Professional development through internship experiences from preservice teachers' vision

Teacher professional development is introduced by internship experiences as part of initial teacher education. Recently, the pandemic's emergence has modified these experiences, thus, little is known about the COVID-19's influence on the professional performance and the mentoring relationships. Therefore, this study analyses the perceptions of nine preservice teachers from University Loyola Andalucia toward their professional development through internship facing the pandemic. A qualitative design through multiple case study is conducted to explore expectations and conclusions on the professional performance and the mentoring relationships, as both dimensions are essential to modulate the learning process during the internship. Semi-structured interviews (pre-internship and post-intership) and a focus group session (during the internship) were selected to collect the information. The qualitative software Atlas.ti was used to analyse the information from an inductive-deductive approach. Findings show that participants expected to strengthen their professional performance by improving their teaching strategies and their professional identity. Moreover, they expected to find a weakened mentoring relationship due to COVID-19. After internship, the pandemic's impact does not seem to be significant on either professional performance or the mentoring, the latter being considered a reflection axis. Conclusions propose, firstly, to reflect on factors really influenced by unpredictable and unstable issues through internship; secondly, to reconsider the cornerstones of professional development, professional performance and mentoring relationships in these contexts.