Combating the Coronavirus Pandemic in Small Schools

Abstract

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the issue of distance education in primary schools has become a much-discussed topic. It is therefore no surprise that the issues related to it have come to the forefront of many researchers. There is, however, at least one group which stayed relatively unnoticed, and it is so called small schools. Thus, we con-ducted a qualitative study based on the phenomenological approach searching for answers to our research ques-tion: What is the experience of the directors of small schools with distance education during the pandemic? Our findings offer an in-depth insight into the life of six schools through the eyes of its directors. Semi-structural inter-views with school directors helped us reveal three key factors which, in our opinion, had the greatest influence on the form of distance education. These are (1) the factor of ICT competence of all actors (2) the factor of organization of educational settings, and (3) the factor of used teaching methods and forms in education. Furthermore, we con-clude the result section with a subchapter that captures the positive aspects of distance education as perceived by the addressed school directors.