Teacher's challenges in teaching reading among elementary pupils: a qualitative study

Abstract

This study is entitled Teacher's Challenges in Teaching Reading among Elementary Pupils which aims to find out how important it was for instructors to be able to teach reading to elementary school students. An in-depth interview (IDI) and focus-group discussion (FGD) was conducted to 14 teachers, 7 for in-depth interviews and 7 for focus group. The respondents were currently a high school teacher at Sao-Sao elementary school. We collected twenty-one pieces of data from research question number one, as well as three themes that arose from the findings for research question number two and three themes for research question number three. The data obtained from the study was coded and analyzed using the data reduction, thematic analysis, drawing conclusions and verification. The analyzing of data from research number one showed that the inadequacy understanding reading, deficiency reading development, underdeveloped sounds and words recognition, difficulty attending student‟s need and insufficient reading materials. It seems that all of it is the challenges faced by the teacher in teaching reading to the pupils. In teachers coping mechanism in those challenges they are three major themes appeared from the data collected on the experiences of the study participants such as consistent updates on reading progress, extension of patience and attend students‟ participation. In terms of the participant's insights to teachers on the importance of teaching reading to elementary pupils, the extend teaching reading motivation, value reading and teach reading gradually are the three key themes that emerged during the interviews. In summary, this aids the development of topics to focus on in order to better understand how to teach reading to students and how to deal with obstacles. Keywords: teachers’ challenges, reading and pupils.