A case study of teacher preparation in the Atlantic bubble: Faculty and student perceptions of the impact of COVID-19 restrictions at the University of Prince Edward Island

The University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI) Bachelor of Education program begins in May, therefore we were faced with beginning a new cohort of preservice teachers online in 2020 before the rest of the university had fully developed procedures for online learning in the face of the pandemic. In this descriptive case study, we explore the perceptions of 12 teacher educators, seven preservice teachers, and an administrator within the Faculty of Education through semistructured interviews. Our goal was to examine both the opportunities of this new modality thrust upon us, as well as the challenges it brought for faculty and students alike. We discovered a series of tensions among the participants' responses: (a) the convenience and constraints of working from home, (b) course planning and preparation: doing it quickly and doing it right, (c) modelling pedagogy: what we hoped to do and what we did, (d) engaging students in synchronous classes, and (e) building relationships: the personal touch, just not in person. Ultimately, participants perceived more limitations than opportunities; however, a sense of gratitude pervaded interviews with preservice teachers. From our findings, we offer recommendations for future research and practice related to online preservice teacher training; what should be kept as we move forward and what still needs to be improved. Keywords: teacher education, digital competence, online learning, COVID-19