The Covid-19 epidemic: teachers' responses to school closure in developing countries

There is little research which explores middle school teachers' response to school closures in developing countries in times of crisis. This article presents a case study of Afghanistan, Libya and Palestine as developing countries which have suffered from violence for many years prior to the Covid-19 crisis. It focuses on how teachers in middle school responded to school closure to fight the spread of Covid-19. Twenty-two teachers from these countries participated in the study. Semi-structured interviews and three diverse focus group sessions were used to collect data and evidence. The study found that teachers developed their skills to use emerging technologies and design suitable digital content. Moreover, they built strong relationships with the local community to assume their responsibility in emergency remote learning (ERL) by establishing community centres for students from poor families. Assessing and engaging students were crucial issues in ERL which need more research in different contexts.