Surviving but not thriving: Comparing primary, vocational and higher education teachers’ experiences during the COVID-19 lockdown

Abstract

In this paper we examine the impacts of the global pandemic in 2020 on different levels of education system, particularly looking at the changes in teaching practice. The health emergency caused closure of schools, and online distance education became a temporary solution, creating discomfort for many teachers for whom this was the first time engaged with online education. In our research we investigated two important dimensions, namely, how technology was used and what the newfound distance meant in terms of the teacher-student relationship. The article offers insights into experiences of teaching from lockdown reported by 41 teachers at primary, vocational and higher education level in the region of Vaud, Switzerland. This comparative qualitative research has provided an opportunity for an in-depth analysis of the main similarities and differences at three distinctly different educational levels and a possibility to learn more about common coping practices in teaching. The study gives a contribution to a lack of comparative studies of teacher experiences at different educational levels. Results show two dimensions in handling the lockdown crisis: mastering the digital tools and the importance of student–teacher interaction. Whilst the interviewed teachers largely overcame the challenges of mastering digital tools, optimizing the quality interaction and ensuring the transactional presence online remained a problem. This indicates the importance of the social aspect in education at all levels, and implies that teacher support needs to expand beyond technical pedagogical knowledge of online distance education.

Burnout, Resilience, and COVID-19 among Teachers: Predictive Capacity of an Artificial Neural Network

“…In addition, the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic has provoked a paradigm shift in the different educational systems around the world and has required the educational community to make an enormous effort to adapt to a new and threatening situation [54,55]. This scenario has resulted in teachers having to implement a series of strategies to combat stress [56].…”

Outdoor education during the Covid-19 crisis: an analysis of the situation in the Czech Republic

“…This is a situation that has been repeatedly documented from all continents where extended primary school closures have occurred (Munoz, ), there was a growing need for closer collaboration among primary school teachers in the Czech Republic. Teachers lacked contact with their pupils, the school was very limited in its social role (Kovacs et al, 2021).…”

COVID-19 Accelerating Academic Teachers’ Digital Competence in Distance Teaching

“…Teachers should be supported in such disruptive events to ensure that students continue their studies (Ayebi-Arthur, 2017; Kebritchi et al, 2017;Rapanta et al, 2020). Therefore, the transition from face-to-face learning to online distance learning requires that the diverse needs of staff, administrators, students and teachers be identified and that higher education institutions adequately support the transition to high-quality distance learning (Johnson et al, 2020;Inglesias-Pradas et al, 2021;Kovacs et al, 2021).…”