Teachers have one of the most challenging, stressful, and yet rewarding jobs in the world. Teachers educate and advocate for their students. They are tasked with meeting the countless unique and diverse needs of their students leading them to successful growth and development inside and outside of the classroom. While doing so, teacher are also striving to maintain a healthy work-life balance. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated existing inequalities and disparities experienced especially by teachers of color resulting in teacher burnout and increased attrition rates. To ameliorate the negative impacts of our current educational institution on our teachers, it is necessary to advocate for fair pay and student loan benefits along with safe, inclusive learning and working environments. Education policies supporting and funding teachers across the United States should be formulated with the voices and expertise of educators. Supporting teachers on local, state, and federal levels is vital and teacher attendance is mandatory. I will cover teacher's experiences during COVID-19, managing stress and burnout, supporting teachers through educational policies, and provide information on key resources to become involved.
The most persistent effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the education system is the shortage of teachers. The field of education is face with the needs to recruit and retain teachers. Schools are losing teachers through retirement and attrition. Teachers, historically, leave the profession in the first five years of teaching. However, teachers with more than 10 or 20 years of experience leave the teaching profession to pursue an alternative career. Factors such as relatively low pay, burnout, and increasingly difficult and stressful working conditions affect teacher attrition.
Teachers are not only responsible for their students’ education, but rather their socialization in which teachers facilitate social and emotional development. Society tasked teachers to take on more responsibilities without the proper support, recognition, or resources. This leads to newly hired teachers who are temporary and unqualified. Classrooms have been combined, and there are more students than the teachers can effectively manage.
During the pandemic, teachers were shocked and thrown into disarray. This profoundly affected the lives of teachers. First and foremost, the pandemic restricted close contact in fears of spreading the virus. This means that classrooms around the nation, around the world are closed. E-learning became mandatory across all levels of the education system. Teaching online became part of “the new normal” for students and teachers. In a study from Reich et al. (2020), 40 teachers nationwide in different grade levels and subject areas from public, charter, and private schools were interviewed. Reich et al. discovered three major themes from their conversations with these teachers. The first is student motivation. Teachers had struggled to motivate their students due to the online format of learning. The second is professional loss and burnout. Teachers are more accustomed and familiar to teaching in-person, inside classrooms. With the loss of face-to-face contact, teachers lost a fundamental sense of their personal efficacy and professional identity. The third and final major theme reported by Reich et al. is exacerbated inequities. The teachers’ sense of loss became more profound as they witnessed the intensification of existing societal inequalities affecting their students’ lives. This study shares the experiences of these teachers and plans for building resilience through center equity, focus on relationship-building, build student motivation, address staff motivation and burnout and mitigate uncertainty.
It is vital that these voices and stories are shared to affect change and advance justice in the field of education. School board members are one of the sources of authority that create, adopt, and implement educational policies and regulations. However, teachers, parents, and citizens alike, are urged to write, call, or schedule meetings with your local school board members or superintendents to raise your questions, comments, concerns, or compliments.
The Tenth Amendment limits federal involvement in education. Most educational policy is determined at the state and local levels. I’d like to share some resources to become informed about educational policies and to become involved in actively supporting teachers and their success.
The California School Boards Association represents elected officials who govern public school districts and where school board members complete training annually to advocate for public education in local communities and media. Their four pillars are to strengthen local governance, secure fair funding, improve the conditions of children, and ensure the achievement of all. This includes preparing effective teachers and staff. Highly qualified and supported teachers create effective and successful learning and working environments.
The California Department of Education provides information on Transforming California Schools: Superintendent’s (Tony Thurmond) Initiatives. It covers Professional Learning: Supporting Our Teachers and Mentors, Anti Bias Education: Preventing, Addressing, and Eliminating Racism and Bias, and Mental Health Support: A Healthy Mind Is Essential for Learning.
The National Education Association is the largest labor union representing over three million teachers, faculty, and college students entering the teaching profession. The NEA heavily supports and advocates across the United States for teachers rights, fair pay and benefits, student debt support, and inclusive workplaces.
The United States Department of Education provides education policies in each state. Federal education initiatives can also be tracked.
References
Reich, J., Buttimer, C. J., Coleman, D., Colwell, R., Faruqi, F., & Larke, L. R. (2020, July). What’s Lost, What’s Left, What’s Next: Lessons Learned From The Lived Experiences Of Teachers During The Pandemic. Retrieved from https://edarxiv.org/8exp9
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