Austrian Elementary School Teachers’ Perception of Professional Challenges During Emergency Distance Teaching due to COVID-19

Abstract

Schools around the world have transitioned to emergency distance teaching due to the COVID-19 outbreak. In particular, the first lockdown (in early 2020) came unexpectedly for all actors and stakeholders in Austria. School authorities, parents, students and, above all, teachers were faced with considerable challenges. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the perception of Austrian elementary school teachers about distance teaching during the first lockdown. Using two different qualitative data sets from the Inclusive Home Learning (INCL-LEA) study, the following research question was investigated: what are the main challenges that elementary school teachers faced in distance teaching in Austria due to COVID-19? A multimethod qualitative research was carried out to answer the research question, and the data were evaluated using the topic analysis method. The teachers identified five greatest challenges: i) a lack of personal contact with the students; ii) additional workload and more stress, iii) non-existent technical equipment; iv) a lack of digital skills; and v) an inability to offer individual support for students at risk. This study has shown that better policies are needed to avoid these problems. Such solutions not only require the purchase of digital devices, but also the development of pedagogically well-thought-out and planned curricula and the provision of opportunities to improve digital skills. Furthermore, it also showed that sustainable working conditions needed to be created to counter the long-term effects of the heavy workload on teachers. However, the difference between distance teaching in times of the pandemic and regular online teaching also needs to be considered when developing and implementing policies.

“I miss seeing the kids!”: Australian teachers’ changing roles, preferences, and positive and negative experiences of remote teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…As predicted, and as highlighted in emerging research internationally (e.g. Phillips et al Woltran et al, 2021), teachers also reported difficulty tracking students' progress and meeting students' wellbeing needs during lockdown, with implications for the education they were able to provide. These concerns often centred on students who were not logging on or submitting work, who did not have the technological resources to engage effectively, or who were emotionally sensitive or vulnerable.…”

“…Finally, structural resources available within the role are likely to be important to teachers’ perceptions of their roles during the move to remote learning. In a recent qualitative study, for example, Woltran et al ( 2021 ) asked primary school teachers in Austria about the key professional challenges they faced in remote teaching. Alongside workload concerns, a lack of technical equipment and digital skills were identified.…”

“…Moreover, students themselves reported concerns about motivation, teacher support, and loneliness when learning from home, with 62.6% of adolescents believing the pandemic had negatively impacted their education (Li et al, 2021 ). Perhaps contributing to this problem, teachers across several studies and countries identified a lack of personal contact with students and an inability to provide individualised support as challenges to both their relationships and student learning (Phillips et al, 2021 ; Woltran et al, 2021 ).…”

Newly Qualified Teachers’ Well-Being During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Testing a Social Support Intervention Through Design-Based Research

“…Importantly, these new demands also need to be seen in the context of generally increased stress levels due to the pandemic itself—for example, through health issues in family or oneself, or caretaking responsibilities ( Froehlich, 2021 )—and the probability of increasing them even more ( Bakker et al, 2005 ; Bakker and Demerouti, 2007 ). Also in the Austrian context, a recent study showed that the additional workload and the lack of digital skills are a great burden for teachers ( Woltran et al, 2021 ).…”

Exploring inclusive education in times of COVID-19: An international comparison of German, Austrian and Portuguese teachers

“…The access to technical equipment such as digital devices and online resources varies greatly across countries, as well as within the countries, where students living in rural areas or stemming from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds (low family SES) were disadvantaged (Huber et al, 2020;Opalka et al, 2020;UNICEF, 2020;OECD, 2020b;Thomas and Allen, 2021). Similarly, students with special education needs (SEN) were severely affected by ERT as those students especially need individualized teaching and support from trained professionals (Goldan et al, 2020;Berasategi Sancho et al, 2021;Woltran et al, 2021). Therefore, it can be said that inclusive teaching was and will continue to be a central condition within online learning, in particular for students at risk (Goldan et al, 2020;Schwab et al, 2020;Woltran et al, 2021).…”