Abstract
COVID-19 affected education in many ways. As a response, various strategies were introduced to ensure students’ access to education, including online education. For most of the students, fulltime online education brought diverse challenges. This descriptive phenomenological study explored the experiences of transgender student regarding online education during the COVID-19 pandemic in Buffalo City Metro Municipality, South Africa. Data were collected by means of individual telephonic interviews with eight purposively selected transgender students using the snowballing technique. Data were thematically analysed using the interpretative phenomenological analysis framework for data analysis. The findings indicate that transgender students faced barriers in accessing online education, including (i) limited interaction, (ii) unconducive home environment because of stigmatisation, abuse and disruptions, and (iii) lack of access to the internet owing to the centralisation of internet access points, the unaffordability of data, unstable internet connections and an intermittent electricity supply. The findings further highlighted that transgender students face stigmatisation and abuse which hinder their learning. The situation is exacerbated by a lack of sources of income for transgender students, especially those who must make means for money to buy educational resources such as data for internet connection needed for online classes. Based on the findings, the researchers recommend continuous support for transgender students to ensure their continued engagement in online education, amidst the challenges they face. To this end, educational institutions should ensure that students have alternative means of accessing education so that those from diverse populations, settings and socioeconomic statuses are reached.
Highlights
This paper reports on transgender students’ experiences of online education during COVID-19 Era in rural areas of the Eastern Cape
The study findings indicate that, though online education is one of the innovative ways to ensure that students continue to have access to education as stated by Daniel (2020) and Dube (2020), the situation was different for transgender students in the rural areas of the Eastern Cape, South Africa during CODID-19 lockdown
The issue of online education seems to be a challenge for all the students, especialy some of the transgender students during COVID-19 lockdown
Summary
This paper reports on transgender students’ experiences of online education during COVID-19 Era in rural areas of the Eastern Cape. When Coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) hit global communities in 2020, the world was thrust into turmoil and had to deal with various types of change Chief of these were the restrictions that had to be imposed as countries went into lockdown. Educational institutions, as one of the main areas where gatherings are mandated, frequent and prolonged, were generally affected They had to find innovative ways to ensure that students, of various kinds and from various backgrounds, continued to have access to education (Daniel, 2020; Dube, 2020). One such was online education implemented by most of the institutions of higher education in South Africa, regardless of students’ socioeconomic environment. It was important for the researchers to explore the experiences of transgender students in the rural area of Eastern Cape towards online education, especially because of the community’s attitudes associated with this population
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