Lessons to learn when it comes to teacher wellbeing

TEACHERS are constantly supporting students, working on improving their learning and reducing their stress, but who supports the teachers?

WorkCover reports teachers make more mental stress claims than any other industry. A survey conducted in 2018 by NSW Teachers Federation found 41 per cent of teachers in Australia suffer from high levels of occupational stress.

Teachers are stressed by working conditions such as bullying parents; aggressive students; increased workload and work hours; unfair expectations; increased administrative tasks; and dealing with senior executives who are seeking to build an environment that is primarily focused on student achievement.

Teachers feel they are expected to be high achievers, carers and perfectionists, yet many feel isolated, have low job satisfaction and experience poor mental and physical health problems.

Being in a demanding and caring profession, teachers often forget to prioritise their wellbeing until it’s too late.

When teachers feel unsupported, they can become stressed and burnt out; reactions that prompt career changes. With almost half of teachers in Australia leaving the field within their first five years, there is a poignant need for more effective human resource management (HRM) practices.

As public schools struggle to implement effective HRM practices, perhaps the policy makers lack the relevant and current knowledge in education. Or it may be that the current practices do not meet the needs of today’s teachers.

Teachers play a major role in student achievements. However, without implementing whole-of-school approaches to promoting teacher wellbeing, low job-satisfaction, absenteeism and staff turnover will continue to rise.

Minimal empirical attention has been given to the ways in which different HRM practices can be implemented to attain positive teacher outcomes. Professor Alex Bryson, from UCL Institute of Education in the UK, suggests that schools should put less effort into implementing isolated strategies, such as improvement of recruitment procedures, and implement HRM systems that can assist public schools in attracting and retaining competent and motivated teachers.

Unfortunately, HRM is still relatively underdeveloped in public education. Management and education leaders need to develop a systematic and comprehensive process of bridging educational and HRM practices.

Wellbeing can be improved through helping teachers develop a strong sense of professional identity; and delivering programs that meet their needs. When teachers are supported, the whole school environment is strengthened, hence student wellbeing and learning is improved.