Teachers' daily routine in the mist of the pandemic: attempting a comparison between Greece and Ukraine. (English)
In: Open Education: The Journal for Open & Distance Education & Educational Technology, Jg. 17 (2021-07-01), Heft 2, S. 216-232
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Zugriff:
There is no doubt: the epidemic that plagues humanity the current period has affected, above all, the social life as it had been in the past (and as is at the time these words are written) as well as restricted the field of education (see also Crawford, Butler-Henderson, Rudolph, Malkawi, Glowatz, Burton, & Lam, 2020). In the midst of this change traversing the flow of our lives we were suddenly called upon to manage the cultural trauma shock, as it has been called (Alexander, Eyerman, Giesen, Smelser, & Sztompka, 2004), but as Koronaki states (2015) nothing can be traumatized unless it 'undergoes a process of social meaning first' (p. 208). Alexander, Eyerman, Giesen, Smelser and Sztompka mention some questions regarding trauma, since only after those are answered, societies can understand under what conditions an event turns into a social and wide-ranging drama (see also Demertzis & Rudometov, 2015). While experiencing this trauma, the following need arose: pupils/students had to be able to be digitally supported, from the very moment they were restricted at home (long-termly or short-termly) (see also Crawford et al., 2020) fact which has not always been feasible at every educational level. Social destabilization caused by the health crisis and the way it was communicated, managed and reproduced through communication networks revealed changes in many types of social structures (see also Tsekeris & Zeri, 2020) and teachers were at the forefront of this whole new procedure/administration. Therefore, teachers were asked to interact with their pupils/students via internet and guide them in judging and distinguishing between true and false information (see also Casero-Ripolles, 2020), to which they are exposed; of course, all this by distance (see also Burgess & Sievertsen, 2020; Ustun, 2020). What we should not forget is the fact that educators had to quickly adapt to a situation, towards which they were not prepared (see also Haverback, 2020; Evagorou & Nisiforou, 2020; Edelhauser & Lupu-Dima, 2020) and likewise most schools' technical infrastructure that may/would support any online interaction. Taking all the above under consideration, we thought that we had to look upon their (teachers'/educators') reality and compare the results from our country to those of another one that is not geographically close (we thought that geography matters) (see also Venables, 1999; Ballas, Rossiter, Thomas, Clarke, & Dorling, 2005; Gren, 2001). In accordance, the purpose of this research is to highlight the similarities, differences and possible problems occurring to the educational life of teachers in Greece and Ukraine during the lockdown period for each country, due to the Covid-19 virus. In total we gathered a sample of forty-three (43) educators (teaching in pre- school/nursery, primary and secondary education schools) from both countries. Twenty-two (22) teachers included in the sample worked in Greece and the rest, twenty-one (21) in Ukraine. The interviewees from both (2) countries were invited to give one (1) interview answering a series of questions. In order to come to easier conclusions, we decided to divide our sample into categories. The criterion of segregation was the level of education in which the interviewees worked. The separation resulted in the following three (3) categories: pre-school/nursery teachers, primary school teachers and secondary school teachers. Subsequently, we drew conclusions (related to the educational routine) for each category separately and then we compared all the conclusions, in order to find similarities and differences and, finally, to approach, a general conclusion, if possible. As regards pre-school/nursery Greek teachers, during pandemic they talked to parents and pupils/students, in order to psychologically support them and inform them on this whole new educational procedure, contacting colleagues, creating educational material and sending it to pupils/students or/and training (or/and self-training) for distance education. As regards Greece, the educational routine of all primary teachers of our sample included communication with colleagues, communication with parents and/or pupils/students, engaging educational material and some kind of training or self-education. As regards Ukraine, primary teachers' daily life included mainly dealing with the educational material, teaching online courses through ZOOM, communicating with the school management in order to solve any questions/problems and in some cases communicating with colleagues. As regards Greek secondary school teachers, they focused on dealing with the educational material and responded that the communication with their pupils/students was carried out exclusively in the context of the educational process. Also, according to what they said, it did not seem that everyone had constant communication with their colleagues. As regards Ukraine, the educational routine of secondary school teachers (which is quite similar to that of primary school teachers) mainly included dealing with the educational material, teaching online courses through various means (mainly through ZOOM), communicating with the school management in order to solve problems and answer any upcoming questions and in some cases communicating with colleagues. In conclusion, we would say that the educational daily life of teachers in the two (2) countries had similarities and differences, as well. The similarities were that teachers of both (2) countries spent a lot of time preparing suitable educational material for distance education and kept in touch with their colleagues, with Greek teachers doing so more often. Regarding the differences, at the time they gave us the interviews, it seems that Ukrainian teachers used the 'new' distance education more than the corresponding Greek ones, who used the asynchronous. Another difference is that Greek primary school teachers seemed to keep in touch with their students outside the framework of educational process. Finally, during the quarantine period, Greek teachers in general began attending distance education specialised training. Only two Ukrainian teachers referred to the issue of communication with pupils/students and none of them mentioned training or self-training. It should be noted, however, that the fact that they did not address these issues does not mean that they were/are not included in their educational routine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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Titel: |
Teachers' daily routine in the mist of the pandemic: attempting a comparison between Greece and Ukraine. (English)
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Zeitschrift: | Open Education: The Journal for Open & Distance Education & Educational Technology, Jg. 17 (2021-07-01), Heft 2, S. 216-232 |
Veröffentlichung: | 2021 |
Medientyp: | academicJournal |
ISSN: | 1791-9312 (print) |
DOI: | 10.12681/jode.25414 |
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