Distance Education Experiences of Preschool Teachers during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Turkey

Abstract

With the Covid-19 pandemic, it has been attempted to conduct distance education at all grades in the world. This study aims to examine the distance education processes of preschool teachers in Turkey. The instrumental case study was used in the research with ten female private kindergarten teachers selected using the snowball and convenience sampling method. Interviews were conducted with a semi-structured form on the Zoom platform. It was concluded that teachers experienced infrastructure and technical problems, increased workload in distance education, and had economic difficulties. During online education, teachers felt that they were monitored by parents and had privacy concerns. Teachers had problems in classroom management, experienced anxiety with increased screen time and could not adapt measurement and evaluation practices. The requirements for distance preschool education were divided into four categories: knowledge, interaction, physical space and material. The recommendations for limitations and future research are indicated in the study.

Keywords

• preschool education
• covid-19
• pandemic
• preschool teachers
• distance education