Barriers to implementation of distance learning during the COVID-19 outbreak: Teacher perspective

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, distance learning has become one of the main educational issues globally. With the transition of all instruction to the online environment, teachers in Serbia have faced a number of challenges and barriers that have affected the quality of their work. In this paper, we wanted to analyse the barriers that teachers faced during the first months of distance learning. The research was conducted combining quantitative and qualitative analysis of data collected on a sample of 122 high school teachers from the Southeast Serbia (Nis, Leskovac). The results show that teachers recognise evaluation barriers as the predominant ones, followed by organisational-administrative ones, while the least represented were material-technical barriers to distance learning. The findings also confirm that material and technical barriers are most common among teachers with the longest work experience, as well as that organisational-administrative and socio-emotional barriers are the least common among teachers of vocational subjects. Although the focus of the paper was on the barriers in the implementation of distance learning, it can be concluded that teachers recognise certain benefits of this type of instruction and indicate that it can be used as a supplement to regular instruction. The main pedagogical implications of the paper refer to the empowerment of teachers through professional development in the field of distance learning, but also to the need to create new professional development programmes in this field which will enable the development of functional knowledge and relevant competencies for the immediate situational context of modern instruction.