Teacher Mental Health and Well-Being in a Global Pandemic

This paper explores the ways in which COVID-19 and the rapid shift to remote education has impacted teachers' mental health. Teachers play multiple roles in students' lives (Cross & Hong, 2012) and already face high levels of work stress. This study, which draws on interview data from...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inTeacher Educators' Journal Vol. 16; no. 1; pp. 1 - 49
Main Authors Adkins-Cartee, Mary R, Cohen Lissman, Dana, Rosiek, Jerry, Donley, Kevin, DeRosia, Nicholette
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Association of Teacher Educators in Virginia 2023
Subjects
Blacks
Coping
COVID-19
Distance Education
Electronic Learning
Elementary School Teachers
Emergency Programs
Mental Health
Middle School Teachers
Minority Group Teachers
Pandemics
Power Structure
Preschool Teachers
Racial Attitudes
Secondary School Teachers
Stress Variables
Students
Teacher Role
Teacher Student Relationship
Well Being
White Teachers
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Summary:This paper explores the ways in which COVID-19 and the rapid shift to remote education has impacted teachers' mental health. Teachers play multiple roles in students' lives (Cross & Hong, 2012) and already face high levels of work stress. This study, which draws on interview data from a larger pool of interviews conducted with K-12 teachers nationally and internationally from 2020-2022, documents teachers' increased responsibilities for monitoring students' mental health and helping families cope with the consequences of the pandemic. This oftenunacknowledged work was a source of stress and impacted teacher well-being. Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) teachers and white teachers who explicitly resisted white supremacy particularly experienced more elevated stress and responsibilities because of the disproportionate impacts of COVID-19 and the concurrent racial uprisings. Nevertheless, these teachers also demonstrated remarkable resilience in coping with their own and students'/families' needs.