Anxious students, stressed teachers

Report of a school experience

Abstract

This study presents an experience report centered on Elementary School I of a private school in Salvador-BA, in the return to face-to-face activities, when the pandemic by Covid-19 was already declining. Pedagogical coordination aimed to understand and overcome the malaise that was evident among students and teachers, especially in the form of anxiety and stress, and which negatively affected the teaching and learning processes. The experience involved three movements: pedagogical coordination developed the work of listening to students and teachers, reported to the consultants and received some feedback from them. The present report was constructed from this almost daily communication, which included text messages, telephone conversations and video conferencing. It was concluded that the difficulties and sufferings of the children maintained a more direct relationship with the pandemic. In the case of teachers, the pandemic seemed only to intensify processes that were already underway and that referred to the power games at school and to the sociocultural and historical context. The focused school proved to be a favorable environment for the emergence of psychic suffering as a result of these processes.