COVID-19 and its effects on teacher education in Ontario: a complex adaptive systems perspective

ABSTRACT

Teacher education in Ontario, Canada has had to respond to a myriad of challenges presented by the COVID-19 crisis, particularly after government authorities decided to close schools until students and faculty could return safely. In this paper, we examine some of the major challenges that are being faced by teacher educators as they prepare for September 2020, struggling to re-imagine teaching and learning remotely. We also examine the issues facing teacher education using the lens of ‘complex adaptive systems’, systems that are unpredictable, have many interacting parts, and are characterised by constant uncertainty both from within and particularly from outside. Some issues affecting teacher education and teacher educators causing this uncertainty in Ontario include 1) access to effective online connection and support, 2) educator professional development for online learning, 3) conversion of face-to-face courses to successful online courses, and 4) the recognition of student teachers’ practica experiences. Although this article provides a snapshot of the Ontario context and the challenges it currently faces in teacher education, it also presents some solutions, and by thinking of the context as an example of a complex adaptive system, it also holds out hope for the future.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• teacher education
• Ontario Canada
• complex adaptive systems
• challenges, access, support

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Province is defined as a principal administrative division. In Canada a province receives its powers from the Constitution Act (1867, 1982). Each province has its own ‘sovereignty’ with the Lieutenant Governor as its provincial representative of the Crown.

2. Territory is defined as an area of land under the jurisdiction of a ruler or state. In Canada, a territory does not have the same constitutional status as a province; it is subject, in many areas, to more direct control by the federal government. A territory does not have ‘sovereignty’ in the sense as a province. It has a commissioner since its authority and powers come from the federal government and not the Constitution Act. With regard to education at the elementary and secondary school levels (i.e., grades 1–12), the federal government delegates this responsibility to the territorial governments. Since no northern territory university currently (2020) has a program to deliver teacher education, each works and cooperates with the provinces to ensure Initial Teacher Education is available.

3. In Ontario faculties of education are located in universities.