Teachers’ Emotional Exhaustion and Teaching Enthusiasm Before Versus During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract: Because of the sudden removal of teachers’ work routines, we investigated pandemic-related changes in mathematics teachers’ emotional exhaustion and teaching enthusiasm. We drew on data from a 15-year longitudinal study, including four prepandemic (2007–2019) and two pandemic (2021 and 2022) measurement points. During the COVID-19 pandemic, N = 194 teachers participated in 2021 and N = 214 in 2022. The results from latent growth curve models indicated a pronounced increase in emotional exhaustion and a decrease in enthusiasm during the pandemic. We also found that good technical equipment and high openness represent resources associated with a lower increase in emotional exhaustion, whereas difficulties with students during the COVID-19 pandemic and high extraversion were risk factors. Like in other occupations, these results indicate that COVID-19 negatively affected teachers’ experiences and highlight the need to support teachers to avoid further negative consequences for teachers and students.