Unintended Pedagogical Consequences of Emergency Remote Teaching at a Rural-Based University in South Africa

Abstract

In this empirical article, we argue that while emergency remote teaching (ERT) may have achieved its goal of saving the academic years during the COVID-19 pandemic, it also constructed unintended pedagogical consequences that were possibly overlooked at the time of advocating for it. We also contend that students and lecturers from rural-based universities (RBUs) in South Africa experienced different unintended pedagogical consequences compared to their counterparts who belong to urban-based universities (UBUs). Thus, the research question that the article raises is as follows: What were the unintended pedagogical consequences that students and lecturers based at RBUs experienced during the transition to ERT? Drawing on students’ and lecturers’ lived experiences of ERT, this article foregrounds unintended pedagogical consequences that arose at one RBU in South Africa during the transition from face-to-face teaching to ERT. Underpinned by the tenets of critical realism philosophy, as well as student integration theory, in-depth interviews with three lecturers and six students were conducted. The findings of the study indicate that home conditions, individual characteristics, pre-COVID-19 blended learning experiences, university training and support, teaching, learning, assessment practices, and policies altogether contributed to the construction of unintended pedagogical consequences of ERT presented in this article. These consequences include (1) the exclusion of low-income students from active teaching and learning, (2) equipping middle-class students with better chances of success than working-class students, (3) distressing female students and lecturers more than their male counterparts, and (4) unproductive assessment practices. This study may be beneficial to academics and policymakers from similar contexts in their plight to continue with remote teaching and assessment (RTA) after the pandemic.