A quick gender critical overview

the impact of covid 19 On Workers in Higher education

Here at the Feminist Directory we think that it is important to observe the world through a gender lens. Data shows that the COVID19 pandemic has disproportionately affected many sectors which are female dominated such as Healthcare, Education etc.

The pandemic has also led to a rise in unpaid care work which is disproportionately falling to women. We have researched how this combination of factors is affecting women’s mental health, physical health, economic stability and professional lives.

This page is part of our series exploring the impact of COVID19 on women working in the Education sector. In this video we will be exploring the impact on those working within higher education throughout the Covid pandemic. We will spotlight experiences from Australia and the UK as well as present data from some international perspectives.

The charity, Education Support created the below video: ‘Wellbeing of higher education staff: CEO Sinéad Mc Brearty is joined by Professor Gail Kinman, Birkbeck, University of London, an occupational health psychologist and leading light on research on wellbeing in the higher education workforce. They discuss the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the wellbeing of higher education staff and what can be done to support them.’

General Climate Pre-Covid

Historically, female academics have been found to progress at a slower rate in their careers than their male counterparts.

Alessandra Minello explores potential reasons in her article, The Pandemic and the Female Academic:

The beginning of an academic career is marked by a prolonged period of precariousness, one which coincides with women’s reproductive period. The term maternal wall, referring to the discrimination and limitations faced by working mothers, has been in use for well over a decade.

Within the Tertiary education sector – academics have dual roles to fulfill. They provide teaching to their students whilst also leading and carrying out their own research and publishing data/ work.

Caroline Criado Perez writes that:

‘Women’s unpaid workload outside of paid employment impacts on their ability to research. But their unpaid workload inside the workplace doesn’t help either. When students have an emotional problem, it is their female professors, not their male professors they turn to’.

The Myth of Meritocracy, Invisible Women.

In many areas of academia and tertiary teaching, even where women are represented strongly in the workforce, there is a lag in their progression to senior roles. Consequently, perpetuating a patriarchal institutional culture in tertiary educational institutions.

Career Progression of Women pre-Covid

In the more junior world of academia, there are similar levels of male and female workers. However, by the time that academics are promoted to Full Professor from Research Staff there is a dramatic fall of women reaching that top tier.

Table by GARCIA Research from ‘ Academic Careers and Gender Inequality: Leaky Pipeline and Interrelated Phenomena in Seven European Countries’

GARCIA, Table Link:

https://eige.europa.eu/sites/default/files/garcia_working_paper_5_academic_careers_gender_inequality.pdf

General Climate Covid

The education sector as a whole has been hugely and permanently changed by the arrival of the pandemic. The landscape has changed dramatically in terms of expectation for academic staff and leaders in tertiary education. This is felt by not only those working in the University sectors but also for those who lead any courses in higher education with the demand to teach online.

According to the World Bank:

As of April 8, 2020, universities and other tertiary education institutions are closed in 175 countries and communities, and over 220 million post-secondary students—13% of the total number of students affected globally—have had their studies ended or significantly disrupted due to COVID-19. The ad hoc nature of institutional closures continues to plague systems globally, as students, academic staff, and government officials grapple with the implications of these closures for their learning, teaching, research, innovation and education outcomes, and financial stability.

Education leaders are in a period of transition, finding innovative ways that they can reach and support their students remotely. Some subjects are more suited to the remote teaching model. However, some academics, that work within more hands on and lab based fields have cited their concerns in the quality of the teaching that they are able to deliver. The increase in planning and attention that the teaching requires has had a significant impact on the leaders own research and publishing output.

World Bank: http://pubdocs.worldbank.org/en/621991586463915490/WB-Tertiary-Ed-and-Covid-19-Crisis-for-public-use-April-9.pdf

Impact of Tertiary Learning

The impact of the pandemic could have a far reaching effect on the quality of training received by those students learning at this time. Society could stand to suffer in the future.

World Bank:

A failure to sustain effective tertiary systems can lead to perilous social upheavals, as youth fall outside the education system, unable to engage in active learning and uncertain about the future of their education and prospects. Societies are, then, confronted with a massive challenge of youth disengagement and deprived of the graduate professionals needed to keep countries on track for social cohesion and growth.

http://pubdocs.worldbank.org/en/621991586463915490/WB-Tertiary-Ed-and-Covid-19-Crisis-for-public-use-April-9.pdf

Career Progression and Covid

In a field, such as Academia and Tertiary education, career progression is based largely on academic output and there have already been statistics of less research being published by women in the wake of the pandemic.

New technologies take time and planning to implement and women are disproportionately likely to be carrying out additional home responsibilities. Women with children are twice as likely as men to be carrying out homeschooling (according to Catalyst). Women have seen their domestic labor increase by an average of 15 hours a week during the pandemic, according to the Boston Consulting Group.

In a field, such as Academia and Tertiary education, career progression is based largely on academic output and there have already been statistics of less research being published by women in the wake of the pandemic.

