Thanks so much for this insight into your research! It is great that you’ve been able to adapt your data collection to meet the constraints of researching remotely. There are some parallels with my own digital ethnography work, with students undertaking postgraduate study to become migration advisors. This is obviously quite a different setting, and one of the key differences is that the course they are doing was always offered online, so it has been designed much more systematically to be implemented in that way. I think this makes a huge difference and it’s really quite remarkable what teachers have managed to do when they have had to act very quickly to redesign and deliver remote learning. Your research is so important for uncovering all this invisible labour that may easily go unrecognized and unappreciated.

One similarity I can see between the two settings is that many of the students in my project have a migration history themselves, and many have English as a second language. Some who I have interviewed have expressed a wish for more opportunities to meet in person to practice their migration advisor/client interview communication skills, as they – similar to your findings – identify the value of those opportunities. Much like you mention for your students, my research participants have also identified these types of face-to-face learning opportunities as yielding greater possibilities for making friendships and networking with other students – a very important source of support when starting out, often as sole practitioners, in their work.

I hope that your research helps convince schools to recognise these broader resources that come out of face-to-face learning, and also that they offer greater support and recognition for teachers and students in the case that future/ongoing remote learning is needed. Excited to read more about your findings as they emerge!