Academic Motherhood During Educational Emergencies: Mother Teachers Perceptions of Distance Education According to Their Dual Roles During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic is the largest emergency of modern times and one of its consequences has been the complete shift to distance education systems. Mother teachers have borne the greatest burden in implementing teaching and learning processes through distance education platforms and systems, as they were required to carry out their tasks as teachers and at the same time fulfill their role as mothers and follow up on their children. Accordingly, mother teachers have played dual roles for the same tasks in distance education environments, which makes studying their perceptions regarding distance education environments a guiding guide for dealing with educational emergencies in the future. Accordingly, the current research aims to examine mother teachers' perceptions of distance education according to their dual roles during the Covid-19 pandemic. The study relied on the explanatory approach, where the phenomenological approach was used to find out the mothers' teachers' perceptions associated with the use of distance education systems during emergencies. A set of questions was developed through a semi-structured interview tool with six mother teachers in general education stages. MAXQDA program was used to analyze the interview outcomes. The results of the study came to shape the teachers' perceptions in six main axes, as follows: the family climate for distance education, obstacles to distance education during emergencies, evaluation issues, digital skills, school supervision, and teacher workloads. Based on the results of the study, it was recommended to develop training and counseling programs to support mother teachers during educational emergencies, as well as to develop guidelines for implementing distance education during emergencies.