Remote Control:

Blurred Boundaries in the Zoom Classroom

A Case Study with Alysha Banerji

In this Ethics Monday moderated by Director Eric Beerbohm, we welcome Edmond & Lily Safra Center Graduate Fellow Alysha Banerji. Banerji will lead the audience through her case study, "Remote Control: Blurred Boundaries in the Zoom Classroom" from Educational Equity in a Global Context: Cases and Conversations in Educational Ethics, a recently released anthology designed to guide readers through complex and nuanced conversations about dilemmas of equity and ethics around the world.

Available in-person or via zoom. Registration is required. Participants are asked to read Remote Control: Blurred Boundaries in the Zoom Classroom, in advance of the session. A light lunch will be served.

About "Remote Control: Blurred Boundaries in the Zoom Classroom":

Schools across the United States continue to rely on virtual instruction for some, or even all instructional time, forcing them to grapple with ethical dilemmas initially raised during the Covid-19 pandemic. Participants in this session will engage in a normative case study discussion, exploring the liminal nature of the online classroom and consequent tensions related to the private and public dimensions of school and home. How should teachers navigate situations where school policies conflict with students' families expectations? Should schools hold students accountable to school policies, while in their own homes? How can educators balance pedagogical considerations, with commitments to privacy, equity, and consistency in the virtual classroom and beyond? 

About Alysha Banerji:

Alysha Banerji is a Ph.D candidate in Education at Harvard University, a National Academy of Education/ Spencer Dissertation Fellow, and a Graduate Fellow at the Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University. In her dissertation, she explores university responses to forced migration and displacement, and the implications of these initiatives for situating universities as global civic actors. Previously, she has been an Ethics Pedagogy Fellow at the Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Ethics, a McPherson Fellow at the Center for Ethics and Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a Dissertation Fellow at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University. She has also served on the Editorial Board of the Harvard Educational Review, from 2020-2022.

Prior to her doctoral training, Alysha worked towards increasing educational access in a diverse range of contexts. She was an Assistant Education Specialist at UNESCO Santiago, Chile, supporting the implementation of the Education 2030 Agenda in the Latin America and Caribbean region. Between 2013-16, she managed the national expansion of the India School Leadership Institute, an organization that provided leadership training for principals of public and low-income private schools across India. She has also worked in college access in the US, managing SAT preparation and college application support programs for low-income and first-generation youth across Massachusetts. Alysha holds a BA in Philosophy from Hamilton College, and an M.S.Ed in International Education Development from the University of Pennsylvania.

Harvard University welcomes individuals with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you would like to request accommodations or have questions about those provided, please respond to this email in advance of the event. Please note that the Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics will make every effort to secure services, but that these are subject to availability.