Turning Crisis into Opportunities : New Insights for Academic Experiences During the Pandemic Inspired from a Cultural-Historical and Activity Theory Perspective in an Autoethnography

The crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically changed many academic practices and situations that used to be taken for granted, leaving academia in a state of shock and chaos. As an individual who tried to meet new demands brought by the changing academic environment, I also experienced a sense of crisis. However, as I tried to meet those new demands, I developed new capabilities and employable skills. In this chapter, I will present selected accounts of my personal experiences in academia, both as a Ph.D. candidate and a higher education teacher during the pandemic. Cultural-historical and activity theory concepts, such as the concept of activity and the concept of crisis, are used to provide analytical insights into my experiences. The new insights helped me shift my perception of crises as something negative to opportunities and potential for development. It is argued that the concepts of activity and crisis can be useful conceptual tools to transform our way of perceiving crises and thus find new developmental conditions for ourselves in challenging situations.

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