Teacher wellbeing a new prespective - by dr anan azouz

Teacher’s Wellbeing
A Different Perspective
By Anan Azouz
“Healthy, resilient and motivated teachers have positive implications on society as a
whole, because their wellbeing undoubtedly impacts on pupils wellbeing, student attainment and
overall school performance” (Weare, 2016).
The teacher is the most important asset in the learning process. He is the source of knowledge,
role model, care giver, mentor and the person in position to leave a permanent imprint on the
following generations. In our school we are currently planning to enhance the learning process
and the welfare of the students. Many points have been discussed concerning better books, more
experienced teachers, interactive resources and good classroom environment, but we never
discussed teachers as assets that we need to maintain and keep in the best performance level.
Also from a different perspective; this study aims to raise red flag about the teacher's right, as
humans, in a job below the recommended stress level.
Round the table Discussion
In a Guardian round the table discussion held in association with Zurich Municipal, some
educational leadership expressed their worries about the under scrutiny and under appreciation of
teachers affecting their wellbeing and in turn affecting the educational institutes they are leading.
“Wellbeing is a massive issue” said Teldon Watson, head of education at Zurich Municipal, “not
just for us, but for everyone who cares about education.” (Neumark, 2014). Some schools suffer
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Teacher’s Wellbeing - A Different Perspective
By Anan Azouz
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high staff turnover (Neumark, 2014). Official figures show rising suicide rates among teachers
(Neumark, 2014). According to DfE figures; one in four newly qualified teachers leave in the
first five years (Neumark, 2014). Watson stressed, “You invest in all that training, mentoring,
resilience training: why throw all that away?”(Neumark, 2014). Nick House, head of school of
PIXEL associate, Greenshaw high school adds that he had two members of his staff with
problems. They helped them, reduced their timetables to almost zero for a while. “We’ve
invested in them for decades. We are not going to loose them”said House (Neumark, 2014).
What is stress?
Teaching is a very demanding job. Teachers are held accountable for the most precious
product, our future. This puts them in very high levels of stress and high stake accountability.
According to the Independent Education Union (IEU), the term “stress” refers to an internal state
which results from a demanding, frustrating or unsatisfying condition (William and Australia,
2007). According to some experts we have two types of stresses; Eustress and distress (Mills et
al., 2009b). Eustress “Good stress” is characterised by being short-term, gives a positive
motivating energy, gives a feeling of excitement and leads to improvement of performance
(Mills et al., 2009b). A promotion at work, a new job, buying a home, being a parent or even
retiring could pose as examples of positive personal stressors (Mills et al., 2009b). On the other
hand distress or “negative stress” makes us feel that the situation is beyond our capabilities
(Mills et al., 2009b). Insecurity in job, lack of authority, lack of training, death of the spouse,
money and financial problems or even lack of sleep could pose as negative stressors. Negative
stress has two dimensions, the experiential aspect that describes an unpleasant feeling with a
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psychological state of stress and tension which gives the person a feeling of being inadequate
(William and Australia, 2007). The other aspect of stress is physiological, where the body
responds by secreting adrenaline preparing us to a “fight or flight syndrome” (William and
Australia, 2007). Again according to the IEU survey we can categorize stress symptoms into 4
main categories: emotional manifestations, behavioural manifestations, interrelated cognitive and
physiological aspects and finally physical illnesses induced by stress (William and Australia,
2007)
Emotional manifestations could range between: irritability, anxiety, depression,
nervousness and withdrawal (William and Australia, 2007). Behavioural manifestations could
elicit in the form of aggressiveness, over-impulsiveness, impaired ability of situation
percieveness or evaluation or even dependence on alcohol or analgesics (William and Australia,
2007). Some psychosomatic conditions are even related to stress in a way that interrelates the
cognitive functions with the physiological state of the body. This shows in fatigue, high blood
pressure, skin irritation and susceptibility to infections (Wiliam and Australia, 2007). Finally
stress induced illnesses whether short- term as regular headaches and palpitation or long- term as
high blood pressure, nervous tics, heart diseases and prolonged sexual irregularities (William and
Australia, 2007).
