Redefining Education during Pandemic Crisis: Exploring the Psychological Impact of E-classes on Women Educators

The prevalent pandemic is far more than just the virus. It has wreaked havoc on India’s Healthcare System, Economy, Educational system, and, most significantly, our mental health. Fears, stress, anxiety, depression, insomnia, and other often reported mental health concerns connected with being infected or separated from society have risen as a result of this outbreak, triggering a humanitarian crisis like never before. This is an exploratory study that aims to examine how education played a critical role during the pandemic by redefining itself, and how it in turn, redefined the pandemic times to a greater extent. The study further explores the psychological impact of this transformation on women educators. A mixed methods design was adopted to collect both quantitative (self-curated health checklist, Beck Anxiety Inventory and Coronavirus Anxiety Scale) and interview-based qualitative data from women educators (aged 30-50 years) from urban schools and colleges in Delhi-NCR. The study concludes that inability to relax, fear of worst happening, fatigue/weakness, head and joint aches, and digestive issues were highly reported by the sample of women educators. Encountering death, technological shift, change in educator-student dynamics, teachers as ‘containers’ in times of crisis, psychic strength, spirituality, traces of patriarchy and pandemic politics were among the few recurrent themes which emerged in qualitative analysis. The paper draws upon educators’ perspectives, narratives and adaptations with the transforming computer-mediated learning and pedagogies, while juggling with burdening gender-roles and engaging in social solidarity. Some interventions are also suggested in the present research.