Teaching practices and emotions of senior phase teachers during the Covid-19 pandemic : a case study.

Abstract

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa and the declaration of a national lockdown in March 2020 resulted in the closure of schools. Social distancing became an important measure to curb the spread of the pandemic. As a result, learners had to stay at home while embarking on alternative learning. Therefore, this research study examined the experiences and emotions of senior phase teachers in the process of adjusting their teaching practices and curriculum coverage during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study was grounded on Hargreaves’s (2001) theory of emotional geographies of teaching as it the most relevant theoretical framework for this study. Hargreaves’s (2001) five emotional geographies of teaching are sociocultural, moral, physical, political and professional. Furthermore, this study was located within the interpretive research paradigm due to its appropriateness in helping the researcher to obtain an in-depth understanding of the reality of teachers’ circumstances during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Mack (2010), interpretive studies focus on an individuals’ ability to construct meaning. In answering this study’s two research questions, this study adopted two forms of data generation instruments which were semi-structured interviews and collages. Purposive sampling was applied in conducting this study as it allowed a small number of participants to be selected based on a stipulated criterion. Therefore, the researcher purposefully selected six grade seven teachers teaching different subjects in a primary school during the COVID-19 pandemic. This was done to get in-depth knowledge on the experiences of senior phase teachers in the process of adjusting teaching strategies and curriculum coverage during COVID-19 pandemic. The findings of this study indicated that the outbreak of the pandemic compelled teachers to adjust to COVID-19 regulations. In doing so, the implementation of the following actions was in practice: health protocols such as social distancing and sanitising, rotation systems, curriculum trimming, use of digital technology. There were a number of factors that impaired the process of adjustment in many ways. These included scarcity of resources and heavy workloads for teachers, as well as other socio-economic challenges. In addition, the findings of the study revealed that, in adjusting teaching strategies during COVID-19, teachers experienced feelings of fear and anxiety and felt the need for varying degrees of support from different role players such as parents, the Department of Basic Education (DBE) and fellow teachers