Educators’ perspectives of online teaching during the pandemic: implications for initial teacher education

This qualitative research study focuses on the challenges for educators in schools and universities when teaching face-to-face in formal contexts was removed and learning and teaching moved entirely online. Using Goffman’s concepts of dramaturgy and self-presentation, alongside concepts from spatial geography, the study shows how educators made sense of the new ‘hybrid’ contexts for online working in which they found themselves, how they constructed their changed performances and pedagogies, how they engaged in impression management, and how they negotiated the implications of the contradictions and ambiguities around public/private encounters online for their professional performances. Looking to the future, the paper then discusses the implications of the findings for teacher education, identifying that, whilst learning to teach online as well as face-to-face and becoming familiar with a range of appropriate technologies to support high-quality learning are clearly vital, new teachers also need to develop enhanced design skills underpinned by learner-centred values which enable them to become pedagogically agile and confident in managing their professional selves, whether online or offline, in responding to learner needs.