Teaching in uncertain times: Exploring links between the pandemic, assessment workload, and teacher wellbeing in England

Abstract

In early 2021, schools in England went into a second period of lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We wanted to look at how the pandemic influenced teachers’ working experiences. In particular, our focus of interest was on changes to teachers’ pedagogic, curricular and assessment practices, and how these changes impacted on their workload and wellbeing. We involved 15 teachers from a spread of regions, localities, school types and sizes across England. The teachers were working with students in Year 11 and/or 13 across a range of subject areas that would be particularly prone to the effects of any moves towards remote learning or disruption to examined assessment. To capture the teachers’ working experiences we used a mixed methods approach. This approach involved teachers recording their experiences in a series of solicited diaries over a 4-month period in early 2021. We complemented the insights gleaned from the teachers’ diaries with data from teacher interviews and surveys. This approach allowed us to link teachers’ experiences during the pandemic to their workload and their perceptions of wellbeing. Our analyses suggest that there were some features of workload that negatively affected teacher wellbeing during the pandemic period, particularly around assessment-related tasks. We also found that some of the social dimensions of teachers’ work positively contributed to their wellbeing, particularly where teachers’ work involved interactions with students and with colleagues.