The global COVID-19 crisis resulted in a considerable disruption to all aspects of daily life. Besides innumerable public health as well as economic challenges, the education sector in particular faced a large number of difficulties. Around the world, education policy representatives were forced to quickly respond to the still unknown virus and the rapidly increasing numbers of new infections at schools. As a result, either partial or full school closures were used as a measure to control the incidence of infection in education institutions in a total of 194 countries (UNESCO, 2020). While the serious consequences of distance learning for students (e.g. impacts on learning, reduced social support, reduction of physical activity, exposure to violence at home) are undisputable (Viner et al., 2021), aspects such as communication between education policy stakeholders and school principals as well as related impacts on teachers’ work conditions have not been sufficiently studied. 

Due to the COVID-19 crisis, teachers’ immediate work conditions (e.g. workload, teacher collaboration) as well as overarching conditions such as policy and organization have changed radically. Accordingly, findings suggest that teachers felt rather low levels of autonomy (Kim et al., 2021), which is considered a desirable work condition (Vangrieken et al., 2017) and high levels of stress due to the increased workload (Hascher et al., 2021). In addition, teacher-student-relationships as well as teacher collaboration, being important predictors of teachers’ job satisfaction (e.g. Reeves et al., 2017; Spilt et al., 2011), were severely limited due to distance education (Anderson et al., 2021). Furthermore, Kim and Asbury (2020) as well as Khlaif et al. (2021) indicate that during the COVID-19 crisis, policymakers often failed to fulfill their core responsibilities, especially communicating policies in a timely and transparent manner. Since the need for routine and predictability are considered core aspects of teacher identity (Kim and Asbury, 2020), the present article aims to determine the impact of education policy communication on the work conditions of Austrian teachers. The results stem from a follow-up study as part of the INCL-LEA (INCLusive Home LEArning) study conducted by Schwab and Lindner (2020), which can be considered a rapid response to the new pandemic control measures introduced in Austrian schools in November 2021. A mixed-methods approach was used to address the following five research questions: (1) How do teachers evaluate different measures to curb the incidence of infections in the context of education policy and the resulting consequences for the school system and their work conditions? (2) How do Austrian teachers perceive their work conditions in the course of the regulation for “safe school operation” in consideration of work-related stress factors and work load? (3) How do Austrian teachers perceive the professional communication of new regulations and measures by education policy representatives throughout the COVID-19 pandemic? (4) Are there types of teachers to be identified based on their perception of work conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic? (5) Are there types of teachers to be identified based on their perception of professional communication of regulations by education policy representatives during the COVID-19 pandemic?

The INCL-LEA follow-up-study was carried out between November 22 and December 12, 2021, when new infection control measures were introduced in Austrian schools. A mixed-methods approach was used to determine the impact of education policy communication on teachers’ work conditions. Data collection included both a quantitative online questionnaire using LimeSurvey as well as guided interviews conducted via ZOOM. A total of 1372 teachers (80.4% female) were recruited to participate in the online survey which contained both closed and open-ended questions. Questions based on the Schul-Barometer study by Huber et al. (2020) were used in order to gather information about teachers’ current workload and perceived stress. In addition, teachers’ job-satisfaction was assessed using a four-point Likert scale by Enzmann and Kleiber (1989). In order to survey teachers’ current state of mind and emotions, the PANAVA scale by Schallberger (2005), consisting of eight items regarding the affective experience states, was applied. Quantitative data were analyzed descriptively using SPSS software. The guided interviews were conducted with a total of 3 school principals and 7 teachers. In order to gain deeper insights into the participants’ individual experiences, they were asked to rate the communication and implementation of different measures (school closures, distance teaching and learning, regular PCR-testing) as well as their effects on different actors (students, teachers, parents) throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The interviews were subsequently analyzed using the documentary method by Bohnsack (2001).

Although data analysis has not yet been completed, preliminary results show that teachers are particularly critical of the way education policy measures were communicated during the COVID-19 crisis. In this context, the participants point out that they usually only learned about the entry into force of new measures at short notice and were therefore unable to objectively inform neither students nor parents about further procedures. In addition, data suggest that while teachers support the use of infection control measures, they perceive significant barriers in implementing educational policies in schools. For example, teachers report that due to a lack of administrative support regular COVID-19 testing involved considerable additional work and resulted in a loss of valuable class time. Furthermore, teachers indicate that implementing certain measures, such as wearing face masks and balancing proximity and distance were seen as major obstacles, especially in lower grades. However, considering the findings of a longitudinal study by Lindner et al. (2021), suggesting a significant decrease in job satisfaction between regular school operations and the two phases of school closures (from March to May and from November to December) in 2020, we assume that due to positive changes in the school environment, such as improved technical conditions as well as flexibility of teaching structure, teachers’ work conditions possibly increased in 2021. In addition, since the “safe school” regulation provides for regular school operation and thus in-person teaching for the 2021/22 school year, we expect teachers work-related stress factors and work load to decrease. We also derive this assumption from the results of numerous studies that reported on the importance of personal and close teacher-student relationships as important predictors of teachers’ job satisfaction and motivation (e.g. Abós et al., 2019; Reeves et al., 2017).

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