It is important to mark the Covid-19 lockdown as a significant transition which educators and students experienced. We all, to varying degrees, experienced a range of social, cultural and psychological transitions during the first and subsequent national lockdowns. Educators and students were required to adapt quickly to new ways of learning and reduced social contact, and many experienced ongoing anxieties about the global pandemic. Normative transitions were disrupted and therefore events which are usually fixed in the academic calendar to signify a person’s achievement (examinations, graduations, leaving assemblies and proms) did not take place. Within this context of ongoing uncertainty, returning to the classroom was never going to be easy for some.

This special issue of the BERA Blog focuses on the experiences of educators and students returning to the classroom post-lockdown. It includes contributions from lecturers, students and academics to capture a diverse range of voices and builds on a conference held in January 2022, which was led by BERA’s Mental Health, Wellbeing and Education special interest group.

The blog series features:

• A contribution from a first-year student who describes his sense of ‘hybrid learning limbo’ while navigating the staggered return to in-person teaching and considers what he has discovered about his own learning preferences.
• Reflections from a final-year student on his unique experience as the ‘Covid generation’ of 2022 graduates, highlighting resilience and the power of peer support, and exposing gaps in institutional support.
• A discussion of the turmoil in education over the last two years and how normative transitions have been badly shaken alongside the unprecedented challenges of pandemic-driven changes.
• A post about the evolving educational landscape post-pandemic, which looks and feels different, and the challenges and opportunities that are presenting as we transition to a ‘new normal’.