This is an ongoing series on The Worthy Educators’ Principles of Educator Agency and Efficacy and their implementation in our efforts to transform the profession. This piece addresses the non-negotiable right of principle 5, Passion: Acknowledging and nurturing the reasons we entered the profession and helping us fan those flames. See the accompanying infographic below and share this resource with colleagues. We invite educators everywhere to join us in this important work!
We each choose to enter the teaching profession to make a difference. For some of us, it is a calling. We know from early on in our own formation that we are born to teach. For others, it is a path of activism, serving as change agents working with students and their families at the most grassroots of levels in the classroom and in the community. For all of us, becoming professional educators is a choice. We knowingly enter the profession understanding that it is a service profession. We don't expect financial wealth. We do this work for the reward of helping others learn, grow and reach their full potential.
In some societies, education remains a revered profession. Teachers are respected and held in high regard. In the United States, teaching has lost its status and respect as the institution of public education has been politicized through elections and funding formulas that have reduced the education of our children to a business proposition, accounting for dollars spent per student and test scores and the cost of teacher salaries and benefits. In the current climate, this passion teachers have when they enter the profession is smothered by the working conditions that they face on a daily basis.
The leaders and administrators of public education must change this situation, honor the work of educators at all levels, and create conditions that reinstill the passion and altruism that we each had at the outset of our careers through systems and supports that feed our desire to improve the lives of children, their families, our communities and our nation. In this particular dimension of education transformation, all aspects of the institution are reenergized...even reborn...through the intangibles of human aspiration and achievement.
Key elements in making this happen include:
Staffing schools fully so that employees are not handling multiple responsibilities that leave them overextended and susceptible to burnout
Scheduling school days to strategically provide time for staff to rest, rejuvenate and reenergize throughout the instructional day
Empowering educators to take charge of their own professional learning by customizing paths to accreditation and licensure renewal
Partnering with colleges of education to support action research projects built around teacher interests, needs and passions
Aligning schools with businesses and industries that provide apprentice, intern and mentorship opportunities that allow educators to build agency beyond their existing expertise
Reimagining career paths for educators so that they do not need to move farther away from the classroom to advance, and they have more options than just administration
Building community partnerships that create a more holistic model of schools and agencies working together to expand our capacity to meet the needs of today’s families
Providing proactive wellness services that keep staff mental, emotional and physical health top of mind in planning for the school year
Offering professional coaching services much in the same way we provide instructional coaching, to support educators in achieving their career goals
Honoring teachers and support staff throughout the year with opportunities and considerations that feed each person's unique passion for the work
Reigniting educators’ passion is in the best interests of everyone involved: attracting and retaining talented teachers, feeding their fire as lifelong learners, and insulating them against the burnout that is plaguing society. Buildings and buses can be refortified and replaced; human capital can’t. By recognizing and supporting career educators making a difference in the lives of others, everyone is supported in pursuing their dreams.
Education is an enterprise of the human spirit, and it is through this that we fulfill our promise. As we plan for the next school year, the next decade and the next generation, reconnecting to our passion empowers each of us to meet the needs of a world that did not exist twenty-five years ago even as it continues morphing right before our eyes.
Empassioned educators lead the way!
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