Teaching can be extremely rewarding.
However, teaching can ALSO be exhausting, stressful, overwhelming, and anxiety-inducing, especially after the challenges posed by COVID.
The job is huge. Managing student behaviour, meeting curriculum requirements, marking assignments, dealing with parents, endless administrative tasks, lesson plans, meetings, meetings, meetings and that’s before lunch on Mondays. Work-related stress anybody?
On top of all this, it’s challenging for any caring and empathic teacher not to be emotionally impacted by some of the student issues they encounter, especially in the aftermath of COVID.
It’s hardly surprising that getting a peaceful night’s sleep feels like a Herculean task.
A report released in 2023 by the Black Dog Institute found:
- Half of Australian teachers were considering leaving the profession within 12 months, largely due to burnout.
- 60% of teacher absences were due to mental health or emotional problems, many rooted in work-related stress.
- The percentage of teachers suffering from anxiety and stress is alarmingly higher than the general public, and even more pronounced after COVID.
Professor Aliza Werner-Seidler, Head of Population Mental Health at the Black Dog Institute, UNSW, writes:
‘‘It’s clear teachers are not finding the mental health support that they need. Teacher wellbeing doesn’t only affect teachers. Research has shown teacher wellbeing can also have an impact on students’ academic and emotional outcomes….’
A study published in the American Psychological Association Journal of Educational Psychology echoed the importance of managing work-related stress…the emotions experienced by teachers deserve attention by administrators and policy makers particularly in light of of teachers’ high attrition rate in countries around the world.
Findings of the study emphasized:
- Emotionally positive classrooms allow teachers to best fulfill their teaching responsibilities and maintain their own emotional well-being.
- The level of student enjoyment was directly related to the level of enthusiasm and enjoyment expressed by the teacher.
A 2016 study identified burnout as the primary cause for early dropout from the teaching profession in the US, with 40% – 50% leaving within the first three years. This research examined the connection between classroom teachers’ burnout levels and physiological stress levels in Primary School students. It found a tangible link between elevated cortisol levels in students and heightened teacher burnout.
This rising tide of teacher burnout, stress, anxiety, and overwhelm, especially post-COVID, underscores the profound importance of teacher and student well-being. It highlights the need for tools like stress management and other supportive measures.
Mindfulness emerges as a powerful and transformative tool for wellbeing, happiness, and stress management.
For its potential to be realised, a quality Mindfulness education is essential. This encompasses:
- Precise, descriptive rigour with straightforward instruction
- A clear framework outlining the skills involved and how to train them
- A clear framework outlining the various ways in which Mindfulness positivity supports changes in your life and happiness
- Techniques, strategies and more to support you as challenges arise and rewards appear
- Cohesive and clear ways to integrate Mindfulness into daily routines.
- Guidance from an experienced and certified instructor
Approaching Mindfulness as a skill-based practice makes it actionable, empowering, and accessible.
The benefits of practice might look like managing the stress of the job more effectively to be a calmer, warmer, more focused leader. It might also look like learning a technique to access rest ‘on the go’ allowing you to get to the end of your day still feeling fresh and motivated to have that positive impact. When you practise Mindfulness you’re training attention skills. Increasing your ability to focus supports presence and discernment enabling those moments of insight that sit behind great teaching. Student’s experiencing teachers who are motivated by the rewards they have enjoyed from Mindfulness practice will be benefiting too.
Many schools have an interest in Mindfulness, especially post-COVID, but few have teachers with profound personal experience or quality education in the subject. Once you understand the attention skills involved and how to practise them you are in a position to offer a robust Mindfulness education program. You will be able to help your students (and yourself) to access the benefits of practice.
Once the Skills are understood they can even be shared in classroom activities that do not require meditating. These are attentional skills that can be developed with age appropriate exercises and activities that also encourage Social and Emotional Learning in students.