A Voice for Ontario Teachers in Disaster and Emergency Planning: A Case study of Teachers’ Experiences During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic revealed a stark disconnect within the Ontario education system between the decision-makers at the system level (the Ministry of Education and school boards) and classroom teachers tasked with implementing these decisions. Interviews for this study provided primary and secondary school teachers in central and southern Ontario an opportunity to share their experience teaching during an extended public health disaster. The teachers focused the conversation on their frustration at the top-down decision-making from the school board and Ministry of Education and expressed that their needs as teachers were not adequately considered in the planning and response to the COVID-19 pandemic. They explained a range of impacts resulting from the lack of inclusion in the decision-making, including the erosion of their ability to carry out classroom planning, the deterioration of the quality of education delivered, and the harm to their well-being. The findings of this research recommend that one way to address this gap in the Ontario education system and mitigate the damaging effects, such as those experienced during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, is for meaningful consultation between classroom teachers and system-level decision-makers. The sentiments expressed by the participants in this study are a call for emergency practitioners within the Ontario education system to do better when it comes to including the voices and needs of teachers in preparedness and response efforts during extended public health emergencies.