Picturing such a burnout individual going into classroom, what quality teaching are we expecting
and what impact will this have on our students?
Social Emotional Competencies (SEC)
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The Prosocial Classroom Model links the teacher wellbeing and teacher’s Social and
Emotional Competence (SEC) to the classroom climate and the students’ outcomes
(Jennings,2014). The Collaborative For Academic Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL
2014) defines SEC as involving five major emotional, cognitive and behavioural competencies:
self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship management and responsible
decision-making (Jennings,2014). These competencies are associated with empathy, compassion,
perspective-taking and responsiveness (Jennings,2014). Self-awareness and self management are
both intrapersonal competencies that affect individual’s reflection and resilience abilities. Social
awareness, relationship management and responsible decision making are interpersonal
competencies required for one’s ability to understand, maintain and support social relations with
others (Jennings, 2014). As teachers we are responsible for building, supporting and maintaining
a positive dynamic social environment inside our classrooms. We are responsible for creating a
safe environment for our learners. The prosocial theoretical model poses that teachers with high
SEC to be:
● More effective in classroom management ( Jennings, 2014)
● More successful in forming supportive relationships with their students (Jennings,
2014)
● More authoritative and proactive, promoting more enthusiasm in their classrooms
(Jennings, 2014).
● More successful in implementing social and emotional learning curriculum as
they act as role models of prosocial behaviours (Jennings, 2014).
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The prosocial model also suggests that teacher-child relationship, classroom management and
social and emotional learning correlates to a healthy classroom climate ( Jennings, 2014). A
healthy classroom climate contributes directly to the social, emotional and academic outcomes of
the students (Jennings,2014). Student’s wellbeing at school is indicated by their life at school,
their engagement with learning and their social-emotional behaviour (Roffy, 2012) These
improvements in the classroom climate reinforces a teacher’s enjoyment of teaching, efficacy
and commitment to the profession, creating a positive feedback loop that may prevent teachers
burnout (Jennings, 2014).
Causes of teachers’ stress:
Among the top causes of teachers’ stress is the unnecessary workload. In a Nasuwt teaching
union survey; 89% of the teachers chose workload to be their main cause of stress, 45% chose
the job payment as a stressor, 44% chose inspection, 42% chose curriculum reform and 40%
chose pupils behaviour to be their main stressor (Precey, 2015). Teaching staff complained they
spent long hours at school, in excess of 41 hours at the working place and in excess of 11 hours
school work at home (William and Australia, 2007). Teaching staff also were called back to
school at night and in weekends for various forms of school related and extracurricular activities
(William and Australia, 2007). Much workload was also associated with class size (William and
Australia, 2007). Nansi Ellis from teachers union ATL, citing a recent survey of more than 900
teaching staff blamed the targets set for teachers to meet, the Ofsted inspections and pressures
put by leaders on teachers (Neumark, 2014). Peter Early from institute of education declared that
teachers are held at high-stakes accountability locally, in the media and to the government
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(Neumark, 2014). Tilden Watson added the pressure of parents’ expectations for their kids, while
Ross McGill, assistant principal at successful inner-london comprehensive Greig City academy,
pointed teachers’ vulnerability to their own conscientiousness and dedication. Coleman Doyle,
citizenship and community coordinator, River House school supported McGill point with a math
teacher example at Greenhill who gives revision classes for 2 hours after school everyday
voluntarily (Neumark,2014) .
Roffy (2012) stated a finding of Michie and Cockcroft (1996), that teachers exposed to
chronic work stress over time suffer degradation of the hippocampus - the part of the brain most
active in memory (Roffey, 2012). If students are going to be in an effective learning
environment, they need teachers with good access to their knowledge and full ability to learn
themselves (Roffey, 2012). In short, teacher wellbeing is critically relevant for the learners, the
school and the whole society.
What is Wellbeing?
(Advances in Teacher Emotion Research, 2009) used (Foresight Mental Capital and
Wellbeing Project,2008) definition for wellbeing..
