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In Israel during the post-COVID 19 year, we witnessed a significant dropout of teachers from the educational system, coupled with a decline in enrolment at teacher training institutions. In addition, the extended closure of schools (three times) deepened the crisis in the educational system. This mixed-methods study examined challenges facing elementary school teachers in Israel during the 2023 academic year, in the post-COVID-19 era. The participants included 485 elementary school teachers who participated in the quantitative analysis, of whom 471 teachers participated in the qualitative analysis. Their responses identified 13 main stressors, classified as interpersonal, organisational, and personal. The findings provided a foundation for exploring how these challenges interact with support systems and influence teachers’ commitment and retention. Quantitative analysis revealed that principal support and teacher-parent relationships were associated with higher teacher commitment and lower turnover intentions. Additionally, teachers with more seniority were more committed to teaching and had a lower likelihood of turnover. Teachers from special education schools expressed higher commitment and lower turnover intentions. The findings point to the need for enhancing principal leadership training, strengthening parent-teacher collaborations, and developing targeted support for early-career and special education teachers.
Lipka et al. (Fri,) studied this question.