Teacher Wellbeing: Tips For Language Teachers and Schools

Samir Omara, Ministry of Education and Technical Education, Egypt

Introduction

Life, education and English language education always change; there are challenges and opportunities. It is essential to develop teacher wellbeing, manage burnout and maximize resilience in order to develop student learning. Teacher wellbeing refers to how teachers respond to cognitive, emotional, health and social conditions related to their work. It affects teachers' physical health, mental health and job satisfaction. Work-related behaviors, strategies for coping with high workloads and stress, preventive habits affect teacher wellbeing, teacher collaboration, the quality of student-teacher relationships and work autonomy affect teacher wellbeing.

Teacher Burnout

Teacher burnout refers to how prolonged stress leads to teachers' chronic physical, mental and emotional exhaustion (Rosenow, 2005). It sometimes causes career dissatisfaction, high turnover rates and negative impact on student learning. There are causes, signs, consequences and tips to develop teacher wellbeing, manage burnout and maximize resilience. There are personal and professional causes of teacher burnout; challenging home and family lives, high emotional demands, lack of school management support, poor funding, forcing teachers to teach outside their subject areas, evaluating teachers based on student standardized testing scores, increasing difficult student behavior, extreme amounts of paperwork, lack of resources and materials and inadequate preparation and training. There are challenging signs of teacher burnout; constant fatigue, self-doubt, withdrawal and loss of inspiration. Heavy workload and high stress lead to fatigue; long weekends and seasonal vacations help fix this challenge. Overthinking of teaching effectiveness leads to self-doubt; teachers need to think of teaching strengths to be more motivated. Heavy workload leads to withdrawal; some teachers stop collaborating with their peers. Teachers' social gatherings and staff informal meetings help fix this challenge. During teaching careers, teachers sometimes lose inspiration; they are not motivated to teach new students and make a difference. Schools need to develop teachers' intrinsic and extrinsic motivation by developing teacher autonomy and collaboration. There are different consequences of teacher burnout; absenteeism, exhaustion, cynicism, inefficacy and attrition. Absenteeism refers to teachers' not attending schools due to reasons unrelated to school activities. Exhaustion refers to teachers' feeling they are too exhausted to continue their teaching. Cynicism refers to teachers' negative and cynical feelings about teaching. Inefficacy refers to teachers' feelings of ineffectiveness. Attrition refers to teachers' leaving teaching or moving between schools.

How to Manage Teacher Burnout

It is essential to manage teacher burnout; there are tips for language teachers and schools to manage and prevent burnout. To manage teacher burnout, language teachers should be kind to themselves as teaching is a challenging job. They should articulate their challenges; they talk to their peers, mentors and school principals. They should evaluate their options; they reflect on current and future career opportunities. They should seek formal support; they ask for, get and make use of school support during challenging times. Schools should increase teacher autonomy; they help teachers continue their professional development, do action research and take part in school decision making. Betoret (2006) thinks that teachers who get support from schools are more motivated (p. 519) Schools should use technology to support teachers; they help teachers use information and communication technology to decrease language teaching and assessment workload. Scherer (2012) thinks that collaboration helps manage and prevent teacher burnout (p. 18). Schools should develop teamwork and teacher collaboration; they help pairs and groups of teachers work, reflect and develop together.

How to Prevent Teacher Burnout

To prevent teacher burnout, language teachers should prioritize their self-care. They set and follow sleep, exercise, nutrition and social outing routines. They should set and keep clear work boundaries. They make it clear for students and parents that they would respond to phone calls and emails during working hours only. They should seek out connections. They take part in in-person and online teacher professional learning communities where they share, reflect on and learn from common experiences, challenges and solutions. Schools should develop teacher wellbeing; they define teacher burnout early signs and implement teacher wellbeing programs. They should develop clear policies; help teachers understand and make education change happen. They should provide teachers with mentorship opportunities; they help teachers communicate with, learn from each other and grow. Tait (2008) thinks that professional learning experiences help develop teacher confidence and resilience (p. 58). Schools should sustain teacher professional development; they help novice and experienced teachers take part in different professional development programs to update their language teaching theory and practice.

How to Maximize Teacher Resilience

Teacher resilience refers to how protective factors help teachers cope with stress and how risk factors make it harder for teachers to cope with stress. It helps language teachers maintain their wellbeing. It is essential to maximize language teacher resilience; there are tips for language teachers and schools to develop resilience. Language teachers should develop their wellbeing; they describe three good things they do and three positive emotions they experience every week or month. They should keep reflective journals; they reflect on their language teaching strengths, challenges and solutions positively. They should develop a growth mindset; they ask for constructive feedback and learn from challenges and mistakes. Yost (2006) thinks learning experiences help develop teacher resilience (p. 59). Schools should help teachers develop their social and professional networks; they encourage teachers to join social and professional development learning communities. Doney (2013) thinks that teacher support and social relationships help decrease stress and develop resilience (p. 648). Schools should help teachers have less stress; they help teachers have regular breaks and leaves. Rosenow (2005) thinks that teacher motivation helps prevent burnout as it fixes stress and depression (p. 88). Schools should motivate teachers and develop positive school culture; they help teachers articulate and celebrate their individual and collaborative successes.

References

Betoret, F. D. (2006). Stressors, self-efficacy, coping resources, and burnout among secondary school teachers in Spain. Educational Psychology, 26(4), 519-539.

Doney, P. A. (2013). Fostering resilience: A necessary skill for teacher retention. The Association for Science Teacher Education, 24, 646-684.

Rosenow D. (2005). Stress, burnout and self-esteem among educators. Journal of Border Educational Research, 4(1), 87-92.

Scherer, M. (2012). The challenges of supporting new teachers. Educational Leadership, 69(8), 18-23.

Tait, M. (2008). Resilience as a contributor to novice teacher success, commitment, and retention. Teacher Education Quarterly, 35(4), 57–75.

Yost, D. (2006). Reflection and self-efficacy: Enhancing the retention of qualified teachers from a teacher education perspective. Teacher Education Quarterly, 33(4), 59–76.

Samir Omara has been an English language teacher and teacher trainer for the Ministry of Education and Technical Education since 1998. He presented at ILACE, Africa ELTA and TESOL. He was the Head of Professional Development for Teachers First Egypt and NileTESOL President.