..as a dynamic state, in which the individual is able to develop their potential work
productivity and creativity, build strong and positive relationships with others, and
contribute to their community.
Despite the high levels of stress involved, teaching in itself is rewarding. According to IEU
stress survey,1996; the most significant sources of job satisfaction recorded were:
1. Teacher’s relationship with students
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2. Relationship with colleagues
3. Student progress
4. Student appreciation of teachers efforts
5. Students attitudes to learning
6. Professional freedom to select teaching methods
7. General behaviour of students
(William and Australia, 2007)
Caroline Hoare; Director of people, Girl’s Day School Trust, says that money is less important to
teachers than the power of informal affirmation, which costs nothing. Sara Bubb Department of
early years and primary education, Institute of Education, University of London added “we need
to be looking at supporting our staff, listening to them and boosting them up.” (Neumark, 2014).
Assessment of teachers’ wellbeing
Liepa, Dudkina,Sile, 2012 chose the following criteria to assess subjective wellbeing of
teachers: autonomy, skill to belong to a community, personal growth, positive relationship with
the surroundings, sense of life and self acceptance. The research also used the following criteria
to assess teachers job satisfaction: payment, promotion, job management, additional bonuses and
perks, set payment, job conditions, colleagues and communication and job specifics (Liepa,
Dudkina,Sile, 2012) . They used a total of 20 questionnaires as a method of self- assessment for
a sample of teachers (Liepa, Dudkina,Sile, 2012). The research concluded a significantly positive
correlation between the communication aspect at one side and the personal growth aspect,sense
of life aspect and self- acceptance aspect (Liepa, Dudkina,Sile, 2012) . Another finding is the
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positive correlation between psychological wellbeing aspects and the job satisfaction aspects
(Liepa, Dudkina,Sile, 2012). The greater job satisfaction the teacher feels, the more content he is
with life and vise versa, the greater is the teacher’s satisfaction with life, the more content he is
with his job (Liepa, Dudkina,Sile, 2012).
Where do we start?
In light of the literature I used, and reflecting on our school case, I think I will be facing
two types of challenges, the first is to convince the administration of the importance of investing
in improvement of teachers wellbeing. We have kind of a traditional administration that believes
that a regular paycheck entitles the school for the best performance of the educational staff.
Moreover, we are a small school with budget limitations. The second challenge is to fit this
change of teacher’s wellbeing into our demanding and pressuring field facing all the pressures
that the teachers face and succeeding to extract time for their wellbeing. I will start by a simple
questionnaire assessing their wellbeing status according to Estyn (reserved, 2014) parameters of
wellbeing. It should include the main four items assessing wellbeing:
1. Attitudes to keep healthy and safe (reserved, 2014): including questions about
their healthy eating habits and regular exercise.
2. Participation and enjoyment in learning (reserved, 2014): including questions
about activities they like to join within the school or outside it, how often they do
and how does it affect their wellbeing.
3. Community involvement and decision making (reserved, 2014): including
questions about their involvement in any local community projects or any
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volunteer activities, what type of activities and how does it affect their wellbeing.
Also how much are they involved in decision making in school, what they feel
towards the school leadership and what they would like to do differently.
4. Social and life skills (reserved, 2014): including questions about their social
relations with their colleagues, their students,the parents and how do these
relationships affect their wellbeing. I will include questions about communication,
collaboration, creativity and critical thinking “the 4Cs of the 21 century skills”.
I will pick a few specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timed (SMART) benchmark
criteria to follow up the progress of this change plan. I will concentrate on improvements in the
following areas:
1. Teacher attendance
2. Teacher involvement in decision making (meeting participations)
3. Teacher participation in activities (inside or outside school)
4. Students result improvement
Managing our change
According to John Kotter, winning over hearts and minds towards the change is the most
effective approach to start a permanent change (Dr. John Kotter, 2011). I will approach all eight
steps using “see - feel - change cycle” (Kotter and Cohen, 2002). Illustrating the problem in a
dramatic way helps the people to see the problem (Kotter and Cohen, 2002). Then letting them
feel the pain of the customer (Kotter and Cohen, 2002). Once they are emotionally charged and
internally motivated, start to push them towards the change (Kotter and Cohen, 2002).
