I’ve written before about the importance of teacher wellbeing.
Yes I know this is the Generation Next not the Generation Was Blog, but I think it is essential to appreciate that if we want our kids to flourish, then it is essential that the adults in their lives are doing likewise.
A great deal of time is spent addressing student wellbeing at conferences and in school policy documents, but other than a cursory nod in the Workplace Occupational Health and Safety policy, teacher wellbeing is something that seems to be over-looked.
Maybe it’s because many workplaces seem to neglect their staff wellbeing to focus on their clients. Why would schools be any different? After all, school is mostly about kids.
However, did you know that research indicates that approximately 40-50% of new teachers leave the profession within their first five years in the job?
Did you know that research also shows that this is rarely due to classroom pressures, but more to do with the politics, or lack of support in the staffroom.
Did you know that according to Safe Work Australia 2013 report into Workers Compensation Claims for Mental Stress, the education sector is second on the list for mental health claims across all industries?
It’s clear that teacher wellbeing is something that needs to be addressed.
How is it addressed in your school?
Why not comment below, as perhaps your ideas could help others.
Author: Dan Haesler, he is a teacher, consultant, and speaker at the Mental Health & Wellbeing of Young People seminars He writes for the Sydney Morning Herald and blogs at http://danhaesler.com/ and tweets at @danhaesler
Administration in schools care more about their overall budgets than the overall wellness or health of the teachers and other staff. Simply a sign of the quality of leaders they want in schools today
I have been a teacher for ten years and I feel so frustrated by the lack of support and the injustice I see within education (especially the Catholic Education sector)that I am trying to find a new profession. It is very much a system of packing more and more onto the teacher – with no benefit to them that we end up with burnt out teachers. Meanwhile admin sits pretty happily on their leather chairs in their new offices sipping the coffees from in office coffee machines and yet I can’t even get a working clock for the classroom!!!
What concerns me is that overall education has become a political football and resources are so competative, this can lead to finger pointing or blamming when it is perceived things are not working. Schools are such busy places that there seems to be little opportunity or commitment to relection of practise and this enviroment allows blaming and shaming to go on unchecked leaving tachers and other staff feeling unsupported and under valued
My school has a very active approach to staff wellbeing and promotes the concept regularly – a wonderful intention. In reality however, this tends to happen by adding in more things in order to give us wellbeing, rather than taking something out and giving us some time to allow wellbeing to occur. I think this is a really difficult balance for all of us to achieve.
Some school chaplains I know look out for staff wellbeing. As well as the opportunity to chat at difficult times they post encouraging weekly emails Chaplain’s Chirpings, run a termly cafe room for relaxed chat between staff and have a pigeon hole drop of a chocolate frog or boost bar, Remember Wednesday is “Hump day” enjoy being half way through the term. God bless.
Seriously??? I have been a teacher for over 30 years and have never seen a member of ‘Admin’ relaxing, sipping coffee! They are usually very busy responding to the politics of the day whether that be from above or below – they really are the meat in the sandwich. Even ineffectual Admin team members who I have worked with have appeared to be busy and overstretched constantly.
Nice one, Larni55″.most school administrators worked darned hard often with little recognition from above or below. They are a bit like AFL umpires. If they do a god job nobody notices them.
I agree that something needs to be done and as head of primary I try to look after my staff as best I can. That said, it is completely true that we are asking more from teachers each year. It needs to stop!
Jaded – I am very sorry that things are hard for you in your job but please don’t lay all the blame at the feet of the executive. I work from 7am to 6pm most days, mainly because during the 9-3 hours I will drop everything and help staff as needed. We do try!
Our counselors are also a valuable asset, as they make time to see staff as well as students.
