Prospective teachers’ views and experiences with e-portfolios

The use of electronic portfolios (e-portfolios) is a burgeoning area of research, with many teacher education programs utilising as both a product of and a process of reflective practice. This case study aimed to explore prospective primary teachers’ (students) perceptions, perspectives and experiences of the use of e-portfolios, focusing on the affordances and limitations of using e-portfolios in Initial Teacher Education (ITE). Eleven second-year undergraduate students from secondary and primary ITE programs were interviewed. A reflexive thematic analysis was conducted on the transcripts, in which the module tutors’ experiences were also incorporated. Findings suggest that e-portfolios can be valuable agentic and reflective pedagogical tools that can scaffold learning, although with a number of important caveats for future implementations. This paper speaks to the paucity of research that extends the view of e-portfolios as simply repositories for content.