Teacher Professionalism in England During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cause for Celebration or Concern?

• In Event: Will I Stay or Will I Go? Situating Teachers’ Career Decisions in Multiple Contexts

Abstract

This paper reports the findings from a two-year British Academy/Leverhulme funded research project in which 36 early, mid- and later career teachers from seven primary and three secondary schools serving predominantly disadvantaged communities in England, shared their ongoing experiences of the Covid-19 pandemic through a series of five online, individual, semi-structured interviews and journal writing between September 2020 and September 2022. The findings suggest that, although teachers were faced with considerable challenges of change, workload and uncertainties to their professional and personal health they remained committed to teaching. The research provides an empirically based, nuanced counter narrative to widespread reports of the negative effects of the pandemic and its impact on teachers’ professionalism, and intentions to stay.

Authors

• Despoina Athanasiadou, University of Nottingham

• Christopher W. Day, University of Nottingham

• Helen Victoria Smith, University of Nottingham

• Ruth Graham, University of Nottingham