tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/teacher-workloads-113503/articlesTeacher workloads – The Conversation2023-12-12T16:13:13Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2169442023-12-12T16:13:13Z2023-12-12T16:13:13ZMinimum service levels for teachers: government plan to restrict strikes further undermines a profession in crisis<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564240/original/file-20231207-17-8t27e4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C155%2C5168%2C3290&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/stressed-science-teacher-trying-grade-homework-1586693281">Juice Flair/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As an academic, I teach teachers. The promise of teacher education is that graduates will enter a challenging but meaningful job. Personal, professional and financial security should be the safe ground from which they can navigate this diffucult terrain. </p>
<p>But I see my students’ anxiety about the complex issues they are set to encounter in the classroom, as well as insufficient pay and funding.
Qualified teachers are leaving in large numbers as they find the workload overwhelming, and the pay lagging behind inflation.</p>
<p>Disputes over pay have <a href="https://theconversation.com/teachers-go-on-strike-the-challenges-facing-the-schools-sector-198944">led to teachers striking</a> – but workload has also been a contributing factor. </p>
<p>Now, the UK government plans to introduce <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/teachers-strike-gillian-keegan-minium-service-levels-b2454799.html">minimum service levels (MSLs)</a> for striking teachers. A consultation on the plan has been launched, with the aim of MSLs being in place for the <a href="https://twitter.com/GillianKeegan/status/1729465713960591696">next academic year</a>. </p>
<p>MSLs jeopardise public sector workers’ freedom to undertake full industrial action, by obliging them to still provide a minimum “service” to the public. <a href="https://schoolsweek.co.uk/minimum-service-level-proposals-everything-schools-need-to-know/">This means schools</a> could issue <a href="https://consult.education.gov.uk/industrial-action/minimum-service-levels-mls-in-education/supporting_documents/Minimum%20service%20levels%20in%20education%20consultation%20document.pdf">“work notices”</a> to require specific staff members to work during a strike period. </p>
<p>Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, has <a href="https://neu.org.uk/latest/press-releases/minimum-service-levels-talks-ended">called the move</a> “shameful”. It adds fuel to the historical flames of teacher discontent. It also further complicates the historically ambivalent position of teachers toward striking. </p>
<p>On the one hand, an unconditional, unrequited labour of love is exacted and extracted from teachers. If they place their workers’ rights first they are seen as <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/02/01/selfish-teachers-owe-children-apology/">selfish and harming students</a>. As with workers in other care-intensive – and often female-dominated – sectors, such as healthcare and social work, teachers’ demands for recognition and remuneration are downplayed by politicians and the public. </p>
<p>On the other hand, the productive work in all other sectors of the economy relies on teachers. By keeping children at school, they not only educate the future workforce, but also enable parents to engage fully in the present-day one.</p>
<h2>History of teaching unions</h2>
<p>In the nineteenth century, a formerly private and often clerical male profession became massively practised by women. Teaching became a vital part of the modern nation state’s effort to build society-wide institutions – but teachers had lower income and living standards than other educated professionals. This and their origin from and work among peasant and workers’ communities made unions a <a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/12424649.pdf">logical form of self-organising</a>. </p>
<p>By the mid-20th century, UK teachers’ <a href="https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/100-years-unions">unions had gained important concessions</a> when it came to pay, benefits and recognition across the profession. Yet especially since 1980, strikes have been crushed and unions weakened through <a href="https://www.ier.org.uk/a-chronology-of-labour-law-1979-2023/">draconian anti-labour laws</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/how-consecutive-conservative-governments-destroyed-union-rights-a-timeline-of-the-uks-anti-strike-laws-since-the-1970s-198178">A sequence of laws</a> have further limited the definition of “lawful” industrial action and curtailed workers’ right to spontaneous collective organising. A high threshold to ballot for strikes was made mandatory, meaning that striking is lawful only upon a positive membership vote with a large turnout. The laws also prohibit solidarity action across sectors or among people working for different employers. </p>
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<p>Now, minimum service levels will further restrict teachers’ ability to use strikes to campaign for better pay and working conditions – at a time when the profession is facing serious challenges. </p>
<h2>Crisis in teaching</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.nasuwt.org.uk/article-listing/teachers-know-reality-of-cost-of-living-crisis.html">cost of living crisis</a>, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-35935868">intensification of workloads</a>, and <a href="https://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/news/quarter-of-teachers-in-england-report-60-hour-working-week">extended working hours</a> have compromised the real pay and purchasing power behind teachers’ salaries, and their material working conditions.</p>
<p>The teaching profession also faces challenges that other “caring” professions encounter. New societal challenges and a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/aug/15/number-children-mental-health-crisis-record-high-england">growing mental health epidemic among children</a> require new skills and approaches. But funding and time for <a href="https://epi.org.uk/publications-and-research/the-cost-of-high-quality-professional-developmentfor-teachers/">professional development</a> is <a href="https://www.tes.com/magazine/news/general/scottish-government-cuts-funding-masters-level-cpd">scarce</a>. </p>
<p>The profession is also ever more stratified between those employed on secure well-paid contracts, and supply teachers on short-term fixed duration contracts with little personal or workplace stability. Teachers’ unions now attempt to accommodate workers from across an increasingly stratified and fragmented professional field. Conflicting workers’ interests are easy targets for divide-and-rule tactics.</p>
<p>Mechanisms like MSLs can only go so far to hold back a flood of discontent. Decent pay and better funding for schools is imperative – rather than attempts to discredit teachers’ strikes as harming students. To give milk and honey, teachers need bread and butter.</p>
<p>The global pandemic lockdowns reminded us of the extent to which teachers’ work is crucial, not only for children to thrive, but also for our economic stability. Teachers form the backbone of productive work and of invisible emotional labour. </p>
<p>But despite their own financial and personal struggles, teachers are being pressured to become shock absorbers of a financial crisis and a <a href="https://tribunemag.co.uk/2023/03/schools-just-want-to-have-funds">mental health epidemic</a> not adequately addressed by crumbling and acutely underfunded welfare services.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216944/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mariya Ivancheva does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Productive work in all other sectors of the economy relies on teachers.Mariya Ivancheva, Senior Lecturer, Strathclyde Institute of Education, University of Strathclyde Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2171492023-11-09T10:00:42Z2023-11-09T10:00:42ZUK announces AI funding for teachers: how this technology could change the profession<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558339/original/file-20231108-29-v3awrs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C6709%2C4466&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/eteaching-korean-middle-aged-man-teacher-2196464985">Prostock-studio/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>During the recent international <a href="https://www.aisafetysummit.gov.uk/">AI Safety Summit</a> held in the UK, the government announced a further <a href="https://schoolsweek.co.uk/oak-gets-another-2m-to-expand-ai-quizzes-and-lesson-planner/">£2 million to be invested in Oak National Academy</a> – a publicly funded classroom resource hub – to develop artificial intelligence tools to help reduce teachers’ workloads.</p>
<p>Generative AI, such as <a href="https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt">Open AI’s ChatGPT</a>, responds to prompts from users to produce content. It has become a hot topic in education. </p>
<p>While there isn’t much up-to-date research on how teachers are using AI, we know from our work with schools that teachers are experimenting with AI to create lesson plans, classroom resources and schemes of work. For example, a teacher might ask ChatGPT, “make me a lesson plan on river flooding in Tewkesbury for year seven”. Within seconds, a plan will be available containing learning objectives, materials, activities, homework, assessments and more. </p>
<p>Technology giants <a href="https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/education/google-for-education-iste-2023/">Google</a> and <a href="https://educationblog.microsoft.com/en-us/2023/06/collaborating-to-bring-ai-innovation-to-education">Microsoft</a>, as well as established education technology platforms such as <a href="https://www.khanacademy.org/khan-labs">Khan Academy</a>, are promoting their AI offerings to schools.</p>
<p>Start-ups and smaller operations are also getting <a href="https://dataconomy.com/2023/10/16/best-ai-tools-for-teachers/">in on the action</a>, many of them promising time-saving tools that can take on much of the planning, thinking and feedback that happens before and after classes. </p>
<h2>Why is AI attractive?</h2>
<p>There are two influential factors explaining the take-up of AI by teachers.
One is workload. Burn-out and stress in the teaching profession is a key reason 41% of all teachers are <a href="https://neu.org.uk/latest/press-releases/state-education-recruitment-and-retention">planning to quit</a> within five years. </p>
<p>Having <a href="https://educationcopilot.com/">lesson plans</a>, handouts and student reports available in seconds is alluring. For government ministers who have long promised teachers <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/workload-reduction-taskforce">reduced workoads</a> and better working conditions, AI seems to offer a tangible and affordable answer.</p>
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<p>Teacher supply is also important. Headteachers are facing significant challenges finding <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-65726045">enough teachers</a>, as a result of increasing pupil numbers as well as teachers quitting and low numbers joining the profession. The idea of AI to support teachers leading classes in <a href="https://nfer.ac.uk/publications/teacher-supply-and-shortages-the-implications-of-teacher-supply-challenges-for-schools-and-pupils/">short-staffed subjects</a> may be particularly appealing. </p>
<p>AI-designed lessons could source expert content in fields such as mathematics or physics, two subjects with low recruitment numbers. These lessons could arguably be more pertinent and accurate than lessons that would otherwise be designed by <a href="https://www.tes.com/magazine/news/secondary/teacher-recruitment-non-specialist-teachers-schools">non-specialists</a>.</p>
<p>There are clear potential benefits in terms of time saving and access to subject-related content. But how these tools might affect the teaching profession more broadly needs to be considered.</p>
<h2>Devaluing teachers</h2>
<p>Teaching is widely recognised as an <a href="https://www.ucet.ac.uk/11675/ibte-position-statement-updated-february-2020">intellectual endeavour</a>. But lesson plans produced by generative AI have no educational or disciplinary expertise of their own. They simply build sequences of plausible content, working from material in the data sets they have been trained on, in conjunction with prompts from users. In this respect, they are <a href="https://helenbeetham.substack.com/p/ai-and-the-privatisation-of-everything">recycled expertise</a>. </p>
<p>Their use may weaken the place of scholarship in teaching. Teachers may find themselves acting as <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781119355700.ch7">executive technicians</a> – circulating worksheets and managing behaviour – rather than considering deeper questions on what should be taught, how, and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-the-point-of-education-its-no-longer-just-about-getting-a-job-117897">moral concerns of education</a>. </p>
<p>What’s more, a move toward teachers as technicians is unlikely to attract high quality graduates – or make our education system the <a href="https://www.expressandstar.com/news/education/2020/01/20/williamson-our-education-can-be-the-envy-of-the-world/">envy of the world</a>.</p>
<p>In using AI to reduce teacher workload there is also a risk that the needs of specific groups of students, and their contexts, will be ignored. </p>
<p>Take curriculum and lesson design. Teachers consider a wide range of factors when <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1130099/A__guide_to_effective_practice_in_curriculum_planning__January_2023.pdf">developing a curriculum</a> and individual lessons within it. Ideally, they incorporate a strong sense of the subject knowledge and skills to be learned, as well as taking their particular class of students and the context of the lessons into account. This may well be lost in AI-produced lessons. </p>
<p>There is also the question of how teaching expertise is developed and maintained. <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40593-023-00342-5">Generative AI models</a> have a tendency to make up new facts and sources, which is sometimes referred to as <a href="https://www.ibm.com/topics/ai-hallucinations">“hallucinating”</a>. The content they produce can also be <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2023-generative-ai-bias/">biased and discriminatory</a>. </p>
<p>This means that any content created by AI must be critically reviewed. But if the “thinking work” of lesson and curriculum planning is outsourced to AI tools, and “enacted” by enthusiastic but non-specialist teachers, no one is accountable for the quality, safety and relevance of these materials.</p>
<p>If AI becomes routine, teachers may not develop the skills needed to critically evaluate and adapt AI-generated lessons and activities for the students in front of them.</p>
<p>Someone (or something) else doing the educational thinking, with a “presenting person” in front of the students, may free teachers from the burden of planning and assessment. But we must think carefully before mathematics, physics, or any other subject we have deemed important and relevant to our existence and civilisation are reduced to a diluted and potentially misrepresented version. </p>
