Hanna Paul, Erickson Mark, Walker Carl
University of Surrey, Guildford, UK.
University of Brighton, Brighton, UK.
High Educ (Dordr). 2022 Nov 11:1-18. doi: 10.1007/s10734-022-00956-z.
Jonathan Shay argued that social, relational, and institutional contexts were central to understanding moral injury and conceptualised moral injury as a normative response to the betrayal of an individual's understanding of what is right by a more senior/authoritative "other". Using the conceptual lens of moral injury, this paper investigates academic staff experiences of HE during the COVID-19 pandemic and explores the rapid transition back to face-to-face teaching that took place in autumn 2020. To collect data, we used an online survey that opened in January 2021 and ran until the end of March 2021. A total of 663 complete questionnaires were received across the survey period. The questionnaire was comprised of ten topic-related questions, each of which included follow-up sub-questions and also invited participants to write in additional information. The majority of participants felt that during the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, they had acted in ways that put their own health and wellbeing at risk. Of those who had acted in ways that put their health and wellbeing at risk, they believed that their senior management were the most responsible for them acting in such ways, followed by the UK government. Qualitative data showed a systemic absence of leadership in the sector during the time, a sense of betrayal of staff and students by senior management and the government, and feelings of compulsion to act in ways which put lives at risk. On the basis of these results, we argue that there could be synergies between the situation facing healthcare staff and academics during the pandemic. Many of the experiences of HE academic staff during the pandemic reported to us in this research are resonant with the concepts of betrayal and moral injury and resulted in affective responses which we understand here in relation to feelings of guilt, shame, and anger, leading ultimately to poor mental health and wellbeing. This paper discusses implications for the HE sector going forward.
乔纳森·谢伊认为，社会、关系和制度背景对于理解道德伤害至关重要，并将道德伤害概念化为个人对更高级/权威的“他人”违背其对正确之事的理解所做出的一种规范性反应。本文运用道德伤害这一概念视角，调查了高等教育（HE）学术人员在新冠疫情期间的经历，并探讨了2020年秋季迅速恢复面对面教学的情况。为收集数据，我们于2021年1月开展了一项在线调查，该调查持续至2021年3月底。在整个调查期间，共收到663份完整问卷。问卷由十个与主题相关的问题组成，每个问题都包含后续子问题，还邀请参与者填写额外信息。大多数参与者认为，在新冠疫情期间，他们的行为方式使自己的健康和幸福面临风险。在那些行为方式使自身健康和幸福面临风险的人中，他们认为高级管理层对此负有最大责任，其次是英国政府。定性数据显示，在此期间该部门普遍缺乏领导力；高级管理层和政府对教职员工和学生存在背叛感；以及存在被迫采取危及生命行为的感觉。基于这些结果，我们认为疫情期间医护人员和学术人员面临的情况可能存在协同效应。本研究向我们报告的许多高等教育学术人员在疫情期间的经历，都与背叛和道德伤害的概念相呼应，并导致了情感反应，我们在此将其理解为内疚、羞耻和愤怒等情绪感受，最终导致心理健康和幸福感不佳。本文讨论了对未来高等教育部门的影响。
