Perceptions of Primary School English Teachers Regarding Distance Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case Study in San Carlos, Costa Rica

The 2020 academic year was disrupted due to the COVID-19 health crisis. The Ministry of Public Education of Costa Rica announced a change to the modality of distance education to avoid the students’ detachment from the formal educational system. This case study, based on inductive qualitative research, collected, and triangulated data through in-depth interviews, document gathering of self-study guides, and video recordings. As the study took place amid the pandemic, data collection was carried out through virtual environments. Data were analyzed using domain analysis [8] and WebQDA [4] to conduct digital semantic coding to categorize the primary school English teachers’ opinions and experiences in rural schools during the pandemic. The purpose of this study is to describe the perceptions of four primary school English teachers from Dirección Regional de Educación San Carlos regarding distance education. Results suggested five main findings. The first result emphasizes strong feelings to cope with the new modality. Then, educational management processes that influenced the teaching-learning processes. The third result highlights a sense of self-efficacy regarding skills which led to strengthen the pedagogical decision-making processes. Another result sheds light on changes that became normalized endeavors as the teachers adapted to distance education. The last outcome shows the characteristics of distance education based on the teachers’ perceptions. This study contributes to the existing literature on distance education for a better comprehension of the pedagogical mediation and professional context of the English teachers of San Carlos, Costa Rica during the health crisis.