Musicians of the Titanic: An EFL teacher’s classroom management experiences during Covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

This single-subject case study dwells on the classroom management (CM) practices during emergency remote teaching (ERT) that resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic. The participant is an English teacher, teaching young learners (aged 6-8) during the time of the study. Under the qualitative research framework, the strategies and views upon CM practices were derived from observation of 20 lessons, 4 weekly reflection reports, and a semi-structured interview. The data were transcribed, analyzed using in-vivo and descriptive coding methods, and interpreted with relating to the existing literature. As a result, it was found out that there were many factors interwoven in this subject matter, giving rise to an intricate network of developing strategies, perceptions, and roles. In this vein, various teacher roles/resources, dynamic learners’ roles, a toolkit for dealing with CM issues, the intervening surrounding factors affecting the course of CM during ERT were presented and discussed within the related literature. Accordingly, practical implications upon ameliorating this process and recommendations for enhancing the understanding of the subject matter were provided.