Mental Health: Supporting Teachers in a Fast-Paced World

The topic of maintaining mental health is essential for people of all professions. However, it is of great importance for those who work with people, including teachers. This is due to the fact that teaching is one of the most stressful jobs, and continuous stress affects mental health.

In this article, we will explore some challenges that may be harmful for teachers’ mental health and suggest some practical solutions to help teachers maintain it.

It goes without saying that teaching is a really rewarding job; at the same time, it does not come without challenges. Let's have a look at some common ones that may have a negative effect on teachers’ mental health and their well-being. 

Workload Pressure

It may include working overtime, planning excessively for the lessons, paperwork and marking the learners’ papers, taking part in the school's extracurricular activities, and other time-consuming administrative work.

Staying up to date with teaching technology and methods

Online learning boosted the appearance of numerous applications, online platforms, web-sites and other tools to improve the learning process. As a result, teachers may feel pressure as they need to catch up with the latest technology and be able to use it effectively in the classroom.

Pressure from high expectations

Teaching requires one to be knowledgeable, creative, patient, sympathetic, and responsive. Learners very often expect their teacher to stay in touch with them and answer their questions at any time. What is more, there are high expectations from teachers as for the learners’ performance in the lessons and their exam results. 

Work-life imbalance

Teachers may find it difficult to separate professional and personal life. As a result, their life becomes increasingly dominated by work. 

Emotional labour

Teachers should manage their own emotions while working with their learners, support them, show empathy and compassion. It can even lead to suppressing emotions in order to behave professionally. 

As a consequence, such challenges may have a great impact on teachers’ mental health. In their turn, they can lead to the following:

Teachers may feel drained and exhausted after conducting even one lesson. What is more, they may feel a lack of motivation to continue their work and even dread or feel disgust at the very thought of going to work. 

What is needed is a definite action to prevent and minimise teacher burnout and maintain their mental health. The suggested strategies encompass school-level support and self-care techniques. On the school level, it is possible to talk about implementing flexible policies. 

All these steps will help with teachers’ workload better and ensure it is manageable and realistic. 

Furthermore, school authorities could introduce counselling services and make use of mental health resources for the teachers. This includes workshops about stress and time management, mindfulness, work-life balance, and counselling sessions. 

On top of that, the school may introduce special wellness programmes and peer support groups. 

Self-care techniques include working out the optimal work-life balance. It is essential to set the boundaries between professional and personal life. If you work remotely, make sure you set office hours — and stick to them — and have a designated working place. 

Since teaching is connected with a lot of stress and emotional labour, make sure you do some mindfulness and relaxation exercises and activities, like stretching, meditation, yoga or massage. 

Make sure you do some physical activity or at least move. 

Make sure you have a supportive environment at your workplace because such relationships with colleagues are important for staff well-being. Common projects and activities or just connecting with colleagues can help you feel less isolated and left alone with your problems. On the contrary, you will have the feeling of a teachers' community. 

As you can see, supporting teachers’ mental health and well-being is a complex issue that has only recently gained attention and requires a complex approach. 

We hope that raising awareness of the strategies and putting them into practice will help you maintain your well-being and continue enjoying teaching for many years to come. 

Take care of yourself!