The status of teachers is a matter of concern in many countries. Local studies and international surveys indicate that the status of teachers and the teaching profession is in constant decline (e.g., Clarke, 2016; Stromquist, 2018). While the factors affecting this situation vary from country to country, the consequences are the same, whereby teaching becomes a secondary profession less favored by qualified young people. Therefore, it is no surprise that many education systems around the world have reported an ongoing acute shortage of teachers resulting from the difficulty in recruiting and retaining good teachers over time (OECD, 2018; 2020; Schleicher, 2012; UNESCO, 2022).

Covid-19 has made an immense impact on the education systems around the world (Reimers & Schleicher, 2020). School closures required teachers to rapidly adapt to remote teaching while catering to their students’ social and emotional needs. Switching to online learning allowed parents and the public to observe the work of teachers for the first time closely. While many appreciated the hard work of teachers and commended them for their contribution during this time of crisis, teachers were harshly criticized by the public and the media as lazy and scaremongers as well as voiceless and disrespected (Asbury & Kim, 2020). Since it has been argued that the economic and social shock presented by the Covid-19 pandemic is likely to reshape perceptions of individuals and organizations about work and occupations and result in both micro and macro shifts in the world of work (Kramer & Kramer, 2020), it remains to be investigated whether the Covid-19 period has changed public's perceptions towards the status of teachers and the teaching profession.

The status of teachers and the teaching profession can be examined from two perspectives: social esteem and social prestige (Hoyle, 2001). Social esteem refers to the value attached to the profession and to the qualities of the practitioners of this occupation. The profession’s value is influenced by how the public perceives its importance, necessity, and contribution to society and by how the public perceives the professional skills, virtues, and qualities of those engaged in this profession (Bahar et al., 2018; Hoyle, 2001).

Social prestige is defined as the public's perceptions of the relative position of an occupation in a hierarchy of occupations. The prestige, measured on a scale, is often influenced by external factors such as salary and work conditions, the difficulty of entering the profession, the possibilities for occupational progress and professional development, and the degree of autonomy given to the professionals (Ben-Peretz, 2009). Studies show that there tends to be a gap between the prevailing positive perception regarding the importance and contribution of the teaching profession versus the low social prestige of teachers compared to other professionals such as doctors, engineers, and lawyers (Hargreaves & Flutter, 2019).

The present study focuses on the status of teachers and the teaching profession during Covid-19 in the Israeli context. The status of Israeli teachers has been declining for many years. Despite several structural reforms in the employment conditions of teachers, their salaries, especially those of beginning teachers, remained low (Zerd, 2019). In an international survey of the Global Teacher Status Index (GTSI) which compared the status of teachers in 35 countries, Israel was ranked 34^th, one before the last (Dolton et al., 2018). The present study aimed to examine whether there has been a change due to the corona crisis in how the Israeli public perceives the status of teachers and the teaching profession – both social esteem and social prestige. 

In this study, we adopted an almost identical research methodology to the one used in the international survey of the Global Teacher Status Index (GTSI) in 2018, allowing a comparison between the two research studies. The current research was conducted under the auspices of the educational Chief Scientist, that also funded the research. The research was conducted during the month of April 2021, a year after the outbreak of the Corona. It was the end of the third lockdown and the beginning of a gradual return to school due to the vaccines. The study included 1,130 participants aged 18-64, which constituted a representative national sample. The research tool was an anonymous self-report questionnaire administered online by a professional survey company. The questionnaire included 102 items in total, half of them were identical to the 2018 GTSI study, serving as a basis for comparison, and the other half were items that were constructed specifically for the purpose of the present study and included covid-related questions.

The research findings show that following the Corona crisis, the social esteem of the teaching profession has improved. The public perceived the teaching profession as more important than in the past and as a crucial one contributing to the backbone of society. In addition, teachers were positively viewed as hard-working, caring, influential, intelligent, and trustworthy – more than ever before. Furthermore, the teaching profession was viewed as an occupation that requires creativity, flexibility, and the ability to cope with pressure and one that requires constant learning. However, there has been a decrease in the social prestige of teachers and the teaching profession. In relation to other professions, the teaching profession was ranked one before the last. In addition, teachers were perceived as socially unrespected, with low social prestige, and not properly rewarded. In addition, most of the participants commented that they would not encourage their children to become teachers. In other words, the results of the study showed that the COVID-19 crisis replicated and even heightened the gap between positive social esteem and negative social prestige. This paradox which was intensified during a time of crisis, reveals that the improvement in the professional appreciation of the public towards the teachers and the teaching profession is unlikely to solve the quantitative and qualitative shortage of teachers. A threat to education due to a global epidemic, no matter how overwhelming, is not enough to improve and strengthen the status of teachers and the teaching profession. Such an improvement requires an in-depth, comprehensive treatment in the policies of recruitment, training, employment, and retention of teachers.

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