Workforce
Recharging the batteries
An insight into tips and strategies for better teacher wellbeing .
Daniela Falecki interviewed by Emilie Lauer
A recent report from the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership revealed that nearly 500 thousand educators have had their wellbeing impacted by the last three years of bushfires , floods , Covid-19 , lockdowns and online learning .
“ Teachers have a tendency to give to everybody else and forget about themselves ,” teacher , coach and author Daniela Falecki told Education Review . “ The government isn ’ t prioritising teacher and staff wellbeing , there is not enough support nor funding ,” she says .
“ We need to have better conversations , this will help have better strategies .”
Education Review spoke with Falecki about teacher wellbeing and discussed tips to support teachers ’ mental health .
ER : How do you define wellbeing ? DF : It ’ s actually really complicated . If I had to put it into two distinct frames , I ’ d say it ’ s feeling good , and the other part is functioning well , so being able to do my job .
The feeling good comes from hedonic wellbeing or hedonism , which is the pleasurable feelings . The doing good component comes from eudaimonic wellbeing , which means to be good in
spirit . But there ’ s domains of wellbeing – there ’ s psychological wellbeing and subjective wellbeing – so it ’ s really complicated . But it comes down to , do I feel good and am I doing a good job ?
How important is teacher wellbeing ? It ’ s so important . I was a teacher myself for 20 years and now I travel around Australia supporting teachers as best I can . Basically , a teacher isn ’ t just educating a child ’ s mind , we ’ re educating their head and their heart .
To do that , we need to recognise as educators that we ’ re not machines . I always say to people , ‘ You ’ re a human being , not a human doing .’ Our job isn ’ t based on our to-do list . We ’ re a feeling being , we think and feel , and so being able to see ourselves as a human being to connect with other human beings is really what makes an effective teacher and a quality teacher .
Teacher wellbeing is absolutely crucial because if we really want to support student wellbeing , we have to talk about teacher wellbeing .
Wellbeing is not the same for every individual , so how do you tailor it ? It ’ s like when we say we want to improve our physical fitness , but some people might like running , other people like dancing , other people like yoga . Everybody likes something different , and one of the biggest traps that I see schools fall into with teacher wellbeing is we think that one strategy is going to work for everybody , and it doesn ’ t .
We have to have better conversations . We need to ask people what they need , ask people what ’ s going to work for them , because it ’ s going to be different for different people .
And one of the models I prefer to work with is helping people have better conversations around their domains of wellbeing . With domains of wellbeing we ’ re talking about cognitive , so how do I think ? Emotional , how do I feel ? Social , how I connect with people . Do I need to be on my own ? Do I need to be out with people ? Physical wellbeing is eat , sleep and exercise , and then of course spiritual wellbeing is connecting to meaning and purpose .
When we start to have better conversations based on the five domains of what it is we need , then we can start to plan better strategies that are going to actually build our resources .
What are the challenges teachers are facing in terms of wellbeing ? Basically , the demands are so high . Let ’ s say for example I ’ ve got an inner battery , and every time I ’ m asked to do something , every time there ’ s a change , every time there ’ s uncertainty , I ’ m having to think , and draw on my own psychological and emotional resources , and that puts a drain on my system .
24 | educationreview . com . au