Teacher Online ELT Experiences in a Rural Primary School in China During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

This study adopts narrative inquiry to report five English teachers' online teaching experiences in a rural primary school in China during the COVID-19 pandemic. From a sociocultural theoretical perspective, this study shows how the participating teachers navigated the transition in instructional mode and developed familiarity with online teaching over time. Using thematic analysis, the findings of this study reveal that the teachers showed anxiety toward online teaching, that they formed a virtual community of practice, that they incorporated lived experiences into online teaching, and that they called for professional development centered on online teaching and spoke to the changing needs for English teaching in the post-COVID era. Implications are provided regarding how the teachers could transfer face-to-face ELT to an online setting and how they could be better supported professionally by the school and their colleagues.