Teachers' Physical Activity: A Necessity for Stability of Schools' Culture During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The recent COVID-19 outbreak has caused confusion and uncertainty to many educational organizations worldwide, forcing school leaders to weave through many school priorities. As schools take on online teaching, teachers were compelled to sit on their chairs, interacting with students using the screens for more than four hours every day. This has resulted in a decrease in physical activity, affecting their health and quality of teaching. Unfortunately, the dichotomy is as teachers care for their students' physical and mental health, teachers' physical well-being is not a priority in most schools' culture during this pandemic.
 
 This paper aims to address this gap in teacher's lack of Physical Activity, which is necessary to help stabilize the school culture during this pandemic. It will highlight school leaders' critical role in promoting physical well-being as part of the school culture. Moreover, it will discuss the benefits of teachers staying active, and it will also present possible ways to foster a culture geared toward teachers' involvement in physical activities.

Assessment of educators’ physical activity in conditions of social isolation

“…In the conditions of COVID-19 pandemic, a transformation of the teachers' lifestyle took place (Latina 2020;Parra et al, 2021), in particular, the duration of work at the computer increased (Fleming, 2020), and the share of a sedentary lifestyle increased (McClintok, 2021). The need to work online for up to 4 hours a day has led to undue stressors and increased demands on physical health (Trinidad, 2021).…”

School principals’ experiences of ethical leadership during times of accountability : complexities, dilemmas and dynamics.

“…These scholars suggest that Chaos Theory in an uncertain and unpredictable school environment can assist the school principal make sense of patterns and brings order by directing change in order to fix the organisational problem at hand (Van Zyl et al, 2020). Moreover, Parra and Tan (2021) credit Chaos Theory for the ability to equip school principals with adaptive and transformational leadership skills in relation to other stakeholders in education, while providing responsive leadership styles to turbulent, complex, and dynamic school environments. Other benefits of Chaos Theory for school principals include its ability to help them accept complexities and unpredictability in the schools they lead and become 'agents of chaos' (Cvetek, 2008).…”