<p>If there is money from the government to invest in education, this should go directly to the <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-16151-4_2">most important resource</a> in any classroom – the teacher.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217149/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There are clear potential time saving benefits. But how these tools might affect the teaching profession more broadly needs to be considered.Nicola Warren-Lee, Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Curriculum, University of BristolLyndsay Grant, Lecturer - Education and Digital Technologies, University of BristolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1881842022-08-08T12:21:33Z2022-08-08T12:21:33ZThe most recent efforts to combat teacher shortages don’t address the real problems<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477473/original/file-20220803-21-syg3j6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C0%2C5973%2C3997&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Teachers face a range of challenges, but hiring more teachers won't fix them.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/VirusOutbreakCalifornia/9e1c06a48efb4871b626326500ba287d/photo">AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>States have recently focused their efforts to reduce <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/08/03/school-teacher-shortage/">the nation’s teacher shortage</a> by promoting strategies that “<a href="https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/states-relax-teacher-certification-rules-to-combat-shortages/2022/06">remove or relax barriers to entry</a>” to quickly bring new people into the teaching profession. </p>
<p><a href="https://edsource.org/2021/california-commission-continues-to-ease-testing-requirements-for-teachers/664620">California</a>, for example, allows teacher candidates to skip basic skills and subject matter tests if they have taken approved college courses. <a href="https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/education/new-mexico-lawmakers-seek-clearer-details-on-type-of-teacher-vacancies/article_dedd2a0e-0dc3-11ed-9948-afd9903735fd.html">New Mexico</a> is replacing subject skills tests with a portfolio to demonstrate teaching competency. </p>
<p>Similarly, <a href="https://www.kxii.com/2022/05/07/oklahoma-removes-requirement-pass-general-education-portion-competency-exam-future-teachers/">Oklahoma</a> eliminated the Oklahoma General Education Test as a certification requirement. <a href="https://www.khou.com/article/news/education/missouri-education-department-loosens-restrictions-teacher-certifications/63-c5bead98-ec0c-4b7a-9e0d-a731f515863c">Missouri</a> no longer looks at a prospective teacher’s overall grades – just the ones earned in select courses required to become a teacher. <a href="https://www.al.com/educationlab/2022/07/alabama-approves-immediate-changes-to-teacher-certification-praxis.html">Alabama</a> has moved to allow some who score below the cutoff scores on teacher certification exams to still get a teacher’s license, and Arizona’s education requirements for teachers now allow <a href="https://www.fox13now.com/arizona-teachers-no-longer-need-college-degree">people without a college degree</a> to begin teaching – so long as they are currently enrolled in college.</p>
<p>All of these efforts focus on <a href="https://www.ed.gov/coronavirus/factsheets/teacher-shortage">recruiting new teachers</a>, mostly by <a href="https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/states-relax-teacher-certification-rules-to-combat-shortages/2022/06">lowering requirements to make it easier</a> for people to become certified to teach in public schools.</p>
<p>But these approaches do not address the actual causes of the <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/ct-illinois-teacher-shortage-salary-woes-20220430-vc4g5xtbkrgfbh6tehowohtqqm-story.html">nationwide teacher shortage</a>. As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=VziSjl8AAAAJ">we</a> found doing research for our book “<a href="https://www.infoagepub.com/products/How-Did-We-Get-Here">How Did We Get Here?: The Decay of the Teaching Profession</a>,” college students who are interested in becoming teachers and current teachers agree: The root cause of the problem is a longstanding overall lack of respect for teachers and their craft, which is reflected by decades of <a href="https://www.epi.org/publication/teacher-pay-penalty-dips-but-persists-in-2019-public-school-teachers-earn-about-20-less-in-weekly-wages-than-nonteacher-college-graduates/">low pay</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-education-reforms-can-support-teachers-around-the-world-instead-of-undermining-them-166528">hyperscrutiny</a> and <a href="https://www.apa.org/education-career/k12/violence-educators-technical-report.pdf">poor working conditions</a>. </p>
<h2>Disrespect to the profession is driving teachers away</h2>
<p>Even before COVID-19 hit, teachers were <a href="https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/sites/default/files/product-files/A_Coming_Crisis_in_Teaching_REPORT.pdf">leaving the profession at an increasing rate</a>. In the late 1980s, annual teacher turnover was 5.6%, but it has grown to around 8% over the past decade. </p>
<p>The stress of <a href="https://cronkitenews.azpbs.org/2022/07/26/teachers-mental-health-crisis-pay-covid-pandemic-burnout/">teaching through a pandemic</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/teacher-burnout-hits-record-high-5-essential-reads-185550">has been speculated to drive away even more teachers</a>. About 1 in 6 teachers expressed that they would <a href="https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA1108-1.html">likely leave their job</a> pre-pandemic, but this increased to 1 in 4 by the 2020-21 school year. While teachers continue to leave classrooms, <a href="https://www.epi.org/publication/the-teacher-shortage-is-real-large-and-growing-and-worse-than-we-thought-the-first-report-in-the-perfect-storm-in-the-teacher-labor-market-series/">fewer people are signing up</a> to replace them. </p>
<p>In fact, <a href="https://www.epi.org/publication/the-teacher-shortage-is-real-large-and-growing-and-worse-than-we-thought-the-first-report-in-the-perfect-storm-in-the-teacher-labor-market-series/">the number of incoming teachers declined</a> from 275,000 in 2010 to under 200,000 in 2020 and is projected to be under 120,000 by 2025. And even those staying on the job are so unhappy, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/25/teachers-strikes-us-low-pay-covid">many have been striking</a>.</p>
<p>We found that the reasons teachers are leaving primarily revolve around the disrespect they and the profession consistently face. For example, teachers <a href="https://www.epi.org/publication/teacher-pay-penalty-dips-but-persists-in-2019-public-school-teachers-earn-about-20-less-in-weekly-wages-than-nonteacher-college-graduates/">earn about 20% less</a> than similarly educated professionals.</p>
<p>They also faced an <a href="https://theconversation.com/teacher-burnout-hits-record-high-5-essential-reads-185550">escalating workload</a>, even before the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s12310-022-09533-2">pandemic placed additional demands</a> on their time, energy and mental health.</p>
<p>In addition, teachers have been <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-education-reforms-can-support-teachers-around-the-world-instead-of-undermining-them-166528">experiencing diminishing control</a> over what and how they teach. They are also regularly exposed to a continued tide of <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/teacher-begs-parents-discipline-disrespectful-kids-viral-video-1701487">disrespectful student behavior</a> and parental hostility, as highlighted by a <a href="https://www.apa.org/education-career/k12/violence-educators-technical-report.pdf">survey of 15,000 educators</a> that revealed a growing trend of students verbally and physically harassing teachers, as well as parents engaging in online harassment and retaliatory behaviors for teachers simply doing their jobs.</p>
<p>This overall lack of respect drives turnover from existing teachers and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/JEA-07-2018-0129">discourages potential teachers</a> from considering the profession.</p>
<p>One college student told us, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/JEA-07-2018-0129">I looked into teaching as a career pretty strongly</a> … and every person I talked to, be it a grade school teacher or college professor, told me the same thing – that it was a lot of work, it was an unstable work environment, and the pay was very poor for the amount of work that you put in.” Unsurprisingly, she chose another career path.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477475/original/file-20220803-24-k2avdp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man in camouflage stands in a classroom and hands a piece of paper to a student" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477475/original/file-20220803-24-k2avdp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477475/original/file-20220803-24-k2avdp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477475/original/file-20220803-24-k2avdp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477475/original/file-20220803-24-k2avdp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477475/original/file-20220803-24-k2avdp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477475/original/file-20220803-24-k2avdp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477475/original/file-20220803-24-k2avdp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">In early 2022, New Mexico’s teacher shortage got so bad that the governor called in the National Guard to serve as substitutes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/VirusOutbreakSoldiersasTeachers/dad689df567f4a77874497b3506f0963/photo">AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The wrong solutions for the problem</h2>
<p>A growing number of states have eliminated or have proposed to remove <a href="https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/states-relax-teacher-certification-rules-to-combat-shortages/2022/06">basic skills and subject matter exam requirements</a> for teacher certification. Those prerequisites have long served as <a href="https://nap.nationalacademies.org/read/10090/chapter/2">quality control checks</a> for prospective teachers. While they do not guarantee effective teaching, they do serve as a minimum qualification threshold.</p>
<p>We believe efforts to loosen requirements for new teachers will bring more disrespect to the profession. History also suggests that they will make it so that schools that serve mostly students of color will have <a href="https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/product/crdc-teacher-access-report">even fewer certified and experienced teachers</a> than they already do.</p>
<p>But more directly, these efforts to boost teacher recruitment don’t address the reasons teachers are leaving the profession in the first place, which drive <a href="https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/blog/teacher-shortages-take-center-stage">90% of the demand for new teachers</a>.</p>
<p>Lowering the standards to allow more people to enter the teaching profession may, for a short period, boost the number of people available to stand in front of classrooms. But that approach does not make teaching an attractive profession to consider, nor worthwhile for someone to stay and thrive in. Solving the teacher shortage problem requires solutions that reduce the numbers of teachers leaving the field and specifically address the lack of respect, low pay, hyperscrutiny and poor working conditions that they regularly endure.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188184/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Looser requirements for teacher certification don’t fix teachers’ problems, which are low pay, high workload and lack of respect.Henry Tran, Associate Professor of Education Leadership, University of South CarolinaDouglas A. Smith, Associate Professor of Education, Iowa State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1880812022-08-04T20:20:31Z2022-08-04T20:20:31Z‘This is like banging our heads against the wall’: why a move to outsource lesson planning has NSW teachers hopping mad<p>This week, teachers in New South Wales learned they were going to get a “<a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/teachers-to-get-helping-hand-preparing-for-lessons-20220729-p5b5sg.html">helping hand</a>” preparing lessons from the start of term 4. </p>
<p>The state’s education minister Sarah Mitchell <a href="https://education.nsw.gov.au/news/latest-news/number-one-tax-on-teachers-time-solved">announced</a> teachers will be given curriculum lesson plans, texts and learning materials to ease the pressure on their workloads. This will come via a “bank” of “high-quality, sequenced curriculum resources”. </p>
<p>Mitchell said this “game changer” has been developed off the back of teachers’ concerns. A 2021 <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Making-time-for-great-teaching-survey-results.pdf">Grattan Institute survey</a> found 88% of teachers said they could save time each week by having access to high-quality curriculum and lesson planning materials. </p>
<p>But the reaction from some teachers has been white hot, describing the change as “<a href="https://twitter.com/msciffer/status/1554193021104664576">offensive</a>”, “<a href="https://twitter.com/harlaa08/status/1553850922539032576?s=20&t=ODOR9zD1ogSykdrQijNg5w">another gimmick</a>” and “<a href="https://twitter.com/aliceleung/status/1553836623942815744?s=20&t=ODOR9zD1ogSykdrQijNg5w">not enough</a>”. </p>
<p>As education researchers who have been been <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/00221856221094887">surveying teachers</a> about their heavy and increasing workload, we can understand why they are angry.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1553836623942815744"}"></div></p>
<h2>Our research</h2>
<p>In 2018, we <a href="https://www.nswtf.org.au/files/18438_uwis_digital.pdf">surveyed</a> more than 18,000 NSW teachers to get a better understanding of workloads in schools. </p>
<p>Noting this was done well before COVID and the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/346670576_Teachers'_work_during_the_COVID-19_pandemic_Shifts_challenges_and_opportunities">new pressures that increased teachers workloads</a>, classroom teachers in our survey reported working 55 hours a week. Nearly 90% of respondents said teaching and learning was hindered by their heavy workload. </p>
<p>Teachers said they wanted more time for their core work, which included lesson planning. Developing strategies to meet the needs of students and planning new lessons and programs were the top ranked work activities needing more time and resources. About 97% said administrative demands, including data work, reporting and compliance paperwork, had increased in recent years, causing their excessive workload. </p>
<p>It is important to note that wanting more time for lesson planning is not the same as wanting lesson plans to be provided.</p>
<p>In fact, teachers ranked “planning and preparation of lessons” as their most important, necessary and desired work activity. This was echoed by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/104598631263/posts/pfbid0ob4rTdTPNnYtoTzw2YXhPPLrti81cC7jAPmbWBL5LCqRCX7t7eqEd8YuVvJjxXKkl/">one teacher</a> on Facebook this week, responding to the NSW government announcement: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>This is like banging our heads against the wall. We don’t need lesson plans made for us. We like doing this, planning awesome lessons is one of my favourite things to do.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>What do teachers want?</h2>
