Embodied teacher identity: a qualitative study on ‘practical sense’ as a basic pedagogical condition in times of Covid-19

Mette Krogh Christensen*, Karl Johan Schmidt Nielsen, Lotte Dyhrberg O’Neill

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal/Conference contribution in journal/Contribution to newspaperJournal articleResearchpeer-review

16 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Worldwide, the Covid-19 pandemic has transformed teaching contexts rapidly. Studies on the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic have largely focused on students’ learning and well-being. In contrast, little is known about how emergency online teaching affects teachers. The aim of this study was to examine how disrupted teaching contexts during the Covid-19 pandemic affected academic teacher identities in health science education. Interviews were conducted with 19 experienced lecturers in health science education from two universities. Interview data were analysed using systematic text condensation. The established codes were compared across interviews to identify common themes and subsequently synthesized into descriptions of the emerging phenomena. Findings indicated that a form of embodied teacher identity, i.e. internalized teaching practices turned into dispositions, constituted a basic pedagogical condition and a resource for the teachers, and that the sudden change in the teaching context caused a loss of teacher identity. This identity loss was related to an incorporated understanding and use of the teacher’s sense of the classroom (subtheme 1), non-verbal feedback from students (subtheme 2) and reciprocal visual contact (subtheme 3). Data also indicated that teachers’ ability to adapt their teaching to students’ needs while teaching and teachers’ motivation and job satisfaction may have suffered. Universities should carefully consider how to cultivate sustainable and adaptive teacher identities compatible with the increasing digitalization of learning environments. Teaching is an embodied affair, and teacher identities are sensitive to structural changes in teaching contexts.

Original languageEnglish
JournalAdvances in Health Sciences Education
Volume27
Issue3
Pages (from-to)577–603
Number of pages27
ISSN1382-4996
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Aug 2022

Keywords

  • Covid-19 pandemic
  • Eye contact
  • Health science education
  • Higher education
  • Non-verbal communication
  • Online teaching
  • Practical sense
  • Qualitative research
  • Teacher identity
  • Pandemics
  • Humans
  • Universities
  • COVID-19/epidemiology
  • Students
  • Qualitative Research

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Embodied teacher identity: a qualitative study on ‘practical sense’ as a basic pedagogical condition in times of Covid-19'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this