Analyze the lived experience of teachers with students onthe autism spectrum in virtual education:a phenomenological study

Background and Purpose: 

The present study was conducted with the aim of analyzing the lived experience of teachers of students with autism spectrum disorder from virtual education during the Corona era.

This research was conducted in the interpretive paradigm and in a qualitative manner with a phenomenological approach. The statistical population of this research included all the teachers of the 6th district of autism schools in Tehran in the academic year of 1402-1401 who had the experience of teaching students with autism spectrum disorder during the Corona era. To select the sample size, the purposeful and standard sampling method was used. For this purpose, in the first stage, interviews were conducted with 20 teachers of District 6 and theoretical saturation was achieved. In the following, the data was collected through semi-structured interviews and according to the conditions of the people, in three formats: face-to-face, telephone, and online, in the form of open-ended questions. In this research, thematic analysis method was used to identify, analyze and report the results of the qualitative data obtained from the interview.

The findings of the research showed that from the perspective of the participants in the research, the lived experience of virtual education had 4 subcategories, including teaching, job stress, technological problems, and communication style. Also, the opportunities of virtual education in the Corona era had 5 categories, including the development of technological skills, the development of online teaching skills, the spread of virtual education, the strengthening of virtual education infrastructure, and cost-effectiveness. Also, the challenges of virtual education in the Corona era had 5 categories: communication problems, educational and teaching problems, parents' inattention, poor equipment and students' attention loss.

virtual education has suitable opportunities for students with autism spectrum disorder. Since these people have a visual learning style and virtual education can support this type of style. It is suggested to strengthen the infrastructure of holding virtual education for these people and to use technological capacities in teaching to enrich the learning process of students.