Exhausted or empowered? Primary school educators’ views and experiences of educational transitions during a global emergency

Abstract

Using socio-cultural and ecological lenses, this paper explores the perspectives of primary school educators on smoothing educational transitions for themselves, and for learners and their families during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this paper, the term ‘transitions’ refers to both the vertical processes of change that learners underwent in COVID-19 times as they moved across educational stages as well as daily movements between activities, settings, or caregivers that constituted their horizontal transitions. Data gathered from two online questionnaires conducted in 2020 and 2021 are analysed. An intricate picture emerges, highlighting educators’ experiences of stress and exhaustion on the one hand, yet usefulness and empowerment on the other. Findings indicate teachers played a central role in facilitating continuity of learning, guided by a sense of duty inherent in their vocational and professional roles, yet stalled by pressures to make up for the lack of support and guidance from higher authorities.