3. Reduced personal accomplishment: Schwarzer and Hallum (2008) equate reduced personal accomplishment with “reduced professional efficacy, productivity or capability, low morale, and an inability to cope with job demands” (p. 155). They also define it as feelings of intense inadequacy that often result in a teacher’s lower assessment of his or her professional achievement (Schwarzer & Hallum, 2008). When a teacher dissociates classroom efforts with any expectation of achievement, then burnout has severely hampered any hopes of finding genuine joy and meaning in his or her educational endeavors. Teachers who claim to find no payoff for hard work, personal sacrifice, and intensive time commitments to their profession often withdraw from making any further commitments.
If teachers’ stress levels are so high as to render them incapable of coping with job demands or recognizing the purpose of their role and commitment to education, their very well-being is compromised, thus making classroom instruction a painful slog from which they disengage (Schwarzer & Hallum, 2008). Journalist Kassondra Granata (2014) suggests this day-to-day learning environment is unsustainable for not only teachers but their students.
NOTICE the WAVE
Have you ever experienced any of the symptoms of teacher burnout—emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, or reduced personal accomplishment? What were the signs for you?
The Benefits of Self-Care
Teachers need to understand that self-care is not indulgent. In fact, it is the height of professionalism for a simple reason: when teachers are not at their best, our schools will not be at their best. When schools do not function in an optimal fashion, our students will not reach their full potential. Thus, responsible professional development must include a robust conversation about self-care. According to teacher and college instructor Jennifer Gonzalez (2017), far too many educators associate self-care with self-indulgence or professional weakness; they often feel guilty when they admit they need more information about self-care. Rather than seek this information, they maintain unproductive, strenuous work habits. As she writes in her popular blog Cult of Pedagogy, “Too many teachers have reached the conclusion that this [unhealthy] lifestyle is just part of the job; there simply isn’t enough time to be a good teacher and take care of yourself” (Gonzalez, 2017).
Professor Keith Herman, doctoral student Jal’et Hickmon-Rosa, and professor Wendy Reinke (2018) note in a prominent study, “Teacher stress and burnout are significant problems that affect our schools. Finding innovative and impactful ways to improve outcomes for students by supporting teachers may make a significant contribution to society” (p. 98).
When teachers thrive emotionally, physically, and psychologically, the list of positive consequences is almost limitless. Consider that when students describe the qualities of effective teachers, they commonly observe that these teachers seem to enjoy what they are doing (Urban, 2008). The teachers want to be in the classroom. The classroom rejuvenates them. In short, the best teachers derive genuine joy and purpose from their interactions in the classroom (Adams, 2016). Self-care makes for more positive and productive classroom teachers—which makes for more positive and productive students.
Data confirm that when teachers feel good about themselves and their profession, they are more likely to provide a high-quality education to their students. Trauma consultant William Steele (2017), for example, has argued that teachers who eagerly practice self-care are far more likely to be proactive in reacting to both student challenges and overall challenges of the educational system. Self-care gives teachers the tools they need to effectively cope with the difficult circumstances of 21st century education.
NOTICE the WAVE
Do school staff talk about self-care at your school? If so, does it seem like a perfunctory conversation, or do both administrators and teachers take it seriously? If staff haven’t brought up self-care, how do you think your colleagues would react to the topic?
Summary
Teaching has never been easy. Standing in front of dozens of young people for hours every single day can be challenging even in the most stable and supportive of environments. And sadly, most teachers feel that their jobs are more stressful in 2020 than they were in 2010. Everything is faster—the trends, the technology, the unpredictable disruptions to the profession itself—which adds to teachers’ difficulty in maintaining a positive, productive frame of mind. Irrespective of the reasons for this shift in attitude and morale, it is no longer an option for schools to hope that teachers “get their minds right” or “find a happy place” on their own. In service professions such as teaching, there is sometimes a stigma associated with considering anyone besides those being serviced. But schools are communities, and while students are correctly the focal point, teachers should never hesitate to acknowledge their own limitations or needs as they relate to their roles within those communities. As long as we can count on constant change and reform, teacher self-care will remain a relevant and necessary topic in education. It must feature just as prominently in our professional conversations as pedagogy, credentialing, and technological trends do.
This chapter has explained why taking self-care seriously is important to maintaining the integrity of the teaching profession. In the next chapter, we’ll learn a variety of self-care strategies teachers can use inside and outside of school. These strategies will help teachers maintain a sense of control over their health and career and prepare themselves each day for whatever the classroom has in store.
CHAPTER 2
Practicing Self-Care
Now that the case for self-care has been made, let us discover how to put theory into practice. The following five strategies will help you maintain your personality as an educator, avoid compassion fatigue, better manage your stress, self-reflect in a fairer way, and keep a positive outlook amid negative situations. Depending on your experiences and mindset, you may find some strategies more useful than others, but know that each strategy represents just one component of your well-being and effectiveness as a classroom teacher.
Strategy 1: Stay Yourself
At one point or another, almost every teacher has faced an intimidating reform—such as incorporating new technologies, flipping classrooms, confronting students’ emotional issues, or conducting an unorthodox lesson—and thought to him- or herself, “You’ve got to be kidding. That isn’t me! I can’t do that.”
When facing change, you must stay yourself. As you will see, this can mean a multiplicity of different things. But this much is certain: resistance to reform is natural. When teachers don’t feel suited to new educational developments, they may feel as if they must lose their teaching style and their entire self in the process of reform. But they can maintain their personalities during such changes. The idea is that you should never try to be a