~ Yuliandri

Profile

Thesis Title
Secondary school English Language teacher agency in the aftermath of COVID 19 Crises: a study from a West Sumatran region, Indonesia

Research Description
The COVID 19 pandemic had taken the world by storm, forcing people, in almost every aspect of life, to adapt to new ways of doing things. This also applies to the world of Education. School shutdowns, restrictions to travel and congregate inevitably affected the continuity and of the process of teaching and learning at almost every level. Actions needed to be taken, and in almost every country, governments had started to rely heavily on distance learning as a means to keep the Education process going. However, the sudden and unprecedented implementation of distance learning, proved to be quite problematic. This research is intended to portray how the emergency English Language teaching was conducted in a rural area of Indonesia, and how online/blended teaching is implemented by the teachers/language educators. Furthermore, it will highlight the main issues faced by teachers in this setting and how they dealt with them. In the long term, this study is aimed to look at things of greater importance, how have the experiences during the pandemic altered the rural-based language teachers current and future language teaching practices.

Research Importance
By doing this research, I hope that, in the future, there will be more attention paid to language teachers in rural setting. This is important to establish an equal opportunity for learners all over Indonesia. As for the rural-based language teachers, I hope this project will represent their voice.

Research Benefit
Educational institutions in Indonesia, Language teachers, and last but not least, the language learners.

Personal Description
I am from Indonesia. I have twelve years of experience working as an English teacher/lecturer in a tertiary vocational education setting. I previously finished my Master's degree at Massey. My experience studying at Massey has become my main reason to return and pursue a doctoral degree. Furthermore, Massey has been proven suitable for my learning needs (the learning atmosphere, lecturers, supervisors). After I finish, I hope to return to my country and assume my position as English lecturer. Hopefully the degree and experience I obtained at Massey will increase my positive contribution towards development in Indonesia

Supervisors
Dr Karen Ashton
Dr Gillian Skyrme
Dr Grace Yue Qi