Teacher Wellbeing

In response to worsening humanitarian crises, many of which have been compounded by COVID-19, there is a growing and urgent need to prioritize and respond to human wellbeing through education. While approaches to wellbeing through education are often centered around the needs of children and youth, teacher wellbeing is vitally important. Teachers in crisis-affected contexts work in complex education environments, often with minimal support, where they take on a multitude of roles and non-traditional responsibilities  to address diverse student and community needs (Kirk & Winthrop, 2013; Mendenhall et al., 2018). 

Armed conflicts contribute to the destruction of the infrastructure and resources needed to maintain safe and functional schools. The displacement that results from these conflicts often produces a sudden influx of children and youth and acute teacher shortages. The adversity experienced by both teachers and students in such settings brings tension, anxiety, and feelings of severe insecurity into their everyday lives, thereby disrupting learning progress and impeding education’s promise (Winthrop & Kirk, 2008). 

Defining Teacher Wellbeing

INEE’s Landscape Review (Falk et al., 2019) uses a socio-ecological framework to define teacher wellbeing as context-specific across the individual, school, community, national/regional and international levels. Wellbeing encompasses how teachers feel and function in their jobs; and includes teachers’ affections, attitudes, and evaluations of their work (Schleicher, 2018; Collie et al., 2015). Thus, resources used to support teacher wellbeing must be contextualized, ideally through a participatory process that places teachers at the center. 

TWB Landscape review Conceptual Framework ENG

Tools & Resources to Support Teacher Wellbeing

Through the work of the collaboratives on Teachers in Crisis Contexts (TiCC) and Psychosocial Support and Social and Emotional Learning (PSS-SEL), INEE has made significant contributions to teacher wellbeing in emergency settings. INEE now seeks to develop a Teacher Wellbeing Toolkit to support EiE actors to meet the specific needs of teachers in their local contexts,

This first output of the Teacher Wellbeing Toolkit comprises a tools & resources mapping and a gap analysis report, building on the existing body of work by collecting existing resources, tools, and policy or advocacy documents that address teacher wellbeing in emergency settings. INEE has mapped these materials across its socio-ecological model of teacher wellbeing to identify gaps in the availability of materials at the individual, school, and community levels, and in national, regional, and international policy environments.

 

The below collection of resources was curated under the Teacher Wellbeing Toolkit Project, with support from the Teacher Wellbeing Reference Group, and selected from among the Teacher Wellbeing Tools & Resources Mapping lead by Sophia D’Angelo, Samaya Mansour and Lisa Walker.

Manual/Handbook/Guide

Guidance Note for Teacher Wellbeing in Emergency Settings

Published by
Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE)

This INEE Minimum Standards-aligned Guidance Note is an opportunity to put teacher wellbeing at the center of our response and recovery efforts in conflict and crisis affected settings. Not just because an investment in teachers is an investment in children and adolescents, but because at this moment in history teachers deserve our unparalleled attention as an end unto itself. 

Arabic
English
French
Portuguese
Spanish
Ukrainian
Manual/Handbook/Guide

INEE Teacher Wellbeing Guidance Note - Contextualization for Colombia

Published by
Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE)

These contextualization tools consist of a methodology and reflections, as well as the resultant contextualized Domain 1 of the Guidance Note for Teacher Wellbeing in Emergency Settings for use in Soacha, Colombia

Arabic
English
French
Portuguese
Spanish
Manual/Handbook/Guide

INEE Teacher Wellbeing Guidance Note - Contextualization for Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya

Published by
Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE)

These contextualization tools consist of a methodology and reflections, as well as the resultant contextualized Domain 3 of the Guidance Note for Teacher Wellbeing in Emergency Settings for use in Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya.

Arabic
English
French
Portuguese
Spanish
Manual/Handbook/Guide

INEE Teacher Wellbeing Guidance Note - Contextualization for Myanmar, non-state online universities

Published by
Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE)

These contextualization tools consist of a methodology and reflections, as well as the resultant contextualized Domain 3 of the Guidance Note for Teacher Wellbeing in Emergency Settings for use with university instructors in non-state universities in Myanmar.

Arabic
English
French
Portuguese
Spanish
Manual/Handbook/Guide

INEE Teacher Wellbeing Guidance Note - Contextualization for Palestine

Published by
Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE)

These contextualization tools consist of a methodology and reflections, as well as the resultant contextualized Domain 2 of the Guidance Note for Teacher Wellbeing in Emergency Settings for use in Palestine. 

Arabic
English
French
Portuguese
Spanish
Mapping

Teacher Wellbeing Resources Mapping & Gap Analysis

Published by
Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE)

This first output of the Teacher Wellbeing Toolkit comprises a tools & resources mapping and a gap analysis report, building on the existing body of work by collecting existing resources, tools, and policy or advocacy documents that address teacher wellbeing in emergency settings.

Arabic
English
French
Portuguese
Spanish
Report

Landscape Review: Teacher Well-being in Low Resource, Crisis, and Conflict-affected Settings

Published by
Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE)
US Agency for International Development (USAID)
,
Education Equity Research Initiative

This resource includes findings from a landscape review, a conceptual framework for teacher well-being, as well as programmatic and policy guidance for providing comprehensive support to the well-being of teachers working in low resource, crisis, and conflict-affected contexts.

