To Improve Schools, Focus on Teacher Mental Health

COVID-19 did a number on mental health, as schools and lives were upended. Much attention has been paid to the high toll the pandemic took on youth mental health, as students have been left with “heightened levels of anxiety, stress and emotional need,” an article in The Conversation notes. But a new report highlights another group whose mental health requires attention: teachers.

Post pandemic, teachers are experiencing “high levels of stress, anxiety and work-related trauma in the classroom – much of it stemming from student behavioral problems.” Those who work with young people have noted how social isolation has set children’s development backward. Using data from 2022, the National Center for Education Statistics found that 87% of public schools reported that the pandemic “negatively impacted student socioemotional development.”

During the pandemic, teachers were forced to turn on a time to do their jobs in entirely new ways that vastly increased their workload while robbing them of the joys of interacting with students, impacting their mental health and well-being. According to the article, they experienced “new levels of uncertainty, higher workloads and a more negative perception of teachers in society.”

Research shows that prioritizing mental health is essential, the article notes, as not only “do teachers personally benefit from improved mental health, but their students do, too.”

Lee Ann Rawlins Williams, Clinical Assistant Professor of Rehabilitation and Human Services, University of North Dakota, and the author of a forthcoming paper on teacher experiences during the pandemic, highlights the benefits to students and schools by prioritizing teacher mental health.

Reducing burnout and turnover

Burnout and turnover and a workaholic culture contribute to declining mental health, especially for early career teachers.

Teachers report worse well-being than the general population, especially female teachers, according to the 2023 State of the American Teacher Survey by the Rand Corporation.

Teaching is a demanding profession, characterized by heavy workloads and high-performance expectations, and teachers of color in particular are more likely to leave their schools – or leave teaching entirely – due to poor working conditions and a lack of support. Yet 13% of respondents in the survey said their schools offered teachers no mental health or well-being supports.

In schools that do support teacher mental wellbeing – prioritizing self-care and stress management techniques within the work day, fostering a positive, open environment where mental health can be discussed, and encouraging teachers to set appropriate work-life boundaries – teachers are more likely to stay.

Improves teaching effectiveness

When schools support teacher wellbeing, teachers can excel at their jobs. Research has shown that teachers’ well-being and greater resilience are linked. When teachers remain calm in the face of challenging classroom conditions, it creates a more positive learning environment for students.

When teachers are encouraged to be creative in the classroom, it not only leads to greater teacher-student connections and job satisfaction, but that creativity overflows to student creativity and improves their academic performance. In classrooms with a positive culture, where students feel connected to their teachers, students do better academically and feel better as people.

For more on how supporting teacher wellbeing overflows to transform classroom and school culture, read the full article here.

 

Rawlins William, Lee Ann. “Students do better and schools are more stable when teachers receive mental health support.” The Conversation, 18 Jan 2024, https://theconversation.com/students-do-better-and-schools-are-more-stable-when-teachers-get-mental-health-support-219071.

Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash