Quality of life of teachers from Chile and Colombia during the Covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

It is important to consider the educational process and the status of the teaching staff in order to create a suitable environment in the classroom. Although there are numerous evidences on quality of life in university teachers, there are few studies that investigate the teacher at the basic and intermediate level. The study is of a quantitative, non-experimental and cross-sectional approach with a descriptive-comparative design. The sample was selected under a non-probabilistic criterion, including 117 teachers (66 from Chile and 51 from Colombia) from public and private institutions. In both countries, Emotional Role was the most affected dimension, followed by Vitality and Physical Role, while the dimension with the best score was Physical Function. When comparing both countries, Colombia showed better scores in 6 of the 8 dimensions, with Chile only obtaining a better score in Physical Role and General Health, but these differences were not statistically significant. In both genders, only in Mental Health statistically significant differences were obtained. The results suggest that in terms of quality of life, the confinement experienced during the pandemic together with the rapid adaptations teachers had to make in digital skills during the school closures would have had an impact on the emotional well-being of teachers and especially on the mental health of female teachers.