Why Teachers Need to Care about Self-Care
Have you ever thought about self-care? Do you practice self-care now? Unfortunately, self-care was never part of my vocabulary, so when I left teaching in December 2015 due to professional burn-out, I never thought about my own needs. When I returned to teaching in November 2017, I knew that I needed to practice self-care. This post discusses what I have learned about teacher self-care and the information shared in a December 7, 2018 TESL Ontario webinar. I also include some valuable insights and comments from more than 80 participants who took part.
Teaching is a profession that requires giving of one’s self to make a difference for others. The chronic use of empathy and depletion of emotional resources are strongly associated with emotional exhaustion and/or professional burnout (Maslach, Schaufeli & Leiter, 2001). Large classes, continuous enrollment, precarious work, multiple workloads and administrative responsibilities contributes to stress. Teachers have the highest levels of job stress and burnout across many countries (Stoeber & Renner, 2008)
Many factors contribute to teachers’ stress including increased legislative regulations, changing educational standards, few professional development opportunities, and a lack of planning time, support and resources (Acton & Glasgow, 2015, Spilt, Koomen & Thijs, 2011). Without self-care, teachers are at risk of emotional exhaustion and/or professional burn-out.
Self care: not a luxury
I strongly believe that self-care is not an indulgence but the key to sustaining the joys and rewards of our teaching practice. Self-care is defined as skills and strategies used to maintain personal, familial, emotional, and spiritual needs while attending to the needs and demands of others (Newell & MacNeil, 2016).
What is self care?
Webinar participants contributed the following ideas about self-care:
- being able to turn off and rest
- time for yourself, finding outlets
- doing something you enjoy
- reflecting, time with nature
- taking care of my needs first, me time
- peace and maintaining balance
- stress reduction and being aware of my personal limitations
Warning signs of burn-out
It is important for educators to be aware of the warning signs of burn-out such as fatigue, mood swings, depression and loss of empathy. In my own case, I was aware of some of the warnings signs before I left teaching in 2015; however, I did not associate them with the process of burning out. There were other personal issues that I was facing at the time so I associated my exhaustion to those events. However, as Skovholt & Trotter-Mathison (2011) suggest, self-care is even more important during “personal crisis or excessive stress” (p. 129). (Christine Maslach has conducted extensive research in the area of burn-out and has designed a survey for educators which is available at https://www.mindgarden.com/331-maslach-burnout-toolkit-for-educators).
In next week’s blog I will continue the discussion on self-care offering ideas to incorporate self-care into your life.
References
Acton, R., & Glasgow, P. (2015). Teacher wellbeing in neoliberal contexts: A review of the literature. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 40(8)
Cherkowski, S., & Walker, K. (2018). Teacher Wellbeing. Noticing, Nurturing, Sustaining and Flourishing in Schools. Word & Deed Publishing, ON
Maslach, C., Schaufeli, W. B., & Leiter, M. P. (2001). Job burnout. Annual Review of Psychology, 52, 397-422. http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.397
Newell, J., & MacNeil, G. (2010). Professional Burnout, Vicarious Trauma, Secondary Traumatic Stress, and Compassion Fatigue: A Review of Theoretical Terms, Risk Factors, and Preventive Methods for Clinicians and Researchers. Best Practices in Mental Health, Vol. 6 (2) Lyccum Books
Skovholt, T. M., & Trotter-Mathison, M. (2011). The resilient practitioner: Burnout prevention and self-care strategies for counselors, therapists, teachers, and health professionals, second edition. (2nd Edition ed.) New York, NY: Taylor and Francis. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203893326
Stoeber, J., & Rennert, D. (2008). Perfectionism in school teachers: Relations with stress appraisals, coping styles, and burnout. Anxiety, Stress, & Coping, 21, 37-53.
Spilt, J.L., Koomen, H.M. & Thijs, J.T. (2011). Teacher well-being: The importance of teacher-student relationships. Educational Psychology Review, 23(4)
Patrice Palmer, M.Ed., M.A., TESL has 20 years’ experience as an ESL Teacher, TESL Trainer, and Curriculum Writer in Canada, including 7 years in Hong Kong. Patrice has taught students from age 8 to 80 years in ESP, EAP, LINC, ELT, and OSLT.