<p>When we asked teachers <a href="https://www.nswtf.org.au/files/18438_uwis_digital.pdf">what strategies they wanted to ease their workloads</a> provision of lesson plans did not rate a mention. Instead, they said they wanted more time to collaborate with each other, and less time on unnecessary paperwork. They also wanted their professional judgement to be acknowledged. </p>
<p>Or, as another frustrated Facebook commenter <a href="https://www.facebook.com/104598631263/posts/pfbid0ob4rTdTPNnYtoTzw2YXhPPLrti81cC7jAPmbWBL5LCqRCX7t7eqEd8YuVvJjxXKkl/">interpreted this week’s change</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Teachers: “we want to spend less time doing admin tasks and more time planning our classes”</p>
<p>NSW gov: “here. Have some lessons. Now go do some more admin”</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Who will plan lessons now?</h2>
<p>The plan, according to the NSW government, is for “qualified organisations to partner with” the Department of Education to create this online curriculum content. There is already a <a href="https://nswliberal.org.au/Shared-Content/News/2022/New-firming-tender-to-ensure-energy-reliabilit-(2)">competitive tender process</a> to find external providers for the lesson plans. The resources need to ready by the start of next term, in early October. </p>
<p>This taps into <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13384-017-0246-7">existing concerns</a> about commercialisation of schools, and teachers having less autonomy over what to teach and how to teach it. It also strikes at the heart of teachers’ core professional identity.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-tech-giant-apple-trying-to-teach-our-teachers-186752">Why is tech giant Apple trying to teach our teachers?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This is not helped by Mitchell’s <a href="https://www.nsw.gov.au/media-releases/quality-time-mid-year-update">comment</a> that the new curriculum resources bank is about “about providing teachers with a basic recipe for student success, while allowing them to contextualise how they use the ingredients to get the best outcomes for their students.”</p>
<p>This “basic recipe” concept undermines the complexity of teaching and the lesson planning process. Lessons need be planned and tailored to individual classes and individual students within them. </p>
<p>As another teacher <a href="https://www.facebook.com/104598631263/posts/pfbid0ob4rTdTPNnYtoTzw2YXhPPLrti81cC7jAPmbWBL5LCqRCX7t7eqEd8YuVvJjxXKkl/">noted</a> on Facebook:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Having access to high quality resources is great. But we’ve all used the same resource with two different classes and had different levels of success. What works for one class or even one student, doesn’t necessarily work for another. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>What should be happening instead</h2>
<p>In education circles there has been discussion of the need for national libraries for <a href="https://www.learntechlib.org/p/32391/">online teaching resources</a> and <a href="https://www.gie.unsw.edu.au/putting-students-first">assessments</a> for more than a decade. The national <a href="https://www.scootle.edu.au/ec/p/about">Scootle</a> database is one such example, with a wide range of resources and lesson ideas that can be developed into lesson plans. </p>
<p>There is potential for repositories to strengthen the profession, but surely that is only if they are produced and quality-assured by teachers.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/no-wonder-no-one-wants-to-be-a-teacher-world-first-study-looks-at-65-000-news-articles-about-australian-teachers-186210">No wonder no one wants to be a teacher: world-first study looks at 65,000 news articles about Australian teachers</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>We know Australian teachers have an unreasonable and unsustainable workload. But we can’t fix this issue by diminishing their professional standing. </p>
<p>Teachers want less time on administration and more time to do their actual jobs. They <a href="https://www.nswtf.org.au/files/gallop_inquiry_fact_sheet.pdf#:%7E:text=Gallop%20Inquiry%20Fact%20Sheet%20Background%20on%20the%20inquiry,principals%20and%20how%20it%20has%20changed%20since%202004.">also deserve</a> better pay. </p>
<p>Ultimately, they want their skills and profession to be acknowledged and respected.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188081/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>As part of a formal University research contract Rachel Wilson received research funding from NSW Teachers Federation to conduct the study reported here
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>As part of a formal University research contract Susan McGrath-Champ received research funding from NSW Teachers Federation to conduct the study reported here.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jessica Amy Sears and Mihajla Gavin do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>This week, NSW teachers learned they were going to get a “helping hand” preparing lessons from the start of term 4Rachel Wilson, Associate Professor in Education, University of SydneyJessica Amy Sears, Lecturer, Charles Sturt UniversityMihajla Gavin, Senior Lecturer, University of Technology SydneySusan McGrath-Champ, Professor, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1853942022-06-27T19:51:23Z2022-06-27T19:51:23ZWhat does equity in schools look like? And how is it tied to growing teacher shortages?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470988/original/file-20220627-17-xlnih3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5244%2C3522&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When Prime Minister Anthony Albanese declared victory on election night, he said he <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-22/anthony-albanese-acceptance-speech-full-transcript/101088736">wanted to unite Australians</a> around “our shared values of fairness and opportunity, and hard work and kindness to those in need”. </p>
<p>So what would this look like in Australian schools? Schools, after all, are where a society that believes in fairness and opportunity must begin. Equity involves more than <a href="https://theconversation.com/still-waiting-for-gonski-a-great-book-about-the-sorry-tale-of-school-funding-178016">fairly funding schools</a>. </p>
<p>It is about matching teachers’ passion with the respect, time, resources and conditions that enable them to do what they signed up to do: make a difference in students’ lives.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/almost-60-of-teachers-say-they-want-out-what-is-labor-going-to-do-for-an-exhausted-school-sector-183452">Almost 60% of teachers say they want out. What is Labor going to do for an exhausted school sector?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Based on <a href="https://www.monash.edu/education/research/projects/qproject">our research</a> into quality use of evidence do drive quality in education, I suggest equity, hard work and kindness should underpin school policy in three ways.</p>
<h2>1. Ensure fairness in funding</h2>
<p>The first priority is fairness in funding. It has been ten years since the <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/parliamentary_business/committees/senate/school_funding/school_funding/report/a03">Gonski review proposed</a> a more equitable approach to school funding. The goal was to ensure differences in students’ educational outcomes are not the product of differences in wealth, income or power.</p>
<p>Since then, the approach has been diluted and gone backwards.</p>
<p>While resourcing to schools increased by over A$2 billion over a decade, the Grattan Institute <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/news/lopsided-funding-gives-more-public-money-to-private-schools/">found</a> that once wage growth is taken into account, private schools received over 80% of this extra funding despite educating less than 20% of Australia’s most disadvantaged students.</p>
<p>COVID-19 <a href="https://theconversation.com/almost-60-of-teachers-say-they-want-out-what-is-labor-going-to-do-for-an-exhausted-school-sector-183452">has intensified</a> disparities that are hard-baked into Australia schooling through the historical <a href="https://theconversation.com/still-waiting-for-gonski-a-great-book-about-the-sorry-tale-of-school-funding-178016">segregation of schools</a>.</p>
<p>The basis of the reform therefore needs to be reviewed. As then Prime Minister Julia Gillard, a former education minister, effectively tied a hand behind the government’s back by committing to the principle that <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/education/no-gonski-nirvana-why-australia-s-most-ambitious-education-reforms-have-failed-20220215-p59wpj.html">no school would lose funding</a> as a result of the reforms.</p>
<p>This distorted Gonski’s needs-based aspiration.</p>
<p>The needs-based funding that needs to be directed to public schools for them to be fully funded according to the Gonski model equates to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/mar/13/the-gonski-failure-why-did-it-happen-and-who-is-to-blame-for-the-defrauding-of-public-schools">more than $1,000 per student each year</a>. But ensuring all schools get a fair share of public funding is only a part of the challenge.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449433/original/file-20220302-17-sn3bo7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Chart showing shortfalls and excesses in School Resource Standard (SRS) funding by state and territory, 2018-2023" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449433/original/file-20220302-17-sn3bo7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449433/original/file-20220302-17-sn3bo7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=719&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449433/original/file-20220302-17-sn3bo7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=719&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449433/original/file-20220302-17-sn3bo7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=719&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449433/original/file-20220302-17-sn3bo7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449433/original/file-20220302-17-sn3bo7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449433/original/file-20220302-17-sn3bo7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.dese.gov.au/national-school-resourcing-board/resources/review-needs-based-funding-requirements-final-report-december-2019">Source: Review of needs‑based funding requirements: final report, December 2019/DESE</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/still-waiting-for-gonski-a-great-book-about-the-sorry-tale-of-school-funding-178016">Still 'Waiting for Gonski' – a great book about the sorry tale of school funding</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>2. Reward those who choose to teach</h2>
<p>A second priority relates to fairly rewarding the hard work of teachers. This should include incentives to enter the profession, and better pay and working conditions to keep them there.</p>
<p>Teacher shortages are <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-education-minister-jason-clare-can-fix-the-teacher-shortage-crisis-but-not-with-labors-election-plan-184321">reaching critical levels</a>. Modelling in Queensland, for example, shows <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/mar/16/queensland-to-have-one-of-nations-worst-teacher-shortages-modelling-suggests">a 25% decline</a> in state high school teaching graduates over five years. Secondary school enrolments are predicted to increase by 13% over the same period.</p>
<p>As Southern Cross University education professor Pasi Sahlberg notes, teachers “<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-education-minister-jason-clare-can-fix-the-teacher-shortage-crisis-but-not-with-labors-election-plan-184321">start excited and depart exhausted</a>”.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-education-minister-jason-clare-can-fix-the-teacher-shortage-crisis-but-not-with-labors-election-plan-184321">New Education Minister Jason Clare can fix the teacher shortage crisis – but not with Labor's election plan</a>
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<hr>
<p>During the campaign, <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/labor-to-pay-highachievers-up-to-12000-a-year-to-study-as-school-teachers-at-university/news-story/8ba0f18569b2842842b123e45c7e370e#:%7E:text=High-achieving%2520students%2520would%2520be%2520paid%2520up%2520to%2520%252412%252C000,they%2520receive%2520an%2520ATAR%2520of%252080%2520or%2520more.">Labor promised</a> high-achieving students would be <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/high-achievers-to-get-up-to-12k-a-year-to-become-teachers-under-labor-20220508-p5ajj8.html">paid up to $12,000 a year</a> to study education to lift teacher standards.</p>
<p>“We want to make sure our kids get the best education they can. That means we have to make sure they get the best-quality teaching,” Albanese said. </p>
<p>Labor also announced plans to double the number of high-achieving students enrolling in teacher education over the next decade, from around 1,800 a year at present to 3,600.</p>
<p>Also, about 5,000 students who receive an Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) of 80 <a href="https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/labor-to-recruit-more-high-achievers-into-education-20220508-p5ajjg">will be able to get</a> an annual $10,000 payment over their four-year degree. An extra $2,000 a year has been promised to students who commit to teach in regional areas – the worst affected by teacher shortages.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1523454888214396928"}"></div></p>
<p>Providing incentives like these might work – particularly as <a href="https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/labor-to-recruit-more-high-achievers-into-education-20220508-p5ajjg">only 3% of high achievers</a> in Australia select teaching for undergraduate study. Contrast this to the 19% who select science for undergraduate study.</p>
<p>Three decades ago, <a href="https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/labor-to-recruit-more-high-achievers-into-education-20220508-p5ajjg">about ten times this proportion</a> of high achievers chose to study teaching.</p>
<p>But, unlike other fields such as agriculture, such rankings are <a href="https://www.aare.edu.au/blog/?p=3608">less reliable as predicators of performance</a> in education. It is <a href="https://www.aare.edu.au/blog/?p=3608">rightly argued</a> that other skills, such as high-level interpersonal skills, are important to the quality of teaching, alongside high-level literacy and numeracy.</p>
<p>We need to be thinking more boldly and expansively about how we can inspire and assess people to enter the profession.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/three-charts-on-teachers-pay-in-australia-it-starts-out-ok-but-goes-downhill-pretty-quickly-122782">Three charts on teachers' pay in Australia: it starts out OK, but goes downhill pretty quickly</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>3. Make schools better for teaching</h2>
<p>But even if such measures might attract new teachers, attrition rates are also concerning.</p>
