Intermittent students: educational identification in the context of the Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

When we talk about liminal states, we refer to the transitory experiences that we must go through at different stages of our lives (Turner, 1988), in which we are stripped of our individuality to become threshold entities until we integrate to society when these experiences end (Turner, 1988). From here, we can understand adolescence as a liminal state that corresponds to the passage of human beings from childhood to adulthood. During this same time, these individuals cross the invisible border drawn during High School that separates the un-graduated from the graduated. However, during the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, these experiences were hampered, mainly due to education moving online, thereby affecting the educational process of students who had no access to the Internet or to electronic devices. After that, we will analyze the liminal experiences and the multidimensional processes associated with the identificatory negotiations of a group of adolescents from Quito, Ecuador, within the context of virtual education. To do this, we investigate the ways in which these adolescents identify as students when they lack the necessary tools to participate in online classes. With this in mind, we seek to show the multiple trajectories that these adolescents followed simultaneously to reconcile their identification as learners in response to these experiences of ambiguity, disorientation, and impotence that arise from their irregular attendance at online classes.