Berkeley Review of Education

This study examines the political debate surrounding New York City’s school reopening during the COVID-19 pandemic. Informed by Stuart Hall’s intellectual work, the author views the COVID-19 pandemic as a conjuncture in the terrains of social movements, where discursive possibilities for critical reflections and democratic transformations became available. In this article, the author first focuses on the neoliberal values and ideologies that prioritize the economy and exercise the power of rationality. She then investigates how Hall’s concepts of articulation and hegemony supported us to examine the ways race, class, and other social factors interacted within the contemporary sociopolitical context. The analysis demonstrates the empowerment and solidarity people built through engaging in the PEP public hearings and provides insights into rethinking what the educational and social system could look like in the post-COVID world.