, and the dynamic interaction between new and 
extant elements in a pedagogical activity system. Pedagogical change, therefore, is an 
uncertain venture wherein contradictions and tensions abound, as teachers, students and 
other members interact and adjust with each other during the introduction of a new ped-
agogical element. Negotiation is inherent to the process of pedagogical change and re-
solving successfully contradictions and tensions is critical for genuine pedagogical 
transformation (Ng, 2009). 

From a CHAT perspective, major pedagogical changes during the learning-
from-home event involve the following areas: 

1. Mode of delivery changes from face-to-face interaction to online delivery 
or working remotely on pre-packaged materials; 

2. Lesson context changes from classroom-based activities to home-based ac-
tivities; 

3. Teacher’s role changes from classroom instructor to online instructor and 
designer of pre-packaged/online curriculum materials;    

4. Student’s role changes from learning in a face-to-face interactive context 
in the classroom to learning individually using self-contained materials or 
participating remotely on online platforms;  

5. Parent’s role expands to encompass supporter, monitor and regulator of 
child’s online learning or other forms of ‘learning from home’ activities; 

6. Multimodal literacy strategies are required for effective interactions be-
tween peers, and between students and teachers during online learning. 

To examine the extent to which the classroom-based pedagogical system has 
been transformed, it is not sufficient to examine changes at a particular node (see Figure 



Ng & Renshaw. Transforming Pedagogies in Australian Schools amid the COVID-19 Pandemic. 

Vol.5, No. 2, 2020 641 

1). Any pedagogical change needs to be considered in the context of interconnected 
relationships between individual nodes within an activity system. Therefore, pedagogi-
cal change during the pandemic is not just a question of students’ access to the internet 
and the quality of internet connection at home. Additional questions include: Are stu-
dents prepared for online learning? What forms of support are available from teachers, 
peers and parents? What forms of interaction are promoted on online platforms? What 
kinds of learning outcomes are privileged in online materials? From a teacher’s per-
spective, the question goes beyond the quality of re-designed learning materials provid-
ed to students via an online platform. Additional considerations include whether teach-
ers have the required knowledge and skills to assume the role of online instructor and 
what capabilities they have developed to teach effectively in an online environment. 
More importantly, as ‘learning from home’ assumes parental involvement, the extent to 
which teachers understand how to involve parents in online learning and home-based 
learning is crucial for successful delivery of ‘learning from home’. From a parent’s per-
spective, the key concern is not just whether internet and computing devices are provid-
ed to their children. It is also important to examine whether parents feel comfortable to 
take on new roles as a monitor and supporter of online learning or home-based learning. 
Parents’ knowledge and skills of online learning and their understanding of school cur-
riculum are critically important to supporting their children’s online learning and other 
forms of ‘learning from home’ activities. Furthermore, worries and concerns from 
teachers, students and parents about these changes need to be dealt with. Taken together, 
successful and transformative change is not simply a matter of putting materials online 
or ensuring students’ online attendance as scheduled.   

Has the pandemic enabled the emergence of a new form of pedagogy stretched 
across home-school contexts and mediated by online technologies and materials? The 
key to answering this question is to examine the object within an activity system, which, 
as explained above, is an important element that separates different activity systems. 
This is because it is through the object that different component elements are designed 
and related to each other. Importantly, the object signifies what is worthwhile pursuing 
and what is being valued as an outcome in an activity system. It seems to us that during 
the ‘learning from home’ period, the object of teaching and learning remained un-
changed (though setting up online platform and developing learning packages can be 
taken as a transient object at the initial stage of school closure). Teachers and schools 
still focused on the extant curriculum goals. For example, scholars (see 
https://www.dese.gov.au/covid-19/schools) who were commissioned by the Australian 
Government to write short research reports on the effects of home-based learning dur-
ing the pandemic, framed their responses in terms of ‘loss of learning’ and ‘widening 
gaps’. They deployed metrics to describe the loss in terms of the number of months or 
terms of a normal school year (see for example, Lamb, 2020; Masters, 2020). This re-
veals that for policymakers the learning-from-home event was an aberration from the 
standard form of schooling. This of course became problematic. Worries and tensions 
were unavoidable as teachers, principals and parents wondered how ‘learning from 
home’ could ensure steady progress of learning as set out in the national curriculum 

https://www.dese.gov.au/covid-19/schools


Ng & Renshaw. Transforming Pedagogies in Australian Schools amid the COVID-19 Pandemic. 

