Special Issue: COVID-19: Education Response to a Pandemic

Volume 9 – Issue 2 – 2021

Teaching Practice Online: Challenges in Japan, India and Kenya Under
Pandemic
Per-Olof Hansson
Linköping University
Sweden77

Special Issue: COVID-19: Education Response to a Pandemic

Volume 9 – Issue 2 – 2021

Abstract
The coronavirus pandemic affected the whole world in 2020, with high pressure on the healthsector, many deaths, reduced business activity, rising unemployment rates, travel restrictions
and social distancing. These developments have had severe consequences for all areas of every
society around the globe. This also includes education. In many countries, primary andsecondary pupils and university students alike were sent home as schools and universities
closed abruptly as part of efforts to control the spread of the virus. As teaching moved online,
learners and teachers were unprepared for the new situation, which posed a unique set ofchallenges. In this context, trainee teachers at a Swedish university were encouraged to support
online teaching at schools in Japan, India and Kenya. The purpose of the digital internship wasthreefold: to continue the trainees’ teaching placements in the absence of opportunities for inclass teaching; to provide an opportunity for trainee teachers to develop their own competence
in online teaching; and to assist the foreign schools in the challenging task of delivering online
classes. This article aims to investigate the challenges faced by pupils in Japanese, Indian and
Kenyan schools and by 27 Swedish trainee teachers during this project. Data collection
consisted of interviews, an online questionnaire, lesson observations, assessment forms, andreports given by trainees. The main challenges identified through our findings included internet
access in host countries, the use of a teacher-centred approach to learning, and difficulty fortrainees to relate to the pupils’ life conditions. However, we conclude that the trainee teachers
increased their global awareness through a climate-friendly alternative to the traditional
teaching placement abroad.
Keywords: COVID-19, challenges, lockdown, online teaching, trainee teachers

78Special Issue: COVID-19: Education Response to a Pandemic

Volume 9 – Issue 2 – 2021

As COVID-19 spread across the world, school activities temporarily shut down, and pupils andstudents were sent home. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4 states there
should be access to quality education for all children, but the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO, 2020) estimated that 60% of the world’s
student population, 1.5 billion learners in 109 countries, were affected by school and university
closures in March/April 2020. This created tough conditions for children and youth, affecting
their wellbeing and educational future. There is no doubt that school closures will impact
inequalities in education and affect school attainment among pupils and students (Haeck &Lefebvre, 2020).
Learners and teachers were unprepared for the transition to distance learning. Neither learners
nor teachers had sufficient experience of online teaching, despite the common use of computers.
Naidu (2020, p. 425) argues that “the irony is that it has taken a calamity for us to rethink andreengineer our approaches to learning and teaching, despite evidence in favour of the need to
do so, long before COVID-19 struck”. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, teachers andpupils/students found themselves in a situation where they were compelled to embrace theonline teaching and learning experience (Mishra et al., 2020). However, many teachers wereattempting to understand online teaching for the first time and to source free digital resources
to apply in their teaching. Rouadi and Anouti (2020) found in a study from Lebanon that online
teaching during the pandemic was a failure in many secondary schools. However, it was
successful when teachers used a variety of teaching methods, developed good communication
with learners, and encouraged active participation during lessons.
There are, therefore, challenges to implementing online teaching: pedagogical, technical andsocial (Hansson, 2015). Firstly, a pedagogical challenge is introducing digital tools in formal
education when teachers have limited experience of online teaching and pupils have limited
digital competence. Digital devices may be frequently used outside school, but many pupils
lack experience of use in an educational setting. Another pedagogical challenge is moving fromteacher-centred to learner-centred approaches, with the purpose of engaging the student andencouraging active participation in learning. Studies show that learners prefer, and are moreengaged by, blended learning (a combination of traditional classroom teaching and online
educational materials) rather than a fully online learning approach (Crichton & Onguko, 2013;
Wanner & Palmer, 2015). This has led researchers to investigate what people learn in“knowledge-rich environments”, of which online teaching can be considered an example(Hansson, 2015).
Secondly, technical challenges concern the use of an appropriate mobile device and the cost ofinternet access. Digital and mobile technologies have great potential to support learning becauseof being ubiquitous, reliable, cheap, and both social and personal (Royle et al., 2014). The
learners can move between content and context. It offers flexibility and students canaccordingly learn at any time and any place. Thus, “learners will be able to seamless start alesson in school, continue the lesson on the bus, and complete the learning at home” (Ramnath& Kuriakose, 2015, p. 659). However, learners in low- and middle-income countries may facebarriers to digital learning such as network failures, lack of power and lack of access to theInternet (Crichton & Onguko, 2013; Hansson & Jobe, 2014). Escueta et al. (2020) point out that
despite expanding access to technology, the digital divide is increasing. Further, even “whendisadvantaged students can access technology, they may lack the guidance needed for
productive utilisation - a ‘digital-use divide’” (Escueta et al., 2020, p. 898).

