Teacher Identities and Wellbeing Notes

Teacher Identities and Wellbeing

Teacher Wellbeing and Workload

  • Teacher Well-Being Depends on Workload, School Climate and Feeling Supported | EdSurge News

  • Discussion of compensating extra hours for teachers.

  • Argument for compensating regular work.

  • Distinction between regular work and extra work.

  • Reasons for addressing teacher wellbeing: labor reasons and teacher health.

  • Question: Why focus on teacher wellbeing specifically?

Teacher Wellbeing

  • Schools need to find creative ways to focus on teacher well-being without adding to their workload.

  • Framework for teacher well-being: job satisfaction, individual elements (physical health), and school-level drivers (work-life balance, class size).

Teacher Wellbeing and Student Success

  • Clear connection between teacher and student wellbeing and academic outcomes.

  • Teachers are the most important factor contributing to students' academic and non-academic outcomes.

  • Question: Do teachers have a significant impact on student wellbeing outcomes?

Stages of the Teacher Career

  • Understanding different career phases can improve teacher retention.

  • Six professional life phases:

    • Years 0-3: Developing efficacy, handling workload, forming teacher identity.

    • Years 4-7: Building identity and effectiveness, facing workload and support challenges.

    • Years 8-15: Role and identity changes (e.g., parenthood), potential doubt or plateau.

    • Years 16-23: Balancing personal responsibilities with work, potential decline in motivation if paired with career stagnation. Increased motivation tied to good results and career opportunities.

    • Years 24-30: Commitment to profession until retirement, potential flagging morale due to health or loss of purpose.

    • Years 31+: Retirement in sight, maintaining commitment or feeling trapped.

Increasing Wellbeing and Decreasing Attrition

  • Effective school leadership, supportive colleagues, and strong personal support networks contribute to agency, resilience, and commitment.

  • Teachers need to be driven by values, especially care for students' learning, achievement, and wellbeing.

  • Teachers need to be knowledgeable and lifelong learners, adapting to changes like AI.

  • Valuing and supporting teachers' professional learning is crucial.

Discussion: Supporting Teacher Wellbeing

  • Factors to reduce teacher turnover: school leadership, supportive colleagues.

  • Valuing learning, achievement, and wellbeing of students.

  • Teachers who care, are knowledgeable, and are lifelong learners.

  • Supporting teachers in their professional learning.

  • Question: How to hire or create environments that support these qualities?

Teacher Identity and Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR)

  • Teacher identity matters to what and how we teach.

  • YPAR involves students as participants in their own learning and in educating others.

  • Positive impact on educational and socioemotional development of students.

  • Contributes to the wellbeing of teachers and students.

Research on YPAR

  • Positive outcomes:

    • Increased motivation, engagement, and positive action in youth communities.

    • Positive and transformative identity and academic development.

    • Critical explorations and critiques of power, privilege, and oppression in K-12 schools.

    • Creative use of research findings by students of color to transform urban schools.

  • Traditional K-12 schools can be sites of epistemic inequities, curricular violence, and hierarchies.

Teacher Learning Through YPAR in Their Teaching

  • Educators voluntarily attend IP with YPAR experience to engage students in community-based research.

  • Relationships exist between educators’ histories/experiences, identities/values, and their YPAR practice.

  • Teachers experience tensions when practicing YPAR in traditional K-12 institutions.

  • Findings are evident in teachers' reflections, classroom observations, interviews, and students' experiences.