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Stage one is to establish a sense of urgency to convince about 75% of the key persons in
our school of the urgent need to approach the teacher’s wellbeing issue. The most direct way to
do this is to use the customer’s voice (Kotter and Cohen, 2002). I will concentrate now on the
challenge of establishing sense of urgency in our higher administration first, for they have the
power to ignite the change. This could be established through a meeting to discuss the current
status of our school’s most important asset “The teacher”. I will elicit teacher’s current status
through these parameters:
a. Teachers attendance records
b. Teachers turnover
c. Rates of sick leaves and consequent substitutions in educational timetable
d. Costs of trainings and investments in our staff
e. Student’s satisfaction of their learning environment
f. Parent’s satisfactions about relationships with our teachers
g. Videos of good class climate with one of our high SEC teachers and relate this to
student results
h. Videos of some less motivating classroom climate and its relation with one of our
burnout, overloaded teachers
As soon as I get them surprised and feeling the pain of the unstable timetables
undermining the learning process, less satisfied students and parents, loss of our investments in
teachers, I will get them to admit the need for an urgent solution and brainstorm their ideas for
this change.
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“Without enough urgency, large scale change can become an exercise in pushing a
gigantic boulder up a very tall mountain. Raise a feeling of urgency so people say let’s
go, making a change effort well positioned for launch. ”-John Kotter and Dan Cohen
Stage two is create a guiding coalition (Kotter and Cohen, 2002).
...“Rather than presenting the problem simply, a credible person stands up and identifies
the problem. Initially , people will be shocked, but when they see the person does not get
shot down for speaking publicly, a team of people will come together to discuss the
problem. Slowly at first but then with increasing confidence, the guiding team will grow
and more people will sign in as progress is made” (Kotter and Cohen,2002).
I will include most of the key persons in school in the urgency meeting. This could grow some
supporters to the idea. Although it could grow opposition too at the first meeting and that would
be a challenge I need to be aware of and prepared for. People concerned with these school
problems would be the divisions principals, heads of departments, senior teachers, human
resource officers. I am excluding heavy workload teachers in the first meeting for fear of
rebellious uncontrolled responses that would affect the flow of work. As soon as I can gather a
reasonably sized group around the idea that should be minimum 10 persons with some influential
roles in school so we can get things moving, I will assign a fixed weekly meeting time. I will
start by building trust between me and the guiding group and between the guiding group
members. Regular meetings should focus on critical issues and minimizing frustrations
experienced along their journey of change. Power conflicts should be boldly addressed and
resolved. I need the guiding group to help me in pointing the compass of our school culture, and
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micropolitics from our change. I need to identify the hidden barriers and resistances before we
start so we can align our approach to get their support instead of their opposition.
.. “People's Beliefs, values and the norms will influence how they will react to initiatives-
as well as micropolitical issues and emotions people bring to work” (Stoll,1998).
In the issue of teachers wellbeing I am not expecting much resistance from teachers as much as
from some heads of departments and human resources as this would call for restructuring
teachers timetables, designing of activities and surveys for their wellbeing, in short, more on
their plates than already is. People resisting the change should be removed from the way. If I
find reluctance from people to join the guiding group, I will revisit the issue of urgency again
and again (Kotter and Cohen, 2002).
Stage three developing both a vision and a strategy for the change. According to Kotter,
envisaging the future of the company will motivate people much more than plans and budgets
(Kotter and Cohen, 2002).
..“The greater job satisfaction the teacher feels, the more content he is with life and vise
versa, the greater is the teacher’s satisfaction with life, the more content he is with his
job” (Liepa, Dudkina,Sile, 2012).
