This paper, as part of a European Commission-funded project
entitled REBEL (Repurposing Education through Blended
Learning), deconstructs school communities understanding of the
challenges and opportunities for blended learning in the school
sector in Ireland with perceptions shaped by experiences of
enforced school closures during the pandemic. It provides an
overview of five case studies in primary and post-primary schools
in Ireland. The findings from this research indicate that the
emergency remote teaching experience has cast an unhelpful
shadow on blended learning. To avoid stigmatising online
teaching and learning based on less than ideal experiences, in
spring 2020, Hodges and co-authors referred to this period as
‘emergency remote teaching.’ (Hodges et al., 2020). Perhaps
blended learning is also the victim of a similar stigmatising effect.
The paper makes several contributions, including a need to
differentiate between blended learning, emergency remote
teaching and the suite of additional factors that impacted the
school closure experience for teachers and schools. In addition,
the findings signpost some succinct questions for consideration,
that is, what conditions, social, cognitive, and teacher presence,
resources and supports are necessary for effective intentional
blended learning in schools