Providing emergency remote teaching: What are teachers' needs and what could have helped them to deal with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic?

Work-life balance Twitter insights: A social media analysis before and after COVID-19 pandemic

This research examines the perceptions of Twitter users regarding the prevalent topics within Work-Life Balance communication before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The pressing questions surrounding current labour market drivers are addressed, particularly regarding the ongoing Fourth Industrial Revolution and the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on communicated themes, particularly in the Human Resource Management field, where Work-Life Balance has emerged as a key concept. Social media platforms like Twitter are pivotal in fostering discussions on Work-Life Balance in society. Over the past decade, Twitter has evolved into a significant research platform researchers utilise in more than ten thousand research articles. The online discourse on Twitter raises awareness of the importance of balancing work and personal life. The COVID-19 pandemic has unveiled new facets of Work-Life Balance, with social media as a key platform for discussing these issues. This research uses Social Media Analysis based on the Hashtag Research framework. A total of 1,768,628 tweets from 499,574 users were examined, and frequency, topic, and sentiment analysis were conducted. Pre-pandemic, the most communicated Work-Life Balance topics were performance and time management, while recruitment and employee development were identified post-pandemic. Pre-pandemic, the highest proportion of negative sentiment was time management and mental health prevention, shifting to time, employee development, and mental health prevention post-pandemic. Despite the limitations of our research, a proposed redefinition of the concept is also presented, including a design for an integrated Work-Life Balance model based on topics communicated by Twitter users. Given the need for a more robust approach to redefining the concept and developing an integrative Work-Life Balance model, the article provides fresh insights for future research.

Sociodemographic and work-related differences in teachers' attitude towards and perceived stress from emergency remote teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic

The aim was to investigate the attitude towards and perceived stress from emergency remote teaching (ERT) among teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic. A Germany-wide online survey was conducted among teachers from all school types in March 2021. Data from 31,089 teachers entered analysis. ANOVAs or Welch's t-tests with post-hoc analyses were performed to determine sociodemographic and work-related group differences in teachers' attitude towards and perceived stress from ERT. The mean attitude towards ERT was 3.47 (± .84) out of 5 and the mean perceived stress was 5.03 (± .62) out of 6. Regarding the attitude towards ERT, we revealed significant differences for gender, age groups, number of children, occupational group, school management membership, and employment status (p < .05). Regarding perceived stress, significant differences were obtained for gender, age groups, and employment status (p < .05). A more positive attitude towards ERT seems to be associated with lower stress levels. Being female, a higher age, a higher number of children living in the own household as well as working full-time might hinder an effective implementation of remote teaching in school settings in Germany. Policy-makers and schools should think of strategies to improve the attitude towards and decrease perceived stress from remote teaching. This could include subgroup-specific training on the use of digital media, adapted to the work environment.

Occupational stress of elementary school teachers after eased COVID-19 restrictions: a qualitative study from China

Background

On December 7, 2022, China optimized its virus response and significantly shifted its epidemic policy by downgrading COVID management and gradually restoring offline teaching in schools. This shift has brought many impacts on teachers.

Aims

Through qualitative research of thematic analysis, this paper studies the occupational pressure of primary school teachers in China after the shift in epidemic policy.

Methods

Two recruitment methods are adopted for this study. One was to email the principals of several primary schools in Zhejiang Province to introduce the research project and indicate the idea of recruiting participants. With their help, we have found teachers who volunteer to participate. The second was to release recruitment information in the network forum (e.g., online teacher forums) to find volunteer participants. Through semi-structured interviews and diaries, 18 primary school teachers from different regions and schools in Zhejiang Province were interviewed. All responses in the interviews were transcribed anonymously. Braun and Clarke's thematic analysis was used to analyze the participants' responses.

Results

Eighteen participants took part in the research project. Forty-five final codes, generated from 89 codes initially obtained from the dataset, are classified into five final themes: uncertainty, overburdened, neglected, worry about students, and influence, which reflect the professional stress of primary school teachers following the epidemic prevention policies relaxed.

Conclusion

Five themes were identified in the research. The problems described by the participants include burdensome offline activities, being disturbed out of hours, and appearing understaffed for the infection. These problems harmed the participants' mental health, including anxiety, fatigue, stress, and other adverse psychological conditions. Awareness and attention to the psychological situation of primary school teachers after the eased COVID control are crucial. We believe protecting teachers' mental health is necessary, especially in this particular period.

To Learn or Not to Learn: Perceptions Towards Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and Self-identity Among English Language Teachers During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Purpose

The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated a pivot towards digital teaching and learning. This study aims to assess the perceptions of self-identity and continuing professional development (CPD) among secondary school English teachers in Hong Kong in light of the academic paradigm shift triggered by the pandemic.

Methods

A mixed methods approach is adopted. A quantitative survey (n = 1158) was complemented by qualitative thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with English teachers in Hong Kong (n = 9). The quantitative survey offered group perspectives related to CPD and role perception in the current context. Interviews offered exemplar views on professional identity, training and development, and change and continuity.

Results

The results reveal that collaboration among educators, development of higher-order critical thinking in students, refining knowledge about teaching methods, and being a good learner and motivator were among the key traits that comprised the teacher identity during the COVID-19 pandemic. The increased workload, time pressure and stress associated with the paradigm shift during the pandemic resulted in lower voluntary involvement of teachers in CPD. However, a significant need for the development of information communications technology (ICT) skills is emphasised as educators in Hong Kong received relatively little ICT support from their schools.

Conclusion

The results have implications for pedagogy and research. Schools are recommended to enhance technical support of educators and help them acquire more advanced digital skills to work effectively in the new environment. Reduction of the administrative workload and providing more autonomy to teachers is expected to lead to greater engagement in CPD and improvements in teaching.