Open AccessThe Hidden Shadow of Coronavirus on Education in Developing Countries
Author(s) -
Zuheir N. Khlaif,
Soheil Salha,
Shahid Fareed,
Hadi Rashed
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
online learning
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.182
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 2472-5749
pISSN - 2472-5730
DOI - 10.24059/olj.v25i1.2287
Subject(s) - attendance , shadow (psychology) , covid-19 , developing country , medical education , psychology , political science , medicine , economic growth , disease , pathology , infectious disease (medical specialty) , law , economics , psychotherapist
The aim of this paper is to investigate the challenges associated with emergency remote teaching in the developing countries of Palestine, Libya, and Afghanistan, as reported by middle-school students, their parents, and teachers. These countries have been struggling with an unstable and violent situation for decades. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 60 participants from the three countries and 60 online classes were observed. Findings revealed that COVID-19 widened the digital gap among students and families, which created challenges in terms of online class attendance. In addition, violation of students’ and parents’ digital privacy emerged as another key challenge to emergency remote teaching. However, teacher presence and timely feedback in synchronous online sessions strengthened students’ engagement within the emergency remote teaching environment. Overall, emergency remote teaching during the COVID-19 crisis deepened inequities across students and infringed upon the digital ethics of students, teachers, and parents.