The solo pantomime in the pandemic: Distance postgraduate education in the department of mathematics education during COVID-19

Turkey experiences distance education at the master’s and doctorate degrees for the first time. This study aims to reveal the essence of the distance education experiences of mathematics teachers who continue their postgraduate education with distance education due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This study was carried out using the phenomenological research design with six mathematics teachers who continue their postgraduate education at a state university in the Central Anatolia Region in the 2019-2020 academic year. Of the participants selected by the criterion sampling, three were master’s degree students and three were doctoral degree students. Research data were collected using semi-structured interview forms designed in line with expert opinions. The interviews were conducted online via video call on the WhatsApp application due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The experiences of the participants were identified with the phenomenon of “solo pantomime”. Participants had positive experiences such as easy access, possibility of review, improvement in technological pedagogical content knowledge, and negative experiences such as communication and connection problems, the irregularity in the schedule, inadequacy of the lesson hours, and focusing problems regarding synchronized distance education. Distance graduate education is also considered quite suitable for mathematics education courses, but insufficient for mathematics field courses. It is also understood that some participants had plans to make radical changes in their thesis topics. Participants avoid long-term experimental studies or studies that can be conducted with a large sample, and they tend towards studies that can be carried out with document analysis or small groups and had problems with their supervisors.