How Portuguese Schools Navigated through THE Pandemic First Wave: Views from Headteachers

The transition from emergency remote teaching schemes to effective online learning ones has posed just as much similar as specific challenges to different countries and regions during school closures of the COVID-19 pandemic first wave. In Portugal, the specific challenge of a notably aged teaching workforce that admits being underprepared for pedagogically meaningful use of digital technologies in education has become more evident. Focusing on the views of seven interviewed schools’ headteachers, this paper presents and discusses the reported facilitators and barriers/constraints of their schools’ transition from emergency remote teaching to online learning, during the first pandemic wave and relates those factors with the particular issues of veteran teachers’ engagement with online learning. The paper introduces the rekindle+50 project under which the data collection and analysis took place and underlines the extreme importance of continued investment in teacher professional development and collaboration to enhance more effective use of online learning tools and platforms in times of uncertainty.