Teacher educators’ experiences when changing to digital teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic in subject Food and Health

Abstract

Several Norwegian universities implemented the digitization of all teaching in March 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study explores teacher educators’ experiences when teaching the subject of Food and Health under the pandemic. The data consisted of eight interviews with teacher educators and was thematically analysed. The pandemic has challenged teachers’ digital competencies and pedagogical practices in different ways and forced them to work hard to maintain quality in their teaching. The findings indicate it could be possible to conduct innovative teaching in digitized learning environments. Teacher educators spent a lot of time rethinking teaching practices pedagogically and professionally in new digital settings. Digital teaching can be challenging in terms of communication and relationships between teacher educator and students, and between students. Accordingly, it would appear that the underlying challenges have presented the most obstacles to personal and institutional innovation, not the coronavirus crisis itself.