Learning to teach world language online during COVID‐19 pandemic: A phenomenographic study

• Published in: Foreign language annals Vol. 57; no. 2; pp. 382 - 402
• Main Authors: Deng, Mingzhu, Barros, Sandro
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.06.2024
• Subjects: COVID‐19 pandemic; online education; pedagogies of space; preservice teachers; World languages
• ISSN: 0015-718X; 1944-9720
• DOI: 10.1111/flan.12729

This study examined distinct conceptualizations of space during a cohort of world languages preservice teachers' (PSTs) clinical experience online. The aim of this study was to shed light on the affordances and limitations of the online space as PSTs reworked the meaning of pedagogical spaces during the onset of the COVID‐19 pandemic. Preservice teachers' autoethnographic writings, journals, and teaching videos were analyzed to better understand the emotional, pedagogical, and conceptual meaning‐making processes that language teaching in and through the online space entailed. Through a phenomenographic analysis of the data, this study probed into the distinct perceptions of pedagogical space that emerged from the participants' online teaching experience. Findings suggest that while PSTs felt distant from their students, emotionally exhausted, and limited in what they could do instructionally, they also developed pedagogical problem‐solving and decision‐making skills that showcased the agency of the online space shaping novice teacher's beliefs and practices. Implications for world language teacher education curriculum are discussed, including the potential effects of cocurricular online teaching experiences facilitating PST's attunement to the agency of space both online and in physical classrooms. The Challenge The onset of the COVID‐19 pandemic required a shift from conventional brick and mortar classrooms to remote forms of learning. This shift presented considerable challenges for teacher education and teacher readiness in general. Novice and veteran teachers found themselves in a situation in which they had to forcibly renegotiate with the terms of what pedagogical space meant within traditional schooling processes.