I think we will work on this research finding to derive an appealing vision for our future. If we
put effort to increase teacher job satisfaction, we will make him content with his life and he will
put effort into his job that will make us content of his outcomes. We are all seeking a win-win
situation, and its doable. A simple, clear, colorful vision of the future would be designed. The
wording of the vision should be easy to memorize, cheerful and catchy to the eyes. According to
the above literature, we experience most of the causes of teachers’ stress listed. Teachers stress is
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multifactorial as mentioned above. Some causes are personal and others are due to the
demanding nature of the job. The strategic plan of improving our teachers wellbeing will focus
on factors that we can control first, concerning the nature of the job and the work environment.
In our strategic plan,we will target the main stressors our teachers suffer from, that would have a
large quick impact on their wellbeing status if we resolve them. Some of which are:
● Assessment of teachers workload
● Assessment of teachers payment
● Assessment of teachers working hours
● Inspection demands
● Parent’s pressure
● Teachers accountability for student’s learning
● Classroom environment
● Training teachers for resilience and mindfulness
Teachers should also be encouraged to solve their own personal issues, manage their time
efficiently, adopt attitudes of mindfulness and resilience. The strategic plan will be discussed in
meetings and and focus groups while the bright, cheerful vision of the future will be
communicated everywhere in school until the whole school culture adopts the idea of a brighter
future and longs to get there quickly. “Strategic plans motivate few people, but a compelling
vision can appeal to the heart and motivate anyone.” - John Kotter and Dan Cohen
Stage four communicate the vision to the whole school. In the first urgency presentation
I will be the first one to communicate the change. I will use all communication tools;
presentations, videos, reports and questionnaires. I will open discussions and address their fears.
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Then the guiding group will communicate our new vision to the whole school. They should
communicate it everywhere, all the time. They should be well prepared to anticipate questions
and react to it. Posters and flyers about mindfulness and stress management will be disseminated
to address teachers, together with flyers about wellbeing of the teachers and students and its
effect on the whole community will be disseminated to target the administration. Kotter points
out to pitfalls in this stage that we should guard against; under communication of the the vision
and cynicism “Not walking the talk” (Kotter and Cohen, 2002). This means whatever message
we are trying to pass to the teachers about resilience, mindfulness and good time management
should be clearly demonstrated through the whole administration attitudes and actions.
Stage five is to empower people to act and remove obstacles. Assessment of teachers
workload and teachers working hours can be assigned to heads of departments together with
human resource officers to compare their timetables and workloads to other schools and
recommended stress levels and come up with recommendations of changes that would eliminate
unnecessary stresses and workloads. Actually some of our daily and weekly reports can be
summed up in one weekly checklist report that takes much less time and effort. Assessment of
teachers payments, late promotions, additional bonuses and job conditions will be the task of the
human resources, higher administration and the finance department. Teacher’s personal issues
will be addressed too as maternity leave, baby rooms to nurse teachers kids during work. We
already have these but need to be reviewed for a better quality served. Guiding groups can do
workshops and come up with recommendations and creative solutions for a reward system and
how to improve the working environment for teachers. We can arrange for mindfulness training
classes, physical fitness classes. Parents pressure, accountability to student outcomes and
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inspection demands are also stressors that we need to find a work around urgently. Holding these
workshops of improvements in an exotic location outside school is considered a prize in itself.
Putting some of our areas needing improvements as better working environment for example in a
video for all the school staff and parents to watch should start a flow of ideas for improvement,
increase parent involvement in challenges facing our staff and ease up their pressure a little bit.
“Too often, an employee understands the new vision and wants to help make it happen, but an
elephant appears to be blocking the path”(Kotter, 2007). These are obstacles and barriers
blocking the change path. An old traditional senior officer or executive manager could be a
gigantic elephant that we need to deal with, either convince him to join the change flow or get
him out of the way. “In some cases the elephant is in the person’s head and the challenge is to
convince him there is no real obstacle to change” (Kotter and Cohen,2002).
Stage six is to generate short-term wins that teachers can feel immediately. Some
improvement really will cost almost nothing as renovation of the baby room, amendments on the
our internal bylaw for better consideration of maternity and sick leaves. The regular workshops
for improvements as we said could be a prize in itself where we celebrate the previous wins
accomplished and plan for new ones. In fact most of the parameters stated in this plan are all
short-tem with high impact on teachers. Each stressor relieved will be immediately sensed by the
teachers.