79Special Issue: COVID-19: Education Response to a Pandemic

Volume 9 – Issue 2 – 2021

Rasheed et al. (2020) argue that the main challenges for teachers in distance learning are theuse of technology and the selection of appropriate instructional technology. Therefore, proper
techniques and learning support should be provided to teachers as well as to students (Dhawan,2020). However, teachers have been found to show resistance to using new technology forteaching (Rasheed et al., 2020). Lenkaitis et al. (2020) suggest that teacher training programmes
should integrate virtual exchange opportunities with international partners, which have beenhighlighted as even more valuable during the COVID-19 crisis.
Thirdly, social challenges include a lack of familiarity with and ability to use digital and mobile
technology. Digital skills need to be improved, particularly in low-income countries. In
addition, gender must be considered: worldwide girls have fewer educational opportunities, andsecondary school completion rate is in favour of boys (Singh & Mukherjee, 2020). Moreover,as Dhawan (2020) points out:
We cannot ignore and forget the students who do not have access to all online
technology. These students are less affluent and belong to less tech-savvy
families with financial resources restrictions; therefore, they may lose out
when classes occur online. They may lose out because of the heavy costs
associated with digital devices and internet data plans (p. 17).
The project examined in this study takes an approach that is different from many otherinternational collaborations, where one party tends to be more interested than the other. Westerncountries often seek collaborations with partners in low-income countries where the exchange
occurs in one direction: for example, Western participants travel to the low-income setting. The
project studied here began with a request from local schools in low-, middle- and high-income
countries to a Swedish teacher training programme to support their online teaching and mitigate
the impact of school closures. Concurrently, the Swedish university was searching foropportunities to develop trainee teachers’ online teaching skills; it was therefore a perfectmatch.
The purpose of this study is to investigate teaching placement online under lockdown. The
research question is: What are the challenges involved in online learning for pupils in Japanese,
Indian and Kenyan schools and for Swedish trainee teachers? The next section describes the
background to the project, followed by the methodology of the study including settings, target
groups, data collection and data analysis. Thereafter, findings are presented, followed bycategorisation and analysis of results. The paper concludes with the discussion, limitations,conclusion and key recommendations for future research.
Background
In March 2020, when the university in Sweden moved from campus teaching to online, it wasa challenge for the Department of Education to continue with teaching placements as part ofteacher training courses. However, following requests for assistance from three schools inJapan, India and Kenya, respectively, a digital internship module of 7.5 European Credit
Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) was created. The internship period was five weeks
in June and July 2020. The application period for the placement was short, which meant limited
preparation time for prospective participants. Five students (three male and two female) were
accepted. Before the placement started, the university arranged two digital seminars covering
the educational systems of the different countries, life conditions, the United Nations’ Agenda
2030 for sustainable development, cultural context, ethics, prerequisites and practicalities. After

80

Special Issue: COVID-19: Education Response to a Pandemic

Volume 9 – Issue 2 – 2021

digital meetings with directors, headmasters and supervisors, the internship was organized. A
second group of trainee teachers were admitted for an online teaching placement abroad in
November 2020 and January/February 2021. This second group of 22 students (9 male and 13
female) conducted their placement at primary and secondary level in India and Kenya for 3-5
weeks.
The participating schools were located in Nara (Japan), Bangalore (India) and Nairobi (Kenya),representing high-, middle- and low-income countries, respectively. In Japan, two trainees wereplaced at a secondary school. English was the only subject accepted. In India, four trainees
taught all subjects at a primary school, one trainee taught French in upper primary, and six
trainees taught Social Science at a secondary school. In Kenya, two trainees taught Mathematics
and Biology, and 12 taught Social Science (History & Government according to the Kenyan
syllabus), all at a secondary school. The Swedish trainees were all in the third year of theirteacher training, except for one student who was already working as a teacher but did not yet
have a certificate.
Table 1: Overview of selected schools and placements
Country/city

