Challenges related to the Work and Well-Being of Early Childhood Teachers by Teaching Modality During the COVID-19 Pandemic

• In Event: COVID-19 and the Early Childhood Workforce: Analysis of Risk, Wellbeing, Resilience, and Modified Teaching Modalities

Abstract

Around the globe, the COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly changed every aspect of our lives—which includes changes in schools (Brooks et al., 2020). Alteration of regular school routines raises concerns about teachers’ work and well-being. The early childhood education (ECE) workforce, which is already known to be underpaid, undervalued, and vulnerable, faces unique challenges. During the COVID-19 closure, about half of the centers laid off or did not pay teachers (Maryland Family Network, 2020), which might have led to severe financial hardship for teachers. On the other hand, teachers whose schools remained open to provide in-person education faced potentially different challenges to their work and well-being (Gallagher & Huddleston-Casas, 2020). As compared to the general public, the health-related risks of ECE workforce were well documented prior to the pandemic (Otten et al., 2019). Still, limited empirical evidence has been collected across states on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the ECE teacher workforce. Thus, the present study examined the challenges ECE teachers faced in their work and its effects on their physical and psychological well-being during the early months of the pandemic by teaching modality (in-person, online, closed school).

A total of 1,434 ECE teachers serving children ages 0 to 5 (including Kindergarten) in 46 states completed an online survey administered in late Spring to mid-summer of 2020. We conducted a quantitative comparison of key work and well-being outcomes across the three teaching groups and a content analysis of their open-ended responses to questions about challenges and needs during the pandemic.

Of teachers surveyed, approximately 26% reported teaching face-to-face, 37% were teaching virtually, while the remaining 36% were closed. The majority of respondents teaching in-person expressed that they have all the necessary resources, but also reported a number of challenges for teaching during the pandemic. Teachers reported they fear of getting infected with COVID-19 and passing it to their family. They shared concerns about constant cleaning, working with children while social distancing and wearing masks, financial constraints, working with highly stressed families, having fewer children in the classroom and merging age groups. Teachers teaching online reported challenges with family engagement, child participation, variation in access to technology for families, and training needs for online teaching.

Regarding their well-being and health, overall, 48% of all teachers experienced somewhat or mostly negative changes in psychological well-being, including high levels of anxiety, stress, concerns about the health and safety, financial hardships, depression, and feelings of isolation; these patterns were similar across the three teacher groups. The quantitative data indicated teachers teaching in-person experienced the highest levels of personal stress and depression while teachers teaching online reported the highest levels of secondary trauma (see Figure 1). Twenty percent of teachers reported experiencing somewhat or mostly negative changes in physical health, but a higher percentage of teachers reported chronic conditions such as obesity, diabetes, and asthma placing them at a greater risk of serious illness if infected with COVID-19.

Group Authors

Kyong-Ah Kwon, Tim Ford, Jessica Tsortsoros, & Ken Randall, University of Oklahoma
kkwon@ou.edu, tgford@ou.edu, Jessica-Tsotsoros@ouhsc.edu, Ken-Randall@ouhsc.edu

Authors

• Kyong-Ah Kwon, University of Oklahoma
  Presenting Author

• Timothy Ford, University of Oklahoma
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jessica Tsortsoros, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center
  Non-Presenting Author

• Ken Randall, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center
  Non-Presenting Author