One Step Closer to Becoming a Teacher in the Shadow of the Pandemic: A Narrative Research

Abstract

This study examines how prospective teachers experience school practice at a distance through the stories they tell. One of the standard qualitative research methods, narrative research was conducted in this study, and the purposive sampling method was used to determine the participants. At the first stage of this analysis, thematic analysis was used; then, a holistic story was created using the Analysis of Barkhuizen and the Analysis of Clandinin and Connelly, and the story titled "being a prospective teacher in the shadow of the pandemic" was produced. These findings reveal four consistent dimensions in the participants' narratives. These dimensions are as follows: Being a prospective teacher in the process of distance teacher education, school practice experience at a distance; Professional development, the challenges faced and coping with the challenges, the implications of school practice at a distance, and preparation for the teaching profession. As a conclusion, it is recommended in this study to conduct studies promoting teaching competencies of prospective teachers who completed their school practice entirely by distance education and to offer them the opportunity to gain practical experience in real learning environments before starting their profession.