In 2016, as a second-year PhD student, I attended a lecture by Katie Byrnes, who spoke of the importance of Mindful Educator Self-Care, and described tools for educators to practice, like focused attention, that will help them to be aware of one’s body and mental state. Years later—as a professor training teachers during the COVID-19 global pandemic—I incorporated yoga and breathing exercises into my lectures by inviting guest practitioners to lead us through guided practices. This was no mere diversion: I was trying to inject something essential into our classes. Teaching remains one of the most stressful professions, and that stress is a major contributor to a teacher’s decision to leave the profession.
It seems that the disruptions of the pandemic proper have extended well into and beyond its twilight.
According to the 2023 Merrimack College Survey of the American Teacher, 42 percent of teachers said their mental health and wellness impacted their work. What’s more, teachers’ mental health and wellness especially suffered throughout the COVID-19 global pandemic. In a pandemic survey by Next100, teachers of English learners (ELs) described the challenges of getting their students online—and, in some cases, of accessing online teaching platforms themselves. Teachers had to shift to online learning—a new environment that was particularly challenging for older teachers—while navigating their students’ (and in many cases, their own childrens’) access to this new learning environment. In one particularly memorable example, a teacher shared a story of an immigrant student who went back to Mexico to gain sufficiently reliable internet access to continue attending online schooling in her Northern California community.
Late last year, we conducted eight different EL teacher focus groups to gauge how these teachers were faring and what issues were most important to them. Our focus groups data suggest similar patterns—particularly among early-career educators. It seems that the disruptions of the pandemic proper have extended well into and beyond its twilight. In contrast to our previous piece with veteran teachers, teachers with less experience (one to three years) described this past school year as “rough,” “challenging,” and “difficult.” In this commentary, we unpack our data on how the past several years have impacted early-career teachers.
According to 2021 U.S. Census data, 4.3 percent of teachers planned to retire early, the highest rate compared to other industries. Unlike many veteran teachers, who want to teach well into old age, this group of teachers did not plan to stay in their current positions. Some of them expressed their desire for a change of scenery—a less challenging environment, or a more established school setting. Others expressed the desire to do something else entirely. One teacher in her third year said she had just indicated in her renewal forms that she would not return because of the “emotional toll” and “energy” she brought home with her.
One Is the Loneliest Number
In many cases, being a school’s EL teacher is a solo endeavor. Many teachers we spoke with are the only ones in their building, or even their district. This adds an additional mental health challenge to EL teachers’ work, because they do not have a colleague in a similar position to share ideas, or collaborate with. Research shows that having positive relationships with colleagues leads teachers to feel committed to the profession and satisfied with their work environment. By contrast, some of our EL teachers described the perception that they are “extra” and burdened with additional tasks (e.g., serving as translators and interpreters), or as “less than” and not valued as highly as a classroom teacher.
Many teachers we spoke with are the only ones in their building, or even their district.
In our focus groups, new teachers also shared that they felt undersupported by their administration or leadership teams. A second-year teacher in Tennessee expressed her need for more professional feedback and growth, which was absent due to the leadership of her fledgling school having spread itself too thin after its adoption of a dual-language education model.
When Students Face Difficulties, So Do Their Teachers
After the pandemic so disrupted students’ educational progress, teachers have seen a range of strengths and challenges in their classrooms. The Tennessee teacher talked about the challenge of differentiating and scaffolding to meet the vast range of academic abilities in her classroom.
They decided the current curricula were not serving the needs of the students. Notably—and critically—she was not involved in the decision.
Another teacher in Connecticut concurred: her classroom has a similarly wide range of abilities, but also shared that the charter network simultaneously implemented three new curricula this year (ELA, Math, and Science). She described this change as stemming from a meeting that the Humanities team had, in which they decided the current curricula were not serving the needs of the students. Notably—and critically—she was not involved in the decision.
One middle school teacher shared her frustration that she was not able to pull all the students who needed her services because she was the only EL provider. She described her three sections of thirty-one students each—ninety-three students total—as being a mix of Spanish speakers and other languages, with an increasing number of newcomer Pashto-speaking students.
Another teacher expressed her frustration with student behavior in her classroom, saying, “These kids are out of control,” and that there were few to no consequences for their behavior. Behavior management is always a challenge for the new teachers like those in our sample, but is arguably more difficult now, because teachers must navigate the classroom’s uneven post-pandemic landscape, including an increased rate of students who have experienced trauma. This teacher shared that she felt very much on her own, without the support of her administration to back up disciplinary policies and structures, leaving her to navigate challenging classroom dynamics without any counsel or support.
We Mustn’t Leave These Teachers Behind
Shorter work days and summers off can make those in other careers green with envy; but, despite this apparently flexible schedule, teaching is largely an inflexible position. Teachers have designated hours—many codified in union contracts—but the hours typically extend beyond the time in the classroom. And we often don’t acknowledge the degree of difficulty of the work teachers do in the time they are in the classroom.
As a field, creative and mental health-informed approaches to teaching and providing for historically marginalized students, like ELs, may help alleviate some of the stress and increase the likelihood that teachers stay in the classroom. One Washington, D.C.-based organization aims to place high-impact tutors and use creative staffing models during the school day to help teachers address the vast range of their students’ abilities, which would go a long way toward responding to the needs our new educators mentioned in our focus groups.
Now more than ever, as schools continue clambering back from the worst of the pandemic, we also need to provide teachers with support for their own mental health through counseling, mindfulness tools, and the flexibility to meet their own needs. Like oxygen masks on an airplane, teachers need to ensure that they are well before they can realistically assist children or others. After four pandemic-interrupted academic years, it’s education leaders’ jobs to do everything they can to help them in that effort.