<p>Educators persistently indicate they are <a href="https://www.agsa.org.au/research/australian-principal-occupational-health-safety-and-wellbeing-survey-riley-et-al-2021/#:%7E:text=The%2520annual%2520Australian%2520Principal%2520Occupational%2520Health%252C%2520Safety%2520and,per%2520week%2520in%25202020%252C%2520while%2520twenty%2520per%2520cent%25E2%2580%25A6">suffering stress</a>, burnout, abuse from parents and excessive workload, which takes away from teaching students.</p>
<p>Increased workload pressures mean they have less time to focus on teaching students. It ultimately drives many out of teaching.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-21/nsw-teachers-to-strike-over-pay-and-conditions-next-week/101171092">Strikes</a> for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jun/14/nsw-education-department-launches-legal-action-against-teachers-union-over-may-strikes">better pay in New South Wales</a> in relation to the government’s 2.5% wage cap for public servants are on one level about fair pay, but also reflect deeper concerns about working conditions.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/read-the-room-premier-performance-pay-for-teachers-will-make-the-crisis-worse-185406">Read the room, Premier. Performance pay for teachers will make the crisis worse</a>
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<hr>
<p>Teachers do not feel respected. A <a href="https://www.monash.edu/thank-your-teacher">2020 study</a> found nearly three-quarters of educators felt underappreciated.</p>
<p>The challenge of keeping teachers in the profession therefore entails much more than pay. <a href="https://theconversation.com/higher-salaries-might-attract-teachers-but-pay-isnt-one-of-the-top-10-reasons-for-leaving-177825">Research</a> has shown salary ranks after factors such as commitment to the profession, job satisfaction and positive relationships with students and colleagues. The most common reasons for leaving include workloads, being unappreciated, stress and burnout from years of struggle in substandard conditions.</p>
<p>Fostering excellence in teaching is therefore not just about attracting quality candidates, nor is it only about paying them at the right level once they become teachers. It’s about respecting their judgment and professionalism, as well as supporting them throughout their careers.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/higher-salaries-might-attract-teachers-but-pay-isnt-one-of-the-top-10-reasons-for-leaving-177825">Higher salaries might attract teachers but pay isn't one of the top 10 reasons for leaving</a>
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<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1173340747384414215"}"></div></p>
<p>Even though pay might be poor <a href="https://theconversation.com/three-charts-on-teachers-pay-in-australia-it-starts-out-ok-but-goes-downhill-pretty-quickly-122782">in comparison with other professions</a> and the workload overwhelming, educators continue to teach because they are driven by a deep, passionate moral purpose to make a difference in kids’ lives.</p>
<p>We understand the challenges. Let’s hope kindness, fairness and a clear moral purpose drive the policy of Australia’s new government to address current problems as well as deeply embedded historical legacies.</p>
<p>The Albanese government has a tough, complex job – not unlike teaching.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185394/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lucas Walsh does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Difficulties in attracting and retaining teachers have a lot to do with the conditions they find themselves working in. Here are 3 ways to develop a school system that’s fairer and better for all.Lucas Walsh, Professor and Director of the Centre for Youth Policy and Education Practice, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1854062022-06-26T19:58:32Z2022-06-26T19:58:32ZRead the room, Premier. Performance pay for teachers will make the crisis worse<p>Without fail, every time a politician is tasked with reforming education, the issue of performance-based pay for teachers is put on the table. It’s odd, really, that such a controversial idea can keep making the rounds with such enthusiasm from government leaders. But that’s exactly what New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrottet has announced as part of his platform to reform education. </p>
<p>The policy is being framed as innovative and designed to “modernise the education system”, <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/performance-pay-revamped-school-hours-premier-flags-education-reforms-20220617-p5aula.html">according to</a> the premier.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/almost-60-of-teachers-say-they-want-out-what-is-labor-going-to-do-for-an-exhausted-school-sector-183452">Almost 60% of teachers say they want out. What is Labor going to do for an exhausted school sector?</a>
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<p>The proposal has drawn swift criticism. The two largest teachers’ unions in the state – the NSW Teachers Federation and the Independent Education Union of Australia (NSW/ACT) – <a href="https://twitter.com/AGavrielatos/status/1539088183211991040?s=20&t=GRCN-r2YCzxNFm5l7tiIWg">unanimously voted</a> to strike for 24 hours this Thursday, June 30, in the dispute about pay and staff shortages. It’s the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-21/nsw-teachers-to-strike-over-pay-and-conditions-next-week/101171092">first time</a> members of the two unions will strike together.</p>
<p>It is unclear whether the premier anticipated this sort of response, but a brief look at how similar proposals have been received in the past suggests it isn’t very surprising.</p>
<p>The proposal ignores everything we have learned about why teachers are leaving the profession. We know they are leaving because of <a href="https://www.monash.edu/thank-your-teacher/docs/Perceptions-of-Teachers-and-Teaching-in-Australia-report-Nov-2019.pdf">unbearable workloads, low morale and stagnant pay</a>. </p>
<p>Performance pay will not resolve the fundamental problems that lead to teachers leaving. It does risk making matters worse.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/higher-salaries-might-attract-teachers-but-pay-isnt-one-of-the-top-10-reasons-for-leaving-177825">Higher salaries might attract teachers but pay isn't one of the top 10 reasons for leaving</a>
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<h2>What’s the evidence on performance pay?</h2>
<p>What do we know about similar efforts to introduce performance pay for teachers? There is a lot of international evidence to draw upon. Unfortunately, the evidence paints a grim view of what performance pay might look like in the Australian context.</p>
<p>To begin, what is performance pay? And why do government leaders keep proposing it as a solution for school reform? </p>
<p>Performance-based pay is built on a simple premise: good teachers should be financially rewarded for excellent teaching. The idea is that teachers will be motivated to try harder, perform better and produce better outcomes.</p>
<p>This might sound like a great idea. Don’t we want good teachers to be compensated for their exceptional performance? According to decades of research, however, there are many problems with this premise.</p>
<p>First of all, we know that the best teaching occurs when teachers are able to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13540602.2019.1639499?journalCode=ctat20">collaborate</a>, share and learn from one another. This only happens when teachers have the time, but also the motivation, to work together. </p>
<p>Performance pay, on the other hand, is based on a model of competition. Only the best will receive financial rewards. Others will miss out.</p>
<p>Creating this kind of competitive environment has been <a href="https://theconversation.com/performance-pay-for-teachers-will-create-a-culture-of-fear-and-isolation-59736">detrimental to collegiality, trust and morale</a> among teachers. At a time when teachers are already finding their <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00049441221086654">workloads unbearable</a>, adding a layer of competition is the last thing that will help keep them in the classroom. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/performance-pay-for-teachers-will-create-a-culture-of-fear-and-isolation-59736">Performance pay for teachers will create a culture of fear and isolation</a>
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<h2>It requires a level playing field, which doesn’t exist</h2>
<p>One area that most performance pay research is clear about is that such policies require very specific conditions to be effective. At the same time, this research shows that achieving perfect conditions is <a href="https://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisaproducts/pisainfocus/50328990.pdf">nearly impossible</a>. </p>
<p>The only way to make performance pay fair is to create a perfectly level playing field for all teachers. Of course, this is unrealistic. Classrooms are messy, complex environments. </p>
<p>Students have varied backgrounds, different levels of privilege and diverse needs.
Teachers are expected to teach all students, regardless of the circumstances. </p>
<p>However, research has shown us time and again that different levels of advantage have a significant influence on outcomes. When teachers teach in schools or classrooms with high concentrations of disadvantage, it is often harder for them to demonstrate achievement growth.</p>
<p>On the flip side, experts also warn of “<a href="http://www.asasrms.org/Proceedings/y2008/Files/301495.pdf">ceiling effects</a>”. When teachers teach high concentrations of high-performing students, they also struggle to demonstrate learning growth. </p>
<p>In one notorious <a href="http://vamboozled.com/help-florida-teacher-luke-flint-tell-his-story-about-his-vam-scores/">case</a> in the US, a teacher lost out on performance pay because he taught high-performing students. His students had already performed so well that this left little room for growth in achievement. This teacher went “backwards” because students didn’t achieve their predicted scores – some better than perfect – under the state’s value-added model (VAM).</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Florida’s value-added model of performance pay penalised teachers of high-performing students.</span></figcaption>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/making-better-use-of-australias-top-teachers-will-improve-student-outcomes-heres-how-to-do-it-131297">Making better use of Australia's top teachers will improve student outcomes: here's how to do it</a>
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<h2>Decades of work haven’t solved these problems</h2>
<p>These are just some of the issues that have to be resolved before performance pay can be considered a viable option. School systems around the world have been trying to do so for decades, with limited success.</p>
<p>What we have learned from these attempts is that performance pay is based on narrow measures of quality that inevitably lead to poor teaching practice. Not only is the policy outdated and ineffective, but international evidence shows performance pay damages teacher morale and collegiality. </p>
<p>At a time when teachers are leaving the profession in droves, this policy proposal threatens to make current conditions even worse. Now is not the time to take an already precarious workforce and impose policies we know have had damaging effects elsewhere.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185406/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jessica Holloway receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rafaan Daliri-Ngametua and Sarah Langman do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Paying good teachers more sounds like a great idea. The problem is the research on performance pay shows it’s counterproductive – and inflicting it on a system in crisis is terrible timing.Jessica Holloway, Senior Research DECRA Fellow, Institute for Learning Sciences and Teacher Education, Australian Catholic UniversityRafaan Daliri-Ngametua, Lecturer in Education, Australian Catholic UniversitySarah Langman, PhD Candidate, Institute for Learning Sciences and Teacher Education, Australian Catholic UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1834512022-06-02T20:18:36Z2022-06-02T20:18:36ZTeachers’ stress isn’t just an individual thing – it’s about their schools too<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465187/original/file-20220525-20-lulkre.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C7%2C5184%2C3437&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Stress is common among teachers, and <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11218-022-09686-7">recent</a> <a href="https://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/handle/2123/21926">reports</a> suggest it’s getting worse. We need to understand the sources of this stress to improve support for teachers. Growing <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/mar/16/a-perfect-storm-government-forecasts-shortfall-of-1700-teachers-in-nsw">teacher shortages</a> in Australia underscore the need for this support.</p>
<p>It is also important to identify whether there are patterns of stress experienced by individuals and groups of teachers within a school. This knowledge will tell us whether support for teachers should be targeted individually or to a teaching staff more broadly.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/almost-60-of-teachers-say-they-want-out-what-is-labor-going-to-do-for-an-exhausted-school-sector-183452">Almost 60% of teachers say they want out. What is Labor going to do for an exhausted school sector?</a>
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<p><a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/360482088_Teacher_and_school_stress_profiles_A_multilevel_examination_and_associations_with_work-related_outcomes">Our study</a> involving 3,117 teachers at 225 Australian schools shows sources of stress do vary among individual teachers. At the same time, the school environment – workloads, student behaviour and expectations of teachers – appears important. At some schools the stress experiences of individuals mirror those of the teaching staff more broadly. </p>
<p>So managing stress is not just the responsibility of individual teachers. Schools have an important role to play in developing a workplace that helps to minimise their teachers’ stress.</p>
<h2>What are the sources of teachers’ stress?</h2>
<p>In <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/360482088_Teacher_and_school_stress_profiles_A_multilevel_examination_and_associations_with_work-related_outcomes">our study</a>, published in <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0742051X22001330">Teaching and Teacher Education</a>, we examined three common sources of stress at work to see how these affect well-being among individual teachers and across a whole school teaching staff.</p>
<p>These three sources of stress are:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>workload stress – teachers’ sense they have too much lesson preparation, instruction or marking work in the time available to them</p></li>
<li><p>student behaviour stress – teachers’ sense that student behaviour is overly disruptive or aggressive</p></li>
<li><p>expectation stress – teachers’ sense that professional/registration bodies and parents are placing very high or unrealistic expectations on them.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>We first examined how the three sources of stress co-occur among teachers to identify teacher stress profiles. That is, we wanted to see if there are distinct types of teachers who experience similar patterns across the three sources. For example, are there teachers with low or high levels of all three sources of stress, and are there teachers who have mixed levels of the sources of stress?</p>
