Resilience and Social Emotional Health of Teachers in Slovakia, Latvia, Lithuania in Pandemic Times

Introduction.Research on teachers’resilience and social emotional health is important for quality learning and well-being at school,especially during the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.Research on mental health and resilience of teachers from Slovak republic,Latvia,and Lithuania was conducted as part of the ERASMUS+project“Supporting Teachers to Face the Challenge of Distance Teaching”(2020-1-LV01-KA226-SCH-094599).Methodology.The primary goal of the first project phase was to assess social emotional health,so-called Covitality and resilience of teachers in elementary,secondary,and high schools in post-pandemic times and to focus on those areas which require significant support and development.1,200 teachers,400 from each participating country,took part in the research.Results were based on data from research methods:Resilience Scale(RS 14)and social-emotional health survey-teachers(SEHS-T)with the approval of the authors and with the consultation of M.J.Furlong,University of California,USA.Results.Teachers reported in all high level of social-emotional health overall indicator-Covitality,as well as enough high level in four of its domains:Belief in Self,Belief in Others,Emotional Competence,Engaged Living.Level of teachers’resilience has reached a moderate level in all three participating countries.There were found high significant positive correlations between teachers’resilience and overall covitality,as well as between resilience and covitality domains:Engaged living,Emotional Competence,and Belief in Self.Conclusions.Positive teacher strengths that were identified are self-regulation,empathy,cognitive reappraisal.Teachers demonstrated limits in resilience as a whole,in Belief in Others,especially in institutional and colleagues support,and in Engaged Living subscales gratitude,zest,and optimism.Identified weaknesses and limits will be used as a foundation for preparation of intervention activities for the teachers in the second project phase in 2022.These activities will target strengthening and support of mental health and resilience of teachers in participating East European countries.

An Application of Positive Psychology in an Inclusive Primary School in Slovakia

In recent years,there has been an increasing interest to identify and assess indicators of school quality in Slovakia.Social-emotional health of pupils and teachers has been identified as one of the most important criterion of school quality.This chapter reports on social-emotional health of pupils and teachers in a Slovak inclusive primary school.The main organizational principles of an inclusive primary school in Bratislava,Slovakia are presented.The social-emotional health of teachers and students was assessed via an adapted Social-Emotional Health Survey-Secondary(SEHS-S).Findings of this pilot project indicate that teachers and pupils reported high level of social-emotional health associated with school’s core organizational principles guided by positive education frameworks.