Remote teaching and affective tones: A hermeneutic phenomenological research with teachers

Abstract

This is a hermeneutic phenomenological research with three internship supervisors from Brazilian public universities, using narrative interviews in the format of remote videoconferences. The objective was to investigate the affective tones arising from the experience of remote teaching of Psychology during the Covid-19 pandemic, from a Heideggerian perspective. The statements were interpreted based on Critelli's analysis of meaning. Teachers experienced unrest in remote classes due to the reduction in active interlocutors, who remained with the camera/audio muted, unavailable for critical dialogue and exchanges. The affective tones mentioned were fear and anguish, which gave rise to an atmosphere of loneliness, helplessness, demotivation and exhaustion. Such affections provoked meditative thinking, calling on teachers to remove themselves from existential superficiality, in favor of teaching that circulates the transmission of knowledge and through circularity around the dimension of the sensitive, to awaken reflective densification and the questioning of everyday clichés. It is concluded that remote teaching was an alternative for training continuity during the pandemic, which hampered the teaching-learning process of skills/abilities for future psychologists. Loneliness/exhaustion was prevalent in remote psychology teaching. Teachers were affected by: decreased student involvement, weakening of bonds, increased dropout rates, precarious work, lack of interaction and losses in the training process. The students seemed more consumers than interlocutors, favoring a boring/distressed affective atmosphere, interfering with teaching work and training. New studies are suggested to investigate the impacts of this teaching modality on the practice and training of psychologists, including its affective tones.