Teacher Wellbeing from Engaging with Educational Technologies (TWEET): Towards a Toolkit for Teacher Wellbeing.

As societies reflect and seek to co-create their ‘new-normals’ in the aftermaths of COVID-19, the importance of the wellbeing of all has been brought into sharp relief. The pressures on education globally in the emergency schooling response have been well documented, not least in how teachers were required to engage more extensively with digital technologies. Much research commentary, however, during and, indeed, prior to the COVID-19 response has, until now, focused on the deleterious impact of educational technologies on the teachers’ wellbeing. There is a lacuna of evidence considering the potentially positive contribution that may be made to teacher wellbeing when technologies are specifically and effectively managed by leaders and teachers in schools. Research reported here, supported by SCoTENS, develops a link between educational technology and teacher wellbeing to test Passey’s proposition (2021) that effective technological adoption/use in schools may benefit the wellbeing of teachers in a wide variety of different educational contexts, associated with various uses and purposes.

This research reports on case study activities with primary and post-primary schools (N=6) across the island of Ireland. This engagement uses Passey’s (2021) conceptual framework linking teacher wellbeing and educational technology use to query forty factors relating to: digital wellbeing; digital literacy; digital agency; activities and outcomes; and effects on physical, social and psychological wellbeing. Engaging with schools through a series of semi-structured interviews and focus groups, researchers gathered evidence from school leaders, classroom teachers and those specifically responsible for leading school use of educational technology. Alongside contributions to a greater understanding of the link between teacher wellbeing and educational technology use, this paper reports on next steps towards the development of a teacher wellbeing and educational technology self-evaluation toolkit. Supporting schools in how they might position existing use of educational technologies to offer greater affordances in the enhancement of teacher wellbeing, it signposts positive practices with self-reported benefits to teachers’ wellbeing in a variety of school contexts.

As schools retain digital practices adopted during the pandemic as ‘COVID-keepers’, many have increased the levels of digital access and competences for their teachers. Findings reported here offer teachers and school leaders a framework to discuss and better understand the possible range of links between digital technology uses and teacher wellbeing. The work has particular significance for those working in initial teacher education and continuing professional development to help students and teachers to be alive to the wellbeing benefits of using education technologies.