Teachers are the bedrock of our school systems, and it’s common wisdom that the quality of education children receive depends on the teachers they’re assigned. But the thing about bedrock is that it’s under a lot of pressure, and teachers may be resilient but they aren’t made of stone. They’re real people who experience burnout, and have lives outside of teaching, lives which may include caring responsibilities and parenthood. Drawing on her doctoral research on the fraught balance of teaching and motherhood, Rachel will share her thoughts on how emotional exhaustion is impacting teachers and their classrooms.
Rachel Ballantyne is a former English teacher, and now runs a tutoring company; she believes that the best education has teacher wellbeing at its heart. At a time when teacher retention rates are plummeting, it’s urgently important to consider how the education system can better support the workforce it relies on.