Please Stop Telling Educators To Be More Resilient
Resilience. The research is there: we humans are able to increase our ability to adapt “in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats, or significant sources of stress.” Having close personal relationships, leaning into a regular spiritual or mindfulness practice, and adopting a growth mindset are known ways to weather the storms we face throughout our lives.
I don’t take any issue with the continually emerging research on theories of resilience-there is solid work being done there; I especially appreciate experts in psychological behavior focusing on those of us who experience higher levels of compassion fatigue due to our chosen professions: educators, social workers, caretakers and almost everyone within the medical field these days.
What’s irking me most about the conversation on resilience related to educators right now is the overwhelming tone of the “HELP YOUR TEACHERS BE MORE RESILIENT!” and “Here are 10 Ways to Build Your Educator Resilience Now!” types of messages being thrown at school leaders and teachers. I’m calling BS on all this perceived “help.” Are we seriously buying that folks who have stuck out years of working in schools need to be taught how to be more resilient? You’ve got to be kidding me. Yes, teachers are exhausted right now. School leaders are more overwhelmed than ever before. Anyone working within a K-12 school feels heightened stress, and all levels of educators are fleeing the profession. But are educators lacking in resilience? No way.
From my experiences over the past decade working with hundreds of educators, anyone choosing to work within K-12 education is among the most resilient group of humans I’ve met. Educators adapt to constantly shifting site-based academic goals, full system overhauls, new curriculum, and increasingly “rigorous” assessments. They learn to find their locus of control despite government officials passing policies that create more work and might even contradict their personal beliefs. Educators hold space for their colleagues, their community, and of course, their students, when tragedy strikes. They carry on…even during mass global shutdown and panic. No, teachers don’t need help in building their resilience, they need their existing resilience recognized and supported from more than the school site level.
We’re witnessing a decades-long trend in teacher shortages rapidly becoming a grim longterm understaffing reality as the pandemic continues. Individual resiliency has been stretched to the limit. But on this topic, I choose an asset-based mindset:
If you are an educator, you are resilient.
If you lead educators, you are resilient.
If you work at or with a school site, you are resilient.
Your continued resilience is one of your greatest strengths in this crazy world. Do you need time and space to refuel yourself with affirming relationships, spiritual practices, positivity and growth mindset? Heck yes. We all do. But you’re not lacking, and you don’t need resilience-building dumped on you as something new. Instead, we should be learning from you and asking: How have you kept adapting year after year? What is it that drives you in your work? And how can “we” (school leaders, school boards, families, local government and society) help you now?
This is the educator-centered and asset-based approach that guides my work at well+aligned. I never assume that I have all the answers or some “5-Step Plan” to fix you or your school site. Sure, I have my preferred evidence-based practices and a firm understanding of what works for academic systems, adult learning, and social-emotional learning. But in my experience, the best and most authentic innovation at a school comes from within. New ideas and solutions are being formed by educators every day on any given campus. We simply need to work together to create room for that resilient thinking to thrive and identify what could be even more well+aligned at your school site. If you would like to chat more about the educator resilience at your school, reach out anytime.
Be well. Be aligned.
-Michaela Rose Claussen
