COVID-19: IT'S TIME TO RETHINK THE LEARNING IN OPEN PUBLIC SPACE

The Covid-19 pandemic has significantly influenced the use of public space in the last few months. By restricting on the use of public space and distancing as key strategies to reduce transmission of Covid-19, people lost their vibrant, social and lively public places. However, public space provides the range of places and processes of informal learning and public pedagogy - it may fosters learning through engagement and actions. Through its integrative nature, public space is place for building personal and community identity, learning social rules, tolerance, and common action as previous research has shown. However, Covid-19 questioned all these attributes that public space can offer. Therefore, by using theoretical framework of public pedagogy, the learning in public space in the light of Covid-19 is analysed. Our findings will indicate that: (a) public pedagogy can give us the necessary framework for understanding of learning that happen in public space;and (b) Covid-19 may fundamentally alter how we learn, perceive and use public space.