Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has dictated that Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) reconsider and reshape teaching and learning in real time, which has taught us several lessons. The unanticipated closure of education institutions in South Africa, and worldwide has induced questions around adaptability, readiness and response to change in the HEI sector. As teacher educators, we need to proceed efficaciously to post-COVID-19 educational environments. To do so we need to heed the lessons learnt during the pandemic by listening to the voices of our students. The aim of this paper is to add to emerging research in the field of the impact of the pandemic on education, by providing the voices of teacher education students during the rapid and unplanned move to emergency remote teaching and learning. The research paradigm of this study is interpretative, and the approach is a qualitative case study. The methods include student interviews with and narratives by students, conducted online because of social distancing rules imposed at the time. The author also conducted participant observations of online classes. The theoretical lens is provided as a humanising pedagogy and resilience, as well as a literature review of emergency remote teaching. Findings indicate that the students experienced challenges with technology and connectivity and felt that their academic performance was compromised as a result of emergency remote teaching and learning. This was further exacerbated because of impediments to their mental and physical health during the pandemic. Despite these findings, however, students demonstrated resilience in attempting to overcome their adverse experiences.