Investigating the Impact of COVID-19 on Teachers’ Mental Health and Professional Well-Being

Abstract

As a response to the COVID-19 crisis, many countries around the world closed schools, colleges, and universities to halt the spread of the virus. This resulted in urging most education systems to adopt alternatives to face-to face teaching and learning and creating more challenges. As an example, teachers in Algeria faced several challenges such as workload, online resources and digital skills. Physical, emotional, and educational demands arose as a result. This study aims to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on teachers ‗mental health and professional well-being. The work at hand also seeks to ascertain and capture teachers' reflections and perceptions of the impact of COVID-19 on their teaching experience. Consequently, a mixed-method was conducted to provide a comprehensive understanding of the topic. Two scales of measurement were conducted in a form of a questionnaire followed by an open ended question addressed to teachers in the English section at the department of letters and foreign languages of the University of Tiaret. The results show that the pandemic has had a significant impact on teachers' mental health and professional well-being with a correlation of 0.374** at a sig level of 0.00 between COVID-19 and teachers ‗mental health. A thematic analysis reveals the need for training and online resources related to ICTs for both teachers and students.