Challenges experienced by teachers regarding access to digital instruments, resources, and competences in adapting the educational process to physical distancing measures at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in Romania

Abstract

Emergency remote teaching replaced face-to-face education almost everywhere in the world at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Romania switched to online teaching in March 2020 as a recommendation that became an obligation to teach online in late April 2020. Teachers saw themselves confronted with the need to adapt to a completely new infrastructure for teaching and learning in the digital sphere. Building on qualitative data (interviews and focus groups), collected as part of a participatory action research project aiming to support school teachers in adapting to online education, we explore the question: How did teachers understand and respond to the challenges brought about by using digital instruments and resources in the educational process? Our findings show that teachers faced challenges in accessing technological and digital infrastructures, as well as in ensuring that pupils had access to online teaching and learning activities. Moreover, teachers were faced with the need to rapidly develop the digital competences necessary for online teaching. This prompted exchanges between teachers, pupils and parents, as well as the setting up of support structures within and outside school structures.

Keywords

• : digital competences
• emergency remote education
• access to education
• digital resources
• educational technologies