Abstract:

In México, 30 million students and 2 million teachers are facing an educational contingency after the WHO (World Health Organization)recommendations to schools were published on March 11, 2020[1]. This paper describes how Mexican teachers are coping with the emergency. To this aim, responses of teachers across the country were gathered in three dimensions: The technological, assessing connectivity, as a necessary but not sufficient condition for remote teaching. The pedagogical inquires about the strategies used by teachers during the pandemic, as well as their perception of students' learning. And the socio-emotional, relating to teachers' well being and their perceived stress, anxiety, sleep, or depression symptoms.

A network of researchers from various Mexican universities conducting the Education in Contingency Research Project[2], designed an online instrument exploring the three dimensions. Strategies for the dissemination of the closed-ended e-questionnaire among teachers, varied from asking the support from school associations and authorities to Webinars explaining interested teachers the scope and study´s objectives. Descriptive statistics presented in this article reflect the opinions of n = 19,547 confirmed in-service teachers from Primary through High School, representing different states, public and private institutions located in Mexican urban and rural contexts.

Among the main findings are the following: Technologically, only half of the teachers report adequate Internet connectivity, which limits their use of digital resources. Pedagogically, teachers had been creative and flexible, looking for ways to adapt their teaching and combining digital and traditional resources. . Regarding their socio-emotional state, a slight discouragement is identified, as well as stress and anxiety toward an uncertain future. Relations between the three dimensions are reported in the final paper.

The contingency is far from over. However, preliminary data reported here, already reveals strengths and areas of opportunity for the Mexican Educational System in general and the improvement of teachers’ support systems in particular.

References:
[1] OMS (2020). Alocución de apertura del Director General de la OMS en la rueda de prensa sobre la COVID-19 celebrada el 11 de marzo de 2020. Suiza: Organización Mundial de la Salud.
[2] Results reported in this study pertain to a bigger research effort studying teachers, parents, and students from primary to a college education.
Institutions and researchers participating in the project are: www. educarencontingencia.net
Universidad Iberoamericana, México y Puebla: Luis Medina Gual, Cimenna Chao Rebolledo, Elvia Garduño Teliz, Miguel Àngel Rivera Navarro and Luz del Carmen Montes Pacheco
Universidad Panamericana, México: María del Pilar Baptista Lucio.
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. FES Acatlán: María del Carmen González Videgaray and Carlos Covarrubias Santiago.
Universidad Anáhuac: Luis Medina- Velázquez and Leonardo Daniel Sánchez- Rojas,
José Aníbal Ojeda Núñez.
[3] Research Grant Number 312825 .CONACyT (The National Council of Science and Technology). Apoyo para proyectos de investigación científica, desarrollo tecnológico e innovación en salud ante la contingencia por COVID-19 (Número de proyecto 312825) e #IberoFrenteal COVID19.

Keywords:

Covid-19, Mexican teachers, technological capabilities, pedagogical strategies, teachers well being.