“What does this have to do with everything else?” An ecological reading of the impact of the 1918–19 influenza pandemic on education

Abstract

The question “What does this have to do with everything else?” refers to ecological thinking. In this article, we use an ecological approach to explore the interrelationships between the incidence of the influenza pandemic of 1918–19, its trajectories and impacts on education. Our emphasis on children and their environment, as specific ecological arrangements, allows the mapping of associated social, institutional, cultural and material contexts and relations, alongside axes of experiences, behaviours and choices during a life-threatening crisis. To achieve this we apply the multiple perspectives that an ecological approach demands and use four different sources of evidence, from Sweden, Portugal, England and Spain, respectively: a teacher obituary, a magazine article, a school Log Book and an artist’s drawing. Each piece of evidence helps to identify lines of articulation and strands of entanglements projected in time and space. Their joint ecological reading enables the grasping of glocal connections, uncovering a few tesserae of a much larger mosaic, and pointing to the inherent potential of an educational-ecological approach to the study of past pandemics.