The 'Un-replicable' Classroom: A Qualitative Study on Pedagogical Justifications for Face-to-Face Teaching

Despite the expansion of digital and hybrid learning environments, faculty preference for face-to-face teaching remains remarkably resilient. This qualitative pilot study explores the pedagogical rationales underlying this preference, moving beyond explanations based on technophobia or institutional inertia. Adopting a phenomenological design, the study analyzes open-ended reflections from a purposive sample of five university professors across Southern Europe and diverse academic fields. Thematic analysis reveals that face-to-face teaching is valued not primarily for content delivery, but for its capacity to support real-time pedagogical regulation through non-verbal feedback, embodied interaction, and synchronous formative adjustment. Participants emphasize the irreplaceable role of physical co-presence in sustaining attention, motivation, and social presence, as well as in fostering informal interactions that underpin communities of practice and pastoral care. These findings suggest that resistance to fully online teaching reflects a defense of teaching as a performative, relational, and affective practice rather than opposition to technology per se. While limited in scale, the study illuminates core mechanisms through which faculty conceptualize the classroom as “un-replicable,” offering a foundation for further investigation into the pedagogical limits of digital substitution.