School level

Placement

Trainee teacher(s)Japan/Nara

SecondaryForm 1–3

2 maleEnglishIndia/Bangalore

Primary
Upper primary/Secondary
Secondary

Grade 2-5
Grade 7–8
Grade 10-11
Form 3–4
Form 1-2

2 male/2 female
1 male1 male/5 female
2 female
6 male/6 femaleAll
FrenchSocial Science
Maths/Biology
Social Science

Kenya/Nairobi

Subject

Prerequisites
The participating schools were private, and teaching was based on the national syllabus andcurriculum. The Japanese school was a girls’ school and the others were mixed. The Japaneseand Indian schools charged fees, whereas the school in Kenya did not, as it served
disadvantaged youth. The total number of pupils in the schools was 700 in Nara, 900 in
Bangalore and 300 in Nairobi. Class sizes were 40+ in Nara, 20+ in Bangalore and 30+ in
Nairobi. In general, all pupils had limited experience of digital learning before this project. In
terms of technology, the Japanese pupils had their own laptops and/or tablets, internet accessand use of a digital school platform. The Indian pupils used their own computers or mobile
phones with internet access and Google Classroom as a learning management system (LMS).
The Kenyan pupils used tablets with internet access provided by the school and a locallydesigned digital platform called “The Big Blue Button” to access educational material.
MethodA mixed-method approach was used for data collection, consisting of lesson observations, an
online questionnaire, semi-structured interviews, assessment forms, and trainees’ oral andwritten reports (see Table 2).
Lesson observations were followed by a 30-minute digital meeting to discuss the lesson, pupils’
activity, the teacher’s role, challenges encountered, and so forth. The online questionnaire
consisted of 18 questions using a Likert scale where the pupils were asked to agree or disagreewith a series of statements. A five-point scale was used, ranging from 1 = not at all to 5 = yes,81Special Issue: COVID-19: Education Response to a Pandemic

Volume 9 – Issue 2 – 2021

absolutely. The pupils also had the opportunity to add responses in their own words. In total,
56 questionnaires were collected from the pupils after having been distributed in the first phaseof the project (July 2020).
Table 2: Overview of data collection
MethodLesson observation
Online questionnaire
Interview
Assessment form
Oral & written reportJapan
2 lessons of 40 min
33
2 x 50 min
2
2

India
5 lessons of 60 min
12
1 x 50 min
11
11

Kenya
4 lessons of 50 min
11
4 x 45 min
14
14

Online interviews were conducted with all five trainee teachers from the first group and two
students from the placement in November a few weeks after teaching was completed. The
trainees on placement in January/February 2021 had only just finished the internship at the timeof writing, and it was therefore not possible to include interviews with them. The semistructured interviews were guided by themes and questions. Each interview took the form of aconversation, rather than simply ticking off questions from a list, although in every interview
the same questions were asked. Each interview lasted 45-50 minutes and was recorded andtranscribed. An assessment form containing open and closed questions was submitted by thetrainees’ supervisors. Finally, oral and written reports were given by the trainee teachers.
EthicsThe participants were informed about the study and were given the opportunity to consent toparticipation. The data material was anonymised and coded, and only the researcher had accessto the material. All results are presented in an anonymised way so that no individual can be
identified. Nevertheless, transparency and communication with the participants are ofimportance. Online education leaves digital footprints which constitute sensitive informationand privacy can easily be violated, thus personal data must be handled with confidentiality.
Consequently, pseudonyms were created for the participants to maintain their anonymity.
Data Analysis
The analysis is based on both quantitative and qualitative data with the aim of taking a holistic
perspective. Rich data and systematic search for categories are at the core of qualitative content
analysis, and important are a reduction of data and systematisation (Schreier, 2014). Therefore,
Bryman’s (2015) four stages of analysis were used. Firstly, the transcribed interviews were readas a whole and notes were taken. Secondly, the text was labelled and systematically coded.
Thirdly, codes were reduced, and interviews compared and categorised. Fourthly, codes andcategories were related to the research question and relevant studies. Thereafter, online
questionnaires were compared, and notes taken about the responses, which were related to theinterviews and categorised. Finally, notes from lesson observations, comments from assessment
forms, and notes from trainees’ reports were related to the other data and included in the
categorisation. The analysis of the empirical data produced three categories: technical,
pedagogical and social challenges. In addition, there is a category of trainee teachers’
experiences.

