UNIVERSITIES AND THE PANDEMIC: GETTING COMFORTABLE WITH AMBIGUITY

Abstract

As a result of the closure of higher education institutions, students and teachers had to swiftly adapt to online teaching and learning. The need to design learning environments for students implies choices, adjustments and decisions in order to meet not only students’ expectations but also the conditions in which universities had to operate. Our study seeks to explore the innovative practices used by educators that allowed them to form engaging classrooms in a pre-service teacher education programme during the Covid-19 pandemic. The participants of the present study were educators (n=9) from the teacher training department. By making use of a qualitative inquiry, data was collected through participating at semi-structured interviews via ZOOM videotelephony software. The key findings suggest that the digital instructional setting has been a distinctively challenging experience for university teachers. The sudden shift in institutional teaching activities and conditions reshaped pedagogical practices and challenged the academics to identify and creatively respond to the students’ needs with ingenuity and speed. Therefore, it is paramount that educators retain the advantages of working from home in ways that transform their practice.