Vol.5, No. 2, 2020 642 

(ABC News, 2020a; Heaney & Breen, 2020). Unsurprisingly, in many cases, ‘learning 
from home’ involved an identical lesson schedule and similar teaching routines used in 
classroom-based instruction, which of course, made it hard for students to maintain en-
gagement when they were expected to sit through a day’s lessons in front of a computer 
or a mobile device, though younger children might have had more freedom regarding 
how they engaged in a lesson under the supervision of their parents (ABC News, 2020a).  
Parents responded anxiously to the narrative of loss of learning measured against pre-
set curriculum standards. Asking parents to monitor students’ engagement in online 
learning or completing pre-set learning activities at home, as reported repeatedly in the 
media, created anxieties and increased conflicts with their children (Fisher, 2020). Mi-
grant parents faced additional challenges due to cultural differences, language barriers 
and limited knowledge about the Australian educational systems (Yang et al., 2020). 
Our view is that the legitimate and significant role of ‘home’ as a source of and a place 
for learning has not been acknowledged sufficiently in the learning-from-home initia-
tive. Below we discuss this case of missed opportunity based on the notion of funds of 
knowledge (Gonzalez et al., 2006).  

A Missed Opportunity  
The pandemic offered a rare opportunity for reconsidering pedagogy and change. In 
addition to critical issues such as teachers’ technological pedagogical content 
knowledge (TPACK) and effective use of social media and internet resources, an im-
portant point of consideration is the extent to which resources and practices derived 
from home and relevant communities can be incorporated into the learning and teaching 
processes in order to develop a transformative pedagogy. From a CHAT perspective, 
home-based and/or community-based resources and practices can be taken as cultural 
tools for learning. Linking the school curriculum with valued knowledge and practice at 
home and in the wider community can create a problem space for negotiating a shared 
object or valued outcome in a pedagogical activity system. This is a problem space be-
cause teachers’ epistemological beliefs about valued knowledge and how best to teach it 
will be challenged when deliberate connection is made to link school curriculum with 
cultural knowledge and practices derived from home and wider communities. In this 
form of transformative pedagogy, students are no longer receivers of knowledge con-
trolled by the teacher; they too are legitimate knowers with access to, and experience of 
cultural knowledge and practices. Parents can be expected to play an important role as 
an expert knower assisting their children to make sense of knowledge about a school 
subject from a cultural perspective, sharing their experiences and understanding.   

Related to this proposal is the concept of and research on funds of knowledge 
(FoK). FoK is “a systematic and powerful way to represent communities (including 
home) in terms of resources, the wherewithal they possess and how to harness these 
resources…” (González et al., 2006, p.x).  FoK includes, but is not limited to, language 
practices, social relationships, knowledge about culture, histories and local environ-
ments and a set of strategies for getting things done. This concept bridges the gap be-
tween school and home and enables theorization of pedagogy based not on the teacher’s 



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Vol.5, No. 2, 2020 643 

own knowledge of the curriculum but also ‘the lives of ordinary people, their everyday 
activities and what has led them to the place they find themselves’ (González et al., 
2006, p.1). Importantly, this approach ‘allows for variability within populations’ and 
‘the infinite variations that social agents are able to negotiate within a structure’ (Gon-
zález et al., 2006, p.43). In other words, FoK acknowledges diversity, respects agency 
and values localized knowledge.  More significantly, González emphasizes that FoK is 
formed and transformed within sociohistorical circumstances and constructed through 
discourses. From this perspective, any form of ‘learning from home’ needs to consider 
(i) In what ways localized knowledge can be connected with school curriculum; and (ii) 
How to utilize FoK to promote a dialogue in order that school learning and family prac-
tices are related in sensible and meaningful ways. In this way, students and their fami-
lies are positioned as knowledgeable partners in the course of delivering ‘learning from 
home’. This will also help bridge the divide between school and home, and avoid a def-
icit view of learning, especially for students coming from culturally and linguistically 
diverse communities or economically disadvantaged families. In this context, Rodriguez 
(2103) alerted us to the issue of power imbalance in advancing FoK pedagogical de-
signs. More recently, Llopart and Esteban-Guitart (2017, 2018) have reviewed FoK 
pedagogical designs that addressed power relationship and purposefully connected cul-
tural knowledge and family practices to school curriculum.      

