Open AccessImplementing pedagogies of care in online teacher education
Author(s) -
Dewa Wardak
Publication year - 2021
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Conference proceedings
DOI - 10.14742/ascilite2021.0146
Subject(s) - class (philosophy) , unit (ring theory) , psychology , interpersonal communication , covid-19 , qualitative research , transition (genetics) , medical education , pandemic , pedagogy , qualitative property , mathematics education , computer science , medicine , sociology , social psychology , social science , biochemistry , chemistry , disease , pathology , artificial intelligence , machine learning , infectious disease (medical specialty) , gene
Research shows that students who believe their teachers are caring for them are more likely to engage with the class and exhibit higher levels of self-esteem and well-being. What we learn from the past should guide our present practice to pave the way for a more authentic relationship with our students in the future. This paper reports a case study of how a ‘pedagogy of care’ was implemented in a first-year large teacher-education unit of study at an Australian university during the transition to fully online learning and teaching in response to the pandemic. The paper reports the strategies adopted by the teaching team and the results of an online survey conducted with the students about their experience of the transition. The qualitative survey responses were organised into themes that illustrated how students perceived teacher care. According to the students, teachers cared when they organised consistent synchronous sessions, provided opportunity for interaction between students, recorded lectures, were lenient, modified assessment, marked assessments quickly, exhibited positivity, and acknowledged challenges due to COVID-19. These themes were then classified into two broad categories on a continuum ranging between the delivery of the unit to interpersonal or human aspects.