Swiss Primary Teachers' Professional Well-Being During School Closure Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Tina Hascher,Susan Beltman,Caroline Mansfield

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.687512

Tina Hascher, Susan Beltman + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.687512

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Abstract

During sudden school closures in spring 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers had to move to distance teaching. This unprecedented situation could be expected to influence teacher well-being and schools as organizations. This article reports a qualitative study that aims at understanding how changes in teachers’ professional lives that were related to school closure affected Swiss primary teachers’ professional well-being. In semi-structured online-interviews, 21 teachers from 15 schools sampled by snowball method reported their experiences during school closure and distance teaching and how this situation influenced their professional well-being. Results showed that medium to high levels of teacher well-being could accompany a general negative evaluation of the move to distance teaching. Factors such as high work-load, social distancing and feelings of lack of competence and self-efficacy were among the most aversive aspects of distance teaching and associated with deteriorating professional well-being. Among a plethora of factors that supported teachers in maintaining their well-being, contextual work-related aspects such as school resources, collegial support or leadership support along with individual aspects such as resilience, coping strategies, and clear work structures were important. Additionally, it was found that teacher well-being was nourished by positive experiences with the new forms of distance teaching and feelings of professional mastery. Despite methodological limitations (snowball sampling, retrospective interviews), the findings of this study could inform schools and authorities about what is needed to support teacher well-being and might help to develop organizational strategies that aim at preventing harmful declines in teacher well-being during challenging and difficult times such as a pandemic.

Highlights

The main role of schools is the formal education of children and adolescents
Given the high demands on teachers, our study aims to understand how school closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic influenced primary teacher well-being and what could be learned from the results for the support of teacher wellbeing in primary schools
This study aims to address the following questions: How did the situation of distance teaching during school closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic influence primary teacher well-being? What did primary teachers expect from schools to support their well-being during the school closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic? What could be learned from this situation for the promotion of primary teacher wellbeing in schools?

Summary

Introduction

Schools should support students in acquiring academic knowledge and skills, flourishing and striving as lifelong learners, as well as becoming responsible members of a sustainable and fair future in globalized societies. These challenging and demanding tasks call for optimal functioning and a highly. International studies show that teacher well-being is at risk and that schools around the world experience teacher shortage and attrition (e.g., The Badass Teachers Association (BATs), 2017; Education Support, 2019; OECD, 2020). Teachers experiencing diminished well-being at school are less able to provide high quality teaching and tend to leave the profession earlier (OECD, 2021). A teaching profession whose demands are known to challenge individual work-life balance fails to attract people to work in schools

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