Learning to Teach Teachers in a Pandemic: International Experiences That Don't "Count"

• In Event: Our Experience Matters: Valuing the Experiences of Transnational Doctoral Students as Teacher Educators in the United States

Abstract

With the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, schools across the world had to suspend in-person education. This sudden and inevitable transition process created many challenges and barriers for teachers as well as students. In this self-study, I will try to explain some challenges and barriers that arise in practice-based teacher education classes in early childhood education department during coronavirus quarantine circumstances by evaluating my prior experiences in Turkey as a novice teacher educator.

At the time of data collection for this study, I was a 25-year-old graduate
assistant working on a master’s degree in early childhood education in the education department at Hacettepe University. I was assigned to teach one of the practice-based teacher education courses (ECE402) and became a supervisor for ten senior students. With the recommendation of healthcare professionals, it was decided to hold weekly student-teacher meetings via ZOOM. I collected data from personal journals and course-related documents. My deductive analysis of these data sources led me to identify four unique challenges as a novice teacher educator in Turkey caught in the abrupt transition to online education during the COVID-19 pandemic.

First, I was challenged in an online environment in how to assess preservice teachers’ needs and development. As an experienced early childhood educator in Turkey, this was one of the hallmarks of my identity as an educator, that I was not able to draw from to help transition between teacher and teacher educator. Second, I had difficulty mediating the perspectives of teachers and preservice students. As a supervisor caught in the middle of a transition for both teachers moving into an online environment and preservice teachers that had never worked in a classroom, I was unable to serve as the “bridge” between pre-service teachers and teachers. Third, I was unable to provide emotional support to pre-service teachers. The pandemic was traumatic and emotional for everyone, including my pre-service teachers. Yet, the online environment created a separation where I was unable to connect with my pre-service teachers. This lack of connection affected both my transition into teacher education and violated my sense of self as an educator. Finally, finding the right work-home life balance during the pandemic was one of the biggest challenges for me. As a novice supervisor, my job required a lot of concentration, and it was exceedingly difficult to create a space for myself to avoid academic burnout. There was almost no separation of work and home life, and this made it more challenging to stay motivated with virtual classes.

Today, I am continuing my studies in a doctoral program, where I have limited opportunities to work with pre-service teachers because of my status as a transnational student. Yet, as my self-study demonstrates, I have a lot of personal practical wisdom and experiences in Turkey that would be beneficial to students in the United States. I hope that sharing these experiences will motivate other transnational doctoral students to demand more opportunities to teach and work with pre-service teachers in the United States.

Author

• Fatma Merve Halipinar, Indiana University
  Presenting Author