Abstract:

The term “engagement” has been widely used in educational contexts, especially those involving the use of digital technologies to mediate teaching and learning processes. This became even more evident from the Covid-19 pandemic, declared by the World Health Organization in 2020, when schools were closed for a while and classes took place remotely (NÓVOA, 2020). In this context, it was necessary to seek ways to reduce the abandonment and dropout of students, many times without the possibility of following the classes remotely - which also referred to the concept of engagement. In many contexts, an engaged student is seen as an ideal, present and participatory student (GOURLAY et al., 2021). However, the notion of engagement within the field of Education still seems to be poorly defined, with the term being used as a synonym for actions that involve some kind of participation or action by the student and, often, in an application vaguely and without proper definition. This study aims to map the academic productions on the subject, as well as the definitions of engagement and the main theoretical references used, based on the results from a search in the Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) database. In methodological terms, the search was carried out on October 14, 2022, using the following terms: "engagement" and "higher education", in all fields, with the cutouts "educational technology" and "COVID-19", which resulted in 25 papers selected for analysis. As a result, in relation to the places where the studies were carried out, the geographical distribution is as follows: Africa (2), America (10), Asia (6), Europe (4) and Oceania (6), with only 3 of them occurring jointly, between institutions from different continents. Regarding publication dates, 3 works were published in 2020, 19 in 2021 and 3 in 2022. Regarding the methodology, 10 studies used the case study, 5 used a survey, in 5 there were interviews, 3 of them were literature reviews and 2 articles did not clarify the methodology used. Based on the definitions given to engagement in the theoretical framework, the term was cited as follows: in 5 papers it was reported as autonomy (like when students are able to deal with their own learning process), in 14 participation in online activities (ie when students show their participation), in 8 it referred to social elements (like interaction with others or with the teachers), in 2 as questioning (showing participation also, but specific asking questions), in 1 linked to fun and in 2 others the term was not clearly defined. It is noteworthy that in the same article the term was used with more than one definition. As conclusions, it can be seen that the notion of engagement in this context is mostly defined like the moment when students show that they are making something (participating, questioning, interacting etc). None of the papers, in the other hand, highlights why engagement is important to learning, the main goal of the education. As a suggestion for future studies, it remains the possibility to clarify this link between engagement and learning and how to provide ways to improve this engagement in different contexts.

References:
[1] Gourlay, L. et al. (2021). ‘Engagement’ Discourses and the Student Voice: Connectedness, Questioning and Inclusion in Post-Covid Digital Practices. Journal of Interactive Media in Education 1(15).
[2] Nóvoa, A. (2020). Entrevista: A pandemia de Covid-19 e o futuro da educação. Com Censo#22 7(3).

Keywords:

Educational Technology, Distance education, Engagement.