Julie has been teaching two years. She is unsure whether to keep going. On a good day, she feels like she do it forever. On a bad day, she’s ready to quit tomorrow.
What will sway her to stay? It might be an encouraging conversation with a parent, a click moment for a student, or a supportive meeting with her mentor. But what will sway ten Julies, or a thousand? Swaying her matters: to individual teachers, who may thrive or burn out; to schools, who risk losing effective teachers; and to students, whose education can suffer as a result. This post proposes a simple but promising intervention to increase wellbeing and combat burnout: to keep Julie feeling like she can do this forever.
What’s the desired change?
What makes the difference between a good and a bad day for Julie? Whether we strive or struggle at work depends on the balance between the demands we face (tasks to complete, pressure we’re under) and our resources (stimuli and support). Three resources* seem important:
- Self-efficacy – feeling we are doing our job well
- Social support – feeling that others are there to support us
- Purpose – feeling that our work is worthwhile
It’s easy to lose sight of these on a hard day. For example, teachers’ sense of personal accomplishment seems to be much lower than among similar professionals (Garcia-Carmona et al., 2019). On one level, that’s absurd: every teacher is helping at least some students make meaningful progress every lesson. On another level, it makes sense: with thirty students, each with slightly different needs, and when we never have enough time, every lesson is a fresh opportunity to feel like we’re failing.
So what will make a difference for Julie? Recalling her competence: recalling that the first lesson today may not have gone well, but she did manage to explain multiplying fractions and ensure every student got it. Recalling the support available, through a quick catch up with her colleagues or some practical help. Recalling that her job matters, by reminding herself of a student to whom she has made a difference. Boosting any one of these feelings should increase Julie’s ability to cope with the demands on her, and to thrive in the profession. But how to remind her of these things? And how remind a thousand Julies?
How can we help Julie recall her strengths?
An exciting study shows that small interventions can make a big difference to individuals’ resources in high-pressure situations. Researchers sent six emails, over six weeks, to emergency service call handlers asking them to share experiences related to the professional accomplishments of their colleagues. At the end of six weeks, they displayed lower burnout symptoms than a control group; four months later, they were less likely to have resigned (Linos et al., 2019). Inviting individuals to identify successes has shown a positive impact among healthcare workers and teachers (Chan, 2011; Ilies et al., 2011).
My hope is that this model could be applied to email Julie – and others – weekly for six weeks. The right message should boost her feeling of self-efficacy, social support and purpose – and help her to thrive. Three things convince me this is worth pursuing:
- Nudges which help people see a situation differently can have a lasting impact. For example, convincing students that everyone struggles at the start of university, and that they will get over it, increased their grades, and boosted their happiness three years later (I reviewed a number of such interventions and their application in schools here) .
- Self-persuasion is particularly powerful: asking people to tell us they’re doing well, rather than telling them that they’re doing well (Aronson, 1999): ‘saying is believing’. A message which asks Julie to describe a success – and the chance to share that success with other teachers – may be particularly powerful.
- The limited demands this places on individuals and schools: I’m proposing sending six emails in a half term. No one has to read them, but if they do and they respond, it’s still a three-minute job. Even if this only influences a handful of teachers, it costs no one to participate.
Conclusion
My reasoning runs:
- Teachers are under pressure – we need ways to mitigate this
- Nudges boosting professionals’ resources have worked elsewhere
- It’s worth trying this for teachers
This won’t transform a school or address every teacher’s needs. But I think it could make meaningful difference to teachers like Julie, who are on the cusp between concluding the day has been a disaster or has been a partial success. And the costs (in time and money) are so low that if it helps just a handful of individuals, it will be worthwhile.
I’m excited about what this could do for teachers and for students. If you are too, and are interested in your school taking part, please sign up here.
If you found this interesting, you may enjoy
This post on nudging students to see the situation differently
This post on managing the demands we face as teachers, and our time
This post explaining why these resources seem particularly important to teachers
Caveats
*Why focus on resources? Strategies to reduce burnout may be personal (boosting resources or reducing demands) or organisational (likewise), or a combination. I’m focusing on boosting resources because in my current role, I can do little to limit resources or mandate organisational restructuring. Since both personal and organisational strategies can be effective, this seems justified (Awa et al., 2010). But if I were a senior leader in a school, my priorities might be different.
Is this a way to encourage people to stay in unhealthy environments? I hope not. If a teacher cannot get the support they need from leaders and colleagues, I hope they’ll move somewhere more supportive. But teaching is intrinsically demanding, even in a supportive environment: lots of students students, a busy day, limited time to support one another. I’m working on this project, not to keep teachers going in the face of unreasonable demands but to help them cope with unavoidable challenges of teaching.
References
Aronson, E. (1999). The power of self-persuasion. American Psychologist, 54(11), pp.875-884.
Awa, W.L., Plaumann, M. and Walter, U., (2010). Burnout prevention: A review of intervention programs. Patient education and counseling, 78(2), pp.184-190.
Chan, D.W., (2011). Burnout and life satisfaction: Does gratitude intervention make a difference among Chinese school teachers in Hong Kong?. Educational Psychology, 31(7), pp.809-823.
García-Carmona, M., Marín, M.D. and Aguayo, R., (2019). Burnout syndrome in secondary school teachers: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Social Psychology of Education, 22(1), pp.189-208.
Ilies, R., Keeney, J., & Scott, B. A. (2011). Work-family interpersonal capitalization: Sharing positive work events at home. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 114: pp.115–126.