This paper examines the impact and implications of the crisis brought about by the Covid-19 lockdown of schools and universities on initial teacher education (ITE) from the perspectives of four representative university providers in England. The ‘virtualisation’ of the ITE programmes raised significant issues of both equity and pedagogy. The loss of time on school placement had the contrasting effect of lost opportunity for practicing teaching, but an increased time for reading and reflection. Working online from home brought new pressures on both tutors’ and trainees’ workloads and domestic circumstances.  The opportunities for development of a new pedagogy for online teacher education opened up dramatically. Although the ITE community in England is used to a rapid rate of change, that occasioned by the CV-19 crisis in education has forced swift adaptations, the consequences of which will take time to become fully apparent, but will potentially have consequences lasting well into the current decade. The 2019-20 cohort of teacher trainees in England has had a uniquely different experience during their ITE programmes. This has raised fundamental questions of not only the theoretical but also the practical basis of what it is to learn to teach in England. We present a new knowledhe enhancement framework for a new digital pedagogy for ITE and discuss the opportunities and affordances available as the post-Covid educational landscape emerges.

The programme leaders of the ITE courses in the four universities were interviewed, using a semi structured approach. Ethical approval for this was granted by each of the participating universities. All interviewees gave their consent to provide information about the impact of the lockdown and understood that no identifying information would be reported. Interviewees were given the opportunity to check early drafts of this paper for accuracy of the information that they had given. It was acknowledged that there was limited time for this and also that maintaining anonymity was a challenge. Participants were asked: 1. What was the immediate effect of news of the pandemic? Was there any specific advice to higher education institutions? 2. How did your institution respond to the threat of the pandemic? Did it ‘virtualise’? If so, how did this take place? What platforms/processes are in place? What pedagogic issues have arisen? 3. What specific effect has this had on the HEI-based elements of your teacher education programme/s? 4. Did you have student teachers on practicum? If so, what will be the impact on the potential curtailment of the length of time they should spend in the classroom? 5. What do think might be the impact upon the practice/theory nexus in teacher education because of changes due to the pandemic? The responses of the participants to each of the questions were analysed by constant comparison.

Three overarching themes emerged: 1. The lockdown and 'virtualisation' 2. Adaptation of ITE provision 3. Curtailment of practicum. 1. The Lockdown: came without warning and was a great shock. It caused initial anxiety, but each of the universities' senior managers were quick to reassure staff and students and to make arrangements for the abrupt switch to 'virtual' provision of teaching and learning. Virtualisation was rapidly implemented across a range of platforms ( BlackBoard Collaborate and Microsoft Teams for teaching where group work was required; Google Hangout Meet for whole class activities; Panopto as a video platform; OneNote and BlueSky for submission of online portfolios; telephone, email, WhatsApp and Skype for Business for communicating with trainees) with which teaching staff were varyingly familiar. Each institution provided additional training and reassurance. 2. Adaptation of provision was based on needs of the trainees, clarification of key messages, development of online pedagogy. Issues of equity arose due to variability of digital connectivity, however there were positive affordances, such as extra time for reading and reflection. 3. Curtailment of practicum: trainees experienced loss of up to 40% of their scheduled time in placement schools. Uneven opportunities for trainees arose, e.g. some were able to work with pupils remaining in school or online, whilst others were simply sent home. Universities quickly implemented 'no detriment' policy. Government advice was slow to come. Teacher educators used their judgement on a trajectory of success basis. Pre-existing tensions in TE in England, e.g. marketisation, recruitment, retention, access/widening participation, accountability placements and mentoring were all thrown into sharper relief by the closure of schools and universities occasioned by the CV-19 pandemic. A new model framework for online teaching and learning for trainees and teacher educators is presented.

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