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Taking Care of Teachers

by Patty Freedman

Want to prioritize self-care and wellbeing? You are not alone. Google searches for “teacher burnout” peaked last year to reach its highest level in 10 years. In this month’s newsletter we explore educator burnout, bringing you research and tips so you can have more tools to manage wellbeing. Keep reading for EQ research and resources you can use for you, your faculty and students.

What’s in this edition:

🔴 Thinking About: Wellbeing

🟡 Research says: Burnout is off the charts

🟢  Try it Yourself: Self-care circle

🔵  Mark your calendar: Wellbeing Events for Educators – will you join us?

🔴 Thinking About: Wellbeing

When many of us think about wellbeing, we usually consider the deficits in our lives. We are not getting enough sleep, not enough time for exercise, rarely see our friends and can’t seem to catch up at work. Basically we are always on the treadmill to burnout. Researcher Kelly McGonigal (The Upside of Stress) defines stress as a situation where we perceive too many demands and not enough resources – time, money, energy – to meet them.

But what if we could flip the definition of wellbeing to our ability to bring our best self, our full energy and commitment to the situation at hand. Knowing that there will never be enough– how can we bring what we’ve got and be fully engaged? McGonigal also hypothesizes that by changing our attitudes towards stress, we can transform stress from a toxic experience to a positive one.Read more about McGonigal’s tips here. Could we do the same thing about wellbeing with this reframe? Can you imagine the possibilities?! Let us know what you think about this idea!

🟡 RESEARCH SAYS: Burnout is off the charts

Educators, particularly those of BIPOC identities, are facing an unprecedented level of challenge in terms of emotional wellbeing. Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the political and social upheaval of recent years have all taken a toll on educators’ mental health. Educational need support for their own wellbeing so they can care for themselves and support the wellbeing of students under their stewardship:

• A RAND study with the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers found U.S. teachers and principals are experiencing frequent job-related stress at a rate about twice that of the general population of working adults. Well-being is reported as particularly poor among Hispanic/Latinx teachers, mid-career teachers, and female teachers and principals.
• The 2022 survey by NEA and RAND Corporation found that 36% of teachers of color experienced at least one incident of racial discrimination in the 2020-2021 school year. Forty-three percent of teachers exposed to discrimination reported symptoms of depression, compared with 25 percent of their peers who had not experienced any incidents.
• The 2022 Teacher Wellbeing Index found that 59% of staff have considered leaving the sector in the past academic year due to pressures on their mental health and wellbeing, and that 78% of all staff experienced mental health symptoms due to their work.
• Mental Health America’s 2023 report found: Over 1 in 10 youth in the U.S. are experiencing depression that is severely impairing their ability to function at school or work, at home, with family, or in their social life. 16.39% of youth (age 12-17) report suffering from at least one major depressive episode (MDE) in the past year. 11.5% of youth (over 2.7 million youth) are experiencing severe major depression. But most (57.3%) youth with severe depression do not receive any care, and in the U.S., there are an estimated 350 individuals for every one mental health provider.

🟢 TRY IT YOURSELF: Self-care circle

Self care doesn’t just happen. You have to make plans. Try this activity to bring more attention to different aspects of your self-care. For this you’ll need a pen and your journal or piece of paper.

• Draw a large circle and divide it into four equal quadrants.
• Label the outside of each quadrant: “mental”, “physical”, “emotional”, and “spiritual.”
• Take a deep breath and then exhale– relax into this moment of reflection. 
• Write inside each quadrant what you have done in the last week (or month) to take care of yourself in that space. 
• If you are challenged by the “spiritual” section– consider your purpose or Noble goal. How have you taken care of that aspect of yourself?
• Next, ask yourself how your can take the next step. Write a goal to further self-care in one or all the quadrants.
• Be concrete and specific in your goals so you can accomplish them.

This activity is adapted from our friends at Greater Good Science Center. Find the activity here.

🔵 MARK YOUR CALENDAR: Free Wellbeing Events for Educators – will you join us?

Aug 10: Revealing new global trends in emotional intelligence with guest panelists from WHO and UNICEF (watch the livestream recording)

Aug 29: Self-Care Livestream: Solutions for Educator Wellbeing. Get practical strategies to sustain motivation and wellbeing this year

Multiple dates: EQ Educator: Essentials for SEL consists of three virtual classes, each class includes two online virtual sessions plus eLearning.

Multiple dates: Get started on the certification pathways with either “Unlocking EQ” or “EQ Educator”

Multiple dates: EQ Café, Optimism & Trust

For more on EQ and Education, I recommend: