Paradigmatic Shift in Digital Education :Teacher's Voices from Delhi

• In Event: Topics in Comparative and International Education: large language models, teaching indigenous languages, digital education, and teacher turnover

Proposal

Paradigmatic Shift towards Digital Learning: Teacher’s voices from Delhi


Abstract

Traditionally society focussed on learning in a face-to-face fashion. It acknowledged the primacy of teacher and content. It was a highly engaged affair, which started from teaching out in the environment to teaching inside a classroom, which had its own ethos and essence. The more it seemed isolating, the more it was liberating for the minds inside the classroom who could learn by racing their imaginations on the foundations of theory. But as the society advanced and gladly chose to upgrade their lives by utilizing technology but something on the radar of teaching-learning seemed missing. Even in the previous decade it felt unreal that this technological advancement can be employed in its full capacity to replace a traditional classroom to a digital classroom with every stakeholder connected virtually. However, much to our surprise the pandemic urged all the educators to find newer ways of continuing education, where digital learning came up as a new norm.

This whole scenario during and post the pandemic thus brought a major paradigmatic shift from traditional classrooms to digital classrooms in a short span of time. Within India itself this change that might have taken years to execute, commenced almost instantly. Eventually within hardly a month most schools could restart their classes, all grade levels alike. As much as the research has tried to understand this phase of learning with a digital world taking over education, the enquiry felt dry. The reasons for this were many. Firstly, the research conducted within the nation only collected surveys and interviews with the students, understanding that an unprecedented turn might have only affected the consumer of the system. Moreover, the research additionally focused on restraining factors for digital education through a lens of the learner for which surveys and interviews with both teachers and principals were undertaken keeping students as central. This not only left the major pillar of the delivery behind, but also provided half the picture of how the transition shaped up.

In order to fill this gap, the present survey a qualitative enquiry of teachers from sample schools across Delhi, the capital city of the nation. The survey was rolled out in two phases. The first phase was in early 2021 when the schools had just reopened from the Nationwide lockdown and secondly, in 2023 after two more waves of covid had caused haphazard closing and reopening of schools. The timelines are of extreme importance here since they will highlight two major phases. In Phase I, where teachers had to suddenly undergo digital changes and incorporate digital technology for teaching, leaving the old methods behind. In Phase II, the time of two years had already been passed by using technology for teaching and learning. And thus, teachers were assumed to have become comfortable with using digital resources for teaching and learning.

The survey approached a total of 120 teachers in both the phases by conducting qualitative focus group discussions with them. It was carried out in the Focus group discussion format in a group of about ten teachers from one school. A total of six schools were sampled from Delhi in both the phases generating a data sample of sixty teachers from each phase adding to a total number of hundred and twenty. The enquiry was conducted using a semi-structured interview schedule prepared carefully with experts from education. Discussions from the teachers were thematically analysed using the Braun and Clark (2020) approach of reflexive thematic analysis.

Themes from the first phase presented logistic problems leading to a digital divide. It was noted that most of the teachers had little to no e-preparedness for the sudden shift to the online mode of education. Herein, they lacked formal training for the shift let alone the personalized training. Another major theme from the Focus Group Discussions in phase I provided that teachers had to make a haphazard acceptance towards the technology which was not received well by all. Age of teachers presented a major complex feature here since older teachers had the most trouble accepting training, and then using the same to teach. As a result, most senior teachers dropped out from teaching and instead the younger teachers were provided most classes adding to their workload leading to exhaustion and burnout. For younger teacher, logistic deprivation of essential equipment to teach online was an issue. While psychological issues of stress and burnout affected major teacher alike.

Themes from the data in phase II elaborated on the disguised acceptance of digital education, such that unprofessional ways of teaching digitally made teachers go through the task of revising the same concepts twice. This reduced the well-being among teachers by overworking the teaching workforce, while a psychological resistance towards technology led to further demotivation and aggressive resistance towards the use of digital learning. The findings from phase II were unique since it presented a fresh aspect from schools in Delhi, where despite training teachers in using the digital resources the teachers were left panting. The pre-requisites for incorporating digital technology within a classroom requires a psychological intervention with teachers. The survey provided a need of action research in this claim that shall help teachers in unfolding their fears and concerns that this is about advancing the education for both them and the students and not merely their replacement. Additionally, it hints at a dire need of strong professional training of teachers in digital education for capacity building and upskilling. Although the New education policy of 2020 in India has mandated digital advancements, sustainable steps towards the same have to be charted meticulously for future.

Teachers play a pivotal role in transformational of the education system and hence discerning their voices and addressing the challenges flagged by them will enable us to envision education in the emerging digital society. Energising teachers will overhaul the education system and will have an snowballing impact on the nation at large with ripple effect on the entire world.

Author

• Aarti Srivastava, NIEPA NewDelhi