A Preliminary Investigation into the Impact of the Post-2008 Earthquake Situation on Teachers’ Well-being in Sichuan, China
Lei Bing Yin
University of Leicester
Abstract
This study explores teachers’ perspectives regarding their experiences of school disaster response and management in the aftermath of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. Since this event, the Chinese government has been working to develop a response and recovery structure in educational institutions. School leadership has been challenged to balance the need for standard operating procedures against a requirement to be flexible within the existing organisational framework to specific problems brought on by disasters. Teachers are expected by school leadership to take a more active role in providing essential services for students whilst also dealing with their own stress in post-disaster situations. For this reason, teachers’ well-being after disasters comes out as a central issue that is being explored in present research. A research instrument was developed and validated for the data collection of the main study. The scale reliability was calculated using Cronbach’s alpha; the instruments were found to be reliable (>0.7). The results suggest that teachers’ personal experiences and professional environment, such as students’ behavioural changes in response to disasters, have important implications for teachers’ resilience and well-being levels.
Keywords: Post Disaster Situation; Teacher Stress and Resilience; Secondary Education; Crisis Management System
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The Bridge: Journal of Educational Research-Informed Practice 