Teachers Voice Experiencing teaching history during Work Integrated Learning (WIL) / Teaching Practice during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

One aspect of history education that was radically impacted on by COVID-19 was the annual WIL/Teaching Practice undertakings by pre-service history teachers. In this, the July 2021 edition, we have tried to capture some of the experiences of pre-service history teachers related to this key aspect of their professional development. This was done by means of a series of short autoethnographic-like pieces in which prospective history teachers of six southern African universities have shared their experiences. The History classroom has greatly suffered under the COVID-19 pandemic as many teaching strategies have had to be altered or completely disregarded to accommodate for social distancing rules. This pandemic has shown me how heavily I relied on group work for activities, and it has made me aware of how important group work is in history for learners to not only grasp concepts but enjoy the subject.