I am amazed to see the leading article of this issue. I am in the process of organising a pilot Educators’ Retreat on Bribie Island for the coming school holidays for education professionals from all sectors, looking at personal well-being and the ‘spiritual journey’, with soaring ‘highs’ and deep ‘lows’, that educators experience, sometimes (or often, for some) at great personal emotional and psychological expense. We’ve invited a doctor to talk about good stress/bad stress and reading your body’s warning signs; we’ve invited artists (one of whom is an art therapist) to run sessions and do ‘live’ creations on site,;and we’ve invited a special interstate guest (a Greek Orthodox Abbess), to present on Education as Personal Spiritual Journey. I have taken stress leave more than once over my 10 years part-time teaching, and often found myself clinging at times helplessly to the tightrope of work/life balance. I truly hope that this retreat will help at least one other colleague avoid some of the pitfalls that I managed to fall prey to. Schools and universiities are essentially political institutions often at loggerheads with the staff, who see themselves as nurturers of young or young adult lives. And somewhere in this mix is the myth that continues to exist about teachers having short working days and ‘lots of holidays’…What is lacking is not so much resources as empathy from the wider community. It needs to replace the envy that is pervasive that teachers all finish work when they leave school at 3pm and have lots of holidays. This is at the heart of our problem. Those that see what happens in classrooms and what emotional and mental energy is needed day in and day out to meet the needs of often broken young lives, usually join the teacher camp and declare: “I couldn’t be a teacher!” Families who ‘live’ this tightrope with teachers and academics, also walk this tightrope sometimes as unwilling participants. Since starting this little project, I have started to regain my joy….:) I’m still a teacher! I will always be a teacher! I am proud to be a teacher! I just want to work in a context where I am valued and supported.. (Incidentally, our retreat is for all education professionals (at this stage within the Orthodox faith community, making it a first for us): admin, teaching support staff inc visiting specialists and teacher aides, primary, secondary, tertiary, early years, and volunteer teachers)…United we stand…Divided we crawl…:)
Its no good creating a “monster” to attack (eg admin or parents or society) for the undoubted incredible stress on teachers today. Yes, I retired due to a complete collapse of my health. I received my Dip Ed in 1974 and have seen the uselessness of such “blaming” responses over the years.The matter goes far deeper and is more complex than what simple-minded solutions such as are offered in workshops or sensitivity sessions or “hug a teacher” approaches can offer us. There are a few major relentless factors that are at work in education, resulting in an almost complete degradation of the role of teacher today:
1. A universally known but not officially unrecognized breakdown in what constitutes authority today. The previous “natural authority” of teachers (ie by virtue of simply being a teacher) has gone and teachers must “prove” themselves daily often through force which simply underscores the point of lost authority. This irrecoverable historical loss is reinforced by the following:
2. Children today are born into a technological age in which they are the natural authorities and to whom teachers often must turn for help. Children turn to each other to learn how to enter this world which remains foreign to the thinking of most educators and adults even though we brought it to pass.
3. Technology, although rushed eagerly into education has completely undermined what constitutes knowledge so that teachers are no longer the source of knowledge but merely aides to bring children online. Knowledge of content is replaced by knowledge of media. the former raison d’etre of education has gone and institutions, although they know it, do not acknowledge it or know what to do about it.
4. The technological economy is more and more determining the definition of success for students and teachers so that the tiny % needed to run the economy are being fully supported in education while the rest have become the “educationally challenged” the “specials” the ADHD’s and all the other categories that most students are forced into if they are not part of the tiny percentage needed to run the economy.
I could go on but this will do for now. Teachers bear the brunt of these tectonic shifts in education that as I said everyone knows about but so far, institutionally, everyone chugs along with a 19thC model of education, or maybe “shifting the chairs around on the Titanic” (smaller classrooms, or a computer for every student etc.).
Some suggestions…personalised notes of recognition, supervision draw aka lucky door prize for those teachers who do supervisions during the week, individual verbal affirmation of teachers, paid or subsidised invitation to dinners/functions, birthday morning teas, real coffee, transparency and accountability at all levels.
I see some very valid opinion voiced above. From my perspective the entire education sector is focused on the students. This extends from the federal government policies right down. The is more and more pressure being put on school staff (all levels not just the front line teachers) to get the students achieving more, engaging more, behaving better, and so forth. There are numerous programs and supports in the school to allow students the opportunity to succeed, we have welfare plans, welfare support, funding, aiding etc.. we all know this. But at the end of the day there is minimal formal support for teachers mental health and welfare.
The solution? This lies within the planning and support protocols for teachers within the schools, which relies on funding, which ultimately falls on the head of the state and federal governments!
Since I began teaching 30 years ago, the classroom demands have stayed relatively the same, but the administrative/welfare load has grown exponentially…..from regular syllabus changes/program rewriting, quality teaching accountability, incorporation of the disabled into the mainstream classroom ( I had a blind girl in my class, who I spent more time preparing for than my other 29 students) and many other welfare issues. I don’t believe it is the executive loading us with all the extra, they are directives from above that must be followed without question (usually given by beaurocrats who have not spent much time in schools). Technology is another overwhelming issue of mine and what is expected of us in the classroom without the time/money for proper training. Recently our whole staff had to do anaphylactic training in their own time and present the certificate to the deputy upon completion….this would have previously been done in school time and the list goes on…….
I reach my retirement age next year, so I could stay on if I wanted to, but the way things are going I’d rather say goodbye and take on some menial part-time work somewhere else for a few years. I love the students and enjoy my rapall with them but the stress, anxiety and dissatisfaction does not make it worthwhile.
I also have been teaching for over 30 years and have seen the gradual erosion of respect for teachers ( although, ironically, most schools have adopted the American PBEL system of behaviour) and the increase in the workload I can remember when teachers were considered intelligent enough to work out how to teach a subject without copious instructions from the department.
Are doctors constantly being told how to do something over and over-sometimes using new words to label things? This will no longer be known as a leg but a walking limb???
It is politics today and also numbers. Schools strive to keep parents happy so that the number of children in the school stays the same. This means, for instance, that teachers can no longer be honest in the reports, expect all children to really do their best work or be in control in the classroom.
With all this going on and the fact that all teachers agree that, even without interruptions, it is impossible to teach all subjects as prescribed, it makes for a VERY stressful situation and I’m not surprised that new teachers don’t stay long.
I am a teacher and absolutely love my job, i love teaching students and have never tired of it . i have for taught for 15 years Plus. Due to leadership difficulties and school politics . I am now looking for a new job NOT in teaching. I am not unusual , infact my story is quite a typical story of many . HOw sad .
