Teaching by distance : A qualitative investigation into upper secondary EFL teachers' perspectives on distance education in the Swedish context

This study aimed to investigate EFL teachers’ perspectives on distance education in the Swedish context. The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has fuelled the need to investigate teachers’ experiences in the transition from face-to-face to online teaching. Five EFL teachers were interviewed to collect qualitative data, which was analysed using thematic analysis. The findings show that the participants had both positive and negative experiences of distance education. Their overall experience has shown that there have been affordances and limitations of distance education. The affordances of distance education, according to the participants, are that: (1) it enabled the teachers to focus more on students as individuals, (2) it made recording the lessons easier, which has made the participants’ work more manageable, and (3) it increased the quality of private conversations with individual students. The results also showed that according to the participating teachers, social interaction with the students and assessment practices were negatively affected by distance education. Overall, the participants’ experience of teaching trough distance education has been challenging. However, integrating technology in their lessons has enabled creative planning