A Phenomenological Study of Educators' Experience After a Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Nagaletchimee Annamalai; Radzuwan Ab Rashid; Hadeel Saed; Omar Ali Al-Smadi; Baderaddin Yassin

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.869687

A Phenomenological Study of Educators' Experience After a Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Front Psychol. 2022 May 27:13:869687. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.869687. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Nagaletchimee Annamalai¹, Radzuwan Ab Rashid², Hadeel Saed³, Omar Ali Al-Smadi⁴, Baderaddin Yassin⁵

Affiliations

¹ English Section, School of Distance Education, Universiti Sains Malaysia, George Town, Malaysia.
² Faculty of Languages and Communication, Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin, Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia.
³ Department of English Language and Translation, Applied Science Private University, Amman, Jordan.
⁴ English Language Department, University of Ha'il, Ha'il, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ Al-Ghad International Colleges for Applied Medical Sciences, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

This phenomenological study investigated educators' lived experiences of teaching online in higher institutions in Malaysia. Data, which was generated through semi-structured interviews with 20 lecturers from three universities in the country, was analysed based on the thematic analysis approach guided by the Technological, Pedagogical, and Content Knowledge (TPACK)-self-efficacy framework. The findings revealed that after a year of teaching online, the potential of technology has been acknowledged by the educators after some trials and constraints were addressed. The domains related to Technology Content Knowledge (TCK), Technology Pedagogical Knowledge (TPK), and TPACK were evident in the findings. However, Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) was not given emphasis, hence this manuscript argues that educators need to be constantly reminded of the significance of PCK. The findings discussed in this manuscript can be a helpful guide for educators when there is a need for them to teach online.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; ICT tool; TPACK; online learning (OL); online teaching and learning; phenomenology.