Teacher Experiences and Practices in the Time of COVID-19: Implications for Understanding Quality in Teaching

The experiences and practices of teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic, appear to have changed how stakeholders think about the work of teachers and their professionalism. Drawing on findings from two research projects, the ICET/MESHGuides international research on Teachers Experiences during COVID-19 (ICET/MESHGuides, 2021), the Northampton University Active Distance Learning (ADL) research and development project (Caldwell et al., 2021), and the eye witness records of the pandemic’s impact on education in Leask and Younie (2021), we highlight how in the process of transitioning to online delivery and finding creative, offline ways of reaching students, teachers at all levels demonstrated their capacity to be innovative and to take ownership of accelerating changes in how they think and work. They showed their willingness to practice agency and autonomy in developing the pedagogic skills, collaborative practices, knowledge, and competencies they considered most appropriate for teaching and learning during the pandemic. In this chapter we consider the implications of this shift for new ways of thinking about what quality in teaching means. This work is significant because it contests accustomed ways of understanding quality in teaching. We contend this is a critical departure that must inform policy-maker and stakeholder decision making for future proofing educational practices in times of crisis and normalcy.