The Covid-19 epidemic: teachers’ responses to school closure in developing countries

ABSTRACT

There is little research which explores middle school teachers’ response to school closures in developing countries in times of crisis. This article presents a case study of Afghanistan, Libya and Palestine as developing countries which have suffered from violence for many years prior to the Covid-19 crisis. It focuses on how teachers in middle school responded to school closure to fight the spread of Covid-19. Twenty-two teachers from these countries participated in the study. Semi-structured interviews and three diverse focus group sessions were used to collect data and evidence. The study found that teachers developed their skills to use emerging technologies and design suitable digital content. Moreover, they built strong relationships with the local community to assume their responsibility in emergency remote learning (ERL) by establishing community centres for students from poor families. Assessing and engaging students were crucial issues in ERL which need more research in different contexts.

KEYWORDS:

• Emergency remote learning
• developing countries
• Covid-19
• school closure
• online learning

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Tawjihe is the general exam taken in the last year of secondary school in Palestine.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Zuheir N. Khlaif

Zuheir N. Khlaif is a lecturer at An Najah National University. He has worked as an instructional designer and consultant for instructional design and designing e-content. He has published widely in Scopus and ISI journals, and has gained research experience through serving as a reviewer in many international journals.

Soheil Salha

Soheil Salha has a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction with specialisation in the field of Educational Technology (Math Education). She has published several studies on using software in learning and teaching mathematics, teacher education, curriculum analysis, school design and higher education settings. She works as a trainer in instructional design, active learning, e-portfolios and authentic assessment.

Saida Affouneh

Saida Affouneh is an associate professor working as the Dean of the Faculty of Education and Teacher Training and Director of the E-learning Center at An Najah National University. She has won many awards for her excellence in teaching and learning.

Hadi Rashed

Hadi Rashed is an assistant professor working as the Head of the Business Communication Department at Kabul University. He has published several papers in international journals.

Lotfia Ali ElKimishy

Lotfia ElKimishy is an associate professor at Tripoli University. She has published five books in Arabic on different topics related to types of multimedia. She has participated in more than 103 local, regional and international conferences. She has published more than 80 articles in international and Arabic-language journals.