Emergency remote teaching in initial teacher training: challenges and possibilities in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic interrupted face-to-face activities in initial teacher training courses in higher education, with emergency remote teaching as a possibility for links between students and universities. Based on studies on initial teacher training in the current Brazilian scenario, this article aims to analyze the migration to emergency remote teaching of a previously planned discipline for the face-to-face model at a Brazilian public university, through interviews with sixteen students participating in the program. The qualitative and descriptive analysis of the graduates' perceptions and feelings signaled the challenges faced and the possibilities of such an experience. The results point out as challenges the autonomy required by the context, the sudden handling of digital tools and the experience of a complex scenario, involving professional, personal and family demands. Communication, fast organization, the teacher's posture and the diversity of methodological strategies were highlighted as potentialities of the discipline in the model that was employed. We concluded that maintaining the fundamentals of ethics, respect and autonomy in the teachers training, as well as considering the complexity of the pandemic context through a humanized training process were keys to offering a course that supplies contemporary teaching needs.