Stage seven is to consolidate gains to build up momentum. “Short- term wins generate a
momentum for more changes” (Kotter and Cohen, 2002). Do not allow short-term wins to cause
complacent and cause decrease our motivation for changing (Kotter and Cohen,2002). We will
create a ladder of benchmarks to celebrate when we succeed to reach each step, and set higher
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goals to keep the urgency going. After reaching some wins in teachers wellbeing and finding the
reflection of our efforts on teachers attendance, turnover..etc. we will start targeting students
wellbeing followed by our school relation with the community. There will be a time limit for
phases of the change plan, but no fixed time for the whole change plan. A change is a dynamic
process that we need to keep going as far as possible. We will form improvement action teams
assigned specifically for change projects. These groups should experience autonomy, authority to
assess the current status that needs improvement and permission to think creatively to come up
with out of the box solutions. Again a pitfall kotter pointed is adding new tasks to the employee’s
already full plate. A change means new appealing challenging tasks substituting the old boring
ones not on top of them.
Finally anchoring the change to our culture. “Real improvements can only happen
when integrated within the web of values, beliefs and norms of the school” (Stoll,1998). The
enthusiasm of a new change can ebb away gradually with time if did not become a habit. Old
teachers should always be reminded to do things differently and get promoted accordingly.
Standard operating procedures in school should align with the new changes. New teachers should
be hired to build up a panel with the new changes as their primarily norms.
“Tradition is a powerful force. Leaps into the future and slide back into the past” - John Kotter
and Dan Cohen.
Implications of Leadership on teachers wellbeing
School leadership actually is one of the factor affecting the teachers recruitment,
wellbeing, efficacy and retention. Mulford (2003) cited Day et al. (2000) for his opinion about
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teachers preferences in leadership characters,“There is no doubt that teachers themselves prefer
principals who are honest communicative, participatory, collegial, informal, supportive,
demanding and reasonable in their expectations with clear vision of the school- principal who
works ‘with’ rather than ‘through’ ” (Day et al,2000,p.20). Heidmets & Kadi conducted a
research to find if the leadership style has an effect on the teacher’s wellbeing. The research
compared the teachers acceptance to transformational leadership (TF) style and transactional
leadership style (TA). Heidmets & Kadi used Burns (1978) definition for transformational leader
as one who raises the followers level of consciousness about importance and value of desired
outcomes and methods of reaching those outcomes (Burns,1978). Heidmets & Kadi also used
Bass (2008) definition of a TF leader, who is one to elevates the followers needs on Maslow’s
hierarchy from low-level concerns for safety and security to higher- level of achievements and
self- actualization (Bass,2008). Heidmets & Kadi also cited McCleskey (2014) for his definition
of a transactional leader (TA) is one who relies more on market principles, who offers everyone
recognition according to their contribution and organize things so that both subordinates and
leaders are satisfied (McCleskey, 2014). Put in a simpler way, a more idealistic leader
emphasizing on wider interest versus a pragmatic leader attaching importance to mutual giving
and receiving (Heidmets & Kadi, 2014). Heidmets & Kadi agree with Walumbwa, Avolio,
Weichun (2008) that in general the TF style is prefered to TA style and are also more effective
(Walumbwa, Avolio, Weichun,2008). There appears to be a positive correlation between
leadership style and teacher’s wellbeing. The more TF style leadership is perceived by teachers,
the lower levels of teachers’ burnout and job insecurity (Heidmets & Kadi,2014).
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Also the more TF style and less TA style leadership in the school the more teachers’ subjective
bonding to the school and less turnover intentions (Heidmets & Kadi, 2014).