An Illustration 
At this point we want to illustrate how FoK can be part of the learning-from-home pro-
cess using a news article reported in the ABC news, dated 27 April 2020 (Parker, 2020). 
In this article, an Australian parent, named Rachel Parker, recounted her worries about 
‘learning from home’ and how she greeted with tears what her Year 4 daughter, Lila, 
called the ‘mummy school’. Rachel, Lila and other family members experienced the 
rigidness of ‘learning from home’ as Lila shouted ‘shut up’ to all her family members at 
the commencement of her online lesson. Though the news article did not depict a de-
tailed account of all the worries that Lila and the family had experienced as a result of 
‘learning from home’, Rachel’s thought of needing to ‘get out of here’ and to take a 
walk with Lila in the nearby park epitomized her frustration. 

As the pair walked through the park, Rachel engaged Lila in an educational 
chat about different creatures they encountered. They saw flying bugs and Rachel raised 
a question about ‘what are they? Will they bite?’. They saw other dogs and Lila asked 
the owner ‘do they shed?’. They were puzzled to see a truck with a barrel of chemicals 
and a spray gun and wondered what it did. Lila thought it might be related to the out-
break. Rachel and Lila continued to talk about what they had seen as they returned 
home. 

The day continued for Lila and the family, not following the scheduled online 
lessons, but through a pretend play of running a home café for the family members. Lila 
initiated the home café after watching a YouTube video of a girl who started a restau-
rant in her driveway during the pandemic. Lila, as the chef, created a menu for her 
mother to read. Playing the role as a waitress, Lila took order from Rachel and her elder 



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Vol.5, No. 2, 2020 644 

sister, calculated the price and served them in a physical setting observing social dis-
tancing rules. Lila assigned Rachel to play different roles including servant, cleaner and 
IT helpdesk. Rachel, in her role as an IT employee, helped Lila re-design the menu us-
ing the photos of food and drinks they took, showed her how to use Word and email, 
and how to use different Word functions to type and price new items. The pair dis-
cussed operating costs, pricing, and discounts. They watched YouTube videos on deci-
mals, fractions and percentages in order to work out discounts for the family members. 
They also decided to donate the profits to a hospital for purchasing surgical masks. As a 
customer, Rachel wrote a review of the café for Lila to read. 

Rachel, in her reflection, considered Lila’s learning during the day met the 
Year 4 English curriculum that requires students to create texts using software and mul-
timodal sources. It also covered the Year 4 Mathematics curriculum of learning frac-
tions and decimals and using them in relevant contexts. She concluded that her experi-
ence of ‘learning from home’ could serve as a reminder that ‘we might use parts of our 
ordinary lives as the canvas to paint a simple picture of learning through play at home’.   

From a FoK perspective, this play-based case illustrates that home is an im-
portant source of and place for learning. Home furniture, kitchen equipment, home 
space, and computer and internet resources were re-organized and redeployed to enable 
play-based learning of a home café. Notably, the short walk in the park and an engaging 
talk about creatures they encountered set the scene for Lila to free up her creative mind 
and for Rachel to see alternative learning possibilities. Rachel, as the parent, played an 
important role enabling, facilitating and participating in meaningful learning that met 
Lila’s needs and simultaneously addressed the requirements of the school curriculum. 
This was a stark contrast to the role of monitoring children’s learning and ensuring 
time-on-task that the school expected parents to take. Creativity, flexibility and in-
volvement are keys to success, as demonstrated in Lila’s play-based learning. A rather 
different picture would have evolved if Rachel had insisted Lila to follow the school’s 
rigid schedule of learning which specified the exact time that Lila was required to work 
on literacy, mathematics and other subjects on a daily basis.  

This case outlines a transformative pedagogy utilizing home resources and pa-
rental involvement based on play-based scenarios. Teachers, of course, need to under-
stand and gather students’ FoK before they can incorporate cultural knowledge and 
family practices as part of a transformative pedagogy. FoK researchers have achieved 
this through ethnographic studies involving home visits and interviewing parents (e.g. 
González et al., 1995; Kiyama, 2010). Other researchers have explored students’ FoK 
through classroom discourse and interaction (e.g. Barton & Tan, 2009; Moje et al., 
2004). Another important consideration is how to connect family practices to school 
curriculum. Addressing this issue, Llopart and Esteban-Guitart (2017) have reviewed an 
array of studies to show how student-produced artefacts such as photographs, texts and 
digital productions can be utilized to develop a pedagogy building on students’ cultural 
knowledge and experiences. Critical to school-home connection is the question of what 
can be counted as learning. In the case of Lila’s play-based learning, Rachel considered 
play-based learning favourably, while Lila’s teenager sister held a different view and 



Ng & Renshaw. Transforming Pedagogies in Australian Schools amid the COVID-19 Pandemic. 

