Abstract
In March 2020, the Minister of Basic Education, Mrs Angie Motshekga, stated that all schools in South Africa would be closed from the 18th of March. This statement was in response to the COVID-19 pandemic that had begun to ravage the country. Schools that could continue their academic year online proceeded to do so, but not without challenges. This research aimed to record how teachers experienced the transition from physical classroom teaching to online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. A mixedmethod research approach was undertaken in a questionnaire to eleven schools, and schools consisted of combined Primary and High Schools. Teachers answered closed and open-ended questions about their teaching skills, technological abilities before and during the shutdown and shared their experiences in their own words. A limiting factor in the research was that only eight schools responded to the questionnaires. Two schools were outside of Gauteng, and the rest were inside Gauteng. This limitation stems from a small sample group. Opportunities for further study are suggested in Chapter 5. Teachers who went online embarked on a journey where teaching online would test their resilience, adaptability and flexibility. Many teachers, upon reflection, grew positively through the experience. Though the concept of hybrid teaching was thoroughly entertained and delved into, it seems highly unlikely that teachers will want to continue or embrace online or blended teaching/learning methodology. Many online software applications and relevant online platforms for teaching and learning are available for teachers to use. Still, without a fully functional infrastructure to support accessing those platforms and lack of training and preparation, teachers and learners will not benefit from them. They will resort to “emergency remote teaching/learning” instead. The experience was not only impacted by poor infrastructure, but the glaring reality was that a lack of face-to-face teaching and student engagement posed the biggest challenge of all, revealing the cracks in our education system.
M.Ed. (Information and Communication Technology in Education)