Tags: teachers, English Language Learners, mental health
English Learners Need Us to Support Their Teachers’ Mental Health
In 2016, as a second-year PhD student, I attended a lecture by Katie Byrnes, who spoke of the importance of Mindful Educator Self-Care, and described tools for educators to practice, like focused attention, that will help them to be aware of one’s body and mental state. Years later—as a professor training teachers during the COVID-19 global pandemic—I incorporated yoga and breathing exercises into my lectures by inviting guest practitioners to lead us through guided practices. This was no mere diversion: I was trying to inject something essential into our classes. Teaching remains one of the most stressful professions, and that stress is a major contributor to a teacher’s decision to leave the profession.
According to the 2023 Merrimack College Survey of the American Teacher, 42 percent of teachers said their mental health and wellness impacted their work. What’s more, teachers’ mental health and wellness especially suffered throughout the COVID-19 global pandemic. In a pandemic survey by Next100, teachers of English learners (ELs) described the challenges of getting their students online—and, in some cases, of accessing online teaching platforms themselves. Teachers had to shift to online learning—a new environment that was particularly challenging for older teachers—while navigating their students’ (and in many cases, their own childrens’) access to this new learning environment. In one particularly memorable example, a teacher shared a story of an immigrant student who went back to Mexico to gain sufficiently reliable internet access to continue attending online schooling in her Northern California community.
Late last year, we conducted eight different EL teacher focus groups to gauge how these teachers were faring and what issues were most important to them. Our focus groups data suggest similar patterns—particularly among early-career educators. It seems that the disruptions of the pandemic proper have extended well into and beyond its twilight. In contrast to our previous piece with veteran teachers, teachers with less experience (one to three years) described this past school year as “rough,” “challenging,” and “difficult.” In this commentary, we unpack our data on how the past several years have impacted early-career teachers.
According to 2021 U.S. Census data, 4.3 percent of teachers planned to retire early, the highest rate compared to other industries. Unlike many veteran teachers, who want to teach well into old age, this group of teachers did not plan to stay in their current positions. Some of them expressed their desire for a change of scenery—a less challenging environment, or a more established school setting. Others expressed the desire to do something else entirely. One teacher in her third year said she had just indicated in her renewal forms that she would not return because of the “emotional toll” and “energy” she brought home with her.
One Is the Loneliest Number
In many cases, being a school’s EL teacher is a solo endeavor. Many teachers we spoke with are the only ones in their building, or even their district. This adds an additional mental health challenge to EL teachers’ work, because they do not have a colleague in a similar position to share ideas, or collaborate with. Research shows that having positive relationships with colleagues leads teachers to feel committed to the profession and satisfied with their work environment. By contrast, some of our EL teachers described the perception that they are “extra” and burdened with additional tasks (e.g., serving as translators and interpreters), or as “less than” and not valued as highly as a classroom teacher.
In our focus groups, new teachers also shared that they felt undersupported by their administration or leadership teams. A second-year teacher in Tennessee expressed her need for more professional feedback and growth, which was absent due to the leadership of her fledgling school having spread itself too thin after its adoption of a dual-language education model.
When Students Face Difficulties, So Do Their Teachers
After the pandemic so disrupted students’ educational progress, teachers have seen a range of strengths and challenges in their classrooms. The Tennessee teacher talked about the challenge of differentiating and scaffolding to meet the vast range of academic abilities in her classroom.
Another teacher in Connecticut concurred: her classroom has a similarly wide range of abilities, but also shared that the charter network simultaneously implemented three new curricula this year (ELA, Math, and Science). She described this change as stemming from a meeting that the Humanities team had, in which they decided the current curricula were not serving the needs of the students. Notably—and critically—she was not involved in the decision.
One middle school teacher shared her frustration that she was not able to pull all the students who needed her services because she was the only EL provider. She described her three sections of thirty-one students each—ninety-three students total—as being a mix of Spanish speakers and other languages, with an increasing number of newcomer Pashto-speaking students.
Another teacher expressed her frustration with student behavior in her classroom, saying, “These kids are out of control,” and that there were few to no consequences for their behavior. Behavior management is always a challenge for the new teachers like those in our sample, but is arguably more difficult now, because teachers must navigate the classroom’s uneven post-pandemic landscape, including an increased rate of students who have experienced trauma. This teacher shared that she felt very much on her own, without the support of her administration to back up disciplinary policies and structures, leaving her to navigate challenging classroom dynamics without any counsel or support.
We Mustn’t Leave These Teachers Behind
Shorter work days and summers off can make those in other careers green with envy; but, despite this apparently flexible schedule, teaching is largely an inflexible position. Teachers have designated hours—many codified in union contracts—but the hours typically extend beyond the time in the classroom. And we often don’t acknowledge the degree of difficulty of the work teachers do in the time they are in the classroom.
As a field, creative and mental health-informed approaches to teaching and providing for historically marginalized students, like ELs, may help alleviate some of the stress and increase the likelihood that teachers stay in the classroom. One Washington, D.C.-based organization aims to place high-impact tutors and use creative staffing models during the school day to help teachers address the vast range of their students’ abilities, which would go a long way toward responding to the needs our new educators mentioned in our focus groups.
Now more than ever, as schools continue clambering back from the worst of the pandemic, we also need to provide teachers with support for their own mental health through counseling, mindfulness tools, and the flexibility to meet their own needs. Like oxygen masks on an airplane, teachers need to ensure that they are well before they can realistically assist children or others. After four pandemic-interrupted academic years, it’s education leaders’ jobs to do everything they can to help them in that effort.
Tags: teachers, English Language Learners, mental health