Teaching work in times of social isolation

An analysis of the perception of the use of digital technologies by public basic education teachers

Abstract

In this article, we aim to investigate the perception of public basic education teachers about teaching work in the context of emergency remote education, in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic scenario. More specifically, about working conditions, the constitution of practice and teachers' relationships with digital technologies. For data collection, we applied an online questionnaire. As for data analysis, we used Tardif and Lessard (2014) on teaching work; about teacher's relationship with digital technology, Coscarelli and Kersch (2016); about digital literacies, Buzato (2003; 2007) and Araújo and Pinheiro (2014); finally, for the analysis of teachers' statements, we adopted assumptions of the Dialogic Discourse Theory: Bakhtin (2011), Volóchinov (2017), and re-readings, as Brait (2016). As teachers, through language, expressed their appraisals about their work activity, our work matches the scope of studies in Applied Linguistics. We found that, during the realization of remote online classes, several challenges imposed on the teaching activity have been intensified, such as work overload and the difficulty of accessing and using technological resources for educational purposes. In addition, the lack of training of the users involved to face this atypical scenario was also mentioned. Finally, we believe that digital technologies have been much more than an alternative to not remain inert, because their use, even under the conditions faced, can enable teachers to rethink their teaching practice.