Chapter 3: Lessons from a Pandemic: Professional Learning for Teacher Education From a Reflective Account of Online Learning in a New Zealand Primary School

New Zealand has been noted for its successful national health response to the COVID-19 Pandemic. The nation’s success has been attributed to early strategic action in locking down the country into a strict quarantine regime. This meant that schools moved to online instruction with 2 days’ notice, referred to as “emergency remote teaching” (Bozkurt & Sharma, 2020, p. i) or “emergency eLearning” (Murphy, 2020, p. 492). Schools remained in lockdown for 7 weeks from March and returned to a brief lockdown of 2.5 weeks again in August.

The teacher, Vanessa, provides an account of her experiences during the two periods of online learning and the transition back to the classroom postlockdown. The chapter outlines individual, whole school, and community-level responses to the emergency online learning experience. The reactions and interaction of teachers, school leaders, students, and families are explored within the national health and educational context.