An ecological analysis of novice EFL teacher professionalism during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 outbreak in Chile exposed social inequalities, strained education systems, and worsened teachers’ working conditions. In the present qualitative study, we conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews with 10 novice English teachers. The interviews aimed to reveal the experiences and tensions of these language teachers who were providing emergency remote instruction in different school contexts during the early months of the pandemic. Interviews were coded and data were thematically analysed. Findings were presented using Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model as a framework and showed that teachers’ professionalism was impacted by each level of the nested systems within the environment in which these teachers worked. Given the influences exerted by the outer systems, teachers felt constrained in their pedagogical decision-making, and hence concentrated their efforts on fostering teacher-student relationships and connecting to students emotionally. Through these novice teachers’ voices, we claim that there is a need to re-negotiate and expand teachers’ professionalism, giving them freedom to make curricular decisions while exploring avenues that incorporate a more humanistic, nurturing, and self-caring perspective.