Phenomenological Analysis of Faculty Members' Lived Experiences about Teaching Agriculture Courses in the Virtual Education Platform

This research was conducted with the aim of phenomenological analysis of faculty members' lived experiences about teaching agriculture courses in the virtual education platform during Corona Virus pandemic using a qualitative approach. The statistical population of the research was the faculty members of the Faculty of Agriculture and Environment of Arak University. Out of the population and with respect to the diversity and homogeneity in the academic year of 2022-2023, 20 faculty members were selected as a sample by purposeful sampling. Qualitative data were collected through five semi-structured interviews with open some questions until the emergence of the theoretical saturation. The thematic analysis was used as a method to recognize, analyze, and report the results obtained from the qualitative interviews.  Four criteria proposed by Spezial, Strobert and Carpenter were used to check and ensure the validity of the research findings. In the first stage of the data analysis, the information was written and presented in the form of some draft texts. After defining the unit of analysis, the categorization and coding the concepts were implemented. MaxQDA software was used to code the collected data. The findings of the research regarding the phenomenological analysis of faculty members' lived experiences about teaching agriculture courses in the virtual education platform during Corona Virus pandemic included factors like training, facilitation, infrastructural weakness, and psychological effects. From the participants’ point of view, virtual education opportunities included strengthening educational technology skills, expanding online teaching skills, expanding education, and strengthening virtual education infrastructure. Also, the threats of virtual education included educational issues, lack of cognitive presence, infrastructural problems, and lack of rules. It is worth mentioning that although the participants listed some threats for the virtual education, they proposed some solutions to make education more effective, strengthen infrastructures, and establish laws. According to the results of the present research, improving the teaching and content production skills among the professors of the agricultural college, improving the infrastructure of virtual education, and formulating specific rules in the field of virtual education were highlighted as the main practical recommendations.