Hi. It’s very timely that you have posted this article on ‘teacher well-being’. I am just campaigning for this at my current school. I left a school that was functioning very well and am now in one that I am realising has lots of students with problems, poor staff morale and leadership that is reclusive. I have never been so stressed in an job, ever as much as I am currently in this school. I don’t need to go into the details of the cause of stress, we deal with this all the time and I must agree with you that it’s absolutely true that in the staffroom it’s even more stressful because some teachers have anger issues, some are disengaged and lack motivation; in fact some of my colleagues demonstrate similar behaviours to the dysfunctional students that I have to deal with in the classroom. You don’t expect the adults you are working with to be a contributing factor to stress.
I am raising this as a WHS issue and the legislation in NSW supports the requirement of an employer to provide a workplace free of mental stress. So far, I can suggest that I am putting my own health care plan into place and have joined a gym to get exercise, I remove myself more from the staffroom and hide-out in my classroom during free periods and get some peace from negativity and I have accessed the employee assistance scheme provided by public education for support. In this I’ve learned some stress management techniques and ways to deal with the anxiety that is developing from dealing with stress and lack of employer support and effective structures in the immediate workplace.
I will start to ‘get the ball rolling’ on initiatives to support staff that I’ve enjoyed in other schools. I can’t do the ‘executive’ implementations, I am only a classroom teacher, but I can make every effort to be positive and supportive. In one school the DP used to issue refrigerated chocolate frogs to staff every Friday afternoon and thanked them for their commitment and hard work through the week, this was really good for morale. In another school, every time staff were expected to participate in additional meetings the boss always provided drinks and yummy food for teachers to enjoy as a starter to these meetings, a great way to be in a positive frame of mind. This same principal also ran the school like ‘clock-work’ so staff didn’t have to deal with the stress associated with lack of support: there were good structure in place to get assistance with administrative jobs, good morale and teamwork amongst teachers, people helped each other because the school had a good ‘culture’ and staff development was always provided to ensure that teaching standards were supported with appropriate training.
Cath – fantastic to read of someone being proactive! I have found that often teachers do not look after their colleagues; they expect this from admin but do nothing for each other! (I am a teacher, not part of Admin.) It is the small everyday things that contribute to an environment of overall well-being and just as this is important in the classroom, it is important in the staffroom. Making everyone a coffee rather than just your own is a start; yes it takes more time and effort but eventually someone else will offer to make yours one day! Offering to pick up photocopying for all, rather than just getting your own. Whenever someone comes in looking stressed, ask ‘What would you like me to do to help you?’ – most people refuse your offer, but feel better knowing someone understands and is prepared to give up their time to assist. If a teacher is late to class, don’t curse their inefficiency; settle their class into the classroom while managing your own. After a few times, most teachers will get to class on time because they know you will be standing there ever-so-helpfully managing 2 classes because they are late. When there is a genuine reason for lateness, the poor colleague is probably distressed and will appreciate the fact that the class is in the classroom and not unruly outside waiting. I particularly dislike playground duty and love to whinge about it; one of my colleagues says to me every time ‘Would you like me to do it for you?’ Of course I would love her to, but would never accept her offer; however, her offer makes me go out there in a more positive frame of mind! And of course, a batch of home-made biscuits every now and then always brightens the staff room! Negativity is soul destroying; the job is so difficult on a day to day basis, we teachers need to care for each other on a day to day basis if we are to survive. Pay it forward and see if you can create a change; it will take time and there will always be the grouch or the bone idle who will take advantage of your kindness, but the majority won’t and work will be a happier place!
Perhaps the line in the article referring to teachers as “generation WAS” speaks volumes! A lack of support, respect and empathy from school leaders, administrators and academics for any generation that is not entirely self-absorbed, selfish and narcissist (ie our students!)
Leaders make the difference between feeling overloaded and unsupported and managing the load and being appreciated. Our Head of Primary regularly shows his appreciation of our superhuman efforts (at times) by organising a social gathering for staff or looking after a whole year level of 90+ students so that teachers can plan during school hours, or leave half an hour earlier to go and do banking or errands or whatever or covering a class so you can attend a meeting or tellling you he appreciates something you have done and lessesn the load by rescheduling meetings, etc. when things get out of control.
Being appreciated in meaningful ways motivates teachers to give.
Yes, you are so right. I had a friend who was a school principal and he used to offer himself as a prize in the weekly staff raffle. If you won this raffle prize, he would take one of your classes for a full lesson. He usually got a difficult class and got to know the most challenging students this way as well as increase teacher morale in the school. It worked and people felt valued, appreciated and supported. Pity he’s not around anymore.
What a creative and generous ‘prize’ this Principal offered to staff! I too have left the teaching profession – after only 2 years – and I too am passionate about teaching and just love working with children. The extremely poor leadership at my school was the main issue, although severe and relentless work overload was also a major issue. As I read through all of these postings, I also wonder who is looking after the Principals and other school leadership staff. I don’t think any one is…