82

Special Issue: COVID-19: Education Response to a Pandemic

Volume 9 – Issue 2 – 2021

Findings
In this section, the results from the different methods of data collection are presented undermain categories, illustrated with extracts from interviews and reports together with quantitative
data from the online questionnaire and pupils’ comments.
Pupils, trainees and supervisors reported uniformly that they were not used to online teaching
before this project. The teachers started in-service training to receive hands-on material of
online teaching, alongside teaching their pupils under lockdown. As one trainee teacher put it,… so we kind of learned together. Both the pupils, teachers, and me. At thesame time (Interview, female trainee teacher).
Japan
In the first week of the internship (early June 2020), all Japanese pupils were at home, with
their regular teachers providing live teaching through Zoom. The trainee teachers observed
lessons. From the second week onwards, the pupils resumed school attendance. Face masks
were mandatory, which presented a significant challenge to conducting English language
teaching. The Swedish trainees were now responsible for the lessons, and the pupils were all inclass together with two of their regular English teachers. The Swedish trainees, who attended
via video link and were displayed in the classroom via a projector, instructed the pupils via theregular teachers, and pupils completed exercises individually or in groups. The Swedish trainee
gave oral and written examples in English and used the webcam to illustrate the content withbody language, and the local teachers asked the pupils in Japanese to respond back to thetrainee. The pupils presented their assignments in front of the webcam directly to the Swedish
trainee teacher.
India
The pupils were at home using their computers or mobile phones to access Google Meet for
distance learning. The Swedish trainee teacher conducted the lesson supervised by a local
teacher. All pupils had their webcams on for the whole lesson. Pupils shared their screens whenpresenting their homework, and used the chat feature to ask questions or make comments, forexample “This was easy”. During the project period in June and July 2020, the Indian
government gradually revised its policy on digital education. This was confusing for theteachers due to numerous changes being made and affected online teaching when pupils’ screen
time was reduced. The government introduced a maximum of 1.5 hours per day in front of ascreen, with pupils working on individual assignments for the rest of the school day. The policychanged again while the second trainee teacher group was active to allow only 30 minutes at
the time followed by a break. Pupils then spent half the school day online.
Kenya
All pupils were from disadvantaged communities in various parts of Kenya, to which they weresent home when the day- and boarding school closed. The pupils in Forms 3 and 4 were thenequipped with tablets but had no previous experience of using them. While waiting for the newtablets to be delivered, some pupils in Form 3 used borrowed mobile phones to access theeducational material. The content was uploaded by teachers and/or Swedish trainee teachers on
the Big Blue Button platform. This was an LMS with an integrated video tool (similar to Zoom)
for live teaching, a digital whiteboard to illustrate lesson content, a screen-sharing facility toshow PowerPoint presentations, and pupils could ask questions either orally or by using thechat feature. The Kenyan pupils did not use their video cameras at all, due to poor bandwidth.

83

Special Issue: COVID-19: Education Response to a Pandemic

Volume 9 – Issue 2 – 2021

In January 2021, the pupils were back in class using tablets when trainee teachers conducted
their online lessons.
Technical Challenges
Teachers were accustomed to using WhatsApp in day-to-day life. Under lockdown, the teachers
used WhatsApp and telephone to discuss teaching material and to check on the students. Thiswas in particular important in Kenya, where pupils returned to their hometowns in often remoterural locations with limited internet connectivity and interrupted power supply. In Bangalore
and Nara, WhatsApp was a reliable tool used to communicate with pupils, but from an earlystage in the project schools used their LMS because they were already integrated in teaching
and learning. Nonetheless, the LMS were a challenge at all schools in this project. Both pupils
and trainee teachers experienced difficulties accessing the school learning platforms, withinterrupted internet links and poor internet connection being the main explanations. Table 3
shows the technical difficulties experienced by pupils at the different schools.
Table 3: Pupils’ technical challenges
Internet access
Lack of power
Problems accessing
the platform
None
Total no. of pupils

