Are the Benefits of Emergency Remote Education Truly Benefits? Ethical Dilemmas and Research Results on Emergency Remote Education from the Perspective of Prospective Teachers and the Foundations of Pedagogical Study Programmes

Abstract

Commencing in March 2020 and continuing during the 2020/2021 academic year, all university education was forced to introduce emergency remote education due to restrictions imposed in countries affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. In the present empirical study, which includes a representative sample of students from one of the education faculties in Slovenia, data was obtained on the conditions and implementation of study programmes via emergency remote education. The areas of study were the material conditions for studying, the pedagogical process in emergency remote education, the ethics of the rules of performance and assessment, and the academic community. The study provides an analysis of the changes that took place in the implementation of the pedagogical process during emergency remote education from the students’ perspective and an examination of the extent to which it provided equal opportunities for students. The results show that the success of students in their studies depends on technical conditions and the environment; that rapid transitions from one type of studying to another (from emergency remote education to hybrid or entirely at the faculty) are not recommended; that the teaching process was based on the concept of face-to-face teaching, partly adapting to different conditions on this basis; and finally, that the “desire for comfort” entered into the assessment of the quality and fairness of the educational process. Based on the values of our professional ethical judgement and the results of the study, we conclude that higher education teachers should be aware that providing comfort to some students who have the appropriate conditions for studying or simply preferring to teach from the comfort of home are not adequate reasons to maintain online delivery of courses compared to the criteria of justice and quality in education.