It has become a cliché to say we are living through unprecedented times. The COVID-19 pandemic has unleashed a crisis that has not only exposed deep and entrenched inequalities, both within and between societies, but has also demonstrated how profoundly interconnected we all are. How well we recover from or learn to live with COVID-19 will depend, to a large extent, on how willing people are to behave in a cooperative way, acknowledging and respecting the needs of their neighbours as well as their own. This is as true among nations as it is among people. One of the many lessons of the pandemic, highlighted in the final article of this issue of the International Review of Education – Journal of Lifelong Learning (IRE), is how intimately and inescapably individual behaviour and group risk are linked. The worst public health crisis in living memory is an appalling tragedy; but it is also an opportunity – a fleeting one, I suspect – to restore and strengthen our commitment to the common good, address long-standing structural inequalities (and question the privileges of the very wealthy), and radically rethink areas of social policy, including education, in terms of public rather than private good. Old orthodoxies must fall by the wayside if we are to build a future that is fair, safe, inclusive and sustainable. The pandemic has confined people to their homes, deprived some workers of a livelihood (while exposing others and their families to acute risk), shut businesses (in some cases permanently) and forced schools, universities and other education providers to close their doors and seek alternative ways of ensuring continuity of learning. The crisis is presenting enormous challenges in education. New questions are being asked of educators and education policymakers, and they are being asked in every part of the world and at every level of education. Not surprisingly, this crisis has also prompted a major revaluation of what education is for and how fairly its benefits are distributed, and a serious re-examination of whether national systems of education, as they are currently constituted (and funded), can deliver on their increasingly tired-looking promises to alleviate poverty and inequality. With the social contract looking fragile in many parts of the world, and the cost of the

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共同思考：迈向终身学习社会

说我们正经历前所未有的时代已经成为陈词滥调。COVID-19 大流行引发了一场危机，不仅暴露了社会内部和社会之间根深蒂固的不平等，而且还表明我们所有人之间的相互联系是多么深刻。我们从 COVID-19 中恢复或学会与 COVID-19 共存的程度在很大程度上取决于人们是否愿意以合作的方式行事，承认和尊重邻居以及他们自己的需求。国家之间如此，人与人之间也是如此。本期《国际教育评论 - 终身学习杂志》(IRE) 的最后一篇文章强调了大流行的众多教训之一，即个人行为与群体风险之间的联系是多么密切和不可避免。记忆中最严重的公共卫生危机是一场骇人听闻的悲剧；但这也是一个机会——我怀疑是一个转瞬即逝的机会——恢复和加强我们对共同利益的承诺，解决长期存在的结构性不平等（并质疑非常富有的人的特权），并从根本上重新思考社会政策领域，包括教育，就公共利益而非私人利益而言。如果我们要建设一个公平、安全、包容和可持续的未来，旧的正统观念就必须被抛弃。大流行使人们被限制在家中，剥夺了一些工人的生计（同时使其他人和他们的家人面临严重风险），关闭企业（在某些情况下是永久性的）并迫使学校、大学和其他教育提供者关门并寻求确保学习连续性的替代方法。这场危机给教育带来了巨大挑战。教育工作者和教育政策制定者提出了新的问题，世界各地和教育的各个层次都在提出新问题。毫不奇怪，这场危机还促使人们对教育的目的以及其利益分配的公平程度进行了重大的重新评估，并认真重新审视了目前构成（和资助）的国家教育体系是否能够实现他们日益疲倦的承诺减轻贫困和不平等。由于世界许多地方的社会契约看起来很脆弱，而且 世界各地和各级教育都在要求他们。毫不奇怪，这场危机还促使人们对教育的目的以及其利益分配的公平程度进行了重大的重新评估，并认真重新审视了目前构成（和资助）的国家教育体系是否能够实现他们日益疲倦的承诺减轻贫困和不平等。由于世界许多地方的社会契约看起来很脆弱，而且 世界各地和各级教育都在要求他们。毫不奇怪，这场危机还促使人们对教育的目的以及其利益分配的公平程度进行了重大的重新评估，并认真重新审视了目前构成（和资助）的国家教育体系是否能够实现他们日益疲倦的承诺减轻贫困和不平等。由于世界许多地方的社会契约看起来很脆弱，而且 可以兑现他们日益疲倦的承诺，以减轻贫困和不平等。由于世界许多地方的社会契约看起来很脆弱，而且 可以兑现他们日益疲倦的承诺，以减轻贫困和不平等。由于世界许多地方的社会契约看起来很脆弱，而且