How well do we understand wellbeing? Teachers’ experiences in an extraordinary educational era

Abstract

COVID-19 has had a huge effect on education. While there has been much interest in the effects of school closures on children, less attention has focused on teachers' wellbeing. This article describes a small-scale study in which we explored teachers' experiences and concerns during and after England's second national school closure in early 2021. Our aim was to improve understanding of how teachers had been impacted in these unprecedented times. 54 teachers in England completed an online survey which was based on a well-established scale of teacher wellbeing. The survey also asked about what would improve teachers' wellbeing. Levels of organisational and student interaction wellbeing were reported to be positive both during and after lockdown, but slightly higher after lockdown. By contrast, reported workload wellbeing was slightly negative overall, and slightly lower after lockdown. Strikingly, the issues that most affected teacher wellbeing were not especially connected to lockdown. Teachers were most concerned about the time available to do their jobs and the amount of administration expected of them. Interestingly, some of the longest-serving teachers were amongst those finding that time pressure and administration affected their wellbeing. We conclude that teachers' longer-term working conditions impacted their wellbeing far more than teaching through lockdown did. Ensuring wellbeing needs are met in "normal" times may help increase resilience when novel challenges arise.