<p>Next, we wanted to ascertain whether different types of schools are identifiable as being more or less stressful based on the make-up of their teacher stress profiles. That is, we set out to identify different school profiles.</p>
<p>Once we had identified teacher and school profiles, we examined whether the different profiles were linked with work strain and work commitment. Work strain refers to the adverse outcomes of stressful work – such as feeling highly stressed and reduced mental or physical health. Work commitment refers to teachers’ attachment to their profession. </p>
<p>Ideally, teachers experience low strain at work, but high commitment.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/teachers-cant-keep-pretending-everything-is-ok-toxic-positivity-will-only-make-them-sick-175431">Teachers can't keep pretending everything is OK – toxic positivity will only make them sick</a>
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<h2>What teacher profiles did we find?</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/360482088_Teacher_and_school_stress_profiles_A_multilevel_examination_and_associations_with_work-related_outcomes">Our analysis</a> used data from the OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (<a href="https://www.oecd.org/education/talis/">TALIS</a>) 2018. We identified five teacher profiles:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>low-burden profile (7% of teachers in our sample) displaying very low levels of all three stressors</p></li>
<li><p>mixed-burden-workload profile (15%) displaying below-average workload stress, very low student behaviour stress and low expectation stress</p></li>
<li><p>mixed-burden-behaviour profile (19%) displaying low workload stress, below-average student behaviour stress and low expectation stress</p></li>
<li><p>average-burden profile (41%) displaying slightly above-average levels of all three stressors</p></li>
<li><p>high-burden profile (18%) displaying high workload stress and very high student behaviour and expectation stress.</p></li>
</ul>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466482/original/file-20220601-49429-xhye11.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Teacher profiles according to the combination of levels of workplace stress, student behaviour stress and expectation" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466482/original/file-20220601-49429-xhye11.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466482/original/file-20220601-49429-xhye11.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466482/original/file-20220601-49429-xhye11.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466482/original/file-20220601-49429-xhye11.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466482/original/file-20220601-49429-xhye11.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466482/original/file-20220601-49429-xhye11.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466482/original/file-20220601-49429-xhye11.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The five teacher stress profiles reflect their experience of the combined impacts of workplace stress, student behaviour stress and expectation stress.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0742051X22001330">Collie & Mansfield 2022</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Looking at links between profiles and outcomes, the low-burden profile and the two mixed-burden profiles generally displayed the lowest work strain and highest work commitment.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/higher-salaries-might-attract-teachers-but-pay-isnt-one-of-the-top-10-reasons-for-leaving-177825">Higher salaries might attract teachers but pay isn't one of the top 10 reasons for leaving</a>
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<h2>What school profiles did we find?</h2>
<p>We then examined how these teacher profiles are distributed in schools. We identified three school profiles:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>workload-oriented-climate profile (17% of schools in our sample) composed mostly of teacher profiles with high workload stress, but also a sizeable proportion displaying lower stress</p></li>
<li><p>behaviour-oriented-climate profile (23%) composed mostly of teacher profiles with high student behaviour stress, but also a sizeable proportion displaying lower stress</p></li>
<li><p>higher-pressure-climate profile (60%) composed mostly of teacher profiles with above-average to high levels of all three sources of stress.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Teachers who collectively displayed the highest levels of work strain tended to work in higher-pressure-climate schools. Levels of work commitment were also lowest among teachers in those schools. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-and-schools-australia-is-about-to-feel-the-full-brunt-of-its-teacher-shortage-174885">COVID and schools: Australia is about to feel the full brunt of its teacher shortage</a>
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<h2>What does this mean for teachers and schools?</h2>
<p>One notable finding was the differentiation between workload stress and student behaviour stress in two teacher profiles and two school profiles. Some teachers and schools were higher in student behaviour stress. Others were higher in workload stress. And other profiles had similar levels of all types of stress.</p>
<p>These results suggest sources of stress at work are not necessarily specific to the individual, but reflect a broader school climate as well. So, teachers’ stress isn’t just an individual issue – some schools are more stressful places to work.</p>
<p>In practice, it is important that teachers have their own strategies to manage stress. At the same time, our findings suggest schools and educational systems should be aware of teachers’ collective experiences of stress and provide school-wide supports.</p>
<p>To reduce workload stress, <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JEA-06-2013-0073">research</a> suggests supportive mentors are helpful. It’s also helpful to develop professional learning communities to share the loads of lesson preparation and marking moderation. </p>
<p>Reducing workload across the school is also critical. Decreasing teachers’ face-to-face teaching time and administrative tasks have been <a href="https://www.nswtf.org.au/inquiry">suggested</a> as ways to do this. </p>
<p>Providing <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14616734.2012.672286">professional learning opportunities</a> to develop teachers’ classroom management skills might help reduce student behaviour stress. </p>
<p>A positive learning climate at school is also important. When students feel supported and are more engaged in their learning, they are less likely to be disruptive. In particular, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2021.1994127">research</a> suggests it is important that all students feel cared for, have opportunities to succeed in their learning, and are given a say in content and tasks in the classroom. </p>
<p>Finally, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/JEA-09-2018-0185">research</a> suggests school leaders can help reduce expectation stress by seeking out teachers’ perspectives and conveying their trust in them as professionals. Likewise, positive school-home partnerships can help ensure teachers, school leaders, students and parents are aligned in their goals.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183451/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rebecca J Collie receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Caroline F. Mansfield does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>High-stress schools undermine teachers’ commitment and risk losing even more from the profession at a time of growing staff shortages. But schools can take steps to reduce the causes of stress.Rebecca J. Collie, Scientia Associate Professor of Educational Psychology, UNSW SydneyCaroline F. Mansfield, Executive Dean, Faculty of Education, Philosophy and Theology, University of Notre Dame AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1754312022-02-06T19:06:22Z2022-02-06T19:06:22ZTeachers can’t keep pretending everything is OK – toxic positivity will only make them sick<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442859/original/file-20220127-12-seexgx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C598%2C3083%2C2059&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As children return to schools across the country, the outlook for teachers is bleak. </p>
<p>The spread of Omicron will make <a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-and-schools-australia-is-about-to-feel-the-full-brunt-of-its-teacher-shortage-174885">chronic staff shortages</a> worse and has added to teachers’ responsibilities. They must now be COVID wardens, while supporting the many students whose mental health has <a href="https://headspace.org.au/assets/Uploads/COVID-Client-Impact-Report-FINAL-11-8-20.pdf">suffered during the pandemic</a> – not to mention teachers’ concerns for their own health. </p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-and-schools-australia-is-about-to-feel-the-full-brunt-of-its-teacher-shortage-174885">COVID and schools: Australia is about to feel the full brunt of its teacher shortage</a>
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<p>All of this is piling pressure on teachers who already had <a href="https://www.aare.edu.au/blog/?p=11725">unmanageable workloads</a>. In a national survey for the <a href="https://www.austcolled.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/NEiTA-ACE-Teachers-Report-Card-2021.pdf?mc_cid=3c49ed5cee&mc_eid=8c326867cc">2021 NEiTA-ACE Teachers Report Card</a>, many reported very high workplace stress. </p>
<p>Teachers said their workloads were “massive”. Their work-life balance was “less than ideal or non-existent”. They felt “overworked, burnt out and undervalued”.</p>
<p>Teachers are increasingly dissatisfied with the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-12-06/nsw-public-school-teachers-on-strike-tuesday-explainer/100676358">unreasonable demands</a> created by their work conditions. </p>
<p>A typical week includes piles of marking, planning learning for an increasingly diverse student cohort and responding to parent emails and phone calls, which can take hours. </p>
<p>Administrative and compliance tasks also consume teachers’ time. They must collect, analyse and report on student performance data. They are expected to document all student misbehaviour, welfare and well-being concerns as they struggle to keep their classrooms safe, inclusive and enjoyable places to learn. </p>
<p>Then there are the endless meetings, staff briefings and professional development, while delivering an over-prescriptive and crowded curriculum so students meet national achievement standards. </p>
<p>One teacher in Perth told us: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The expectations are impossible to live up to. We want to help our students and do all that is asked of us but often I face hostility and distrust from students and their parents or carers. </p>
<p>"After teaching for over 15 years this all has a cumulative effect. I’ve struggled with feelings of disillusionment and burn-out. Sometimes I think that my well-being goes unnoticed or is dismissed as unimportant.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>One of us <a href="https://theconversation.com/teachers-are-expected-to-put-on-a-brave-face-and-ignore-their-emotions-we-need-to-talk-about-it-153642">wrote</a> last year about the <a href="https://eprints.qut.edu.au/137261/1/Bellocchi_Emotions_and_Teacher_Education.pdf">emotional labour</a> of teachers who have to manage, suppress or feign their emotions as part of their work. They “put on a brave face” and ignore their emotions to get through the daily ups and downs of school life. But it can be exhausting.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/teachers-are-expected-to-put-on-a-brave-face-and-ignore-their-emotions-we-need-to-talk-about-it-153642">Teachers are expected to put on a brave face and ignore their emotions. We need to talk about it</a>
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<p>Many teachers who have since contacted us are sick of pretending they are “doing OK”. They are deeply concerned that school administrators are pushing them to be unrealistically positive, despite <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/House/Employment_Education_and_Training/TeachingProfession">evidence</a> to a federal parliamentary inquiry that workloads and stresses are eroding teachers’ well-being across the country. </p>
<p>With tears in her eyes, one very experienced teacher in Canberra described a particularly violent student bullying incident at her school. The police were involved and many staff were traumatised. </p>
<p>However, her school’s leaders required her not to talk about the incident, despite the stress it caused. More than a year later, the staff have had no opportunity to debrief with one another about it.</p>
<p>The teacher said the leaders’ priority was protecting the school’s “brand”, rather than to help staff confront the obvious challenges they faced. They were expected to cultivate a “positive attitude” and “be quiet” about “any negativity”. </p>
<h2>What is toxic positivity?</h2>
<p>Toxic positivity has emerged as a significant force in the lives of teachers in Australia. Education administrators are reshaping workplace values and practices to maintain employees’ positivity, happiness and optimism in the face of irrefutable evidence that everything is not great.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-avoid-toxic-positivity-and-take-the-less-direct-route-to-happiness-170260">How to avoid 'toxic positivity' and take the less direct route to happiness</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<p>Positivity in a workplace setting is not inherently toxic to our mental health. However, <a href="https://www.uow.edu.au/the-stand/2021/what-is-toxic-positivity-.php">psychological researchers</a> are calling out the dangers of being persistently optimistic when our experiences are clearly and objectively anything but positive. </p>
<p>This happens in schools when administrators urge teachers to look on the bright side or find the opportunities in challenging work conditions. In doing so, schools sideline the issue of workplace stress by policing negative comments and ignoring difficult issues raised by staff. </p>
<p>Administrators are consumed by the positive spin. They offer staff professional development facilitated by “wellness consultants” who teach self-care strategies, such as doing yoga, to maximise well-being and minimise negativity.</p>
<h2>Is this sort of positivity ethical?</h2>
<p>In a recent <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00131857.2021.2016390">research article</a>, we theorised about the ethics of positivity in education. We criticised the “positive movement”, typified by “happiness scientists” and self-help literature, which purports to make us all “lastingly happy”. We liken this pop psychology to the snake oil charlatans of the past.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-rise-of-pop-psychology-can-it-make-your-life-better-or-is-it-all-snake-oil-158709">The rise of pop-psychology: can it make your life better, or is it all snake-oil?</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<p>We found that during a teacher’s university training positive emotions are seen as a highly productive way to build relationships with students. They are regarded as an important signal that a teacher is being ethical and professional. </p>
