Principals plead to be allowed to return to their core responsibility- that is leading the quality of teaching and learning in their schools.
“Exhaustion, migraine, anxiety, insomnia, feelings of hopelessness, burn out” were just some of the symptoms reported by head teachers in a recent survey of 850 primary schools carried out by the Irish Primary Principals Network.
Further concerns were about feelings of overload and personality changes such as irritability and intolerance creeping into their lives and adding to an already stressful situation.
Several principals reported feeling isolated and alone and sadly no longer enjoyed the job that they had felt so positive about a few years ago. Others said they would “hand back the keys in the morning” that they were at the end of their tether.
At this point we might ask “why” are teachers reflecting such classic symptoms of stress and burn out? There was a common feeling amongst the principals surveyed that the growing bureaucracy, non-educational tasks and ever-increasing legislative demands were preventing them from addressing their key responsibilities of managing, teaching and learning in primary schools. This in turn leads to feelings of frustration, anxiety and lack of autonomy, all of which can trigger the stress response.
The stress response is a naturally occurring reaction to anything threatening, (otherwise known as the fight or flight response) in small doses it is perfectly harmless and in fact essentially useful to deal with any situation or event. This type of stress is known as positive stress and is a common daily cycle for most people. Generally speaking stress becomes a problem when it is negative and chronic. Being in a constant state of the stress response or in a panic alert state has a detrimental effect upon the immune system, amongst other things. When the immune system is suppressed the body cannot fight the usual infections and so we get sick more often. Very common symptoms of stress related illness is constant colds/flu, tiredness, muscle aches, stomach complaints and skin complaints. Stressors can affect us mentally, physically, emotionally or spiritually. However, probably the biggest culprit for triggering the stress response is an individual’s perceived lack of control.
With regard to the teachers and their reported problems there seemed to be a large portion of difficulties that they could do nothing about, or in other cases, the painful wait for many other bureaucratic bodies to respond.
So what can be done to help the stressed out teachers? An essential part of finding the correct Coping Skills involves the ability to recognise your own circle of influence. In short, the ability to know what is “within” your control and what is “beyond” your control. There are two obvious angles to look at. Firstly, from an organisational point of view and secondly from an individual point of view.
Organisational Coping Skills:some ideas following the recent IPPN survey:
- The IPPN (Irish Primary Principals Network) president Virginia O’Mahony suggested that principals could be offered a “step down” facility without loss of seniority or salary allowance and related pension benefit. A quota of places could be allocated following assessment of annual applications.
- It was also felt that in future principals should be appointed on a seven or ten year contract as indicated in the Green Paper 1992.
- Every principal should have access to full time secretarial support.
- The Department of Education and Science and other relevant agencies should provide dedicated, authoritative email query lines for principals seeking information or interpretation of circulars, policy and document procedures.
- Teaching principals should be released from teaching duties at least one day a week.
Individual Coping Skills:
- The three D’s: Deal With it; Delegate It; Dump It. Don’t let things get on top of you.
- Recognise what is “within” your control and what is “beyond” your control. In short there is no good in worrying about things you can do nothing about.
- Attend a stress management workshop or course.
- Devise your own stress management programme.
- Learn to take “time out” in your head. Give yourself a break from negative self talk and demands.
- Find a friend or family member that you can discuss your feelings with. Many potential stressful situations can be avoided by talking then through.
What does the future hold for teachers and principals in Ireland? Healthy teachers mean healthy students. As history suggests, successful teaching is rewarding on many different levels; so too is successful stress management for the individual involved, their family, their colleagues, their students and the future of the next generations.