Voices in Education: The Social–Emotional Impact on Teachers in a COVID-19 World: How Can Teacher Education Lend a Hand?

Abstract

Teachers across sectors of education have been impacted by COVID-19 (Cardona, 2021). The anxiety and stress teachers have endured while attempting to maintain affective instruction for all their students in a safe environment has overwhelmed teachers and administrators. Budget cuts brought on by the pandemic and schools’ struggle to sustain the quality of instruction needed to prepare students has added to teachers’ stress. This of course has affected more severely Black, Indigenous, and Latino students and students from low-income households (Lachlan et al., 2020). As a result, there is a significant increase in the teacher shortage not only in the general elementary and secondary education classrooms, but also in other various critical areas of teaching, such as special education, science, technology, engineering, and bilingual education (Cardona, 2021; Carver-Thomas et al., 2022). In these circumstances and with a lack of substitutes, schools are asking others to act as substitutes to maintain classroom instruction for students. Examples include university student teachers who have not completed the teaching degree being asked to help (Carver-Thomas et al., 2022; Mauriello, 2022), parents who have been asked to substitute (Hahn, 2022), retired teachers who have been asked to return to the classroom (Flannery, 2019), and in some cases, full-time teachers have lost planning and training time to fill in for those who are absent (Pfankuch, 2022). Even the National Guard has been asked to help (Fordham, 2022). Teacher shortage has been an issue for some time. However, as has been revealed, the most recent teacher shortage is at an all-time crisis in our schools. How can teacher education help beyond the development of alternative paths to licensure? DarlingHammond and Hyler (2020) pointed out that teacher education programs need to begin with strong research-based standards for teaching and school leadership in today’s schools. These standards should also be reflected in the state licensure requirements. The standards should include social, emotional, and cognitive development, as well as culturally responsive pedagogies, and trauma-informed practices. Further, DarlingHammond and Hyler noted the importance of aligning teacher education programs with teachers’ current professional needs, as well as providing teacher mentoring support and collaboration to assure success.