Emergency Remote Education Experiences of Teachers during the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Phenomenological Research

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to examine teachers’ experiences of Emergency Remote Education (ERE) during the Covid-19 pandemic. The study was designed in the qualitative approach and as the research method, “phenomenology” was used. The sample of the study consists of 12 teachers selected by the criterion sampling method. The interview technique was used to collect data. The data were collected through a semi-structured interview form developed by the researchers. The data were analyzed using descriptive analysis. The study results showed that the ERE activity that teachers experienced the most was the online lessons. Teachers have done the ERE activities through various applications such as EIN (Education Information Network), Zoom, Whatsapp, Youtube. Teachers emphasized that ERE was ineffective due to low student participation, insufficient infrastructure, lack of responsibility and motivation for learning, low ICT competency of students and teachers, low socioeconomic status, and inappropriateness of planning and curriculums. In addition, teachers stated that education in the Covid-19 pandemic process should be done in diluted classrooms, hybrid or face to face. It is concluded that the lack of infrastructure, lack of responsibility and motivation for learning created inequality of opportunity for participation in ERE. The lack of infrastructure was mostly due to students being in the low socioeconomic group. In addition, students’ learning responsibility and motivation are very important in the effectiveness of ERE.