Japan
16
4
3

India
5
1
0

Kenya
5
4
1

10
33

6
12

1
11

A major problem for the pupils (26 of 56, or 46%) at all three schools was accessing the Internet.
The survey does not identify the frequency of such difficulties, whether they occurred all thetime or only occasionally, but according to the trainee teachers it was a common problem. This
meant that pupils could be in and out during a lesson. Thus, a challenge not depending on if thepupil were in a low-, middle- or high-income country. In the Kenyan pupils’ case, they received
data bundles (Internet time) from the school administration, and these did not cover the whole
period (monthly). Other pupils relied on Wi-Fi. Lack of power was frequently a concern forJapanese pupils, due to learners spending many hours in front of screens and forgetting tocharge the device. Difficulties with power were also apparent for Kenyan pupils, but this wasusually related to power shortages in their rural home locations. Technical issues led to highrates of absence among Kenyan pupils. For example, a lesson observed in Form 4 had 10 pupils
present out of a class of 54. Students attending had their video cameras switched off to ensure
a better connection. Overall, 30% of all pupils had no technical challenges at all.
Kenyan pupils who used a mobile phone, which usually belonged to a parent, encounteredchallenges in sharing the device. For example, one Kenyan pupil said: “I am using my mother’smobile phone, and sometimes she doesn’t stay at home during my study time, so I miss theclasses”. Other challenges occurring at the three schools included pupils forgetting to mute theirmicrophones, which led to unwanted background noise; problems sharing screens whenaccessing lessons on a mobile phone; and pupils pretending to have technical issues when theteacher asked a question that was too difficult. On the other hand, pupils sometimes complainedof difficulties in the other direction: “We can’t hear the teacher or see him due to technicalproblems” (Indian pupil). According to the trainee teachers, the Japanese pupils were used tousing digital tools and showed digital competence, but they also had problems accessing theInternet (16 of 33, or 48%). Additionally, trainee teachers faced difficulties when sharing84

Special Issue: COVID-19: Education Response to a Pandemic

Volume 9 – Issue 2 – 2021

screens on the local platform because it was then not possible to see the chat, where pupils
frequently asked questions or informed the lecturer that they could not see the shared screen orhear the teacher.
Pedagogical Challenges
The Swedish trainee teachers sometimes had difficulties understanding whether all the pupils
were following the lesson properly. One female trainee stated:
I do not know how much they understood. It was the hardest thing for me toknow.
This was especially difficult when pupils’ microphones and cameras were turned off, and thelatter occurred frequently with the Kenyan pupils due to low bandwidth. All online teaching
was live, and another common issue was pupils forgetting to mute their microphones, whichbrought in background noise – for instance from siblings, neighbours, chickens or motorbikes.
Kenyan pupils in particular stated that they experienced a disruptive environment. The pupils
themselves sometimes disturbed the lesson as well, and in some cases used the chat function tobully other pupils. On the one hand, the pupils sometimes took advantage of the digital setting.
One male trainee teacher said:
I ask if a pupil can answer and then the pupil’s internet collapses. Or thecamera is not working. But if he or she wants to ask me something, the camera
works perfectly and there is no internet problem.
On the other hand, the trainees noticed by observing the regular teachers that they sometimes
did not give the pupils time to respond.
The pupils have learned that if they wait 2-3 seconds, the teacher will givethe answer (Interview, male trainee).
Additionally, some Japanese pupils argued they had problems concentrating, thus difficulties
with the subject content in the online environment. An explanation of this, according to thetrainees and supervisors, is that the combination of online teaching and English as a subject was
too difficult for the Japanese pupils. However, teaching was generally considered to be relevant
and interesting. According to pupils, the overall grade for online teaching provided by thetrainees was a mean 4.19 (out of 5). Pupils considered the teaching approach to be at a levelsuited to the pupils’ knowledge, and the content was considered not too difficult (mean 2.93)
and relevant for the learning objectives (mean 3.82). According to the pupils, the effort required
to follow the teaching was medium (61%) or high (31%). Active participation and interaction
between pupils occurred during lessons. One Indian pupil said: “We watched a lot of interactive
videos and did a lot of fun activities”. Thus, overall, the pupils felt positively about the teachingfrom abroad (mean 3.35), and found lessons both different and interesting.
Some pupils stated that they had difficulty understanding because the trainees had a different(as in Swedish) accent when speaking English, and recommended that they speak more slowly.
Vice versa, trainees initially had difficulty understanding the English spoken by pupils andsupervisors. Nonetheless, the atmosphere was supportive: “Everyone was given an equalchance, and politely corrected when someone made a mistake” (Indian pupil). Pupils felt they
developed skills (for example, language skills): “It was very easy to understand even in online

