6: Findings (II): Student Teacher Mothers’ Experiences During COVID-19

In Chapter 5, we presented our findings relating to student teacher mothers’ (STMs’) experiences before COVID-19. The findings were drawn from all 20 participants’ accounts and organised under the headings of the research questions, which were:

In this chapter, we focus on the accounts of the nine women in the 2019–2020 cohort, to consider their experiences during COVID-19 restrictions. These women undertook the second part of the ITE year under the pandemic restrictions, which started in March 2020. A summary of key themes relating to the women’s experiences during COVID-19 can be found in Appendix 2, Table AIV.

The women were interviewed during the summer term of 2020 (May–June), when the restrictions had been in place for two or three months. We acknowledge that the responses we received provide just a snapshot of how the women were experiencing ITE under ‘lockdown’, and that the picture could have been different later on, had we been able to re-visit and re-interview them. Nonetheless, we present here the insights we gleaned. Our findings provide some pointers to ways in which future ITE provision might be more tailored to STMs’ needs, as well as to a post-COVID-19 world.