The Alberta Teachers’ Association

Pulse of the profession

Pandemic-related issues brought to light by ATA research

“Teacher and school leader well-being is of critical concern given the reporting of extreme and unsustainable levels of fatigue, stress and anxiety within the profession. ”

­—ATA pandemic pulse survey results

One day in the future, when preservice and practising teachers or educational researchers look back on the COVID-19 pandemic, they will wonder what it was like for teachers and school and district leaders on the front lines of this public health crisis. How did teachers experience the first lockdown and rapid movement into emergency remote teaching? What was it like during the first week back at school in August 2020? What were the essential questions, issues or concerns as COVID-19 spread through schools in the fall of 2020?

The Alberta Teachers’ Association made a commitment to capturing this perspective from Alberta teachers and school and district leaders, then engaging in public reporting and advocacy. What follows is a brief summary of the ATA’s research findings from lockdown in the spring of 2020 to school re-entry during the fall and winter of 2020. At the time of writing this article in late October 2020, Alberta was just entering the second surge of the disease, with 11 per cent of all Alberta schools experiencing infections within their student and staff populations.

August 2020

First full week back in schools

Generally, teachers came back to school demoralized with the Alberta school re-entry plan, with a majority of respondents to the first re-entry survey (65 per cent) preferring a return to scenario two, where in-school classes would have partially resumed with additional health measures.

There was much confusion given the last-minute changes within school jurisdictions, with 27 per cent of teachers not yet knowing their teaching assignment(s) for classes taking place two days later, and 70 per cent of schools still working on their timetables for classes given the shifting preferences of families between face-to-face and online learning.

Alberta teachers and school leaders prodigiously recognized the three most significant struggles with re-entry that would unfold with COVID-19 general preventative health measures:

1. Maintaining physical distancing (94 per cent)

2. Students staying home when sick (80 per cent)

3. Classroom cleaning (74 per cent)

Unfortunately, 70 per cent of teachers and school leaders did not receive two reusable masks from the Government of Alberta for their personal safety when all staff returned on their first day to school buildings.

“We need more substitute teachers!!!!!”

—Alberta classroom teacher

September 2020

Monitoring COVID-19 prevention, infection and control

As Alberta students attended their first full week back in face-to-face classrooms and online learning environments, a majority of teachers and school leaders (64 per cent) were invigorated by having students come back into their classrooms and school communities.

The most positive finding with a return to school was the high compliance with mask wearing across Alberta K–12 schools. Students were being observed frequently wearing a mask in the classroom(s) while alone at a desk and within the classroom (or cohort), when interacting with other students (89 per cent) and in the hallways (86 per cent). Yet one in four teachers was working in classes with more than 30 students, with physical distancing of one to two metres close to impossible.

“We can’t effectively distance due to class sizes. Classrooms are too small for the group size. Furniture doesn’t allow for students to face the same direction and all have access to a table surface.”

—Alberta school leader

Unfortunately, however, during this first full week back to school, hundreds of students and dozens of teachers were exposed to COVID-19 and were required to isolate in their homes for 14 days to monitor symptoms and get tested for
the virus.

Of particular relevance to this COVID-19 spread was that 84 per cent of the teacher and school leader respondents were not receiving confirmation that the COVID-19 daily screening checklist had been completed before students entered their classroom environment. The COVID-19 screening tool was seen as ineffective by 45 per cent of respondents, with another 30 per cent “unsure” it would reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission.

Teachers also had low confidence in the cohorting structures at the various schools given their observations of students regularly breaking cohorts throughout the school day. In particular, students were seen interacting with many others outside their cohort(s) at lunch time, on buses and at bus stops, at recess or breaks, and before and after the school day. While 73 per cent of respondents noted that they were implementing a strict cohorting model—not switching daily contacts or having students randomly interacting with others outside this cohort group—only 18 per cent believed it would prevent or contain COVID-19.

“The kids all have active lives outside of the building. They do not adhere to cohorting when off campus. As hard as we try we cannot keep them 2 m apart.”

—Alberta classroom teacher

October 2020

Pandemic spikes in fatigue, stress, anxiety and depression

The third pandemic pulse research survey, which focused on well-being, workplace safety and COVID-19 information reliability, was conducted in the first week of October when nine per cent of all schools in Alberta were reporting a case of the disease and Canada was just beginning to enter into a second surge of COVID-19, with an upward trend in both hospitalizations and deaths across the country.

While 45 per cent of teachers identified that, a month into school, they felt more comfortable with new school routines related to COVID-19, the most concerning finding was that 87 per cent of teachers and school leaders were stressed, with 92 per cent reporting being exhausted at the end of each day. These findings on stress and exhaustion have remained at extreme (and unsustainable) levels since the first pulse survey on
Aug. 28, 2020.

