Urgent Distance Education in the Quarantine Era. Views of Primary Education Teachers

Abstract

The pandemic largely impacted the society globally and led to a large number of deaths, with governments forced to take as a basic measure the restriction of social interactions. In this article we study the views of teachers about the implementation of emergency remote education, during the pandemic period, after the closure of school units. Our survey participants were fifteen (15) primary school teachers from Lesvos Island. The participants reported that the application of the educational process does not fit to the principles of distance learning. The goal of emergency remote education, as mentioned in the Greek and international literature, was to maintain a continuation to the school and social activity of everyday life of the students. However, there were difficulties related to the organization of synchronous and asynchronous teaching, using the appropriate teaching material and with the digital literacy of teachers and students. In conclusion, the application of "emergency remote education" has highlighted the concerns that exist for education and the contribution of digital instruments to the transformation of social inequalities to new hierarchies in the field of education.