<p>Positive emotions can support teaching and learning practices and help teachers maintain their energy. However, we argue when relentless positivity takes hold in schools to deny negative experiences or stressors, there can be unethical and dangerous consequences for teachers. These include demoralisation and emotional fatigue, which contribute to teachers <a href="https://www.aare.edu.au/blog/?p=6669">leaving the profession</a>. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/exhausted-beyond-measure-what-teachers-are-saying-about-covid-19-and-the-disruption-to-education-143601">'Exhausted beyond measure': what teachers are saying about COVID-19 and the disruption to education</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Smiling man and woman holding yoga mats high-five each other" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442862/original/file-20220127-24-2n0l9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442862/original/file-20220127-24-2n0l9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442862/original/file-20220127-24-2n0l9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442862/original/file-20220127-24-2n0l9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442862/original/file-20220127-24-2n0l9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442862/original/file-20220127-24-2n0l9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442862/original/file-20220127-24-2n0l9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A culture of relentless positivity that offers strategies of ‘self-care’ such as yoga rather than acting on teachers’ real concerns can do more harm than good.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>We need collective care for a shared problem</h2>
<p>Teachers are experiencing what we term “collective emotional labour”. Forces such as the COVID pandemic and chronic staff shortages have put enormous pressure on teachers collectively. This means they need to work on their emotional well-being as a co-operative network, rather than as individuals.</p>
<p>Individual strategies of self-care to support workplace stress are exactly that, an individual concern. When it comes to teachers’ shared concerns, they need meaningful collective strategies of support and care.</p>
<p>School administrators and teachers should come together to put aside the platitudes of “keeping positive”. They need to find space and time to share and respond to their emotional concerns. </p>
<p>Teachers will then feel they are being heard and that their emotions are valid because their school culture is open, understanding and realistic about their experiences and stress. This is by no means the cure-all for the troubles of schools and the profession. But it is an essential starting place in these times of collective uncertainty and stress.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/175431/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Many teachers are sick of pretending they are “doing OK”. They feel pressured to be unrealistically positive in the face of irrefutable evidence that everything is not great.Saul Karnovsky, Lecturer & Bachelor of Education (Secondary) Course Coordinator, Curtin UniversityBrad Gobby, Senior Lecturer in Curriculum, Curtin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1756332022-01-30T10:04:10Z2022-01-30T10:04:10ZTeachers don’t have enough time to prepare well for class. We have a solution<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442873/original/file-20220127-22-1vc27jt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/education-school-teacher-student-digital-tablet-405849895">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Almost all teachers (92%) in <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/report/making-time-for-great-teaching-policies-for-governments">our study</a> out today said they don’t have enough time to prepare effectively for classroom teaching – the core of their job.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/report/making-time-for-great-teaching-policies-for-governments">Grattan Institute surveyed</a> 5,442 Australian teachers and school leaders across all states and territories, primary and secondary schools, and government and non-government schools. The survey was about teachers’ use of time.</p>
<p>Teachers told us they are too stretched to do everything we ask of them. When teachers aren’t supported to do their jobs well, teaching quality suffers and students lose out.</p>
<p>Beyond preparation for effective teaching, 86% of teachers reported they didn’t have time for high-quality lesson planning.</p>
<p><strong>Teachers say they don’t have time to prepare well for lessons</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442868/original/file-20220127-26-11d9roy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442868/original/file-20220127-26-11d9roy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442868/original/file-20220127-26-11d9roy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442868/original/file-20220127-26-11d9roy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442868/original/file-20220127-26-11d9roy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442868/original/file-20220127-26-11d9roy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442868/original/file-20220127-26-11d9roy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442868/original/file-20220127-26-11d9roy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://grattan.edu.au/report/making-time-for-great-teaching-policies-for-governments">2021 Grattan survey on teachers’ time</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our findings consistently show many teachers feel overwhelmed by everything they are expected to achieve. One teacher told us: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>[There is] not enough planning time to allow for how responsive we need to be to students’ needs.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Many teachers, especially at disadvantaged schools, said they get too little support to help struggling students.</p>
<p>And many teachers point to heavy requirements relating to writing reports, communicating with parents and supporting student welfare. One teacher said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Administration time takes up most of planning time – such as communication to parents, newsletters, displays, notes, permission slips, phone calls and talking to students about well-being issues.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Teachers’ struggle with workload is not caused by a lack of effort – Australian teachers work hard. <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/websitedbs/censushome.nsf/4a256353001af3ed4b2562bb00121564/census">Census data</a> show teachers in Australia work about 44 hours a week on average – much more than the 40 hours of general professionals. </p>
<p>Australian teachers’ working hours are high by international standards, too. <a href="https://research.acer.edu.au/talis/6/">OECD data</a> show Australian secondary teachers work an average of 45 hours a week, compared to the international average of 40 hours. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/exhausted-beyond-measure-what-teachers-are-saying-about-covid-19-and-the-disruption-to-education-143601">'Exhausted beyond measure': what teachers are saying about COVID-19 and the disruption to education</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Our survey also found school leaders are aware of the pressure on teachers’ time, but feel powerless to do much about it. </p>
<p>We cannot expect each of the 9,500 schools around Australia to solve these challenges on their own. Governments must step up. Our report, <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/report/making-time-for-great-teaching-policies-for-governments">Making time for great teaching</a>, recommends governments adopt three reform directions.</p>
<h2>1. Find ways other school staff can take on non-teaching work</h2>
<p>Governments need to better match teachers’ work to their expertise. To do this, they should find better ways to use the wider schools workforce, including support and specialist staff, to help teachers focus on effective teaching. </p>
<p>Significant numbers of support and specialist staff have been added to schools over the past few decades. But governments have not tracked the best way to deploy and use them well. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442881/original/file-20220127-14-1c4c9lh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442881/original/file-20220127-14-1c4c9lh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442881/original/file-20220127-14-1c4c9lh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442881/original/file-20220127-14-1c4c9lh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442881/original/file-20220127-14-1c4c9lh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442881/original/file-20220127-14-1c4c9lh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442881/original/file-20220127-14-1c4c9lh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442881/original/file-20220127-14-1c4c9lh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Administrative staff includes teacher aides and assistants. Specialist staff support students or teaching staff – this includes school counsellors and speech pathologists.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/labour/employment-andunemployment/labour-force-australia-detailed-quarterly/latest-release">Grattan analysis of ABS 2020, Schools, Australia, 2019 (and previous years)</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In our survey about 68% of teachers agreed support staff could cover their extra-curricular activities. We estimate this would free up an additional two hours a week for teachers.</p>
<h2>2. Help teachers reduce unnecessary tasks</h2>
<p>Teachers consistently say they feel overburdened by administration. Streamlining administration where possible is important. But there are also significant opportunities to improve how teacher time is spent on core teaching-related work.</p>
<p>According to the OECD’s Teaching and Learning International Survey <a href="https://www.oecd.org/education/talis-2018-results-volumei-1d0bc92a-en.htm#Data">(TALIS)</a>, Australian teachers spend about one-third of their time each week on core teaching activities such as correcting student work, preparing for lessons, teamwork and professional development. </p>
<p>This is four times as much as the time spent on general administration (8%), so any improvements in core teaching work could potentially free up large amounts of time.</p>
<p><strong>Teachers don’t spend enough time actually teaching</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442871/original/file-20220127-14-dc68cw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442871/original/file-20220127-14-dc68cw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442871/original/file-20220127-14-dc68cw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442871/original/file-20220127-14-dc68cw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442871/original/file-20220127-14-dc68cw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442871/original/file-20220127-14-dc68cw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442871/original/file-20220127-14-dc68cw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442871/original/file-20220127-14-dc68cw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lower secondary teachers in Australia. General administrative work includes communication, paperwork and other clerical duties. Percentages may not add up to 100 due to rounding.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://grattan.edu.au/report/making-time-for-great-teaching-policies-for-governments">Grattan analysis of OECD (2019)</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Lesson preparation is one of the key activities teachers do weekly. Yet more than half of teachers say this involves a lot of searching for and creating their own curriculum unit and lesson plans, assessments and classroom resources. This work eats up a lot of time and is a significant barrier to teachers feeling prepared for the classroom. </p>
<p>Almost 90% of teachers agreed that having high-quality common resources for curriculum and lesson planning would help reduce their planning burden. This would free up an extra three hours a week.</p>
<h2>3. Rethink how teachers’ work is organised</h2>
<p>Policy decisions and industrial agreements shape the fundamental ways teachers’ work is organised in schools. For example, they set the number of face-to-face teaching hours required each week, the number of students in each class and expectations about the work teachers do during term breaks.</p>
<p>Governments should ensure school leaders have the flexibility to rethink teachers’ work in ways that open up more preparation time. For example, school leaders should have the flexibility to make small increases in class sizes (say by two to three students). Most teachers said they were in favour of slight increases in class sizes in exchange for two hours of extra preparation time each week. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/making-better-use-of-australias-top-teachers-will-improve-student-outcomes-heres-how-to-do-it-131297">Making better use of Australia's top teachers will improve student outcomes: here's how to do it</a>
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<p>School leaders should also have flexibility to schedule more structured preparation and planning activities in non-term time. In our survey 58% of teachers agreed working together for two or three extra days before each term could reduce their workloads during term.</p>
<p><strong>Teachers agreed with several reforms</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442885/original/file-20220127-16-1bu8sm0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442885/original/file-20220127-16-1bu8sm0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442885/original/file-20220127-16-1bu8sm0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442885/original/file-20220127-16-1bu8sm0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442885/original/file-20220127-16-1bu8sm0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442885/original/file-20220127-16-1bu8sm0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442885/original/file-20220127-16-1bu8sm0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442885/original/file-20220127-16-1bu8sm0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">(a) answers to question about moving to larger classes are from primary school teachers only.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://grattan.edu.au/report/making-time-for-great-teaching-policies-for-governments">2021 Grattan survey on teachers’ time</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What next</h2>
<p>Our report calls on Australian governments to commit to a $60 million program to investigate and pilot the concrete options, including those tested in our report, that create more time for great teaching. That investment would be a tiny fraction (less than 0.1%) of the $65 billion Australia’s governments spend each year on school. This is a small price to pay to improve the way our schools operate and ease the workload burden on teachers.</p>
<p>Making sure teachers have enough time for great teaching should be a national imperative.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/175633/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>We thank the Origin Energy Foundation for their generous support for this project.