Vol.5, No. 2, 2020 645 

commented that it was not ‘real learning’. This tension could be generative if it opened 
up the problem space for reconsidering the object of a pedagogical activity system, i.e. 
what counts as valued knowledge and outcomes. Due attention should be given to the 
issue of power asymmetry inherent in this tension, as students and parents are always 
positioned at the receiving end of education (Rodriguez, 2013). The case of Lila’s play-
based learning, aligned with FoK studies reviewed by Llopart and Esteban-Guitart 
(2018), speaks against treating students and parents from a deficit perspective. As 
shown in Lila’s case, curriculum knowledge can be developed through meaningful ac-
tivities at home (e.g. calculating discounts using fractions for family members) where 
students and parents are legitimate knowers. Connecting school curriculum with family 
practices can only be taken as an effective design principle for developing transforma-
tive pedagogies when cultural knowledge and family practices are rightfully respected 
and utilized to enrich school learning.   

Conclusion 
In this paper, we have reflected on ‘learning from home’ as a novel collective response 
to the pandemic in Australia. We focused on pedagogy as the main issue because peda-
gogy is at the heart of all forms of learning, whether it occurs in the classroom, at home 
or on online platforms. Under the sway of neoliberal policies current pedagogical prac-
tices have become closely aligned with reductive accountability metrics. A good exam-
ple is the concern about a loss of learning during the pandemic. In response, ‘learning 
from home’ that was supposed to be a flexible means to meet students’ diverse needs, 
was taken as a conduit for the curriculum using rigid daily routines and schedules. We 
argued that this was a missed opportunity for transforming extant pedagogies and rede-
signing how home and parents could contribute to the pedagogical process.  

‘We are in this together’ is a narrative widely used in the Australian media urg-
ing mutual support and care during the pandemic. If we are truly in this together, then 
the ‘we’ needs to include everyone. Following this narrative of togetherness, a trans-
formative pedagogy, responding to the exigencies of a shared challenge posed by the 
pandemic, calls for a focus on diversity and cultural resources at home and in different 
communities. Losing sight of support on learning derived from home resources and pa-
rental involvement may result in a form of ‘learning from home’ that is decontextual-
ized, rigid and disengaging. By understanding learning that diverse students may en-
gage in outside the classroom and by creating ways for these lived experiences of learn-
ing to be woven into the curriculum and classroom activities, we may be able to trans-
form our pedagogy with a focus on multiple contributors and partners within a re-
configured activity system, bringing partners together, working collaboratively towards 
a shared goal and outcome of education. In doing so, such a transformative pedagogy 
hinges not just on how well teachers are prepared or knowledgeable about the curricu-
lum, but also how students and parents can be a curriculum partner bringing their re-
sources and knowledge to enliven a curriculum text in their own lived environment. The 
pandemic provides a chance for us to reflect on a transformative pedagogy. 
Engeström’s CHAT alerts us to the importance of developing a shared vision based on 



Ng & Renshaw. Transforming Pedagogies in Australian Schools amid the COVID-19 Pandemic. 

Vol.5, No. 2, 2020 646 

broadened understanding of knowledge and learning; where students, parents and 
teachers together negotiate the curriculum; and where multiple voices and localized 
practices are valued. In this way, we propose a vision of connected learning linking 
school and home at the post-pandemic world. Essentially, this form of new learning is 
agentic, intergenerational, participatory and multicultural in nature. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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Ng & Renshaw. Transforming Pedagogies in Australian Schools amid the COVID-19 Pandemic. 

Vol.5, No. 2, 2020 648 

Received: 16 June 2020 
Revised: 18 June 2020 

Accepted: 18 June 2020 
 
 


	OriginalArticle-Clarence-BECE_title_15July2020
	OriginalArticle-Clarence-BECE_Maintext15July2020

