Digital well-being during the COVID-19 crisis: The experiences of Hong Kong early years educators during emergency remote teaching

The crux of the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis in early years education was the sudden closure of schools paired with the shift to emergency remote teaching at short notice, which demanded heavy reliance on digital technology and caused heightened stress among educators. While digital well-being theory suggests that the long-term use of digital technology can both harm and benefit subjective, eudemonic and hedonic well-being, educators’ (digital) well-being has received little attention in prior research. Through semi-structured interviews, this research captured the online teaching experiences of Hong Kong early years educators to explore the implications of prolonged emergency remote teaching on their digital well-being. The findings show that the extensive use of digital technology changed the core nature of teaching, resulting in deteriorating (digital) well-being. The evidence also indicates that sound subjective well-being is vital and can influence eudemonic and hedonic well-being. However, digital technology also presented opportunities for technological savviness during emergency remote teaching. Technological skills, if cultivated in post-pandemic education, can help build robust and flexible pedagogical models that are future-ready if the need for emergency remote teaching arises again.