Caring for those who care for our children: the resilience and wellbeing of educators

For children, we have developed resilience programmes delivered by trained teachers, such as the European Resilience Curriculum (RESCUR: Surfing the Waves), or evidence-based programmes such as Australian Bounce Back. These programmes have undoubtedly (and with significant research evidence) brought significant changes to children’s wellbeing and promote a positive school climate by building skills, knowledge and competencies in social/emotional literacy and resilience education.

In the discussion of resilience, we may have forgotten two significant stakeholders: parents and educators. I argue that one of the most robust ways to promote children’s resilience is by taking care of those who take care of and teach our children.

In a comprehensive review on promoting equity of outcomes in childhood, the 2019 report by the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine indicated that the most important factor in promoting a child’s resilience is a strong relationship with at least one adult caregiver, which in turn rests on the wellbeing of the caregivers themselves.

Parents, especially single parents or other categories of at-risk parents (e.g. of children with special educational needs), should be supported via systemic parent education intervention programmes in school or community settings.

Education ministries at the policy level, and school leadership at a decentralised level, need to consider ways to support teachers in their daily struggles. These include instructional challenges, children’s behavioural problems or other stressful factors of school life. Equitably sharing the workload, peer support via regular meetings to discuss difficult cases and regular consultation with school psychologists can help schools prevent teacher burnout and drop-out.

Educators are more likely to show resilience if they have the resources to manage the stresses and strains that can be an inherent part of the teaching profession. It would be very beneficial if basic resilience and wellbeing constructs, strategies and skills could be introduced into European university curricula, which would ensure robust in-service training in prevention and resilience for all education and psychology professionals.

Teachers must acquire social/emotional competences (e.g. empathy, emotional regulation, good communication skills) in addition to having access to visible resources (materials) and invisible resources (support and caring) in the school system and local community. The main challenge ahead is to ascertain how these resources can be made accessible and sustainable on an ongoing basis to teachers, school psychologists and administrators. The contents and strategies of effective interventions depend on cultural contexts and norms.

Pre-, primary and secondary schools in Europe must be supported in a more systematic way by their national education authorities. Along with their own initiatives, this support should secure resources and implement resilience and wellbeing programmes for mainstream and special education teachers and all support staff. If educators are supported by school leadership and with overall policies and funding from education ministries, this new philosophy of quality education will pay dividends in their work in classrooms and the school community.

If teachers are taken care of, school systems will adopt a sophisticated ecosystemic approach to promoting resilience and wellbeing in schools, instead of emphasising individual pupils and promoting only their level of resilience and wellbeing.

By taking care of teachers and educators, we take care of our pupils. Teachers’ mental health, resilience and wellbeing must become a priority for all educational systems on European and global scales.

Prof. Anastassios Matsopoulos is a Certified School Psychologist in New York (USA), Greece and Cyprus, and an Associate Professor of School Psychology at the University of Crete. In addition, he is the President of the Hellenic Association of School Psychology (HASP) and the Director of the School Psychology Lab/Research Unit at the University of Crete. He is the author of a new book, Growth Resilience Ecosystemic Consultation (G.R.E.CO) in School Settings (2022, in Greek). Email: matsopoulos@uoc.gr