Teacher’s Working Condition and Hybrid Teaching Environment – A Narrative Case Study

Abstract

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the entire system of education around the world is living each day under rapid experimentation to grapple with unforeseen challenges. The event of the COVID-19 pandemic has not only impacted a student’s track of learning but also disrupted the everyday functioning of schools. In the case of the United States, since the beginning of March 2020, when schools were pushed into remote learning options, most teachers had minimal training and resources to teach online. Teachers faced technological challenges and suffered a severe lack of pedagogical knowledge to engage students in an online platform. The overnight switch of face-to-face to remote teaching has added to existing teacher workloads, including accommodating student learning and engagement on the virtual platform. The narrative study considers the experiences of Ally, a veteran teacher, who experienced doubts about her sense of confidence as a teacher with the overnight change of instructional formats. Qualitative analysis was conducted from two interviews, 12 written reflections, and observation notes. Following a review of relevant literature, we report the narrative account of this teacher’s lived experiences. Next, we present suggestions and implications for research and practice while addressing the following research question: What were the lived experiences of a veteran teacher while pursuing a hybrid teaching instruction format, in both the traditional and online delivery format?