Continuous challenges and ongoing innovations in teacher education

The persistent challenges posed by COVID-19 and political unrest have urged teacher educators in Hong Kong to develop innovative strategies in curriculum design, pedagogies, and assessment and feedback practices in the online environment. The challenges in online teaching have also encouraged teacher educators to reflect on their practices and conduct practitioner-based research to enhance their scholarship of teaching, to respond to the changing society, changing schools and diverse needs from students. The crises caused by the pandemic of COVID-19 and political unrest have driven almost all school teachers and teacher educators to exercise various modes of online teaching, which undoubtedly presents the importance of technology-supported teaching and learning in schools and in teacher education. In the post-COVID-19 era, technology will continue to be one of the major driving forces of educational changes. However, a few issues concerning the negative impacts of online teaching have been rarely addressed in the existing literature. In this concluding chapter, we look into three issues that are relevant to online teaching in the post-COVID-19 era. They are virtual teaching and technology-enhanced curriculum, social and emotional learning, and digital divide and inequity. The discussion of these issues provides a basis to suggest the ongoing innovations in teacher education and directions that deserve further research in future. Copyright © 2023 selection and editorial matter, Kevin Wai Ho Yung and Huixuan Xu; individual chapters, the contributors.