Challenges English Teachers Faced in Shaad Platform during Covid-۱۹ Pandemic: Threats or Opportunities

Covid-۱۹ has changed the routine, rituals, process, and structure of schools, and education, and even teaching methodology in most countries. School closures related to the current COVID-۱۹ pandemic have made students vulnerable to experience many educational barriers thereby challenges; Iran has not been an exception. The present study try to pinpoints such challenges the junior English high school teachers faced in Iran in Shaad Program, and the ways they have overcame them. To this end, following ethnographic qualitative design, data was gathered from ۲۴ public school English teacher (male=۱۲, Female=۱۲) base on purposive sampling. Structured interview was used to elicit the participants’ idea on six questions related to the possible challenges they have faced in their online teaching during COVID-۱۹. The results revealed that the challenges were related to participants’ interaction, the course infrastructure, and psychological, social and health problems. However, the EFL teachers believed that there could be no better substitution for online teaching in this era. They believed that Covid-۱۹ necessitates the importance of systematic support of the schools to provide teachers with multimedia and instructional resources. Also, the need is felt to shift into active learning strategies not only to engage learners in learning language but also to encourage them to have more meaningful interaction to prevent possible future psychological and social problems.

Keywords:

COVID-۱۹ , EFL Teachers , Online Teaching , Teaching Challenges