By Isabella DeHayes

Drexel’s McNichol Early Childhood Education Lab, founded by Lisa and John McNichol, brings educators and researchers together as a hub for knowledge and innovation. In a research paper, the lab brought together Dr. Ji Young Lee, a South Korean teacher and quantitative researcher, childhood educator, Drexel PhD student, and scholar-activist Em Clark, and supervisor and co-author, Michael Haslip, who is also the Director of ECE Lab, to work through a data set studying the social-emotional state of teachers and students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Collectively, they had been interested in teacher well-being, because it is intrinsically connected to child well-being. They decided to focus on what the measures of teacher well-being are, the quality of these measures, and how they interact. Since they were studying two data sets, one from before COVID-19 and one from after, they also honed in on the change during this time period, and what was impactful before versus after. Clark says that classrooms should be a place that encourages mental well-being for not only the child, but the teacher as well.

Their findings, when comparing pre-pandemic (2018) to mid-pandemic (2022) data, were particularly interesting. In 2018, teachers' depression significantly predicted lower support for children's social-emotional development, and this relationship held relatively steady in 2022 despite broad declines in teachers' well-being across nearly every other measure: cohesion, communication, and satisfaction all dropped, while stress increased. Yet even as teachers reported worse working conditions, their support for children's social-emotional development actually increased, which the authors describe as a "behavioral expression of resilience." At the same time, support for cognitive development declined, suggesting that teachers may have had fewer psychological resources to sustain cognitively rich interactions while prioritizing the relational and emotional dimensions of care. In other words, amid the uncharted territory of the pandemic, teachers still recognized what young children needed most and oriented their practice accordingly, even at personal cost. The study also found that teachers with higher educational levels were significantly more likely to provide stronger social-emotional support during the pandemic, though this hadn't been the case before it, pointing to teacher preparation as a source of resilience under crisis conditions.

“It's really interesting to me that the teachers prioritize that relational core of their work,” Clark said. “When everything else fell away, despite how much they were struggling themselves they were able to prioritize the children's social-emotional well-being.”

“I think we so often don't give teachers enough credit for the work that they do, and this study really helps show that being with children, supporting their social-emotional well-being, that's the core of what we do. And even in a crisis, that becomes more important, not less important.”

The study also showed that teachers will prioritize child well-being over their own. Clark says that this truly makes you take a step back and ask yourself what the cost of this is. Protecting and ensuring teacher well-being is essential to the development of the child, and preventing teachers from having to put their well-being on the backburner is essential for the longevity of their career. The data showed that we should be looking at well-being as a structural issue instead of an individual issue. Providing resources to an individual is great, but looking at the organizational climate  is important too, according to Clark. Structuring classrooms and teaching environments that support the individual specifically, like making sure teachers get a lunch break, or making sure there is someone to cover the classroom while a teacher takes a bathroom break, could help minimize teacher burnout and overwhelm.

“The teacher's well-being should not be that separate from the classroom quality,” said Dr. Lee. “That's a very important point. So, supporting teachers' mental well-being, strengthening collateral communication, and creating structures that help teachers feel valued and connected are really important for sustaining high-quality interaction in their classroom.”

Structuring environments that encourage collaboration is also beneficial for teachers. The study found that small connections are important, and when educational spaces create time for collaboration, it fosters resilience for social-emotional  well-being. Additionally, when teachers feel that they have someone in their corner,  it makes it easier to ask for help in terms of mental health.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers were challenged in ways that were completely unprecedented. There was more stress, less communication, and overall, it wasn’t enjoyable to teach through a screen. Although in this particular study, the teachers did not teach through a screen, many early childhood educators did. Even as everything else fell away, teachers were committed to their job and regulating the children’s social-emotional wellbeing. Now, Clark says, it’s about problem solving and accountability. “We often assume something has to be the way it is because this is how we've always done it,” she explained. “But thinking creatively about how to solve those problems can be really helpful.” When teachers experience mental health issues or burnout, the children also feel it, so it is important to work on creating educational spaces that serve both the educators and the students.

“How do we create systems that really build structural resiliency, rather than relying on individuals to burn themselves out?” Clark asked. “I think we really saw here what education looks like in crisis, and that allowed us to reveal these cracks and really show, in a powerful way, what teachers do, how much of themselves they give, and how relational this work in early childhood is.”