Abstract
Emergency remote teaching and learning (ERTL) represent a critical and challenging time for teachers globally. To understand how Portuguese teachers interpreted their ERTL experiences of the first lockdown, we started by asking: What perspectives do teachers have about ERTL? Answering three open questions made available online between April and May of 2020, a sample of 305 preschool, basic, and secondary school teachers expressed their perspectives on (i) difficulties throughout ERTL; (ii) students’ constraints in participating in ERTL; (iii) the potential and benefits resulting from this exceptional period. Data were analyzed using content analysis. While Portuguese teachers perceived ERTL with concern, a majority also saw it as an opportunity. Workload, work conditions, and time management were the most frequently mentioned difficulties. Regarding students’ constraints, teachers emphasized participation, the role of parents, lack of contact, and autonomy. Despite the constraints and difficulties, teachers highlighted gains such as the development of digital competencies and the opportunity to transform teaching and learning. Only 18 teachers suggested there were no positive outcomes from this experience. Since this is an exploratory study, further studies are needed to triangulate the findings.
Highlights
Published: 13 July 2021The COVID-19 pandemic swept across the globe, bringing with it unprecedented challenges and impacts concerning the physical and mental health of populations [1,2,3,4]and every other aspect of human activity
Like many other countries in the world, the Portuguese government ordered the physical closing of all schools starting on 16 March 2020, as a measure to mitigate the propagation of the COVID-19 pandemic
294 teachers answered question, “Please to identify the teaching, main dif- as a culties youofhave felt in this processthe of open accelerated transition distance ficulties you have felt in this process of accelerated transition to distance teaching, as teacher”
Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic swept across the globe, bringing with it unprecedented challenges and impacts concerning the physical and mental health of populations [1,2,3,4]. Reimers and Schleicher point out, the utmost priority in this scenario was ensuring the continuity of education, even in the face of challenges and technological constraints [19] This novel situation has deservedly received attention from many scholars across the globe (for example, [6,17,20,21,22,23,24,25,26]), which is relevant given the fact that the pandemic did not impact every country in the same ways or at the same time, and there were different approaches to how governments dealt with the situation, as well as different social economic and cultural conditions, giving rise to context specificities that should be recognized and addressed by educational research. 14–18) about their difficulties with the transition to ERTL, and their students’ constraints, and the potential and positive aspects they recognized in the process
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