Cambodian Teachers' Perceptions of Online Teaching: During and Beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

This limited topical life history study aims to gain insights into COVID-19’s impacts on teaching at upper secondary schools through Cambodian teachers’ perceptions of online teaching. It presents teachers’ current challenges and needs as well as future impacts on their teaching practices. Online semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect data from 29 subject teachers and their school directors. This study concluded that the COVID-19 pandemic reduced the quality of teaching and learning due to the limited functions of monitoring students rather than limited digital knowledge and skills. The classroom management is still required although the learning is online. The empirical evidence suggests this effect in science disciplines; especially for calculation-related subjects. However, COVID-19 was viewed as providing secondary education with a great deal for implementing the digital revolution of education 4.0 and created some practical issues for policymakers and implementers. Although the findings largely concur with previous literature on online teaching during the pandemic, they also draw context-specific features of the issue.