Inhabiting the third space of the digital practicum: a missed opportunity in the post-pandemic ‘new normal’?

Abstract

This chapter draws on findings from a research project undertaken with preservice teachers (PTs), University Tutors (tutors) and school staff at a university provider of teacher education in the North of England. Starting in the autumn of 2020, schools were not in full lock-down, but contended with multiple, complex, and previously unknown challenges due to Covid-19. A great number of UK schools decided not to host PTs at this time, and the university where the research was carried out, was required to run traditional school-based placements alongside a virtual practicum (Hulme et al., 2022) to facilitate the placements in schools for all PTs qualifying to teach in 2021. A reintroduction of a national lockdown (including school closures) from 6 January to 8 March 2021 added further complexities to the provision of the practicum.

Drawing on qualitative data from focus groups with tutors and PTs who participated in the online practicum in the autumn of 2020, we aim to examine what we refer to as the ‘virtual Third Space’ of the online practicum that was designed and delivered during this time. The Third Space is theorized as not just a crisis response to the issue of providing practicum experience for PTs, but as a way of providing valuable additionality that could not have been achieved through a traditional practicum experience. The Third Space was inhabited by students, university mentors, and to some extent school mentors, and effectively transcended the boundaries of the traditional school-based practicum and in so doing, afforded creative and dynamic opportunities for PTs’ development and pedagogical progress.

The aim of this chapter is to analyze the project findings through a post-pandemic lens. We examine whether the Third Space of the virtual practicum constitutes a missed opportunity to embed collaboration, reflection and tutor involvement, as implemented through the online practicum, into the traditional practicum model and consider whether it can be revived as a constituent part of a more traditional practicum.

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https://research-portal.uws.ac.uk/en/publications/bb4cd9c4-2b36-41b0-8b7d-ab36d1af40d2