In the Science and Innovation sector, for example, the productivity and scientific output of female academics are disproportionately affected:

Leading to loss of women’s scientific expertise from the public realm. Early data show that COVID-19 significantly affects women’s publishing. Andersen and colleagues compared authorship of 1179 medical COVID-19 papers with 37531 papers from the same journals in 2019. At 30%, 28%, and 22%, women’s shares of overall, first, and last authorship in COVID-19 papers decreased by 16%, 23%, and 16%, respectively.

Lancet Journal, Challenges for the female academic during the COVID-19 pandemic. Gabster, Daalan, Dhatt, Barry. June 2020.

Teacher’s Welfare

It is not only the welfare of children that is of concern to educators, but also their own safety and that of their families. This has been reiterated across the globe, where teachers have been required to teach in person the children of front line workers. Indeed, in some scenarios where internet teaching is not accessible, the teachers workload has been once again added to by making provision to support those students.

According to Pivot’s research in Australia:

Our survey – with responses from April 17 to May 10 – showed fewer than one in four teachers felt safe working on the school site at the end of term one. But nearly 95% felt safe working from home.

To allow children to keep learning, Wilcannia central school teachers have been making lesson packs for their students and delivering them in person every few days, on a 9km round trip in the school minibus.

Pivot Report: https://www.pivotpl.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Pivot_StateofEducation_2020_White-Paper.pdf

Teachers and Planning Time

Teachers are also attempting to run remote lessons as well as lessons to the children of key workers face to face. Ensuring that a lesson plan can be carried out in person as well as remotely has created a huge amount of extra preparation time. In some cases teachers report that they have had to plan two totally seperate lessons for the same year group.

Table: https://www.pivotpl.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Pivot_StateofEducation_2020_White-Paper.pdf

Spotlight on Remote community

Whilst the pressures on teachers have increased globally, the move to online teaching has proved particularly challenging for teachers working within more remote communities. Some of the world’s more remote populations are those within the Aboriginal communities of Australia.

Studies in Australia show that for the Indigenous communities outside of cities, many rely on phone access for internet connection. It is reported that in rural communities, 32% of children do not have internet access.

“We don’t have NBN. We have just a telephone line connection, I can’t use my mobile phone in my house. As soon as I walk inside, I have no reception and can’t send or receive text messages. And when the majority of my families rely on prepaid credits and the only internet they have to use at home is what’s on their phone, when you can’t get reception inside, that makes it tricky for us as educators.”

The access to technology has not been the only hurdle met by educators in remote communities, but also within some cultures Teachers have had to reassure students and parents.

According to AEU research:

Attendance is always a challenge in a remote community says Andrew Lansdell. He says some of the school’s 600 students and their parents have been reluctant about attending because of rumours around COVID-19, so teachers needed to work out how to explain the virus and why it was still OK to come to school in the Northern Territory…The Indigenous language and culture teacher says some families moved out bush, and that of the school’s 340 preschool to Year 10 students, less than 100 were attending school daily during the crisis…We’re trying to encourage them to get up and get to school, and work out how to rejig their body clocks so they can function a bit more during the day. It’s a challenge we are activity working on, because a lot of what goes on in the community happens at night.”

AEU: http://www.aeufederal.org.au/news-media/news/2020/learning-crisis

Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs)

Another group of people that have been severely affected within the education sector are those who are Newly Qualified teachers (NQTs) or those who are in the midst of their teacher training.

According to the RSA:

Every year there are almost 30,000 new entrants into teacher training programmes. Teachers will be handed the substantial challenge of plugging the learning loss – which could be as much as 6 months for the most disadvantaged – and supporting pupils who may have experienced trauma or loss. Early career teachers and trainees could find themselves facing these challenges with only one full term of classroom teaching under their belt.

In the UK there is already an issue in retaining teachers with 1 in 3 leaving the profession after 5 years and one in seven leaving at the end of their first year as a teacher. We must ensure that there is the necessary support in place to cushion the extra pressure that NQTs will face as a result of the pandemic.

RSA: https://www.thersa.org/discover/publications-and-articles/rsa-blogs/2020/06/early-career-teachers-covid

Mental Health

Covid19 has presented teachers with a range of additional stress factors that all have mental health implications. Many are juggling home schooling on top of their own work pressures, supporting their students welfare and additional required planning accounting for various needs. This is on top of the worry of contracting or carrying Covid and putting themselves, their friends and family at risk.

49 per cent of secondary teachers said they are feeling higher stress levels than usual. The Teachers charity, Education Support is concerned for the mental health of our educators.

Some case studies reported by Education Support are deatiled below:

“Teaching online can be very isolating, especially for teachers who live on their own.” Aside from physical isolation, teachers indicated the loss of their teaching community was particularly difficult. One teacher stated: “Not only do we teachers miss the social connection with our students, we miss being with our colleagues and friends. Teaching is a very social profession, teaching is successful when connection is strong.”

“Continuous work since January. Tired, not sleeping properly. Strange dreams. Drained, trying to support and be up-beat for everyone else.” (Senior primary leader, Wales).

Education Support: https://www.educationsupport.org.uk/about-us/media-centre/coronavirus-teachers-experiencing-high-levels-stress-school-uncertainty