Many of the mental health programs that are studied for research are usually funded through grants and implemented in the classrooms at virtually no financial cost to the school. During a study, teachers are trained and monitored to implement these programs, however, when research is completed and all resources and observations are no longer present, it can become difficult to predict the sustainability of that program. The authors of the article "Sustainability of Teacher Implementation of School-Based Mental Health Programs" focus on analyzing the factors that affect the sustainability of classroom-based mental health programs. Sustainability in this article is defined as "ongoing implementation fidelity to the core program principle after resources used to support initial training and implementation are withdrawn" (pg. 666).
The first factor examined is the administrative and instrumental support that can be provided specifically by the school principal who has the authority to make programs a priority and in turn redirect resources, and training. However, it is noted that the allocation of resources is determined by the perception of importance the program is in fulfilling the school's goals. The second factor is the strength of a sense of efficacy that teachers have. Empirical data has linked strong self-efficacy with a high likelihood of "implementing innovative educational practices and sustaining their effort to produce positive outcomes for their students" (pg. 668). The final factor examined is teacher burnout. The three characteristics of teacher burnout relevant to program sustainability have been identified as emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and a low sense of accomplishment.
The authors conclude that the foundation of the sustainability of mental health programs is at the observation of the impact that it has on the school and students. However, the greatest factor of sustainability is the deliverance that the teacher gives of the program which is studied to be tied to program training. The authors propose introducing a supported implementation phase to a program in which teachers receive intensive in-classroom consultation but further research cannot be provided by this article due to the high cost of this process.
Although this article focuses on the implementation of programs for the mental health of students, after reading about "teacher burnout" I can't help but think about how schools should also be looking to implement similar programs for teachers as well. It's easy as a student teacher to think that I'll never lose my "spark" or sight of the reason why I feel so passionately about entering the educational field but it is all too common to hear from experienced teachers about how mindsets can change. Of course, this is not the case for all teachers but I definitely think that they could all benefit from having schools fund programs to prevent burnout.
As far as for my own instruction, this article made me see how efficacy can be an important factor in being open to implement new strategies that could benefit the students. This will remind me to always keep my motivation going and that, especially as a teacher, I should never stop learning or looking for new ways to make a difference in the educational experience of my students.
Article: Han, S.S. & Weiss, B. (2005). Sustainability of Teacher Implementation of School-Based Mental Health Programs. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology 33(6), 665-679.
Your post is incredibly timely in light of the Alumni Mentor Workshop session this past Friday on self-care and time management, particularly on a systematic or programatic level. The need both for a strong sense of self-efficacy and avoidance of burnout is vital for teachers to effectively teach and be and having a formal program in place to ensure that need is addressed makes a lot of sense. It is unfortunate however that the major prohibitive factor from continued research is a lack of funding. Since the article was written in 2005, I would be interested to see if these or other researchers followed up on their initial findings in the 13-14 years since publication.
ReplyDeleteReading your post, I kept thinking about how many describe this burnout in educators as "teachers becoming jaded." This makes me sad because the definition of jaded is "tired, bored, or lacking enthusiasm, typically after having had too much of something" and as you have written, the three characteristics of teacher burnout have been identified as "emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and a low sense of accomplishment." Without getting into a tangent in how different these two definitions are, it is clear how damaging the narrative of teachers becoming jaded can be. If our students' growth is so dependent on our performance, I agree with you that I wish teachers were given some of the programs and support mentioned in this article. Good teachers are not invincible and are subject to burnout and if we do not want these "good teachers" to leave our schools, we need to do something about it. It is important to stay vigilant as a teacher, but I think some assistance from administration would also be extremely beneficial.
ReplyDeleteWow, this is so true! “Allocation of resources” (a.k.a., funding), teacher efficacy, and preventing teacher burnout are all pivotal to mental health program sustainability. I would venture to say that the allocation of resources is even at the core as that impacts everything else. Just as funding needs to be allocated for proper training, funding also should be given to better support educators to help prevent teacher burnout and better support the implementation of SEL in classrooms. Great insights!
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