85

Special Issue: COVID-19: Education Response to a Pandemic

Volume 9 – Issue 2 – 2021

classes” (Japanese pupil). One Kenyan pupil expressed his approval of the trainee teacher via
the online questionnaire as follows: “Keep it up #$"”.
Social Challenges
The trainee teachers reported that it was a challenge to relate to the pupils in the digital
environment. To be able to move between formal and informal engagement is important tocreate rapport with learners and sustain interest and motivation. One supervisor from India
commented: “He (the trainee teacher) didn’t get an opportunity to explore this as the internshipwas online” (assessment form). Thus, the social skills objectives as part of the teacher training
were problematic to fulfill. In addition, a Kenyan supervisor writes:
NN [trainee] demonstrated an ability to change the way she communicates,
based on conscious social and pedagogical considerations of the Kenyan
students. NN joined us under unprecedented circumstances. We weregrappling with finding our way with online teaching. She was quick to thinkon her feet when assigned lessons. She fashioned the lessons very
independently such that they did not need much adjustment. (Assessment
form)
The Swedish trainees said that teaching was made difficult due to limited possibilities for using
body language, which limited his modes of expression and available ways of explaining thecontent. The trainees had no previous knowledge of the pupils nor their background, life
conditions, and so on. Interviews and written reports from trainees reveal difficulties
pronouncing pupils’ names, or even knowing whether the name displayed on the screen was afirst name or a surname, due to cultural differences. Additionally, it was sometimes difficult for
the trainees to know whether a pupil was male or female from their name alone. During theinternship, trainees deepened their knowledge about their host country by reading about theculture, traditions, food, and so on, and/or by interviewing the supervisor about the pupils’ life
situations. These investigations allowed them to adapt their teaching practice to the context inwhich the pupils lived. For example, the Kenyan supervisor pointed out that pupils weresometimes required by their families to do small jobs to receive a daily income, and were
therefore absent from class at certain times.
Trainees’ Experience
The trainee teachers reported limited experience of online teaching prior to the placement; only
theory of digitalisation had been discussed during the teacher training programme. Trainees
understood the importance of online teaching aids, flipped classroom, and so forth, andappreciated the opportunity to practice. One female trainee said in an interview:
I think I have learned more in this practice than in any other practice.
Because it has been so intensive, and I have had to learn so much. Technical,
cultural, and I had to teach […] the usual in teaching practice plus morecomponents. So, it has been very intense mentally even though it has been 12 lessons a day.
The trainees increased their self-confidence and learned to be flexible and take the initiative.
This was particularly apparent when, for example, the network of regular teachers failed, andthe trainee suddenly had to step in as class teacher. For the most part, the different time zones
did not pose a great challenge, but in the case of the Japanese school, trainees had to wake up

86

Special Issue: COVID-19: Education Response to a Pandemic

Volume 9 – Issue 2 – 2021

at 04.30 am to start teaching and sometimes found it challenging to motivate, inspire and engage
the pupils in the lesson.
Trainees cited varied reasons for participating in the internship. The main reason was wanting
to help out the participating schools under lockdown, followed by a desire to develop their own
digital teaching competence. Trainees stated they would not have applied for face-to-faceteaching abroad, which the university regularly offers as a summer course. Reasons for not
applying for such courses were lack of time, fear of flying, and considering it more important
to develop their digital competence. However, following the online placement, trainees showed
an interest in undertaking teaching practice in selected countries the following year due tohaving been well-received by the host schools and supervisors. This interest in bothglobalisation and digitalisation developed steadily during the digital internship according to theinitial digital seminars, and trainees’ oral and written reports.
Discussion
This study explores the challenges faced by three schools in three different countries in thetransition from face-to-face teaching in classrooms to fully online teaching, which presented a
totally new learning situation for both teachers and pupils. The implementation of online
teaching regarding organisational, technical and pedagogical aspects was not thoroughly
planned by the schools before they started their online programmes. In addition, there was
uncertainty from governments, and their guidelines and policies changed from month to month.
For instance, in July 2020 the Indian government significantly reduced pupils’ screen time toencourage reading and study in the traditional way (i.e., textbooks). This may have been
motivated by concern that pupils might simply copy text from the Internet, and that teachers
would have little insight into learners’ experience. Thus, this requires a mind change if fulllearning potential is to be achieved. The findings of this study show that the main challenge
encountered in online learning was not the technology itself, even if the pupils had difficulties
with insufficient networks and internet access, but rather teaching methods and pedagogicalapproach (see Escueta et al., 2020; Hansson, 2015; Rouadi & Anouti, 2020).
The pedagogical approach taken by trainees was initially mainly teacher centred. A typicallesson consisted of a trainee giving a lecture by sharing PowerPoint slides, or a pre-recorded
video lecture. The pupils were then passive participants, and understandably found the lessons
rather monotonous. According to the questionnaire, the pupils suggested that teaching be mademore fun and delivered with a smile. The Swedish trainee teachers then faced the same dilemmaas the local teachers in the schools. Together, teachers on both sides gradually moved towards
a different approach, learning about the technology and attempting to blend pedagogy to create
more interactive and personalised instructional videos. In some subjects they offered digitaltextbooks, this can be a development aspect to integrate at larger scale in the school platform.
Three of the trainees in the first group were teaching foreign languages in Indian and Japanese
schools. The pupils stated clearly that they found language learning difficult and therefore they
were less motivated. The main social challenge for all the trainees was a lack of understandingof the pupils’ context, background, life conditions, and so on. The trainees had been given somerelevant information by the course coordinator and supervisors, but as outsiders theirunderstanding remained limited, particularly in terms of relating to a poor setting such as Kenya
when coming from a high-income country like Sweden. The trainees also pointed out that inface-to-face teaching, it is possible to use body language and eye contact, to chat with pupils
before and after lessons, and so forth. In the online setting, there was a lack of opportunity to87

