Social-Psychological problems of pedagogues in conditions pandemic of COVID-19
Authors:   Ukrainian Science Methodological Center of Applied Psychology and Social Work of NAES of Ukraine, Panok Vitalii , Tkachuk Iryna 
Published: November 2021

Introduction. The COVID-19 pandemic may have hit the education industry the hardest, but the socio-psychological effects of quarantine are still poorly understood. A group of scientists from the Ukrainian SMC of practical psychology and social work of the NAES of Ukraine has conducted a study of the socio-psychological problems that have arisen for teaching staff of general secondary education establishments in the context of the pandemic. Purpose. The research was carried out during the implementation of the scientific topic «Overcoming the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic in the activities of the psychological service of the educational system» on the order of the National Research Fund of Ukraine. Design\approach\methodology. The study was conducted by interviewing educators through Google forms. Most of the questions contained a 10-step scale. In processing the data, all respondents’ answers were grouped into 5 categories: "yes", "more likely to", "more likely not", "no", "don’t know/it’s hard to say". The survey was attended by 3,209 teaching staff from general secondary education institutions from all regions of Ukraine, 45% from urban areas, 55% from rural areas; among which 92% were women and 8% were men. Results. Among the results, researchers highlighted the difficulties and fears of educators caused by the pandemic. The fears and complexities of the profession were distributed as follows. 1. The fear of getting infected (infecting family members) is common to 78.2% of the surveyed. 40.9% of the interviewed felt this fear to the greatest extent. However, 9.3% found those fears irrelevant. 2. Problems associated with the use of ICT in educational activities (lack of competence) — 53.2%. Among those, 22.2% have major difficulties and 31% have minor difficulties. Only 15.7% consider themselves fully competent. 3. 73% of educators noted difficulties in involving children in distance learning. This was the main problem for 12.8% of respondents. 4. «It is difficult to adhere to all anti-epidemic requirements in an educational institution to protect students» — 69.5% stated that this is one of the most significant problems of professional activity. 5. Emotional exhaustion, loss of emotional balance, excessive fatigue. 58.7% said that the problem was significant, of which almost 18% said it was very significant. 6. 51.1% of respondents indicated that they were unable to communicate with students' parents regarding monitoring the quality of their students' knowledge. Of these, 8.7% rated it with the highest score. 7. Health related difficulties (consequential of COVID-19). 31.2% of educators consider this problem to be relevant, while 8.9% rated it as very relevant. 30.4% of those interviewed denied the existence of such a problem. Conclusions Taking into account the results of the study, the most relevant areas in the work of the psychologists in the educational system are the following: ● prevention among educators and students of the COVID-bullying; ● working with negative emotional states of participants in the educational process and increasing their stress tolerance; ● providing socio-educational assistance to children and families in difficult life situations, and forming positive life prospects. Keywords. COVID-19 pandemic; pedagogues; social-psychological problems; fear of getting infected; emotional exhaustion