Newly Qualified Teachers’ Well-Being During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Testing a Social Support Intervention Through Design-Based Research

Abstract

Around the world, newly qualified teachers are leaving the profession after only a short time working at school. This not only has a negative effect on the capacities of the respective education systems, but also for the teachers themselves, as it often due to factors such as stress and burnout that leads to this decision. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated this situation by adding to the teachers’ workload, uncertainty, and stress. Previous research has investigated strategies that may help teachers improve their well-being and, among other factors, found social support to be an important condition. In this mixed methods design-based research study, we developed a design to enhance social support among newly qualified teachers in their first months working at school. Our quantitative and qualitative results show that the design has positive effects on many aspects of teachers’ well-being in the intervention group both longitudinally (before and after the intervention) and when compared to a comparison group. The findings are being discussed considering the recent changes in the working conditions of teachers as imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

A Systematic Review on Teachers’ Well-Being in the COVID-19 Era

“…Other elements associated with solid school organization reported in relevant studies to sustain and boost TWB levels within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic were: (i) the existence of an organized, supportive school environment as a critical job resource and enabler of TWB that impacts teachers' fulfillment of basic psychological needs for autonomy, ensures collaboration with colleagues and accomplishment in pandemic emergency remote teaching (ERT) by prescribing the principles for effective distance education teaching practices [104], and promotes teachers' creative teaching self-efficacy by enhancing their dispositional joy and general positive affect while reducing general negative affect [144]; (ii) empowering leadership that was found to be associated with lower levels of job stress and higher levels of job well-being and perceived organizational support [145], enabling preschool teachers to link their personal goals to organizational goals, motivate and guide them to better achieve their mission with organizational support, and thus achieve a high level of well-being; (iii) the allocation of low teacher workloads by the school administration, which was found to be positively associated with work satisfaction and work-related coherence, leading to enhanced TWB COVID-19 rates in [115]; (iv) the adoption of schoolbased TWB interventions within the COVID-19 era, as documented in three action-oriented studies in our sample, which were directed at the exploration of TWB improvement using peer support in digital settings [146], the implementation of in-service professional training TWB sessions aiming at reducing teachers' psychological distress [147], and emergent mindfulness and cognitive reframing TWB approaches with reported increased gains in teachers' resilience and psychological well-being in times of crisis [148]. Provision of training support in ERT-related issues and teachers' eagerness to seek religious and spiritual support to regain their well-being by overcoming the numerous pre-and post-pandemic challenges and difficulties were reported by [149], with self-reported spirituality being only indirectly associated with TWB enhancement and teachers' overall mental health in one study [127].…”

“…and sample sizes ranged between 307 and 57 participants. The study of TWB was theoretically framed within Ryan and Deci's self-determination theory [120] and the job-demands resource model of well-being [104,133] in three studies and was directly or indirectly measured using established psychological scales [97,104,133,144], TWB questionnaires [146], and exploratory interview questions [120]. Finally, the quasi-experimental methodology was used in two interventionist studies (4%) in an effort to determine the success rate of teacher development training programs on TWB enhancement during the pandemic period.…”

“…The results identified a wide variety of individual and contextual correlates of TWB as being responsible for self-perceived negative well-being rates in the pandemic era associated with: (i) role ambiguity at the school level and low resilience and unwillingness for personal engagement due to high workload and increased professional challenges [128,133]; intense feelings of disconnectedness and isolation and a sense of professional uselessness ( [129,130]), and teaching incompetence experienced by teachers when called to tackle with ERT demands in both technological and pedagogical terms [131] and (ii) work-related factors related to the risk of reduced income revenue or the prospect of job loss in the private sector [136]; the double burden of work-family care [134,135]; additional administrative and ERT teaching overload [132]; and a lack of common strategy and planning for schools, absence of collegial collaboration [114], appreciation, and support by school administration, insufficient school resources and unequal access to them, and the unavailability of opportunities for further professional development in the midst of COVID-19 [128]. The key TWB positive facilitators were (i) teachers' personality characteristics and self-esteem as fully qualified professionals [99] capable of surviving the adversities posed by the COVID-19 virus in their everyday school routine by exhibiting obsessive work passion [140], increased teacher self-confidence [139], readiness to innovate within the novel ERT paradigm [109], intrinsic work motivation [130], maintaining a well-organized work schedule [128], and using effective coping and proactive physical self-care TWB strategies [134,142,146]. Aspects of school organization identified as being conducive to TWB in-crisis maintenance and enhancement were: the provision of support and encouragement for creative teaching self-efficacy with training in ERT practices [147]; the appropriate allocation of teacher workload [116]; a high sense of job satisfaction and work-related coherence and autonomy at work boosted by empowering leadership [148]; the promotion of high-quality relationships and collaboration with all stakeholders at school community level [135]; and the implementation of TWB in-service COVID-19 interventio...…”

The role of teachers' socio-emotional competence in reducing burnout through increased work engagement

“…Emotional skills, such as self-regulation, may have a protective role in preventing negative working experiences of teachers, especially during challenging situations, namely the sudden changes brought about by online teaching and the difficulties in keeping and building relationships with students during the COVID-19 pandemic (Messineo and Tosto, 2023). During lockdown, which Italy experienced first compared to other Western countries, teachers suddenly lacked social support, a key factor sustaining their mental health and wellbeing (i.e., Froehlich et al, 2022;Li et al, 2022). This caused increased stress, uncertainty, and bewilderment.…”

How Emotional Contagion among Teachers Affects the Relationship between Transformational Leadership and Team Cohesion

“…The teaching profession has traditionally been considered particularly demanding because of the need to operate in an ever-changing work environment, to deal with far-reaching political and social changes, and to perform cognitive and emotional release tasks [ 1 ]. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to numerous reforms in teachers’ pedagogical practices worldwide in recent years [ 2 ]. Several studies in the educational context have examined the effects of different leadership styles on organizational outcomes.…”