Decision Making in Shifts to Online Teaching: Analysing Reflective Narratives from Staff Working in African Higher Educational Institutions

Abstract

Many higher education institutions moved from in-person to online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic, but these shifts have a longer history and potential. They require challenging individual and collective decision making by staff, beyond their usual repertoire of practice. This paper, therefore, aims to understand the nature of decisions that staff made as they moved to online teaching, the reasons, processes, and reflections on the perceived impacts. Eighty-four participants with diverse roles connected to moving online from four institutions across Africa were purposively sampled. Using a constructivist paradigm and qualitative approach, participants were invited to describe decision-making experiences through short narratives with prompts around their context, decisions, and impacts. Twenty-two of these participants attended a workshop to augment the narrative data and identify good practices. Qualitative analysis directed by Activity Theory concepts revealed that decisions related to policy and rules, pedagogy, community, and technology were frequently cited by participants. The main objective expressed in these narratives was maintaining the continuity of education for students. However, mixed impacts were observed on student engagement, and further decisions were made in response to this. Common challenges related to tools and technology, and similarly, the biggest tension for implementing the decisions was found between tools and technology and the participants or their communities. Good practices include updating policies and introducing continuous assessment. Implications for reflective professional practice are discussed, including how previous practices are initially drawn on to try to reproduce in-person teaching online but then adapt in recognition of the tensions this raises.