Higher education in a time of pandemic

Abstract

This article presents the results of a study carried out with teachers from Higher Education institutions in the city of Belém, state of Pará, from March to June 2020, a time when Brazil and the whole planet were facing the peak of a pandemic that hit the educational system and drastically impacted educational practices. Thus, the interest in understanding how professors have experienced this moment motivated this investigation, which aimed to analyze the perception of higher education teachers about the experiences and the impact on teaching arising from the implementation of Emergency Remote Teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data collection and analysis procedures combined qualitative and quantitative techniques. Data collection took place through a standardized online questionnaire with open and closed questions. Thirty-nine professors who gave classes in the remote mode during the COVID-19 pandemic participated in the study. The results revealed the teachers' perception of the multiplicity and diversity of roles they assumed in these times of sanitary urgency. This is so that amid the chaos installed by the lack of planning or training, these education professionals displayed high and continuous capacity for adaptation, creativity and reinvention of, in spite of the obligation imposed by the functional condition of the respondents - teachers from private higher education institutions in Belém.