Toward More Teacher-Friendly E-mail: Perspectives on the Downsides of Using E-mail for Work-based Communication in Schools

Abstract

E-mail is a prime tool of communication for most organizations and has, increasingly, become integrated into the organizational life of education, specifically during the recent move to online teaching due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Managing e-mail communication and usage brings challenges due to the associated downsides but these have only been investigated to a limited extent, if at all, within the school’s workplace settings; necessitating a better understanding and a holistic view into this matter from teachers’ perspectives as a specific group of e-mail users. This qualitative study, therefore, explores teachers’ (N = 9) concerns and the difficulties they encounter in using work-based e-mail for regular communication in a private school in the United Arab Emirates and sheds light on the regulations exercised to manage these. Overall, thematic data analysis yielded two themes representing the downsides experienced and problems encountered, and how they are managed. Eight associated categories identified the following key downsides: E-mail overload; the obligation to check e-mails constantly; distraction; wasting and extending working time; e-mail misuse, as in the case of broadcasting violations; misunderstanding; the threatening impact of e-mail when used as evidence; and issues related to confidentiality. Practical implications and consequent future research concerning proactive e-mail practices in schools are discussed as part of the domain of educational technology and distance education, all of which will be of interest to a wider audience across other working sectors to impart a better understanding of what is still lacking and what improvements can be made, resulting in introducing new and more effective horizons for work-based communications.