Teachers are working harder than other professionals, reveals report Appearance, social norms keep students off Zoom cameras

Teachers are working harder than ever before and more than any other occupation, according to a study published in the peerreviewed journal Oxford Review of Education authored by researchers from UCL.

The proportion who say their job demands a very high level of input is nine in ten which represents an increase of two-thirds (90% vs 54%) over 25 years, according to the findings taken in 2017 and based on more than 800 teachers in British schools.

This compares with just 44% of people in all other occupations who agree they have to work very hard. Only health and social services managers and legal professionals come close to the levels of work intensity faced by teachers.

The data reveals for the first time how this drop in job quality goes beyond just pay and hours. Training, the influence teachers have over their tasks and work-related well-being have also declined.

Ever

thought why some students do not turn on their video cameras during online classes on Zoom? Because they may be more concerned about their privacy or how they look, researchers said in a new study. The findings indicate that while some students had concerns about the lack of privacy or their home environment, 41 per cent of the 276 respondents cited their appearance as the reason for keeping their cameras off.

For the study published in the journal ‘Ecology and Evolution’, the researchers surveyed 312 students in the class at the end of the semester to figure out why they weren’t using their cameras – and try to come up with ways to turn that trend around.

In the survey, the team found that among underrepresented minorities, 38 per cent said they were concerned about other people being seen behind them, while 26 per cent were concerned about their physical location being visible; while among non-underrepresented minorities, 24 per cent were worried about people behind them and 13 per cent about their physical locations.

An increasing percentage of teachers say they often or always come home from work exhausted (72% in 1997 vs 85% in 2017) which again is higher than any other professional over the same period (44% vs 45%).

The study author Professor Francis Green from the UCL Institute of Education says the findings suggest a link between declining work well-being and decreased job quality, independent of the long hours teachers work. He says reforms are needed to address the issue which is a possible factor in declining teacher retention rates.

“The most striking aspect of job quality is teachers’ high work intensity and intensification.” “Compared with other professionals and all other occupations, teachers work more intensively and this has risen to unprecedented levels.”

“Any improvement in teachers’ job quality achieved in a post-COVID-19 environment should be beneficial. Not only for teachers, but also for schools and the pupils who depend so much on the quality of teaching.”