Arabic
English
French
Portuguese
Spanish
Manual/Handbook/Guide

Teachers in Crisis Contexts Training for Primary School Teachers

Published by
Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE)

The Training for Primary School Teachers in Crisis Contexts package was developed for unqualified or under-qualified teachers often recruited to teach in refugee camps and in a range of other emergency settings.

Arabic
English
French
Spanish
Assessment

WHO Five Wellbeing Index

Published by
World Health Organization (WHO)

The WHO-5 was first presented by the WHO Regional Office in Europe at a 1998 WHO meeting in Stockholm as an element in the DEPCARE project on the measures of well-being in primary health care. Since this time the WHO-5 has been validated in a number of studies with regard to both clinical and psychometric validity.

Arabic
English
French
Portuguese
Spanish
Toolkit

Learning and Well-Being in Emergencies: Resource Kit

Published by
Save the Children

he toolkit contains components that include Introduction for proposal development and advocacy; Community Action for initial non-formal education or informal learning; Teacher Training to support teachers/facilitators; Learner Assessment tools, and a comprehensive Community Action component to support literacy and well-being in the immediate aftermath of a crisis.

English
Training Material

Support for Teachers Affected by Trauma

Published by
Support for Teachers Affected by Trauma

Support for Teachers Affected by Trauma (STAT) comprises five online modules that explore the concepts of secondary trauma, risk factors associated with susceptibility to secondary traumatic stress (STS), the impact of STS across multiple life domains, and tangible self-care skills.

English
Toolkit

Supporting teachers in back-to-school efforts – A toolkit for school leaders

Published by
International Labor Organization (ILO)
United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organziation (UNESCO)

This Toolkit was designed for school leaders to support and protect teachers and education support staff in the return to school following COVID-19 related closures. While aimed primarily at school leaders, the Toolkit is also potentially useful for teachers and education support staff to better understand their roles and responsibilities in back-to-school efforts.

English
Spanish
Manual/Handbook/Guide

Supporting teachers in back-to-school efforts: Guidance for policy-makers

Published by
International Labor Organization (ILO)
United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organziation (UNESCO)
,
International Teacher Task Force for Education 2030

This document provides guidance to policy-makers on measures to support teachers and education staff when schools reopen, during and after the COVID-19 crisis

English
Training Material

JRS MHPSS Teacher Training Modules

Published by
Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS)

This 44-page document includes five 3-hour teacher training modules. Module 5 focuses on "Teacher Wellbeing." The resource was coincidentally made around the onset of COVID-19 but it addresses the larger need to support the psychosocial wellbeing of students, teachers, and the entire community, particularly in refugee settlements or other setting affected by protracted displacement. 

English
Technical Note

Supporting teacher and education personnel during times of crisis

Published by
United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organziation (UNESCO)

UNESCO issue note no.2.2 calling for the support of teachers wellbeing in times of crisis (including COVID-19).

English
Spanish
Portuguese
French
Mongolian
Chinese (Mandarin)
Manual/Handbook/Guide

Reunite, Renew, and Thrive: Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Roadmap for Reopening School

Published by
CASEL

More than 40 organizations have come together to produce this roadmap to support the return to school with equity-focused SEL strategies centered on relationships and built on the existing strengths of a school community. Schools can use these four SEL Critical Practices to foster the competencies and learning environments that students and adults need to reunite, renew, and thrive.

English
Manual/Handbook/Guide

Education Technical Note: Teacher Wellbeing

Published by
Right To Play

This guidance is to help Right To Play staff advocate for and promote teacher wellbeing as schools reopen following COVID-19 forced school closures around the world.

English
Assessment

Educator Resilience and Trauma-Informed Self-Care Self-Assessment and Planning Tool

Published by
American Institute for Research – Center on Great Teachers and Leaders

A self-care assessment with items addressing physical self-care (the body), psychological self-care (the mind), emotional self-care (emotions), relational self-care (relationships), spiritual self-care (the spirit), workplace and professional self-care (work), as well as a table to create a self-care plan to address teacher needs.

English
Manual/Handbook/Guide

Teacher Wellbeing Focus Group Discussion Guide

Published by
Right To Play

The focus group discussion guide is a tool designed for Right to Play staff to facilitate with teachers who have returned to school after COVD-19 enforced closures (across the globe) as well as for teacher in Burundi and Tanzania who have continued teaching throughout the global COVID-19 pandemic.

English
Assessment

TPD Approach Teacher Well-being and Motivation Tool

Published by
Save the Children

This tool has been developed to help you find out directly from teachers what the critical factors affecting teacher well-being and motivation are in your context.  

English
Assessment

Assessment of Teacher Competencies in Crisis Contexts - Afghanistan

Published by
International Rescue Committee (IRC)

The present study has four goals: characterizing a framework for teaching competencies in crisis contexts in Afghanistan, generating valid and reliable instruments to assess this framework, assess teachers’ needs and competencies based on classroom observations and self-reports, and, Identify how contextual and individual teaching characteristics are associated with teachers’ competencies,.

Dari
Pashto
English