The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted schooling on a global scale, challenging teachers with a flood of unmanageable demands.
These demands have persisted, resulting in an echo-pandemic of educator absences and attrition — educators leaving their jobs — that threatens the health of schools.
We wrote about ways to support teachers during the pandemic based on our 2020 national survey of more than 1,300 Canadian teachers.
Since then, we have followed more that 7,000 educators in their navigation and coping efforts during and after the pandemic. From these findings, we published more than 25 research articles, including 13 peer-reviewed articles, plus 12 articles for educators’ journals, reports to government and to the Canadian Mental Health Association, and one podcast.
Since the pandemic, we’ve seen notable and important conversations about educators’ burnout and self-care in media and academic publications. An upside to this is increased awareness in the education sector around mental health needs and the importance of resources for both students and employees.
A downside is these conversations reflect education systems that are out of balance in terms of resources and needs.
Read more: Solving teacher shortages depends on coming together around shared aspirations for children
Absentee issues
In the United States, the National Center for Education Statistics reported a rise in teacher absenteeism after the pandemic.
In Canada, research based on data collected from educators in Alberta, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador from September 2022 to August 2023 found “a significant association between sick days and the prevalence and severity of high stress, low resilience, burnout, anxiety, and depression among educators.” This study, by psychiatry researcher Belinda Agyapong and colleagues, also noted “short-term sick leave can escalate into long-term absences without adequate support for teachers.”
Rampant absenteeism has severe financial costs. In 2023, the cost of educator absences was $213 million in the Toronto District School Board alone.
There are academic and social-emotional costs to students when their schooling is disrupted by educators’ frequent absences.
Schools across Ontario face shortages of administrators, teachers, educational assistants and office staff on a daily basis.
So, why is this happening?
Demands, resources are unbalanced
An important step in solving a problem is defining its nature. A framework called the job demands-resources model, developed by psychologists from the Netherlands, provides a useful lens for understanding why educators are missing so much time at work. It posits how personal and job characteristics foster employee well-being, suggesting workplaces can be understood as a teeter-totter with demands on one end and resources on the other.
When employees have enough resources to meet demands, the system is in balance. Its workers function well, and the organization’s goals are more likely to be met.
It is expected that resources in schools are supplied by employers, such as reasonable class sizes, adequate prep time and supports to meet complex student needs. It is important to note that resources are also supplied by employees, such as self-care practices and job skills.
Educators, administrators in charge of available resources and provincial policymakers in charge of overall funding to education must work together to achieve and maintain the balance between demands and resources.
So how have the demands experienced by educators changed since 2020?
Survey of educators
Our most recent research, a survey of 243 educators, showed 60 per cent of survey respondents have experienced large increases in students’ academic, social and behavioural needs. Survey data were collected in Manitoba during the first four months of 2024 at voluntary, school-based workshops provided by a national health organization.
Alarmingly, over 30 per cent of respondents said they are rarely or never able to meet all these needs with their current resources.
Within education systems across the country, the demands are of greater number and intensity than prior to the pandemic without adequate resources to keep up.
Increased student needs are not being met within the current education system, and teachers’ workload and work-life balance are suffering.
Read more: Pandemic education crisis: Canada is failing to tackle 'lost year' in K-12 education
Educators looking for new jobs
UNESCO’s predicted 2030 global teacher shortage of 44 million teachers provides an impetus to solve this issue quickly.
Although there are calls for higher salaries for teachers in some countries, Canadian teachers are paid well and some have received recent salary increases. However, salary raises alone do not make a job sustainable.
A lack of resources and supports to foster student success has resulted in significant dissatisfaction not only for teachers, but also for others across educator roles. In 2024, among the Manitoba educators we surveyed, 29 per cent of teachers, 25 per cent of principals, 33 per cent of clinicians and 20 per cent of educational assistants reported looking for new jobs in the past few months. The collective research indicates a system in crisis.
So how can we remedy the situation to bring back not only the effectiveness of our educational settings but also the joy of schooling?
Finding solutions
Recognition of the current imbalance has resulted in some “bright lights” that show the way for other school systems to curb educator absences and attrition.
Examples include:
- In Manitoba, the government’s funding of mental health resources for education sector workers through the Canadian Mental Health Association; increased salaries and benefits for teachers and principals after a new recent collective agreement; policies to decrease class sizes;
- Increased attention to mental health in school policy to address students’ current needs in some provinces — Manitoba, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario.
These initiatives suggest some governments and policymakers are aware of the imbalances and are working to address them.
Importantly, attention to the needs of education sector employees beyond teachers like educational assistants, principals and clinicians (for example, psychologists) is necessary to re-establish balance.
When educators are properly resourced to do their jobs and are allowed to see the results in positive learning and growth of their students, they will be more inclined to be at work. If, in time, the education system is adequately and proactively resourced to meet the demands, schools can become better places to work and learn. Reduced educator attrition and absences will be good indicators of a system regaining its balance.
Laura Sokal has received funding from SSHRC and the Canadian Mental Health Association.
Lesley Eblie Trudel has received funding from SSHRC and the Canadian Mental Health Association.
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
