Hybrid, Online, or In-Person Teaching: Exploring Teacher Satisfaction Across Instructional Modalities During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic introduced significant shifts in educational delivery, leading to widespread adoption of hybrid and remote instructional modalities. This study investigates the relationship between these modalities and teacher job satisfaction during the 2020–2021 academic year in the U.S., while also examining how teacher, classroom, and school characteristics predict satisfaction within each modality. Using data from the 2020–2021 National Teacher and Principal Survey (NTPS) on 31,160 full-time public school teachers, linear regression analyses were employed to assess the relationship between instructional modalities and a composite measure of teacher satisfaction, controlling for various teacher, classroom, and school characteristics. The analysis revealed that hybrid teaching was significantly associated with lower teacher satisfaction compared to in-person teaching; however, remote teaching’s initial association with lower satisfaction became non-significant after accounting for school-level factors. Specific teacher characteristics (e.g., female, experienced, younger, holding an advanced degree) and school characteristics (e.g., school level, size, student characteristics) exhibited varying associations with satisfaction across modalities. These findings suggest that hybrid teaching posed unique challenges during the pandemic and highlight the importance of understanding modality-specific risk factors to inform targeted support for teachers in future crises.