Who is responsible for teacher wellbeing? Teacher wellbeing is a hot topic, as it should be. Teaching has been tough, teachers are tired, and yet teachers are essential as they make learning happen.
Who is responsible for the wellbeing of teachers?
But, who is responsible for the wellbeing of teachers?
Daniela Falecki
Director, Lecturer, Teacher, Teacher Wellbeing
Employee wellbeing is increasingly being prioritised in organisations especially with the launch of new psychological health and safety standards requiring workplaces to prevent and minimise psychological harm caused by working conditions.
This is typically led by Human Resource (HR) professionals. Schools, however, do not necessarily have a dedicated team of trained HR professionals. Instead, the wellbeing of employees in schools is typically left to one person
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to lead wellbeing initiatives, that generally place the responsibility on individuals to make better self-care decisions.
turn impacts me. By exploring this model, schools are able to better think about, discuss, and plan for wellbeing in schools.
While individuals do have a role to play in their own wellbeing, it is more complicated than this.
Instead of blaming individuals or blaming the organisation, what if we considered the factors that impact our wellbeing across all three layers and then planned ways to promote wellbeing across all three layers. This becomes a more strategic approach to workplace wellbeing.
For teachers to be well at work, it requires a partnership between both individuals and the organisation. The reality is, no matter how much exercise you do, or how often you meditate, if the workload and working conditions are unreasonable, it will impact a person’s wellbeing. The OECD (2020) defines teachers’ occupational well-being as; “Teachers’ responses to the cognitive, emotional, health and social conditions pertaining to their work and their profession”. It’s not what happens at work, but how we respond to what is happening. They go on to highlight three factors that impact the wellbeing of teachers;
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Professional factors – expectations and workload (policies - US)
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Situational factors – colleagues, supervisors (relationships - WE)
3.
Personal factors – selfcare, home commitments (individuals - ME)
This takes an ecological approach to create a ME, WE, US model for addressing teacher wellbeing. Self-care (ME) impacts how I show up in relationships (WE) and this in turn impacts the system (US). Vice versa, the system can impact relationships which in
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We can begin with three questions; US – How and when will we review workplace systems to ensure they are helpful and meaningful? WE – How can we encourage positive and supportive relationships with students, parents and colleagues? ME – How can we encourage people to practise self-care? By reflecting on wellbeing across these three layers we can categorise stressors into three distinct areas instead of placing them all in one group. By doing so, we are able to identify what we can control and make pro-active decisions that promote wellbeing. With this understanding everyone in the organisation is better placed to have meaningful conversations about who is responsible for wellbeing. Find out how Daniela can help you build a staff wellbeing strategy for your school at teacher-wellbeing.com.au Term 1, 2023 | school-news.com.au