Teachers Supporting Teachers Series 6 Episode 5: Navigating study and placement during the pandemic, with a focus on personal wellbeing

In Series 6 of Teachers Supporting Teachers Podcast we go local, global and international in hearing stories from pre-service teachers about becoming a teacher during a pandemic.


In this episode we are fortunate to be talking to one of our final year primary education students, Aliesha, who shares with us some of the ways that she ‘navigated study and placement during the pandemic, with a focus on personal wellbeing’. Throughout this episode Katrina van Vuuren and Aliesha reflect on  experiences of studying during a pandemic, with a focus on connections, support networks and additional resources that helped her.

Aliesha then shares her unique experiences out on placement and how she navigated these during a pandemic. She reflects on some of the similarities and differences between these experiences that she encountered, and discusses some of the challenges, support avenues and wellbeing considerations throughout this time. To conclude this episode, Aliesha generously shares some overall reflections on becoming a teacher during this time and offers some valuable wellbeing and self-care strategies and tips.



Series 6 team:

Executive Producer: Narelle Lemon (Swinburne University of Technology, Australia)

Producers: Susan Anak Musis Jantan (Institut Pendidikan Guru Kampus Tun Abdul Razak (IPGKTAR), Sarawak, Malaysia), Marcelle Cacciattolo (Victoria University, Australia)

Team members:  Siobhan O'Brien (Swinburne University of Technology, Australia), Katrina Van Vuuren (Swinburne University of Technology, Australia), and Jan Drew (The Global Student, Kuala Lumpur Malaysia). 

Connect to the why of this series:

The Global Education Consortium has been on pause during the pandemic with the closure of international borders. International teaching practicums have stop, however, the collaboration and partnership established between the Australian and Malaysian universities of this project has enabled the enactment of innovative ways of working. We are still connected. And we want to extend this connection in new and tangible ways. 

We draw attention to how we want to:

·       continue to build on relationships and strengthen the development of initial teacher educators and pre-service teachers as a community across international borders.

·       utilise the power of storytelling.

·       support impact of the pandemic on being and becoming a teacher.

·       share, hear, and learn with and from pre-service teachers locally, nationally, and globally. 

·       be proactive, honest, and compassionate with one another. 

·       enhance global conversations about becoming a teacher and making personal and professional adjustments during the pandemic with a focus on wellbeing. 

·       create a space that is underpinned by compassion and empathy for varied lived experiences that we can all learn from.