Keeping your best-self sane at work

Project title:

‘The survival of the neo-liberal-est’: keeping your best-self sane at work.

“This project is aimed at teachers to support and sustain them in their work practice.”

Researchers:

Project proposal:

‘All I do is work. I am so lonely.’
(Senior Teacher, South London Primary School 2016) 

Teacher retention is in crisis, especially in London. Orthodox explanations point to the cost of housing, the relatively competitive salaries in other professions and the tax-free salaries to be had for teachers working abroad, particularly in the Middle East (HMCI 2016; Hrycak 2015).  

Those of us lecturing teachers on post-graduate courses or researching teachers’ lives are aware of a much more potent reason for the loss of teachers to the profession. Teachers are losing their lives, their souls and their families to neoliberal school improvement cultures, which are forcing them to work excessive hours, in ways they often feel are unethical for children, until they have nothing left to give and so give up.  

This project is aimed at teachers to support and sustain them in their work and practice. Its focus is double edged in that it aims to provide teachers with skills to work with and against neoliberal high performance school cultures; to be critical participants, who have benefitted from an opportunity for reflection and growth, in a space where demands are not made of them.

Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash

Themes: