This study investigated the challenges faced by secondary school teachers during the distance education process. Maximum variation sampling, a purposive sampling method, was used in this phenomenological study. Therefore, the sample consisted of 36 secondary school teachers of various branches (Turkish, mathematics, science and social studies teacher) who were working in three provinces (İstanbul, Diyarbakır, Ağrı) of Turkey. Thus, 12 secondary school teachers were selected from each of three provinces, including three Turkish language teachers, three mathematics teachers, three science teachers, and three social studies teachers. Data were collected through semi-structured interview forms. Teachers working in Diyarbakır and Ağrı provinces were interviewed face-to-face, and those working in Istanbul were interviewed via teleconference. During the data collection process, depending on the participants’ answers, additional questions were asked to obtain in-depth information. Content analysis was applied to analyse the data. The findings were provided under 5 headings: technology-related challenges, teaching-related challenges, communication-related challenges, measurement and evaluation-related challenges, challenges related to achieving learning goals. The findings were discussed under these 5 headings. Technology- and teaching-related challenges were the most significant results, and these challenges were found to differ from one province to another. While the inadequacy of technical infrastructure was the primary challenge faced by the teachers working in Ağrı, teachers in Diyarbakır and Istanbul did not experience this problem. On the other hand, the majority of teachers in all three provinces complained that the teaching could not be actualized appropriately in distance education. The study provided suggestions for technology provider institutions, education planners, teachers, students and their parents.

Distance education, Covid-19 outbreak, secondary school teachers, challenges faced.