school management
Emotional rescue
Why developing emotional intelligence is critical to our education sector .
Ben Palmer interviewed by Wade Zaglas
Both the education sector and the Australian public are well aware of the significant challenges COVID has presented to teachers and students over the last two years . Recent data cited in an article by the Independent Education Union of Australia NSW / ACT Branch found that a disturbingly high rate of school leaders felt emotionally stressed , overburdened with workloads and “ continually pivoting to different ways of teaching ”. And , if we remain this way , the so-called “ great resignation ” trend in the US could be gathering pace in Australia .
Emotional intelligence expert Dr Ben Palmer , CEO of Genos International , spoke to Education Review about the “ urgent need for heightened EI skills to reduce the risk of losing teachers and educational leaders ”.
Palmer explained EI as being related to feelings , which can spark both positive and negative emotions in not only teachers and students , but within all workplaces . He highlights that successful , harmonious businesses , organisations and departments all possess an evidencebased understanding that EI has the power to improve teacher and student health and wellbeing , and also produce robust academic results .
Indeed , the EI expert believes such courses – taught in the similar longitudinal fashion of schools – would be a worthy inclusion in any initial teaching course .
ER : You refer to a study that talks about a high number of school leaders in Australia feeling emotionally stressed . What factors do you think contribute to this ? Pre-COVID there were already a number of factors attributing to high levels of emotional stress in teachers . Teachers and school leaders alike , on any given day , can be at one minute promoting student of the week , the next they can be helping a student through a personal crisis , dealing with a difficult parent , supporting each other through difficult times .
It ’ s one of those jobs that involves high levels of emotional labour . You ’ re constantly attending to the needs of people and it requires high levels of emotional regulation , because you ’ re constantly pivoting emotionally , if you like , to a number of different emotional situations .
When you ’ re a school teacher , you ’ ve essentially got the potential and future of young people in your hands – and with that comes a heightened emotional environment where emotions can be easily triggered , because the stakes are high . So that ’ s the first thing .
Workloads are always a big one for teachers . Also , changes to things that they are required to do , and resourcing . There ’ s just a number of stressors in the teaching profession that you don ’ t always find in more , say , white collar jobs in corporations , by way of example .
When you layer on top of that a COVID situation , where you are working from home , with your own students often in the background , teaching from home , while you ’ re also teaching your own students and your own kids in the background , being tasked with an incredible pivot from years of experience of teaching at the front of a room to teaching from behind a computer – that just adds a whole another layer of stress .
Then you ’ ve got being called in to work onsite a number of days of the week or a
26 | educationreview . com . au