Özet:

This qualitative phenomenological study aimed to investigate the difficulties of being a teacher in multigrade classrooms. In the study group, there were 8 teachers working as an authorized principal in schools with multigrade classrooms in a district of Anatolia in the 2021-2022 academic year. In this study, semi-structured interviews were used to collect data. Findings showed that the participants did not have sufficient experience of teaching in the multigrade classroom and had difficulties due to their multiple roles. These teachers stated that they had various problems in planning and implementing the curriculum, managing time, accessing and using materials, measuring and evaluating. The participants stated that they had difficulties in responding to written requests from official authorities, they struggled to find resources and support to solve the structural problems of school buildings, they felt negative emotions such as helplessness, pessimism, and embarrassment, as well as physical problems such as headaches and vocal fatigue due to workloads. Therefore, participants stated that they experienced problems such as decreased motivation, alienation from the profession, and feeling inadequate. In the distance education process, the teachers stated that the parents were insufficient in the use of technology and that they could not make the child ready for education in the home. In addition, the fact that teachers had to teach separately with student groups limited their interaction time with them. In this context, it has been suggested that teacher candidates should be provided with rich experiences in terms of tasks and responsibilities such as classroom management, time use, material development, measurement-evaluation, management specific to multigrade classrooms, and that communication networks should be created for teachers working in multigrade classrooms that will allow sharing of common problems and information.

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