Role of Leadership in change management
Another role of the leadership to consider is his understanding and control upon the
school culture during and after the change. Leadership is responsible for anticipating changes,
preparing people for it to avoid their surprise or disempowerment (Stoll,1998). Stoll and Fink
identified 10 cultural norms that influence school improvement:
1. Shared goals “we know where we’re going”
2. Responsibility for success “we must succeed”
3. Collegiality “we’re working on this together”
4. Continuous improvement “we can get better”
5. Lifelong learning “learning is for everyone”
6. Risk taking “we learn by trying something new”
7. Support “there’s always someone to help”
8. Mutual respect “everyone has something to offer”
9. Openness “we can discuss our differences”
10. Celebration and humor “we feel good about ourselves”
(Stoll & Fink,1996)
Leaders are founders and managers of the school culture (Stoll & Fink,1996). Leaders must
understand the culture through noticing people day to day activities, note how they spend their
time, arrange for opportunities to discuss and re-examine their value or even lead a reculturing
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process to serve a desired change (Stoll & Fink,1996). Reculturing is the process of developing
new values, believes and norms (Stoll & Fink,1996).
For the past 4 years our school leadership has changed 4 times. The current leader now has been
assigned to our school six months ago, during which she spend most of her time circulating
school departments, getting to know educational level of teachers and the school culture. She is
pretty much an experienced leader, seems to be on speaking terms with our school culture,
ambitious and assertive in her decisions. We are optimistic about her leadership.
Leadership Wellbeing
Last but not least, the importance of leadership wellbeing. School’s principal is a key
player in the educational process. His roles in managing the educational process, the school
culture and school improvements making his own wellbeing very critical. According to “The
Best job in the World with some of the Worst Days Imaginable,2008: Report of Study on School
Leader Welfare by the joint Principals’ Association, the majority of principals like their jobs and
are committed to making a difference. They feel they can make a difference and the motivation
in general among principals is higher than other jobs. However, the study shows that one in six
participants struggled with depression and about two-thirds of them felt their families have
suffered because of their jobs. The survey showed the top 10 major stressors identified by
principals are as follows:
1. 82% chose quantity of work
2. 80% chose lack of time for what is important
3. 75% chose State government initiatives
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4. 70% chose employer expectations
5. 63% chose student related issues
6. 63% chose federal government initiatives
7. 58% chose poorly performing staff
8. 57% chose parent related issues
9. 55% chose mental health issues of students
10. 54% chose teacher shortages
(Principal health and wellbeing in Australian Lutheran schools A camp Australia and ALITE
research project final report, 2013)
Nevertheless, the study also showed that principals that had formed strong mentoring
relationships, collegial support groups and maintained a good work/life balance were less
stressed (Principal health and wellbeing in Australian Lutheran schools A camp Australia and
ALITE research project final report, 2013).
In conclusion, teachers’ wellbeing is a critical issue that needs to be addressed deeply and
urgently. Studies and surveys have put workload on top of the causes for teachers’ stress and
burnout. Relieving teachers’ stress is doable and does not require vast changes. Change
management is an articulated process that needs good planning and time investment. Any change
is never a change until it becomes incorporated in the school's culture and becomes one of the
daily habits and norms. Future issues we should consider would be leadership and student
wellbeing. The moment the mind feels at ease is the moment when we stretch our abilities to
acquire new knowledge and skills to take a further step towards our future.
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References:
1. Neumark, V. (2014) Teachers’ wellbeing: Under scrutiny and underappreciated.
Available at:
http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2014/jul/01/teachers-wellbein
g-under-scrutiny-underappreciated (Accessed: 21 May 2016).
2. William and Australia, S. (2007) Stress! Burnout! Among teachers - IEU NSW/ACT
independent education union. Available at:
http://www.ieu.asn.au/resources/workplace-health-safety/stress,-burnout-amongst-teacher
s/ (Accessed: 22 May 2016).
3. Mills, H., D, P., Reiss, N. and Dombeck, M. (2009a) Types of stressors (Eustress vs.
Distress). Available at:
https://www.mentalhelp.net/articles/types-of-stressors-eustress-vs-distress/ (Accessed: 21
May 2016).
4. Jennings, P.A. (2014) ‘Early childhood teachers’ well-being, Mindfulness, and
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