Special Issue: COVID-19: Education Response to a Pandemic

Volume 9 – Issue 2 – 2021

build social relationships, which trainees considered to have a negative effect on learning.
Consequently, there is a need for more and other forms of interaction – for instance, throughWhatsApp or Facebook Messenger. However, in general, the pupils were satisfied with theteaching provided by trainees. An Indian pupil concluded: “The foreign teacher gave me a wider
perspective on the cultures and lifestyles of those in several countries.”
Recommendations
Innovation and emergent technology optimism are not enough to ensure quality in online
education. There are other aspects to consider such as infrastructure, teachers’ digitalcompetence, and the relationships between online resources and learners. Rasheed et al. (2020)and Lenkaitis et al. (2020) point out that an important question in teacher training is how toprovide effective online activities for trainees. Trainee teachers have criticised teacher training
programmes as being too theoretical when it comes to digitalisation. The digital internship wasa capacity-building project, helping to equip trainees with 21st-century skills and foster lifelong
learning. It is important for trainees, and pupils, to develop digital literacy, which encompasses
skills to access, synthesise, analyse, interpret and critically evaluate information (Kong, 2014).
The trainee teachers in this project developed new perspectives on both the Swedish education
system and those of other countries. The trainees increased their global awareness and received
new pedagogical ideas about how to integrate digital learning in normal teaching. Further, thisinternship reached trainee teachers who would not normally have participated in mobility
programmes. Trainees have a clear interest in globalisation, but their mobility is limited forvarious reasons, and it is of importance that trainees still receive global exposure regardless.
Online teaching placements are a cost-effective and climate-friendly solution to improve traineeteachers’ skills.
The online internship can be scaled up to groups of trainees who can teach abroad when it issuitable both for them and for selected schools. With this said, schools and teachers havelearned from the experience to be better prepared for online teaching in the event of a future
pandemic or similar disruption.
Limitations
Like any small-scale qualitative study, this research has limitations. The study is limited to threeschools in three different countries with a limited number of trainee teachers, andgeneralisability has yet to be examined in other contexts and cultures. Another notable
shortcoming is that not all objectives (social and pedagogical) for a teacher training placement
have been examined; nor is there scope in the current article to identify the qualities andbehaviours of supervisors.
Conclusion
The coronavirus pandemic that began in 2020 has affected the whole world and will continue
to have consequences on a number of sectors for an unforeseen period of time, including
education. When national lockdowns came into effect, the schools in this study mobilised
quickly to transition from classroom teaching to online teaching. The teachers and pupils hadvery limited experience of digital tools or online teaching. Three schools in Japan, India and
Kenya asked for support from trainee teachers in Sweden, who themselves had limited practicalexperience of online teaching. This study presents challenges and learning experiences fromonline teaching both under lockdown and when pupils had just resumed school attendance.
While technical challenges were numerous, such as access to the Internet, the key concern at

88

Special Issue: COVID-19: Education Response to a Pandemic

Volume 9 – Issue 2 – 2021

all three schools related to pedagogical approaches. Pupils came from different socio-economic
backgrounds, while teachers applied one and the same pedagogical approach, and there wereshortcomings in the understanding of individual differences. In the online environment,teachers and trainees found it difficult to know whether pupils were active and had a goodunderstanding of lesson content. On the other hand, pupils often found online lectures to be lessmotivating. Subsequently, the trainee teachers encouraged active participation and interaction,
which was well-received by the pupils. Thus, a shift took place towards a learner-centred
approach which was flexible and provided pupils with a variety of learning choices to makelearning useful, exciting and motivating. There are small but important steps to be taken in thewake of the pandemic for developing quality in online education.

