Challenges and Positives Caused by Changing Roles during Emergency Remote Education in Estonia as Revealed by Facebook Messages

Marina Lepp,Piret Luik

doi:10.3390/socsci10100364

Abstract

At the beginning of 2020, education worldwide, including in Estonia, was affected by the coronavirus pandemic, which necessitated the transfer of all levels of education to distance learning. Emergency remote education created both challenges and positives for different stakeholders, especially during the early part of this staggering situation. This study aims to describe the challenges and positives encountered by people in different roles, using data from the Facebook group ‘Homeschooling with technology’ from 6 March–26 April 2020. Members of the Facebook group were divided into eight role groups. A qualitative method study design was used and inductive thematic analysis of 130 messages posted by different roles was conducted. 72 messages were coded as expressing negative sentiments and describing various problems and challenges, which were then used to create a thematic map with seven main themes. Two themes (teachers’ unreadiness and problems related to technology) were reported by all stakeholder groups except members from government institutions, who did not post any messages about challenges. Seven main themes describing positives in the Facebook messages were identified using 58 messages coded as expressing positive sentiments. All role groups posted some messages about the positives but only the theme ‘Stress management’ was mentioned by all roles. Several themes (e.g., digital tools, teachers) included both negative and positive reports. The results help capture the effect of changing roles on challenges and positives experienced by different stakeholders during the implementation of emergency remote education, which can be used for future application of distance learning in education.

Highlights

At the beginning of 2020, education, among other aspects of society, was affected by the coronavirus pandemic which necessitated the transfer of all levels of education to distance learning
In our study we explore challenges and positives of all stakeholder groups involved in remote education within one country
Seven main themes emerged describing the problems identified in the Facebook messages (Figure 2)

Summary

Introduction

At the beginning of 2020, education, among other aspects of society, was affected by the coronavirus pandemic which necessitated the transfer of all levels of education to distance learning. Emergency remote education was not an option but an obligation, and its implementation was not based on theoretical and practical knowledge, as is the case of distance learning (Bozkurt et al 2020). This emergency remote teaching and learning was needed for surviving in a time of crisis but it created problems and challenges for all participants—students, parents, teachers, school principals, and government. This unexpected change in education revealed some positive eye-openers as well, which can be used in the future. Further success is often a result of learning from the past, so by examining and describing the first experiences with emergency remote education we can learn from this, take these lessons forward and be prepared for such situations but use the experience in ‘ordinary’ education in the future as well

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion