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- “Reimagining a Positive Direction for Education”: insights from teachers on digital learning during the COVID-19 pandemicPublication . Cardoso, Teresa Margarida Loureiro; Bastos, Glória; Pestana, FilomenaDigital transition in education reached a greater relevance with the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, when the provision of teaching and learning shifted overnight to emergency remote scenarios, delivered in distance and online settings. Although the development of digital skills has been targeted as an educational priority at national, European and international levels, how confident did the teachers feel to tackle that unexpected compulsory change to e-learning? And what implications did it bring to the teachers’ comprehension of their role? These were some of the issues dealt within the RAPIDE European project, in which it was aimed to evidence possible ways for “Reimagining a Positive Direction for Education”. In the scope of the project, different activities and initiatives were offered to different educational actors, including teachers, namely a short teacher training course, focused on teachers’ narratives on their experiences, voicing European perspectives about digital learning. In the end, the teachers-trainees were invited to reflect on their own personal experiences during the lockdowns. The goal of this exploratory research is thus to analyse those reflections, bearing in mind the two questions previously mentioned. We will adopt the case study methodology, and apply content analysis to the data collected through a google forms, in which the teachers-trainees wrote their reflections. The training is presented, so as to provide the context in which we interviewed 18 teachers who took part in it. The interview-reflection was mediated by the technological tool previously referred to, and was guided by the 4R model framework developed within the RAPIDE project, though for now we will only consider the dimension of the reflection. A preliminary analysis of our results indicates that even if not all the teachers felt quite confident to address the mandatory shift to emergency remote teaching, as some refer the permanent need to “invest in the new technologies”, all embraced the implications it brought to the comprehension of their role, as teachers, specifically in that time of sanitary crisis. As one of the teachers-trainees acknowledged, “the role of the teacher had to be thought through and it was necessary to place the focus on guiding and conducting learning.” To conclude, the insights from the teachers on digital learning during the COVID19 pandemic that surface from their reflections may contribute not only to “Teacher Education on the Move”, but also to “Reimaging Our Futures Together”, which ultimately requires to keep on “Reimagining a Positive Direction for Education”.
- Reimagining a positive direction for education through digital learning: realities during the pandemic crisis voiced by teachersPublication . Cardoso, Teresa Margarida Loureiro; Bastos, Glória; Pestana, FilomenaThroughout History, technologies have been transforming human lives in their different areas. Education, in general, and specifically teacher education are no exceptions. However, with the digital technologies, these transformations can be ever more challenging, or perceived as such. Therefore, the drive to develop digital skills, competences and solutions have resulted, for instance, in the creation of frameworks and strategies, both at national and international levels, to guide, namely, the teachers. These orientations were already in place before the COVID-19 arose, but this pandemic crisis was a critical moment to test them. Indeed, at the eve of the worldwide lockdown, the Action Plan for Portugal’s Digital Transition was launched. Many processes of digitalisation were then accelerated, urged by the overnight shift to emergency remote teaching and learning required at that time. But how were those distance and online scenarios experienced by teachers? Our aim is to identify realities that surfaced as voiced by teachers, within broader research in the scope of the RAPIDE Erasmus+Project. For that purpose, we adopt the case study methodology, focusing on an exploratory qualitative design. Data was collected by means of a web-based survey made available after a synchronous short-teacher training action about European perspectives on digital learning. Content analysis was chosen to interpret the reflections of the teachers (N=18) we interviewed with regard to their realities raised during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings evidence that the problems described by teachers were felt across the different school levels, in diverse geographic contexts, stemming from the following difficulties: organisational/management; pedagogical/didactical; role of the teacher; social/emotional; technical issues. Of these the social/emotional difficulties were prevalent, and confirm that the teacher practice is ultimately directed towards the students – to their active participation, motivation, attention; in a word, to their meaningful learning, particularly “in Times of Global and Glocal Transformations”.