Exploring the perceptions of Grade 4 educators who taught reading comprehension remotely during the Covid-19 lockdown

Abstract

Research regarding the effects of the COVID-19 lockdown on teaching and learning is growing, with an intense focus on the mitigation of the losses accrued during the two years most affected by the pandemic. Teaching reading comprehension in the classroom requires that teachers follow a hands-on approach to strategy development, yet teachers were forced to suspend face-to-face instruction and teach reading comprehension remotely during the lockdown. A case study was employed to explore the perceptions of Grade 4 teachers regarding how they taught reading comprehension during the COVID-19 lockdown. This study focused specifically on Grade 4 English and Afrikaans Home Language teachers and aimed to determine the impact of remote teaching on the acquisition of reading comprehension skills and on how educators adapted their methodologies to accomplish teaching reading comprehension remotely. The study is rooted in the theory of Social Justice and is qualitative and interpretivist in nature. The Social Justice lens was employed to determine how teachers ensured that learners had equitable access to quality reading comprehension instruction through the use of opportunities to support learners and to determine if learners’ rights to good reading instruction and participation had been compromised. The data was collected in two phases. In the first phase of the data collection, document analyses of WCED English and Afrikaans Home Language lesson plans were conducted. It was found that these lesson plans did not cover all the reading comprehension strategies that should be taught in Grade 4 and that the plans provided insufficient guidance to teachers on how to teach these strategies. In the second phase of data collection, semi-structured interviews were conducted with Grade 4 teachers who had taught reading comprehension remotely during the lockdown. The interviews revealed numerous issues with teaching reading comprehension remotely, related to access to quality teaching and learning resources, parental involvement, socioeconomic status and the lack of training in remote teaching. This study highlights the need for a focused approach and clear guidance to teachers on teaching reading comprehension remotely.