industry & reform
‘ Make the right changes ’
Redefining perseverance can empower burnt-out teachers .
By Hannah Beder
After three years of floods , bushfires , lockdowns , and the seemingly endless pressures of the pandemic , Australian teachers are struggling .
While many industries are back to business as usual , the new normal for teachers is anything but . Unmanageable workloads , long work days , strict curriculum requirements , and hours spent on administrative tasks have left 50 % of teachers feeling highly stressed and burnt out .
Australia ’ s education system cannot afford to continue like this . If we don ’ t address the issues affecting our teachers , we risk losing half of the workforce in the next 12 months . To avoid an educational crisis , we need to create a culture that facilitates and encourages a deeper understanding of perseverance beyond just ‘ sticking it out ’.
Many people associate the meaning of perseverance with the idea of ‘ never giving up ’ or continuing to repeat the same behaviours until we reach our goal . This is already the day-to-day reality for teachers , and while sticking it out can lead to success in some cases , this approach has its limitations if it ’ s the only one available . Telling teachers to simply grin and bear it through impossible workloads and 12- hour days won ’ t help them recover from burnout or reignite their love of teaching . In most cases , blindly repeating behaviour that isn ’ t working will only lead to further discouragement and discontent .
This is why it ’ s important that we define perseverance as a set of skills that help us approach the inevitable setbacks and challenges that life puts in our way . While sometimes perseverance might mean persisting with the same approach until success is reached , in other cases it might mean switching the approach , activity , or outcome , or stopping something altogether . In turn , these skills make us happier , more confident , and less discouraged by setbacks .
The problem is that teachers do not currently have the freedom to decide whether switching , sustaining , or stopping is the right call . In order to truly help them persevere , we must create environments that encourage , support , and value teachers making decisions for their own context . This means providing teachers with the tools , trust , and flexibility to decide when they should sustain their efforts , when to switch their approach , and when to stop trying to achieve a goal altogether .
For example , when student reading results are low , the school ’ s response is often to provide teachers with professional development that focuses on explicit instructions on how to teach reading . However , this doesn ’ t leave room for the variety of additional factors that can impact student results , many of which have little to do with the way that reading is taught .
If perseverance is the ability to make a decision about whether sustaining , switching , or stopping is the most appropriate action to achieve a goal , then we need to move away from assuming that rigid teacher professional development is the correct and only remedy to a problem . If we instead move towards valuing teachers ’ professional judgements about what will help their classes , we will not only enrich the experience of educators but provide students with the chance to learn in a way that suits their individual needs .
Professional development is only one piece of the puzzle , though . In order to truly build teachers ’ ability to persevere , we must look at the education industry as a whole . Improving conditions for teachers means increasing resources and training , implementing trustworthy and supportive leadership , and prioritising psychologically safe spaces where teachers feel they can take care of themselves in order to be better at their job .
If we make the right changes , there will inevitably be teachers who still decide to leave the profession after realising that it ’ s simply not right for them . However , many more may just find that when they are empowered to persevere in full , their love of teaching will come back swinging . ■
8 | educationreview . com . au