Supporting teachers to face the challenge of distance teaching – PERSON

Within the framework of the 80th International Scientific Conference of the University of Latvia, the section "Teacher resilience: problems and solutions” was dedicated to identifying the needs of teachers and the possible support system in the COVID-19 crisis. The event was held on 9 February 2022.

In the first part of the section, researchers from Latvia, Lithuania, and Slovakia presented the results of the first year of the Erasmus+ Programme Key Activity No. 2 (KA2) – Strategic Partnership project "Supporting Teachers in Overcoming the Challenges of Distance Learning" (PERSON), 2020-1-LV01-KA226-SCH-094599 implementation, revealing the main challenges for teachers in a situation of dynamic change and congestion caused by distance learning.

The participants of the second part of the section presented theoretical and empirical research on the possibilities of school management, mentoring, education policy and the responsibility to protect teachers from burnout and to leave the profession in Latvia, Lithuania, and Hungary.

Teacher surveys showed a high level of socio-emotional competence of teachers in all participating countries. Still, the main problems were found in the average vitality rates and the low levels of "trust in others" and "institutional and peer support" in all teacher samples.

As critical solutions, the participants offered psychological support to teachers to improve their stress management and mutual support skills, strengthen school culture, build trusting relationships (both within the school and with municipalities), deep, existential dialogue, purposeful mentoring, and school leadership responsibilities. Awareness is also important.

The results of the section's work will be used to develop and test a science-based experimental online programme to strengthen the vitality of teachers and gather recommendations for education policymakers.