89

Special Issue: COVID-19: Education Response to a Pandemic

Volume 9 – Issue 2 – 2021

References
Bryman, A. (2015). Social research methods (5 ed.). Oxford University Press.
Crichton, S., & Onguko, B. (2013). Appropriate technologies for challenging contexts. In W.
Kinuthia & S. Marshall (Eds.) On the move: Mobile learning for development (pp.
25–41). Information Age Publishing.
Dhawan, S. (2020). Online learning: A panacea in the time of COVID-19 crisis. Journal of
Educational Technology Systems, 49(1), 5–22.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0047239520934018
Escueta, M., Nickow, A. J., Oreopoulos, P., & Quan, V. (2020). Upgrading education withtechnology: Insights from experimental research. Journal of Economic
Literature, 58(4), 897–996. https://doi.org/10.1257/jel.20191507
Haeck, C., & Lefebvre, P. (2020). Pandemic school closures may increase inequality in testscores. Canadian Public Policy, 46(1), S82–S87.
https://doi.org/10.3138/cpp.2020-055
Hansson, P-O. (2015). New ways of learning: Participatory action research and Kenyan
runners’ appropriation of smartphones to improve their daily lives and participation in
m-learning. Diss., Studies in Behavioural Studies no 189. Linköping: Linköping
University.
Hansson, P-O., & Jobe, W. (2014). Frontrunners in ICTL: Kenyan runners’ improvement in
training, informal learning and economic opportunities using smartphones.
International Journal of Education & Development using ICT, 10(4), 4–20.
Kong, S. C. (2014). Developing information literacy and critical thinking skills throughdomain knowledge learning in digital classrooms: An experience of practicing flippedclassroom strategy. Computers & Education, 78, 160–173.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2014.05.009
Lenkaitis, C. A., Hilliker, S. M., & Roumeliotis, K. (2020). Teacher candidate reflection anddevelopment through virtual exchange. IAFOR Journal of Education: Technology in
Education, 8(2), 125–139. https://doi.org/10.22492/ije.8.2.07
Mishra, L., Gupta, T., & Shree, A. (2020). Online teaching-learning in higher education
during lockdown period of COVID-19 pandemic. International Journal of
Educational Research Open, 2(8), 100012.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedro.2020.100012
Naidu, S. (2020). It is the worst - and the best - of times! Distance Education, 41(4), 425–428.
https://doi.org/10.1080/01587919.2020.1825929
Ramnath, R., and Kuriakose, A., (2015). Mobile technologies for teaching and learning. In Y.
Zhang (Ed.) Handbook of mobile teaching and learning, (pp. 645–662). Springer.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-54146-9_35
Rasheed, R. A., Kamsin, A., & Abdullah, N. A. (2020). Challenges in the online componentof blended learning: A systematic review. Computers & Education, 144, 103701, 1–
17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2019.103701
Rouadi, N. E., & Anouti, M. F. (2020). The online learning experiment in the intermediateand secondary schools in Lebanon during the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis.
International Journal of Advanced Research in Science, Engineering and Technology,
7(7), 14466–14485. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-020-01307-w

90Special Issue: COVID-19: Education Response to a Pandemic

Volume 9 – Issue 2 – 2021

Royle, K., Stager, S., & Traxler, J. (2014). Teacher development with mobiles: Comparative
critical factors. Prospects, 44, 29–42. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11125-013-9292-8
Singh, R., & Mukherjee, P. (2018). ‘Whatever she may study, she can’t escape from washingdishes’: gender inequity in secondary education – evidence from a longitudinal study
in India. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 48(2),262–280. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2017.1306434
Schreier, M. (2014). Qualitative content analysis. In U., Flick (Ed.) The SAGE handbook ofqualitative data analysis (pp. 170–183). Sage.
https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446282243.n12
Wanner, P., & Palmer, E. (2015). Personalising learning: Exploring student and teacher
perceptions about flexible learning and assessment in a flipped university course.
Computers & Education, 88, 354–369. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2015.07.008
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) (2020).
#LearningNeverStops. COVID-19 education response.
https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse/globalcoalition Accessed 8th ofAugust, 2020.
Corresponding author: Per-Olof Hansson
Email: per-olof.hansson@liu.se91