Julie Sonnemann is also a Board Director of The Song Room, a not-for-profit organisation</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rebecca Joiner does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The demands of the job mean teachers don’t have enough time to ensure they do the best-quality teaching they can. But our new report has a plan for governments.Julie Sonnemann, Deputy Program Director, School Education, Grattan InstituteRebecca Joiner, Senior Associate, Grattan InstituteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1755172022-01-27T19:09:04Z2022-01-27T19:09:04ZOnly 1 in 3 teachers use research evidence in the classroom – this is largely due to lack of time<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442832/original/file-20220126-13-ei2f6z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/teacher-helping-young-boy-writing-lesson-107801354">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Even before the pandemic, <a href="https://www.aitsl.edu.au/research/australian-teacher-workforce-data/atwdreports">recent research</a> shows most Australian teachers worked an average of 140 to 150% (one-and-a-half times) of their paid hours in a typical week. And they’re not necessarily getting to focus on aspects of the job they believe are important, such as actual teaching. In fact, the same research shows teachers spend, on average, 1.5 times as many hours on non-teaching tasks, such as administration and compliance reporting, as they do on face-to-face teaching. </p>
<p>Adding to teachers’ workloads are <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/education-evidence/report">growing expectations</a> they will find and use research to improve their practice for the benefit of students. References to the use of research and evidence-based initiatives now feature in various state-level school improvement frameworks, such as the Victorian Department of Education and Training’s <a href="https://www2.education.vic.gov.au/pal/fiso/policy">Framework for Improving Student Outcomes (2.0)</a>, <a href="https://www.aitsl.edu.au/teach/standards">national professional standards</a>, and professional learning programs such as those provided by the <a href="https://www.academy.vic.gov.au/professional-learning">Victorian Academy of Teaching and Learning</a>. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/exhausted-beyond-measure-what-teachers-are-saying-about-covid-19-and-the-disruption-to-education-143601">'Exhausted beyond measure': what teachers are saying about COVID-19 and the disruption to education</a>
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<p>By reading and using the latest research, teachers can improve their knowledge and teaching skills concerning a number of everyday issues. These range from student well-being and school engagement to subject expertise and different teaching approaches, including online learning. But using research is complex and takes time to do well – time that teachers just don’t seem to have. </p>
<p>Over the past two years, our work at the Monash Q Project has involved <a href="https://bridges.monash.edu/articles/report/What_why_when_and_how_Australian_educators_use_of_research_in_schools/17192990">surveying and interviewing 1,725 Australian teachers</a> and school leaders from primary and secondary schools across Australia to understand how and why they use research in practice. </p>
<p>We gave them a number of survey items to respond to. Having sufficient time was a key challenge they faced. Most indicated they “did not have adequate time to engage with research” (76%) and struggled to “keep up with new research” (76%). </p>
<p>Nearly two-thirds did not believe their school provided sufficient “structured time dedicated to reading, discussing and understanding research” (63%). As such, many reported giving up their own time to engage with research.</p>
<h2>How much of their own time teachers give up</h2>
<p>One in three teachers (33%) indicated they consulted research before the start of the school year, and one in four (25%) did so during the holidays between terms. For those who also consulted research during the school term, more than two-thirds (69%) indicated they did so at home on the weekend. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442831/original/file-20220126-13-xt0wqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Woman sitting at computer at home, with cat on the window sill." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442831/original/file-20220126-13-xt0wqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442831/original/file-20220126-13-xt0wqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442831/original/file-20220126-13-xt0wqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442831/original/file-20220126-13-xt0wqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442831/original/file-20220126-13-xt0wqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442831/original/file-20220126-13-xt0wqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442831/original/file-20220126-13-xt0wqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Many teachers engage in research at home, in their own time.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/girl-student-freelancer-working-home-on-1071472322">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>In most cases teachers engaged with research for less than 30 minutes at a time. Only when teachers engaged with research at home on the weekend did they usually spend more than 30 minutes on this task. </p>
<h2>Only a small number of teachers regularly use research</h2>
<p>Many teachers also told us they didn’t <a href="https://doi.org/10.26180/14234009">have the necessary skills</a> when it came to understanding the research appropriately. For instance, 55% said they lacked confidence in “knowing where to find relevant research”, 64% in how to “analyse and interpret research” and 49% in how to “judge the quality of research”.</p>
<p>Due to time constraints and the lack of necessary skills, only a minority of teachers reported regularly using research (37%) or university-based guidance (30%) in their practice. </p>
<h2>Teachers want to use research</h2>
<p>Teachers <a href="https://doi.org/10.26180/14783637">told us using research well</a> matters, though, when it comes to doing a good job and supporting their professionalism.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1408276952469827585"}"></div></p>
<p>Most teachers indicated that using research had both “influenced their practice” (81%) and “changed their thinking” (74%) for the better. Nearly three-quarters believed research use was “critical to being a good educator” (74%). During one interview, a NSW school leader connected research use with having a teaching mindset of “professional excellence”.</p>
<p>A Queensland school leader said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[…] it would be careless and wrong professional conduct if we did not reach or try to gain as much evidence (and knowledge) about student behaviour as we could.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Teachers also believed “research would help improve student outcomes” (83%), and most felt “clear about how research could be used to change practice” (75%). This contributes to <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Role-of-Knowledge-Brokers-in-Education-Connecting-the-Dots-Between/Malin-Brown/p/book/9781138616141">growing international evidence</a> that associates teachers’ research use with learning and teaching improvements.</p>
<h2>Teachers need more time</h2>
<p>Research shows <a href="https://www.aitsl.edu.au/research/australian-teacher-workforce-data/atwdreports">one in four teachers</a> intend to leave the profession before retirement, and time is one key factor. <a href="https://www.aare.edu.au/blog/?p=9068">Australian teacher educators</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/commentisfree/2021/oct/11/australian-politicians-trust-scientists-on-covid-why-dont-they-listen-to-teachers-on-school-reform">international educators</a> are calling for teachers’ workloads, particularly administrative and compliance obligations, to be addressed.</p>
<p>To do so effectively, we must make sure teachers’ workloads are not simply reduced, but reorganised to provide time for critical professional work such as engaging with research. This change is not just important for teachers, but also for their students.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/schools-are-surveying-students-to-improve-teaching-but-many-teachers-find-the-feedback-too-difficult-to-act-on-170873">Schools are surveying students to improve teaching. But many teachers find the feedback too difficult to act on</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/175517/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joanne Gleeson receives funding from the Paul Ramsay Foundation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Blake Cutler receives funding from The Paul Ramsay Foundation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lucas Walsh receives funding from The Paul Ramsay Foundation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Rickinson receives funding from the Paul Ramsay Foundation. </span></em></p>In a survey of 1,725 Australian teachers, 86% said they “did not have adequate time to engage with research” and struggled to “keep up with new research”.Joanne Gleeson, Research Fellow in Education, Monash UniversityBlake Cutler, Research Assistant in Education, Monash UniversityLucas Walsh, Professor and Director of the Centre for Youth Policy and Education Practice, Monash UniversityMark Rickinson, Associate Professor of Education, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1708732021-11-25T19:02:11Z2021-11-25T19:02:11ZSchools are surveying students to improve teaching. But many teachers find the feedback too difficult to act on<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433667/original/file-20211124-21-uzmr5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=42%2C0%2C5565%2C3741&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/group-students-arms-classroom-115841701">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Education departments have been investing in <a href="https://www2.education.vic.gov.au/pal/data-collection-surveys/policy">feedback-based tools</a> to assess school performance. These include <a href="https://infohub.nyced.org/reports/school-quality/student-perception-survey">student perception surveys</a>, where students provide feedback on the quality of their learning and their experiences in the classroom or at school. </p>
<p>The hope is such feedback will provide teachers and other school staff with information to help foster a positive learning environment. But our <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0742051X21001608">recent study</a> shows teachers don’t know how to act on the data from the surveys, and that students question the value of them.</p>
<p>It’s one thing to invest in and gather feedback, but without the ability to act on it, the feedback is useless. Educational systems and policy-makers should support teachers to respond to feedback-based assessment data. This is particularly important in times of ongoing disruptions to school routines, which put both teachers and students under extensive pressure.</p>
<h2>How popular are student perception surveys?</h2>
<p>Australian states have been using school-level surveys like the <a href="https://qed.qld.gov.au/publications/reports/statistics/schooling/schools/schoolopinionsurvey">School Opinion Survey in Queensland</a>, the <a href="https://education.nsw.gov.au/student-wellbeing/tell-them-from-me/about-tell-them-from-me-/student-survey">Student Survey in NSW</a> and the <a href="https://education.nt.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/713340/Student-survey-FAQ.pdf">School Survey in the Northern Territory</a> for years. </p>
<p>Similarly, there is the <a href="https://www.somerville-rise-ps.vic.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/AtoSS-2020_Questionnaire_STANDARD.pdf">Attitudes to School Survey</a> in <a href="https://www2.education.vic.gov.au/pal/data-collection-surveys/policy">Victoria</a>, which asks students to rate statements such as “my teacher makes learning fun” and “my teacher uses more than one way to check we understand”.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/read-the-student-survey-responses-shared-by-academics-and-youll-see-why-professor-hambling-is-justified-in-burning-hers-167897">Read the student survey responses shared by academics and you'll see why Professor Hambling is justified in burning hers</a>
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<p>Education departments in nations such as the <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/970566/Pupil_survey_questions_-_schools_-_January_2018.pdf">United Kingdom</a> and the <a href="https://www.doe.mass.edu/edeval/evidence/feedback/surveys.html">United States</a> have also development student perception surveys to assess teaching practice. The rise of such surveys reflects a spike in <a href="https://tripoded.com/">survey companies</a> <a href="https://www.panoramaed.com/surveys">advertising their services</a> to help improve teaching and learning with data-informed insights. </p>
<h2>‘You can’t have these surveys without some kind of support’</h2>
<p>We wanted to explore the influence of such student perception surveys on teachers’ practice, as perceived by both students and teachers. </p>
<p>Our study took place in Victorian secondary schools before the pandemic. It was based on nearly 1,000 students’ surveys providing their perspectives on their experience in the classroom. </p>
<p>To measure change, we administered the surveys twice: around the beginning of the year and towards the end of the year. The study also included 14 teacher interviews, and focus groups involving 33 students.</p>
<p>Interestingly, findings showed teachers did not change their practice over time in response to student feedback.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433862/original/file-20211125-25-1dqyinl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433862/original/file-20211125-25-1dqyinl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433862/original/file-20211125-25-1dqyinl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433862/original/file-20211125-25-1dqyinl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433862/original/file-20211125-25-1dqyinl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433862/original/file-20211125-25-1dqyinl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433862/original/file-20211125-25-1dqyinl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433862/original/file-20211125-25-1dqyinl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Most teachers want to address student concerns, but often don’t know how.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/female-teacher-working-college-students-library-765915910">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>In the focus groups, some students expressed scepticism over the power of their voice to change teachers’ practices and their ability or willingness to translate the feedback into tangible actions. </p>
<p>One student told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>there are certain students who deal with certain things and teachers know that, but they don’t really do much to prevent it from happening again because they don’t know how […] they will maybe help that one student if he asks for it specifically, but they need to […] prevent it from happening again and to other students […]</p>
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<p>Another student said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I think [teachers] care about [student feedback] but like, they have too much on their mind to actually realise what they’re doing, or to realise what they need to do to change the way that they teach […]</p>
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<p>Similarly, teachers lamented their struggles to respond to their students’ needs. Expressing their hope for support from the education system, they asked for more guidance to sustain their students’ growth. As one of them explained:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Honestly, I didn’t understand what I can actually do with some of the questions […] like classroom belonging […] I went back to the kids and used that as one of those conversations where I said, ‘okay you guys have all reported that you don’t think anyone cares about you, and you don’t care about each other. What’s going on? because I watch you work together and you’re amazing […] what’s the difference between what you think and what you’re actually doing in the classroom?’ but this strategy clearly wasn’t enough […] you can’t just have these surveys without some kind of support […]</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Likewise, another teacher noted:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>How do you use this feedback and then turn that into something in the classroom? […] [I] wasn’t really too sure of how to act or to respond to it.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Some teachers opposed the surveys, seeing them as external measures that undermined their professionalism. One of them suggested: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Teachers get really pissed when they feel like their effort or approach is being attacked or negatively commented on, and it’s almost like there’s a complete shutdown, and it’s like no, you don’t need to make me feel crap about my life, I’m not going to take anything on board.</p>
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<h2>Support is key, especially during disruption</h2>
<p>Teachers and students face multiple challenges which the pandemic has exacerbated, <a href="https://research.acer.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1008&context=workforce">nationally</a> and <a href="https://www.crpe.org/sites/default/files/ep_teachers_synthesis.pdf">internationally</a>. These include family financial hardship and resource-limited study environments, <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-outrageous-and-impossible-is-that-factoring-in-how-year-12-students-coped-in-lockdown-is-a-grading-nightmare-for-teachers-162851">ethical issues</a> with remote learning anchored around student well-being, and access to technology and essential online resources. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-learning-more-important-than-well-being-teachers-told-us-how-covid-highlighted-ethical-dilemmas-at-school-144854">Is learning more important than well-being? Teachers told us how COVID highlighted ethical dilemmas at school</a>
