Adaptability versus resistance: Strategies for emergency remote education amid COVID-19 in Swedish higher education

This article delves into emergency remote education in higher education during the COVID-19 pandemic. Building on 82 interviews with students, teachers, and other staff at 10 education programmes in the natural and social sciences and humanities at Uppsala University, Sweden, and drawing on Bourdieu's field concept, we analysed various stances regarding emergency remote education. Our analysis revealed four main strategies: (1) Though emergency remote education called for significant changes, the education programmes resisted transformation; (2) Emergency remote education necessitated significant changes, which the education programmes adapted to; (3) Emergency remote education demanded relatively small changes, yet the programmes were inclined to undergo larger transformations; and (4) Even if emergency remote education required only minor adjustments, the programmes resisted those changes. These strategies should be interpreted in the context of practical and organisational challenges within the programmes, and, most importantly, in relation to the programmes’ positions within the field of higher education.