Abstract

Biology teacher training in the province of Santa Cruz, Argentina, includes the development of professional practices in secondary school institutions. During 2020 and 2021, as a consequence of the health emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, face-to-face classes were suspended at all levels of the educational system for approximately 18 months. The purpose of this article is to analyze the challenges and opportunities identified by students and teachers as a consequence of mandatory virtuality and its impact today. After a few years of the pandemic experience, the biographical traces it has left in the students at superior institute and their teachers will be analyzed. The methodology is qualitative, with a biographical-narrative orientation. We work by analyzing interviews of educators and students who had their initial training before, during and after the pandemic in the subjects of pedagogical practice and residency, and with reports and diaries. From the writings and narratives, axes of analysis are inductively constructed to reveal aspects of the experience lived and reflected in the past and present. Some of them are the modification of communicational and pedagogical links, the problems in the development of reflective processes, and the challenge of implementing didactic sequences virtuality. In terms of opportunities, the capacity for adaptation is highlighted.

Keywords: virtuality; teacher training; biology; teaching practices; experience