Management of Technostress in Teachers as Occupational Risk in the Context of COVID-19

María Del Carmen Rey-Merchán,Antonio López-Arquillos

doi:10.3390/ecerph-3-08999

Abstract

The integration of new technologies in schools and high schools is linked to new problems with the use and management of ITC tools, such as technostress in teachers. Technostress is associated with several negative effects on workers’ health, such as anxiety, musculoskeletal disorders, headache, mental and physical fatigue. Due to the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, the majority of schools closed, and face-to-face courses were replaced with online courses in a very short time. In these circumstances, several teachers were forced to increase their skills with ICT technology to accomplish their teaching objectives, and their technological workload was higher than at the beginning of the course. In the current research, the technostress of teachers was evaluated based on a validated questionnaire. Results pointed out that occupational risks linked to technostress were high during the pandemic period. Older teachers showed more vulnerability to the risk, because a lack of training and adaptation of some of the new tools for online courses, while women showed higher levels of anxiety and emotional tension. Prevention measures as specific training programs for ICT, rational use of ICT, and a more balanced distribution of work and family life at home should be developed to address the problem.

Highlights

The adoption of information and communication technologies in schools and high schools are linked to some emerging problems, such as technostress between teachers
In a similar study carried out in Malaysia [3], the results showed that many teachers are overwhelmed by the high demand for tasks related to ICT, seeing their working hours prolonged with the completion of numerous updates of information for students and administrative tasks, from their own home
Material and Methods In order to measure the technostress levels of Spanish teachers in the context of COVID-19 circumstances, a group of expert teachers was selected following the staticized group methodology [5]

Summary

Introduction

The adoption of information and communication technologies in schools and high schools are linked to some emerging problems, such as technostress between teachers. The problem is increasing fast in many developed countries. In previous research, developed in South Korea [1], different factors that act as creators of techno-stress were studied, such as techno-insecurity, techno-overload, or techno-complexity. In a similar study carried out in Malaysia [3], the results showed that many teachers are overwhelmed by the high demand for tasks related to ICT, seeing their working hours prolonged with the completion of numerous updates of information for students and administrative tasks, from their own home. Work overload was demonstrated as a strong precursor of technostress in the study carried out in Indonesia [4]

Objectives

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Conclusion