Engaging Teachers through Effective Communication : Restarting the Government Communication in Education
Abstract
The pandemic situation has uncovered and exposed many issues in communication between the government and its citizens, not only in the health sector, but also in education. During the pandemic, schools have been under many government restrictions, and they've had to follow many unprecedented rules - such as wearing masks, social distancing or even closed schools and online teaching.
The governments had to communicate new rules and restrictions to various stakeholders in the education sector: to the founders of the schools (usually municipalities, private or religious organisations), to the directors of the schools and to the teachers, as well to the 'recipients' of education: pupils, students, and their parents. In many cases, this communication did not go smoothly and soon many problems arose: the stakeholders, including teachers, were confused about the government regulations, they did not want to follow them, the disinformation and various Covid-related hoaxes spread quickly and the trust towards the government fell even lower.
Teachers found themselves often in a difficult position: they were often the ones who were expected to understand the new rules to their students and pupils, they were often fighting with lack of digital literacy and use of modern communication tools, such as online video teaching, instant messaging applications, or even emails. And in some cases, they were also in a double role of parents who shall have home educate their children too.
The goal of this study is to bring new knowledge about the state of (strategic?) government communication in education, identify potential communication knots (problems) and draft managerial implications for strategic communication (Holtzhausen and Zerfass, 2015).