Reflections on What we Learned While Researching Teacher Wellbeing During ERT

Reflections on What we Learned While Researching Teacher Wellbeing During ERT

Colin Skeates (Keio University)

Bill Snyder (Soka University)

Chiyuki Yanase (Chuo University)

Wendy M. Gough (Bunkyo Gakuin University)

The sudden and rapid shift to emergency remote teaching (ERT) significantly affected Japanese university educators’ emotional wellbeing when initial announcements about the situation were made and throughout the semester. In an attempt to understand how ERT affected part-time university instructors in particular, the presenters conducted a semester-long research project to investigate instructor wellbeing over time. Throughout the spring 2020 semester, part-time university teachers were weekly asked to complete the International Positive Affect and Negative Affect Schedule--Short Form (IPANAS--SF) and comment on their wellbeing. Over the course of the semester, the presenters read the respondents’ comments and reflected on their own experience with ERT. They found the respondents’ experiences reinforced the notion that teachers need to take responsibility to empower themselves, and that the experience of ERT, though stressful, prompted instructors to develop new coping skills and professional connections. This presentation will be a discussion of the presenters’ experiences with conducting the research, what they have learned personally about the situation of part-time university teachers in Japan, and how conducting this research helped them better understand their own situations. They will also provide suggestions of how teachers in general can support each other professionally and emotionally during difficult times.