A significant indicator of the state of teachers’ and school leaders’ mental well-being was revealed using a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) scale measuring anxiety and depression. Using the CDC scale, this survey found that 45 per cent of respondents were feeling nervous, anxious or on edge more than half of the days each week and/or nearly every day. Twenty-nine per cent were feeling depressed or hopeless more than half of the days each week and/or nearly every day.

“I have never in my 16 years of teaching seen so many staff members breaking down to the point of tears.”

—Alberta classroom teacher

Teachers were also starting to lose faith in the reliability of information on COVID-19 coming from the Government of Alberta and Alberta Health Services (AHS), not surprising given the mandatory orders for private gatherings to be limited to 15 people while one in four Alberta teachers continued to report having more than 30 students in their largest classes.

“I think it’s a problem that I got excited when my Math 30-1 class went down to 38 students. The class sizes are absolutely ridiculous and there is no way to physically distance.”

—Alberta classroom teacher

Trust was also on the decline, with 81 per cent of teachers concerned with the transparency of government decision making during the pandemic. Further, one in two respondents noted that it is difficult to understand AHS recommendations on how to protect students and themselves from COVID-19 in schools.

“Nothing feels clear coming from the government or the school boards. It’s hard to know what to do.”

—Alberta classroom teacher

The need to protect students and staff from COVID-19 transmission added a layer of complexity to the working conditions of teachers and principals. Evidence of growing work intensification during the pandemic appeared in October, with six in 10 teachers spending between 20 minutes and one hour each day cleaning and/or sanitizing their classroom(s)/school.

“Online instruction requirements are far heavier than in the spring, in terms of time spent online and the number of subjects taught. Preparing materials for online takes much longer. It is the general consensus among my online grade-level learning community that the number of hours we are working to get everything done is unsustainable.”

—Alberta online teacher

Solving the challenges

Among the tens of thousands of qualitative responses gathered in these research studies, six immediate actions were consistently identified to help reduce the burden on schools in this pandemic. Five of these actions remain outstanding:

1. Reduce class sizes to allow one to two metres of physical distancing.

2. Reduce the cleaning and sanitization tasks that school boards were delegating to teachers/school leaders, and hire more cleaning staff.

3. Reduce teachers’ supervision duties given the large student populations in the school and multiple entry and exit times, recesses or breaks.

4. Reduce the burden of bureaucratic tasks hindering school leaders from being effective instructional leaders. For example, AHS contact tracing and health surveillance of families in isolation is not a school leader’s new job because AHS doesn’t have capacity.

5. Teachers need additional support structures for the large number of students and staff being isolated in schools each week. Teachers are frequently being asked to prepare live streams of instruction, post all materials daily online, answer numerous emails from students in isolation, all while continuing to teach large classes of students in face-to-face learning environments.

Conclusion

What will be written about the state of the profession at this historical moment? Most likely that Alberta teachers—as front-line professionals of the COVID-19 pandemic—were dedicated in their commitment to students and public education, and valiant in their daily efforts to enact emergency remote teaching during the spring of 2020.

Sadly, it will also be reported that Alberta teachers and school leaders were underresourced and poorly supported by the Government of Alberta during the COVID-19 pandemic. It will be shameful to reflect back on the rising rates of inequity, poverty and dislocation, all while teachers—as citizens first—operated under unsustainable levels of stress, anxiety and fatigue in what will be seen as the greatest crisis of our age.

Top 3 Re-entry struggles

1. Maintaining physical distancing

2. Students staying home when sick

3. Classroom cleaning

1 in 4 teachers have classes with more than 30 students, with physical distancing of 1–2 metres impossible.

6 in 10 teachers spend 20–60 minutes cleaning and/or sanitizing their classroom(s)/school.

92 per cent of teachers report being exhausted at the end of each day.

Reporting from 1,600+ Alberta teachers and school leaders

COVID-19 screen checklists

84 per cent of respondents do not receive daily confirmation of COVID-19 screen checklists completion before a student(s) enters the classroom.

School COHORTING

Only 18 per cent of respondents believe that the cohorting of students in place at their school will prevent or contain COVID-19 infection(s).

LARGE CLASS sizes

Large and growing class sizes are deemed a significant factor in limiting physical distancing as a preventative health measure. Over 9 per cent of teachers have more than 35 students in their classroom.

MASK WEARING

Over 86 per cent of respondents report compliance with mask wearing when students are interacting with others in classrooms and hallways, but with some challenges at different grade levels.

Hand Washing

Student hand washing is rare, while disinfectant use is more common.

VENTILATION IN SCHOOL

45 per cent of the respondents are attempting to create better ventilation in the school “frequently, usually, every time,” but they are limited by the nature of the physical school building.

Fatigue, stress and anxiety

Teacher and school leader well-being is of critical concern given the reporting of extreme and unsustainable levels of fatigue, stress and anxiety within the profession.

The full results and individual summary reports and infographics for all ATA pandemic pulse surveys can be found on the Association’s website at teachers.ab.ca > News and Info > Issues > COVID-19.