Five years after the COVID-19 pandemic, namely, the biggest disruption to education in the last century, this article provides insights into the consequences it holds for teachers’ well-being, their (non)preparedness for and support needed in any such future disruptions in Slovenia. By utilising the Job Demands–Resources Model, insights are provided concerning job demands (stress) and job resources (support) on different levels (individual, micro, meso, macro, chrono) of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory. The importance of complementing large-scale, representative, quantitative data (from the Responses to Educational Disruption Survey (REDS)) with qualitative data obtained from two focus groups comprising eight teachers in total is demonstrated to gain a comprehensive understanding of teachers’ well-being during educational disruptions. This study confirms that the intertwining of different levels in Bronfenbrenner’s socio-ecological system explains job demands (sources of stress) and job resources (support for teacher well-being) during the COVID-19 pandemic. The majority of stressors at the time of the pandemic were identified on the micro level, whereas sources of support were primarily located on the individual and meso (school) levels. For any future educational disruptions, however, the most significant sources of support for teachers’ well-being are expected on the macro level (system and society).
Štremfel et al. (Tue,) studied this question.