Opinion
Teaching Profession Opinion

I’ve Studied Teachers for 20 Years. The Pandemic Was Their Ultimate Challenge

I wondered what was happening behind the scenes as teachers’ cheerful voices radiated from my daughters’ computers
By Lora Bartlett — July 19, 2021 4 min read
Opinion Bartlett1 KNOW THYSELF LINCOLN
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Spring 2020 dealt teachers the ultimate Iron-Chef-style teaching challenge. Main ingredients: students and curriculum. Secret ingredient: sudden and unexpected distance. In many places, teachers had one hot kitchen of a week to prep effective learning experiences using often-new-to-them technology. Failure was a looming possibility.

That’s how it felt to me, too, when, one week before the start of the spring quarter, my university announced all instruction would be remote and directed faculty to “take classes online.” I was scheduled to teach a 300-student undergraduate course, often the first education course taken by aspiring teachers.

It was a class I had taught a dozen times, and it had garnered me a teaching award. But I felt overwhelmed. I had never taught anything online. I was unfamiliar with the technology, unprepared pedagogically, and unsure of my students’ current realities. Overnight, I went from expert to novice.

My campus left most specifics up to individual faculty members. All planning felt speculative, and the ground shifted daily. We were told at first that we’d be online for just a week, then for longer, and finally, that there was no clear end date. “Zoom,” “Loom,” “Padlet,” and “Jamboard” became everyday parlance as we all tried to hold panic at bay, stay focused, and plan spring courses with the tools we could decipher.

Colleagues and I struggled with how much online classes should replicate the regular in-person format in meeting times, length, content, and assessment. Initially, I assumed—wrongly—that I would simply deliver my lectures online at the originally scheduled times. With the campus vacated, my students were spread from Japan to Europe, and many had taken on additional work and family-care responsibilities. More than one student was parking outside McDonald’s to access the internet.

As for me, my 5-year-old laptop was practically geriatric with its broken camera and tendency to crash unexpectedly. Taking all this into account, I decided to upload lectures for students to listen to on their own schedules.

About This Project

Opinion Bartlett1 KNOW THYSELF LINCOLN
Lincoln Agnew for Education Week
Teaching Profession Opinion What We Learned About Teachers During the Pandemic: A Series
In this series, a researcher shows how teachers went from making school happen to having little say in planning for an unprecedented year. View the full series and the researcher’s methodology here.
July 19, 2021

Recording those lectures—slides with audio only because of the broken camera—saw me holed up in my home office, signs on the closed door warning my family to be quiet, staring into the computer, projecting my voice into what felt like a void. No students in sight, no faces frowning in confusion or lighting up in understanding. It was an all-consuming, lonely, and exhausting teaching experience.

Meanwhile, my twin daughters were enduring the abrupt transition of their senior year from the lively reality of track meets, theater productions, and group projects to full days sitting and Zooming from our dining room table. They felt isolated and struggled to focus.

Their teachers worked hard to reach through the computer and appeared tireless in their daily presentations, though I was sure most were new to teaching remotely and had their own home and work-shutdown stress. In those early days of the pandemic, when fear ran high and uncertainty permeated everything, my daughters’ teachers somehow managed to show up day after day, upbeat voices radiating from the computers, teaching in a brand-new format. This made me wonder what more was happening behind the scenes for teachers as they worked to meet the challenges of the moment.

As someone who has studied teachers’ work for over two decades, I was struck by the import of what was happening. The pandemic served as a crucible, turning up the flame on a problem endemic to the profession: the unsatisfactory working conditions that drive promising teachers out of classrooms and schools.

The pandemic turned up the flame on a problem endemic to the profession: the unsatisfactory working conditions that drive promising teachers out of schools.

Teaching is a largely feminized occupation with a higher early-career turnover rate than the similarly feminized nursing profession and about the same rate as the high-risk work of policing. Even without a pandemic, an analysis of federal longitudinal data through 2016 indicated that 44 percent of teachers leave the profession by their fifth year, and 8 percent of all teachers leave the profession annually. The most common reason teachers give for voluntarily leaving the profession is dissatisfaction with school or working conditions.

There is convincing evidence that pandemic working conditions have exacerbated teacher dissatisfaction and related turnover. But not for everyone. Some schools and teachers have weathered the pandemic better than others.

Over the next few weeks, this series will draw on an in-depth study of teachers’ work during the pandemic to share with you the experiences of teachers. This includes how teachers felt exhausted but recognized in the spring, largely ignored in the summer, and increasingly vilified in the fall even as they tried to salvage some normality for their schools. When teachers believed their voices were heard and considered in system-level decisionmaking, they were more able to find enough satisfaction to sustain them even under the markedly increased workload and stress. And when they felt disregarded, they were more likely to experience exhaustion and reduced feelings of effectiveness, which led many to consider leaving the profession.

Crisis can bring opportunity. As we, I hope, put the worst of the pandemic behind us, it is time to look at the successes and failures of schools during the past 16 months. That examination can help reshape a profession that has long suffered from too much turnover and too little autonomy. Only when those conditions are improved will more teachers be able to do their very best for students.

This is the first of four essays on the work of teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. It draws from Lora Bartlett and colleagues’ “Suddenly Distant” research project.

Events

Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and other jobs in K-12 education at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.
Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Teaching Profession The State of Teaching 'You Don't Know Teacher Tired': Educators Sound Off on Misconceptions
Hear what teachers featured in EdWeek's The State of Teaching Project say makes their jobs more difficult.
Frank Rivera teaches 7th grade ELA at Chaparral Star Academy in Austin, Texas, on Nov. 15, 2023.
Frank Rivera teaches 7th grade ELA at Chaparral Star Academy in Austin, Texas, on Nov. 15, 2023.
Montinique Monroe for Education Week
Teaching Profession Opinion Why I’m Happy Being ‘Just a Teacher’
Not every teacher is an aspiring administrator. That’s a good thing.
Amanda Myers
3 min read
Abstract vector illustration depicting the process of teaching and learning.
DigitalVision Vectors/Getty
Teaching Profession What the Research Says Do Teachers Really Earn More After Leaving the Classroom? Not Necessarily
Nearly a decade after leaving a big urban district, many teachers have yet to recoup income, a study finds.
4 min read
Illustration of woman and steps made of cash.
Getty
Teaching Profession The State of Teaching Here's What Keeps Teachers on the Job
Hear why these teachers stay in the job, despite its challenges and lower pay.
Fourth graders do a warm up dance at the beginning of Helen Chan's math class at South Loop Elementary School on November 15, 2023, in Chicago.
Fourth graders do a warm-up dance at the beginning of Helen Chan's math class at South Loop Elementary School on Nov. 15, 2023, in Chicago.
Jamie Kelter Davis for Education Week