investigating iranian efl teachers’ experiences of emergency remote teaching in rural schools during covid-19 pandemic: narrative inquiry

To prevent the outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic, a sudden transition has occurred to emergency remote teaching (ert) on digital platforms. the implementation of online english instruction, however, led to revisiting and reinventing existing technology-based educational processes and models but there are inadequate facilities for online education in rural areas. therefore, the implementation challenges experienced by english as foreign language (efl) teachers in rural areas remain under-researched. the present study intended to explore the lived experiences of efl teachers during the implementation of emergency remote teaching in rural areas amidst the global pandemic. to take the teachers’ stories, a narrative inquiry was employed. data were collected through documentation and an interview guide. operating narrative inquiry, six teachers from three different public rural schools in birjand shared their experiences of implementing ert in rural areas. data were analyzed using braun and clarke's (2006) thematic analysis method to extract recurring themes and general categories represented by lived experiences of efl teachers. the findings indicated that ert is desirable and doable in rural schools, even though it refers to 3 categories of challenges faced by efl teachers. these challenges include a) limited internet access b) unfamiliarity with the platforms c) lack of student-owned technology devices. then, this article discusses some practical coping strategies based on equity, digital literacy, and asynchronous media for implementing ert in rural schools during the pandemic. finally, our findings have empirical implications for teacher educators, professional development course designers and providers, and decision-makers.