Barriers to Emergency Remote Teaching and Learning During the COVID-19 Outbreak: Pre-Service Teachers’ View

Abstract

Although several studies have examined the challenges of teachers during Covid-19 pandemic, the area of student teacher context seems to be under-explored. Thus, the goal of this study is to explore Indonesian EFL student teachers' perceptions regarding the barriers faced during teaching practice. Bringing the context of emergency remote teaching and learning (ERTL), this study used self-assessment as the instrument to identify the barriers of fifteen pre-service teachers when performing their teaching skill. This study used document analysis from 15 student teachers' self-assessments. The data were then analyzed qualitatively. The results reveal two main findings, namely, technology-related barriers and pedagogy-related barriers. Technology-related barriers cover four underlying themes, and technical barriers are found as the majority. Dealing with pedagogy-related category, most barriers appear in the aspect of instructional use and technology logistics. In short, student teacher activities were not limited to their daily academic routines during the pandemic. They performed the responsibility of learning how to teach EFL learners mostly in online platform. Student teachers faced several types of barriers in their endeavors to obtain contextual teaching atmosphere through distance learning during the pandemic. This study implies that understanding barriers provides more insights for teacher education programs on how to prepare pre-service teachers better.