Poetry and possible selves: Crisis theory with/in teacher education programs

The COVID-19 pandemic has altered the educational landscape. This article offers the model, Crisis Theory with/in Teacher Education Programs (CT-TEP), which examines how the interplay of preservice teachers' stressors and personal coping strategies filtered through their identity provides teacher educators strategies for helping students persevere through crises. Data collected in one teacher education program during the spring 2020 COVID-19 shutdown across the United States illuminates preservice teachers’ present and possible selves, through a series of poems demonstrating emotions and coping strategies of student-participants. Implications for teacher educators to focus on possible selves with/in teacher education classrooms as a mechanism for understanding emotional health and well-being is discussed. •COVID-19 pandemic impacts future of teacher education programs.•Understanding Crisis Theory central in sustainability of teacher education programs.•Understanding interplay of stressors and coping strategies essential during a crisis.•Possible selves aids teacher educators in monitoring preservice teachers' well-being.•Poetic Inquiry explores the emotionality of participant data.