Re-imagining higher education: A cohort of teachers’ experiences to face the ‘new normal’ during COVID19

The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted education of over 220 million post-secondary students, globally. A need to rise to the challenges and re-imagine ways of educating students becomes essential. This paper explores the learning trajectories experienced by a cohort of B Ed Honours students completing their degree during the COVID-19 pandemic. There is a dearth of knowledge in current research which speaks to the transition from face-to-face to synchronous and asynchronous learning for postgraduate students who are, themselves, teachers. A mixed methods approach was engaged which allowed for the students, who are in-service teachers, to contribute their experiences of the transition from face-to-face learning to online learning through questionnaires and focus group interviews. A pedagogy of vulnerability was deployed which focuses on risks of change, risks of not knowing, risks of failing and risks of self-disclosure. The framework was used to capture the essence of their experiences in: their continued learning during the pandemic and the learning platforms and instructional processes used to maintain high quality education amidst growing uncertainty. The results reveal socio-economic inequalities such as lack of access, technical devices and skills when using online platforms and its impact on current teaching and learning. The results also show that exposure to a variety of online pedagogies increased student knowledge which could be transferred to their own practice.