# Protecting Teachers’ Voices: Investigating Risk Factors, Conducting Cost Analysis

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF IOWA · 2024 · $570,040

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
Schoolteachers' voice problems are significant, not only because these problems occur so frequently but also
because they undermine education in the classroom. Research has suggested a number of associated
physiological, environmental and behavioral risk factors. However, there remains a fundamental gap in
understanding how these factors affect a teacher's vocal health over an academic year, how teachers
accommodate to the vocal demands they face, and how current occupational policies (including the financial
and attitudinal constraints of educational policy makers) impact teachers' vocal health for better or worse. The
continued presence of this gap represents a barrier to the long-term objective of proactive vocal health
education and treatment programs. The current proposal will move this effort forward by exploring how
teachers' voices are impacted by vocal risks, vocal demands, vocal accommodations, and vocal health
policies. Grounded on strong foundational work and a track record of productivity, this experienced research
team proposes 3 specific aims: [1] determine the interactions between risk factors related to the occurrence of
teacher voice problems by collating cross-sectional and longitudinal (year-long) survey data with standard
voice assessments; [2] quantify teachers' perceptual acuity of and accommodations to classroom vocal
demands that increase the risk of vocal health issues by conducting analyses in classrooms and simulated
classroom environments; and [3] investigate current and potential school-based policies to improve vocal
health by reviewing administrative responses to teachers' voice issues and quantifying the costs of both
solutions and non-interventions. The proposal is innovative in part because it [1] merges virtual reality
technologies with previously tested acoustic simulations and real-time auralization systems to replicate
classroom risk factors and interventions, eliciting “teacher voice” in controlled settings; [2] uses tools from a
unique interdisciplinary research team (i.e. Voice Science, Acoustical Engineering, Communication,
Economics, and Education) to approach a significant public health concern in an effectively innovative way;
and [3] combines reliable survey instruments (developed using focus groups) with standard clinical
assessments to accurately track how a teacher's voice changes over the course of a full academic year. While
not a clinical trial, these data are clinically significant because patterns may emerge, including when voice
problems occur, how they progress over an academic year, and why they improve or worsen. Thus, this
ambitious approach will help preserve teachers' vocal health, improve the response when problems present,
and indirectly improve the classroom learning environment. The results of this study will also provide school
administrators and other policy makers with practical and economically feasible information that can be used to
support teachers' ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 11077593
- **Project number:** 7R01DC012315-09
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF IOWA
- **Principal Investigator:** Eric J Hunter
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $570,040
- **Award type:** 7
- **Project period:** 2024-05-01 → 2026-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11077593

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 11077593, Protecting Teachers’ Voices: Investigating Risk Factors, Conducting Cost Analysis (7R01DC012315-09). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/11077593. Licensed CC0.

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