Online education through the eyes of Turkish EFL instructors: A study on metaphorical perceptions

Abstract

Online education has been one of the most discussed educational phenomena in literature. However, it has not been a common experience for all shareholders of educational settings until the global pandemic. Compulsory online transmission in educational settings has turned into a common experience for all shareholders of educational practices around the globe rather than an option for traditional classroom-based instruction. The present study aims to explore the perceptions of EFL instructors and faculty regarding their online teaching practices through elicited metaphor analysis. To this end, 75 participants’ metaphoric utterances were collected and coded through content analysis according to their gender, general teaching experience, and online teaching experience. Two categories and 17 themes have been identified. The results indicate a nuance between the positive and negative perceptions about online teaching according to gender and online teaching experience and a slight difference between general teaching experience and perceptions. Overall, participants have adopted a negative perception of their online teaching experience.