Since the COVID-19 pandemic begun, most governments around the world have closed schools and educational institutions as they attempt to flatten the curve and stop the spread of the novel coronavirus. These temporary closures have impacted almost 70% of the world’s student population: that’s a total of 1,198,530,172 students now experiencing a form of “pandemic pedagogy”. Depending on where they are in the world, students may be engaging in live online lessons, unpacking content through parent facilitated remote learning, or, nothing at all.
It is time we recognise the enormous pressure facing teachers during the Covid-19 pandemic. Teachers are not frontline workers, but have been asked to become frontline workers during a pandemic. Teachers did not sign up to be in a high-risk environment. Burnout, stress, and fatigue impact heavily on the engagement of educators, which in turn impacts on the quality of education students receive. Before Covid-19, the teaching profession was already struggling to support and retain high quality teachers. As many teachers have moved to rapid remote learning, stress is worsened amongst the profession.
But not all is lost: supporting our teachers by monitoring and responding to their wellbeing is possible. Although educators face enormous challenges in their roles, the difficulty of the profession can be eased by recognising and responding to cultural enablers that ameliorate the impacts of stress on the teaching profession. Positive psychology mechanisms are a good start, but teachers need school specific support and recognition. Here, there are two key areas of focus for school systems and leaders that can support teacher wellbeing. At an individual level, this includes fostering self-determination, motivation, and agency, while at a community level, building collective efficacy and social capital are crucial to supporting teachers to feel valued within the school community. Other areas involve cultivating supportive relationships with students, parents, and colleagues as a means to enhancing student outcomes.
This session is targeted at “middle leaders” such as heads of department, faculty, or learning area, though the session is relevant to all those interested in learning more about ways to support teachers. The session will provide strategies to support teacher wellbeing at self, school, and system level. Considering the stresses facing the profession, we will unpack ways to cultivate and support teacher wellbeing now and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.
About the Facilitator
Dr. Anna Dabrowski is a senior research fellow at The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) and co-founder of Educational Data Talks. An experienced researcher, facilitator and coach, Anna’s research interests lie in teacher wellbeing, social capital, and school connectedness.
Tickets are limited so book now to avoid missing out.
Please note, this session begins at 13:00 AEST (Melbourne, Australian time).