Reflecting on the Synergy Between Computer-Mediated Intercultural Communication and the Coronavirus Memory Archive: An Intrinsic Case Study

Abstract

The coursebook-centered approach adopted by the Hellenic Open University’s Master’s program in TEIL/TEFL has lost momentum during the coronavirus lockdown periods. This study addresses synergies between institutional policy and involved participants through the experience of an EFL teacher with a Computer-Mediated Intercultural Communication-based assignment about the online archivability of teaching and learning reflections. Relying on her study journal, the EFL teacher proposed a reflection-based inquiry into the compilation of a student-generated coronavirus memory archive on the e-me digital platform. Three journaling spaces emerged in the context of teacher development: the physical, the digital and the academic archive. The results indicated the transformative effects that archival procedures have on the dominant training practices of a graduate-level TEFL program. This study holds implications for flipping a switch on the educator-educatee relationship, while examining how reflective teaching pedagogy assimilates the learners’ creative response to remoteness.