Covid-19 has had a catastrophic effect on the mental health and emotional wellbeing of teachers, leaders and support staff.
In this blog, the second of two, we’ve taken a research-informed view of the situation in Wales using the self-determination theory (SDT) and its implications for motivation.
We’ve considered not only tangible examples of the theory in practice, but also some potential solutions.
Using SDT, we can split up the examples into the three psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness.
Autonomy
| What’s going wrong? | What are some potential solutions? |
Excessive workload. There’s a culture of presenteeism, an expectation that staff will work outside of normal work hours marking, completing admin tasks, running revision groups etc. | Discourage holiday revision sessions at a national level. Promote low workload, high impact strategies such as whole class feedback. Remove onerous workload tasks such as uploading data solely for accountability purposes. |
| High pressure targets with an external time frame. e.g. Estyn categorisation and Curriculum for Wales implementation. | Set out a clear, agreed framework for how key staff will be supported through instructional coaching post Estyn categorisation. Allow schools to set the timeframe for full implementation of the new curriculum in line with their own readiness and the principle of subsidiarity. |
Autocratic style of leadership. There’s an increased centralisation of control through highly detailed and specific curriculum implementation guidance. | Set out how school improvement will be measured through clearly defined accountability and ensure the principle of subsidiarity is made reality at school level. |
Competence
What’s going wrong? | What are some potential solutions? |
Low-quality professional learning or support. The independent review of leadership identified support for headteachers as “low quality” in some cases. | Remove all low-quality professional learning and support and provide a small number of high-quality resources and sessions available to all. |
| A focus on performance rather than growth in professional learning. Moderation is being used as a driver of teacher practice, and pupil results are being used as a measure of the impact of professional learning for staff. | Use value-added outcomes within schools against the school curriculum, coupled with comparison of standardised tests to drive school improvement and supportive professional learning. Use peer review and self-assessment of staff efficacy to drive professional learning. |
Relatedness
What’s going wrong? | What are some potential solutions? |
Staff don’t feel heard or valued in the “business as usual” approach to teaching post-pandemic. | Reduce teacher contact time. |
Staff have difficulty asking for help. “Teacher bashing” in the media makes it difficult to admit individual struggles. | Model vulnerable behaviours such as admitting fault and uncertainty at all levels of leadership. Build in an open-door policy to all levels of leadership. |
Weak or non-existent collaboration opportunities. There’s an insular approach to development and historic competition between schools and regions works in opposition to open, honest and fully connected collaboration. | Actively seek out dissenting views and provide repeated public opportunities to discuss those views. Acknowledge when policies, strategies or approaches didn’t yield the expected results and set up open, honest discussions about how this might be remedied. |
The teacher wellbeing crisis is real, it’s happening now, and if it isn’t addressed soon, it’s only going to get worse.
We’ve set out some of the problems and our solutions above, but only action taken at a national level can realistically make a difference.
The Welsh Government must acknowledge that there is a wellbeing crisis among teachers, leaders and support staff and put a more focused, research-informed plan in place to address it as soon as possible.
We can’t afford to wait until the new term, especially as that’s when one of the root causes of the crisis – the introduction of Curriculum for Wales – will be implemented.
We need action now to stop wellbeing becoming the next epidemic.