Brazilian Teachers' Voices: The Impact of the First Two Years of the Pandemic.

Abstract

Objectives: To compare vocal symptoms, stress, overall fatigue, and self-reported vocal quality in teachers between pre pandemic, emergency remote teaching (ERT), and hybrid teaching (simultaneous in-person and online teaching), evaluate their voices during hybrid teaching, and correlate it with self-reported vocal quality.

Study design: Hybrid cross-sectional study with longitudinal cohort characteristics.

Method: The sample comprised 70 teachers of both sexes, aged 24 to 68years (mean of 42.5years). Everyone filled out a recall questionnaire on pre-pandemic and ERT and another one on hybrid teaching. The voices were recorded and then submitted to judges for auditory-perceptual evaluation. The statistical analysis compared the three moments, verifying a correlation between the variables.

Results: The auditory-perceptual evaluation carried out during hybrid teaching revealed that 74.3% of teachers in the sample had mild vocal deviations according to the overall severity in the CAPE-V. Changes in self-reported vocal quality were associated with hoarseness, dry throat, vocal fatigue, voice failures, loud speaking, stress, and overall fatigue. Also, 61.4% of participants reported that during ERT, their voices were better than before the pandemic and during hybrid teaching. Voice roughness and strain observed in the auditory-perceptual evaluation were associated with vocal symptoms.

Conclusion: Remote teaching has transformed teachers' communication in class, highlighting the need for monitoring by them. Teachers reported improved vocal quality during ERT compared with before the pandemic, but it worsened slightly in hybrid teaching. Public school teachers perceived greater vocal improvement than those in private schools. The most common symptoms were hoarseness, dry throat, sore throat, and overall fatigue, regardless of the time of analysis. During hybrid teaching, most of the sample had mildly deviant voices, especially due to roughness and strain, which are related to the most frequent symptoms.