Can older teachers better handle crises? Overload feelings and work seepage into the private space during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

The study examines the teachers’ sense of overload and breaching the boundaries protecting their personal time during the COVID-19 crisis. The article explains the work-life conflict that teachers from all educational settings have encountered and the blurring of boundaries experienced as a result of ICT leakage into their personal space. Using a mixed-method in which 17 teachers participated in the qualitative part and 701 in the quantitative part, teachers revealed difficulties and aspects of their efforts to cope with imposed change. The findings suggest that older teachers were more successful than their younger counterparts in coping with the ongoing crisis.

KEYWORDS:

• Overaload
• Covid-19
• home-career conflict
• old teachers
• crisis
• change

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Emanuel Tamir

Emanuel Tamir (Ph.D.) is a senior lecturer and head of the Educational leadership programme at Tel-Hai Academic College. His research focuses on educational changes and reforms, decision-making, early childhood education, and teachers’ unions.

Ran Etgar

Ran Etgar is a senior lecturer at Ruppin academic centre, Faculty of Engineering. His research focuses on decision making and is a co-manager and co-founder of the decision-making research centre.