Exploring the Lived Experiences of Farhangian University Professors from Virtual Internship during the Corona Period and Implications for Post-Corona Internship

The effective implementation of the internship curriculum usually requires the presence of student teachers in the real environment of the classroom and school and performing educational activities under the direct guidance of the mentor professor and mentor teachers and in coordination and cooperation with other elements and pillars of education in the university and school. Before the outbreak of COVID-19, this course was necessarily conducted in person, but with the outbreak of this disease and the prohibition of in-person education to maintain the health of individuals, this course, like other courses, was offered virtually and non-physically. After a while from compulsory and emergency virtual education and considering the importance of this course and its practical, experimental, and in-person nature, this serious and fundamental question was raised that what challenges and problems has virtual internship faced and at the same time, what advantages it has had compared to in-person internship. This important question on the one hand, and the indispensability of this experience in the country and the research gap in this field on the other hand, prompted researchers to explore the experiences of one of the basic elements and pillars of this course, namely mentor professors, what has passed over the internship of Farhangian University during the Corona epidemic and virtual education, and to study and examine it. In this way, they reveal its strengths and weaknesses to help the authorities of teacher education in making decisions and appropriate patterns for the implementation of the internship curriculum in similar conditions and also in the post-Corona period. Research Question: What are the experiences of Farhangian University professors from virtual internships in the Corona era?

This applied study was conducted in the interpretive paradigm, with a qualitative approach and the method of phenomenological experience. The potential participants in this study were the mentor professors of Farhangian University of Fars in the academic year 2022-2023, who were selected using purposeful sampling method of the criterion type and to the extent of data saturation. The criteria considered in this study were having at least two semesters of virtual internship experience and interest in participating in research. Semi- structured interviews were used to collect data. The interview started with general questions about what experiences the participants have had from virtual internship during the Corona period and continued with detailed and exploratory questions about opportunities, strengths, advantages, challenges, weaknesses, problems, and limitations compared to in-person internship. The duration of the interviews was between 30 to 45 minutes and in two sessions. Some of the questions were asked in the first interview and then a few days were given to the interviewees to reflect on the experiences they had mentioned in the first interview and to express the unsaid in the second session. After each interview, the audio file that was prepared with the permission of the participants was carefully transcribed and reviewed and annotated several times, and this process continued until the fifteenth interview, i.e., until no new data was obtained from the interviews and theoretical saturation was achieved. To ensure saturation, two more interviews were conducted and in total, with 17 interviews, the data collection work ended. Then, data analysis was performed using the seven-step method of Colaizzi (1978) as follows. For the validation (reliability and validity) of the research findings, three criteria of credibility, transferability, and confirmability were used as follows. Credibility refers to the reality of the descriptions and findings of the research and means that whatever is obtained in the findings and results of the research is the same as what was in the mind and opinion of the respondent. For this purpose, in the second interview sessions, the transcripts of the first interview and the researchers’ perceptions were read to the participants to determine their agreement and disagreement with the mentioned materials. Transferability means generalizing the results to other fields and contexts. Given that qualitative research is conducted on small groups, it seems that the ability to generalize the results in this field is somewhat problematic. However, researchers tried to get close to this capability by providing rich descriptions, cross-case analyses, and using special coding and analysis procedures. Finally, confirmability, which in quantitative research means the researcher’s avoidance of the influence of biases on the data and findings of the research, is achieved in qualitative research by comparing the findings with the research background and referring to theoretical discussions in explaining them, which was also used in this research. In addition, adherence to the rule of theoretical saturation in the adequacy of data collection, i.e., repetition of data, is itself an index and evidence of the reliability of the research (quoted by Danai Fard, Alwani & Azar, 2021; Klaki, 2009).

In general, the research findings led to the identification of 135 basic topics, 35 first-level organizing themes (flexibility, knowledge and experience sharing, promotion of computer and media literacy, creativity and innovation, theoretical education, satisfaction, skill weakness, experiential weakness, ethical weakness, technological weakness, scientific weakness, bad teaching, easy communication, virtual intimacy, lack of connection with emotional and physical space, interaction weakness, non-verbal communication weakness, virtual communication problems, time saving, saving financial, material and human resources, increased internet and equipment costs for teachers and students, increased infrastructure costs for the university, easier school selection, familiarity with the place of service, no disruption, better seminar execution, organizational communication weakness, teacher’s lack of time, lack of coordination, documentation, easier access and supervision, continuous evaluation and feedback, indirect supervision, functional evaluation weakness, performance supervision weakness) and 5 second-level organizing themes (educational, communicative, economic, administrative and executive, supervision and evaluation) were identified as strengths and weaknesses.

The findings of this research indicate that virtual internships during the corona virus have been associated with strengths and weaknesses in educational, communication, economic, administrative and executive fields, as well as monitoring and evaluation. Based on this, in order to benefit from the strengths and avoid the weaknesses of virtual internship and to enhance the quality and effectiveness of this important and strategic program in training competent teachers, the internship curriculum at the University of Farhangian for the post-Corona period should be revised and modified in a way that this course can be implemented in a blended manner, i.e., both in-person and virtually. Also, for better implementation of this work, it is suggested that researchers, by conducting a mixed study of the sequential exploratory type, design and present an appropriate model for blended (in-person and virtual) internship.