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<p>The ongoing disruption to schools in Australia and globally has left many teachers and students in more need for emotional and instructional support. </p>
<p>As school districts weigh and debate the use of feedback-based assessment tools, they must also examine how teachers can be supported in responding to such data. </p>
<p>Equally, policy-makers and school leaders must rethink how education systems can help shape teacher education programs and provide professional learning opportunities that guide the use of assessment data to sustain teacher growth and improve student experience.</p>
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<p><em>Correction: an earlier version of this article included the name of one of the survey companies used in Australia, this has now been removed since they were not in the surveys studied.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170873/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ilana Finefter-Rosenbluh receives external funding, including from the Trawalla Foundation, the Besen Family Foundation, the Loti and Victor Smorgon Family Foundation and a Victorian government school. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Melissa Barnes and Tracii Ryan do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Education departments are increasingly investing in student surveys to improve classroom standards. But a study has found teachers don’t change their practice in response to student feedback.Ilana Finefter-Rosenbluh, Lecturer, Faculty of Education, Monash UniversityMelissa Barnes, Senior lecturer in the Faculty of Education, Monash UniversityTracii Ryan, Research Fellow (Higher Education), The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/555592016-03-11T11:12:05Z2016-03-11T11:12:05ZWhat do special educators need to succeed?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/114702/original/image-20160310-26256-lrjg42.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Why do special educators leave teaching?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/departmentofed/9606789399/in/photolist-fCViMZ-4zbX5z-8HtDk3-fD7HyE-fDcWKJ-fCVjtH-fDcTw1-fD7Hry-6ZQ2Vq-fDcVwy-fDcTZY-fDcVCy-fCP7tc-fDcUZy-fCViGz-fCVjm2-fCVo7r-fCVjWV-fCP8fp-fD6Fkw-fCVnGe-fDcUsd-fCQ9P4-fDcWu9-fCP96B-fCViac-fCViuT-a9wryw-fDcSuw-fDcWfG-fDcUGo-fCVkS6-fDcRiW-fCVkCB-7FUjPM-qvAvwK-fCVk4r-7oAbNv-4gmpPU-ehFpQt-ehFqCV-9f8rhM-r94w3t-niKAim-73kkfc-qvB6bi-raPGGy-rq5YXb-r94x8z-4DbykK">US Department of Education Follow</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A shortage of special education teachers is threatening the ability of schools in many states to provide high-quality education to students with disabilities. On a national level, 49 states identified a <a href="http://specialedshortages.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/NCPSSERS-Fact-Sheet.pdf">shortage of special education and related service personnel</a> during the 2013-14 school year. </p>
<p>In <a href="http://www.azed.gov/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/err-initial-report-final.pdf">Arizona</a>, for instance, where districts reported a 29 percent increase from 2013 to 2014 in the number of positions that remained vacant, special education was one of the areas with the highest vacancy rates.</p>
<p>Special educators serve students with significant learning and behavioral needs. To effectively serve their students, they must have sophisticated <a href="http://doi.org/10.1177/001440291007600307">knowledge and skills</a> about content, pedagogy and students’ learning. Special educators who are fully qualified in special education through a teacher preparation program provide more effective instruction, resulting in <a href="http://www.caldercenter.org/publications/what-makes-special-education-teachers-special-teacher-training-and-achievement-students">stronger achievement</a> among their students. </p>
<p>When no qualified special educator can be found, open positions may be filled by substitute teachers who are not qualified to teach at all, by prospective teachers who have not yet completed their teacher preparation or by teachers who are licensed in other areas, but have no specialized preparation for special education. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.binghamton.edu/gse/about-the-school/lmasonwilliams.html">Dr. Loretta Mason-Williams</a> from Binghamton University (SUNY) analyzed a nationally representative survey of teachers; 16 percent of special educators were <a href="http://doi.org/10.1177/0014402914551737">not certified in special education</a>. This rate was higher in high-poverty schools, which have greater difficulty attracting and retaining all kinds of teachers. </p>
<p>In this context, <a href="http://doi.org/10.1177/00224669040380010401">special education teacher attrition</a> is a major problem – for when a qualified special educator leaves, schools struggle to find a skilled replacement. </p>
<p>So the question is, why do special educators leave their schools? </p>
<h2>Here’s why we left</h2>
<p>In the mid-2000s, we began our careers in education as emergency certified teachers – that is, we were hired to teach students with disabilities through “provisional licensure programs” (such as <a href="http://www.azed.gov/educator-certification/alt-path/">this</a> one) that allowed prospective teachers to be considered highly qualified without full preparation or licensure. </p>
<p>We both served as special education teachers for students in middle and high school settings in high-poverty, urban communities – Elizabeth in Tucson, Arizona, and Kristin in New York City. </p>
<p>We served students who qualified for special education because of emotional disabilities. Most of our students had been identified with mental illnesses, such as bipolar disorder and anxiety disorders. Many had histories of trauma and abuse. </p>
<p>Our students relied on us to teach them grade-level standards in all areas. They also relied on us to teach the foundational skills they had missed, such as phonics and math facts. In addition, they relied on us to help them develop the social and behavioral skills necessary to live healthy lives and build positive relationships.</p>
<p>In other words, in our first year as uncertified teachers, we were responsible for the totality of our students’ learning experiences during the school day, for everything they needed to know to be successful in school and beyond. </p>
<p>We struggled to meet these responsibilities with sparse resources – we had few books and curricula, limited mentorship and minimal professional development opportunities. We were planning and delivering instruction in all content areas completely on our own, despite the fact that we had never been trained to do so. We knew our students needed far more than we were capable of providing.</p>
<p>We both improved our skills over time, yet within five years, we both left our schools. We were committed to our students, but we left because we knew that no matter how hard we worked, no matter how much we grew as educators, we couldn’t provide high-quality instruction in all content areas – the kind of instruction our students deserved – without better support.</p>
<p>Our failure to adequately meet our students’ needs was not our failure alone – it was the failure of an educational system that <a href="http://www.caldercenter.org/publications/power-play-teacher-characteristics-and-class-assignments">systematically</a> places unqualified teachers in classes serving students with the most significant needs. And then it fails to support them.</p>
<p>As academics, we now study the systems that lead to difficulty recruiting and retaining effective special educators, including how schools can support them, so they can better serve students.</p>
<h2>And here are stories of teachers</h2>
<p>In our research, we find that our own experiences are not unique. </p>
<p><a href="http://doi.org/10.1080/1045988X.2013.859561">In one study</a>, we interviewed eight special educators in classes for students with significant emotional disabilities. Like us, they felt deeply committed to providing high-quality instruction and being a constant source of safety for students with serious social-emotional needs.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/114711/original/image-20160310-26271-1e5u9zh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/114711/original/image-20160310-26271-1e5u9zh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114711/original/image-20160310-26271-1e5u9zh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114711/original/image-20160310-26271-1e5u9zh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114711/original/image-20160310-26271-1e5u9zh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114711/original/image-20160310-26271-1e5u9zh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114711/original/image-20160310-26271-1e5u9zh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many special educators report feeling overwhelmed by their workloads.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wwworks/2970929574/in/photolist-5wwMRG-5QYjUd-4PVgni-bwe63J-9ZhD1i-b6qZhZ-fCEK9p-9KYxbc-afqSC4-8SJaZG-5GcMRk-4euk4W-nKggE9-8aXTwH-8ru1aW-praN42-986MkC-4AtAEA-8vArz2-EwLv1-6LEVe5-9C7ADt-apRtP1-6ocszW-48fpFt-8uHtG2-DR8wEi-954epv-4KgiQw-pLHJoz-sffqf9-jCmF8V-kp78JP-4wneoW-EwYUrQ-7PfC89-fQoUzT-7Umx3a-9PBV7n-3rHCqk-6Bx6iN-8vu2ZE-jT372P-secXM-dCyydS-4tFo4x-8xRS91-3MP2S2-aBhJrq-oHuNrS">woodleywonderworks</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>They also spoke about the challenges of planning high-quality lessons in all content areas for students in multiple grade levels while meeting students’ social-emotional needs and fulfilling all of their other responsibilities as teachers, such as bus duty, lunch duty, administrative paperwork and so on.</p>
<p>These challenges left them feeling as though they were failing their students. </p>
<p>Take Diedre (name changed), an elementary school special educator. She was responsible for teaching all content areas to students in kindergarten through fifth grade. Diedre had no scheduled planning time, limited curricular resources (e.g., math and reading curriculum) and no lunch break away from her students. </p>
<p>Whereas the general education teachers in her school coplanned instruction for all students within a single grade level, Diedre was planning, completely on her own, for students in every single grade level. She didn’t have colleagues with whom she could share resources and ideas, or go to for help when a student struggled with a standard.</p>
<p>Further, she had extensive extra responsibilities – she planned professional development for all of the teaching assistants in her school, supervised afterschool activities and did bus duty, among other things.</p>
<p>In her interview with us, she shared, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>[As a consequence], I end up feeling like I’m never really doing my job, and I’m always letting the kids down.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Exhausting workloads</h2>
<p>Other studies confirm that Diedre’s experience is not unique.</p>
<p>For instance, when Dr. Susan Albrecht and her colleagues from Ball State University <a href="http://doi.org/10.1002/pits.20440">surveyed</a> 776 special educators who teach students with emotional and behavioral disabilities, they found that more than half felt they had inadequate time to fulfill their responsibilities. </p>
<p>Similarly, <a href="https://www.soe.vt.edu/tandl/Faculty/billingsley_bio.html">Dr. Bonnie Billingsley</a> from Virginia Tech and her colleagues found in their <a href="http://doi.org/10.1177/001440290407000305">analysis of a survey of new special educators</a>, more than 75 percent reported that routine duties (such as paperwork, supervising students in nonacademic activities, etc.) interfered with their teaching. </p>
<p>In a recent (not yet published) <a href="http://youtu.be/lfHewiVHm9U">study</a>, we worked with <a href="http://www.bu.edu/sed/about-us/faculty/profiles/nathan-jones/">Dr. Nathan Jones</a> from Boston University and <a href="https://education.ufl.edu/faculty/brownell-mary/">Drs. Mary Brownell</a> and <a href="https://education.ufl.edu/faculty/conroy-maureen/">Maureen Conroy</a> from the University of Florida to analyze data from a <a href="http://www.educ.msu.edu/content/default.asp?contentID=62">survey</a> <a href="https://education.ufl.edu/faculty/conroy-maureen/">Dr. Peter Youngs</a> from the University of Virginia conducted with 245 special and general educators who were in their first three years teaching in urban districts in Michigan and Indiana. </p>
<p>Unsurprisingly, teachers who felt more overwhelmed were more likely to be emotionally exhausted, and more likely to plan to leave. And, new special educators were significantly more likely to report feeling overwhelmed than new general educators.</p>
<h2>Working conditions matter</h2>
<p>A growing body of research indicates that, when teachers work in more supportive conditions, their students show better academic achievement gains.</p>
<p>For instance, when <a href="https://www.gse.harvard.edu/faculty/susan-moore-johnson">Dr. Susan Moore Johnson</a> and her colleagues at Harvard University <a href="http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.394.4333&rep=rep1&type=pdf">analyzed data</a> on all schools in Massachusetts, they found that schools in which teachers rated their administrative support and their school culture more highly had stronger student achievement gains in reading and math. This was so even when controlling for school demographic characteristics, such as the proportion of students living in poverty. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/114713/original/image-20160310-26283-11jhddr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/114713/original/image-20160310-26283-11jhddr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114713/original/image-20160310-26283-11jhddr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114713/original/image-20160310-26283-11jhddr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114713/original/image-20160310-26283-11jhddr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114713/original/image-20160310-26283-11jhddr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114713/original/image-20160310-26283-11jhddr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Being supported by skilled colleagues makes a difference.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/armymedicine/13584535514/in/photolist-mGqi8y-nWC2hy-bVWVct-5cQ6jh-9Cuz9W-9Cuzbu-FkFLh-fCt61b-fCQ8SF-fCuf1b-fCt5EE-qqXbHA-8cTFYb-8QjQDQ-8Ndz8r-fD7Gfh-bcsFf6-fCfZGp-fCuews-fD7Gby-fCdLgB-mNFmr-5kXoh2-m19ftD-7fiiqH-m19Rei-7fnb3f-dQkzik-7fiis2-m19jqM-5kXptT-5WguA-7fiiAk-5WgvA-5kXPYV-juQ4GB-m19goV-6QMzoc-m19PDe-mbStHE-6QMzkK-7fnbdS-e4HMdp-qrdkSi-m1aF6S-mbRsdr-7fnbGy-m19jFg-6QMzqZ-7fnbfC">Army Medicine</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Subsequent analyses with large data sets have obtained similar results, showing that teachers are more effective in schools in which they have <a href="http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED509680">supportive administrators</a> and <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.3102/0002831215585562">collaborative</a> <a href="http://doi.org/10.3102/0162373713519496">relationships </a> with <a href="http://doi.org/10.3386/w15202">skilled colleagues</a>. </p>
<p>Teachers whose schools had more collaborative cultures become <a href="http://doi.org/10.3102/0162373713519496">more effective more rapidly</a> than teachers whose schools were less collaborative.</p>
<p>Studies have shown that special education teachers are also more likely to want to continue teaching when they work in a culture of <a href="http://search.proquest.com/openview/75494ec66f4bab6a9660d7b3a23b3676/1?pq-origsite=gscholar">collective responsibility</a> for all students, when they can trust their colleagues and have opportunities to <a href="http://youtu.be/lfHewiVHm9U">collaborate</a> with them. </p>
<p>In our <a href="http://youtu.be/lfHewiVHm9U">study</a> of new special educators in Michigan and Indiana, we found that special educators felt less overwhelmed when their schools had cultures of collective responsibility for students with disabilities, and when they interacted with their colleagues around instruction more frequently. </p>
<h2>Teachers need support</h2>
<p>Special educators often choose to teach because of their <a href="http://doi.org/10.1177/0741932509355961">commitment</a> to serving students with more significant needs. </p>
<p>And, as we know through our research and experience, they often leave, not because of their students, but because of the unsupportive conditions in which they are expected to serve those students.</p>
<p>Retaining special educators in their schools over the course of their careers is <a href="http://doi.org/10.1177/0741932507312010">essential</a> for ensuring that students with disabilities are served by qualified and skilled special educators. </p>
<p>For that to happen, our educational system must fulfill its commitments to them – by providing them with adequate time to do their jobs, administrative and collegial support for learning to teach, high-quality professional development opportunities and the material resources necessary to teach.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/55559/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A shortage of special education teachers is threatening states’ abilities to provide high quality education for students with disabilities. Changing teachers’ working conditions can help.Elizabeth Bettini, Assistant Professor of Special Education, Boston UniversityKristin Murphy, Assistant Professor of Special Education , UMass BostonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.