Pandemic Diaries: teachers’ views on practices, equity and wellbeing

The global pandemic created challenges for everyone involved in delivering education in England. A new paper prepared by Cambridge University Press & Assessment researchers catalogues in detail the experiences of 15 teachers from diaries they were asked to keep during the first half of 2021, finding more in common that might have been expected. The research also benefits from workload and wellbeing surveys that the participants completed. 

The paper’s authors – Martin Johnson and Tori Coleman – confirm much of the uncertainty that teachers faced heading into the second national lockdown in early 2021, with schools varying in their degree of preparedness to deliver remote teaching. However, they are also able to put into sharper contrast the responses of individual teachers. For example, they note how many teachers changed the curriculum content they taught, with some dropping practical skills but advancing IT literacy. Teachers also reflected on how they had to change their approach to teaching, with some describing a detrimental impact on the quality of their interactions with students. And many of the teachers raised concerns about student equity, fearing that some more affluent students might be accessing private tuition, while other already disadvantaged students had inadequate access to technology. They also reveal how some students had taken longer to settle back into school routines once the lockdown ended. 

Asked about their own workload and wellbeing, most of the teachers said they felt their workload had increased, as they needed to help students bridge lost learning gaps while often continuing blended learning across their cohorts and collecting assessment data to compile Teacher Assessed Grades. This had been detrimental to a work/life balance that many already felt was poor. And while some schools were praised for considering teacher wellbeing, the diaries reference that workloads often didn’t diminish, with colleagues reporting high levels of stress related illness. 

The impact of the evolving nature of the assessment landscape – following the cancellation of exams – was particularly striking to the report’s authors, with a divergent landscape of assessment practices being undertaken. But overall, the report’s authors found very consistent experiences among those completing diaries irrespective of the school in which they worked, or subject they taught, allowing them to draw some general recommendations for the future, including: 

•    Targeted support for students and schools – teachers have concerns about particular groups of students, and targeted support for the most marginalised is important. More research that identifies the students who are most vulnerable during remote learning (and in the aftermath of the return to in-person teaching) would help to inform the targeted support for such students.
•    Future disruption – uncertainty was a significant source of workload for teachers, and it contributed greatly to undermining their wellbeing and that of their students. In the event of future disruption to assessment, greater decisiveness and earlier decision making is crucial to enable teachers to plan more effectively. 
•    Digital assessment – as possibilities for digital assessment in the future are discussed it is important to remain mindful that not all students and schools have the same level of access to technology or proficiency in technology skills. Many schools attempted digital assessments during the pandemic, with varying degrees of success, which has highlighted concerns around fairness and validity.

Read the full paper: Teachers in the Pandemic: Practices, Equity and Wellbeing.