Before an airplane takes off, flight attendants recite the familiar message, “In the event of an emergency, always put your mask on before helping others,” to remind passengers (especially those with young people sitting near them) to attend to their own needs first. This seemingly repetitive instruction can be lifesaving and is applicable to educational contexts, too.
As caring adults, our tendency is to first address the mental health of students. We strive to help others and often overlook our own needs. To quote Dr. Stephanie Jones and Dr. Suzanne Bouffard (2012), “It is difficult, if not impossible, for adults to help students build skills that they themselves do not possess. It is vital, then, for adults working in educational settings to have strong SEL skills themselves” (p. 14). Since a comprehensive mental health approach requires teaching students the social and emotional skills necessary to address challenges, it is important that we begin prioritizing the well-being of staff to ensure they have the social and emotional competencies to support students
This is the third blog in a three-part series exploring myths related to social and emotional learning (SEL) and mental health. This final post, authored by NCSSLE partners at the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), examines the common misconception that SEL and mental health supports in schools are just for students. The additional blogposts in this series examine common misconceptions about the relationships between SEL and mental health, and whether SEL and mental health are the business of schools.
Individual Well-being
Educators throughout the United States are dealing with trauma that occurred as a result of the pandemic. During the third year of schooling impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, educators and principals rated their individual well-being as “poor”, according to a report by the RAND Corporation. Well-being, at its core, is about the overall sense of feeling satisfied, fulfilled, and having meaning or a purpose. Additionally, well-being is about the self-care practices that each person finds beneficial. Conceptually, we know that educators (like all people) cannot pour from an empty cup, yet across the country, educators have jumped headfirst into addressing students’ needs, bypassing the reality that educators must also consider their own individual well-being in order to meaningfully support their students, especially students who have experienced trauma that can harm their mental health.
Although self-care is often described as individual practices and behaviors, educator well-being influences the larger school culture and climate, instruction, and students’ academic, personal, and emotional development (Sackney et al., 2000). Therefore, schools must intentionally cultivate workplaces where educators can prioritize self-care, with policies that uplift staff well-being and avoid ostensibly supporting the idea of well-being while perpetuating a status quo that undermines that goal.
Organizational Well-Being
Dr. Mark Greenberg says, “Without well teachers, we will not have healthy schools and successful students.” Factors that lead to educator stress and burnout include school organization, job demands, work resources, and a lack of social and emotional competencies. An issue brief, created by Pennsylvania State University with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, discusses these causes and outlines interventions that can help address the different organizational demands that contribute to educator stress (Greenberg, 2016).
What does it mean to think about stress and well-being from an organizational standpoint? It includes how our schools and workplaces support the well-being of all people in the building, including students and staff. It can also encompass efforts to promote and maintain the physical, psychological, and social health of all staff. Activities that promote organizational well-being include asking for staff feedback; recognizing staff and providing incentives; using SEL strategies, such as setting shared agreements for all meetings; promoting book clubs and professional development related to social well-being; increasing staff autonomy and decision-making power; providing staff with mentorship opportunities; encouraging collaborative problem-solving; developing strong leaders that model SEL competencies; and having the ability to ensure a collegial school environment that is caring, equitable, and supportive.
Examples, Frameworks, and Guides
What does it mean to think about stress and well-being from an organizational standpoint? It includes how our schools and workplaces support the well-being of all people in the building, including students and staff. It can also encompass efforts to promote and maintain the physical, psychological, and social health of all staff. Activities that promote organizational well-being include asking for staff feedback; recognizing staff and providing incentives; using SEL strategies, such as setting shared agreements for all meetings; promoting book clubs and professional development related to social well-being; increasing staff autonomy and decision-making power; providing staff with mentorship opportunities; encouraging collaborative problem-solving; developing strong leaders that model SEL competencies; and having the ability to ensure a collegial school environment that is caring, equitable, and supportive.
Recognizing the importance of promoting educator well-being—at the individual, interpersonal, and organizational levels—there is no shortage of frameworks and resources available on the topic. Below, a few highly regarded, research-based offerings are summarized:
- The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) identifies eight dimensions of educator wellness: emotional, environmental, intellectual, physical, social, spiritual, occupational, and financial. These dimensions are described in an article published in Learning Forward’s Learning Professional journal.
- The Center on Great Teachers & Leaders published Educator Resilience and Trauma-Informed Self-Care: Self-Assessment and Planning Tool, which identifies common factors associated with resilience when one experiences trauma. These factors include self-awareness and emotion regulation, sense of meaning and purpose, social support, and spirituality. This resource is especially helpful because there is an assessment tool for each factor. It is a powerful way to discover how an individual can practice strategies that foster resilience and promote self-care.
- In addition to understanding how we practice self-care, Greenberg et al.’s issue brief on Teacher Stress and Health: Effects on Teachers, Students, and Schools cites a lack of social and emotional competencies as one of the four components that can lead to educator stress. Although there are numerous evidence-based programs to help students develop their social and emotional competencies, there is often little or no professional development to help educators enhance their own competencies.
- Through the Collaborating Districts Initiative (CDI), the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) has learned that schools are more effective at instructing and reinforcing SEL for students when schools also cultivate SEL competencies in adults. This is a growing field, and the CASEL Guide to Schoolwide SEL is a comprehensive resource for building a school environment in which staff feel supported and empowered, can collaborate effectively and build relational trust, and can develop their social and emotional skills. Within this schoolwide effort, the guide outlines the critical role of fostering adult social and emotional competencies. On an individual level, this includes an orientation to supporting personal growth in those areas of competency. This adult SEL self-reflection tool is a powerful catalyst for individual growth.
Conclusion
At the school level, cultivating staff well-being requires organizational change, such as prioritizing opportunities for staff to plan, collaborate, reflect, and contribute to decision-making. It also requires professional learning and ongoing opportunities for staff to engage in practices to build their social and emotional skills. When was the last time you put on your own mask first or created an environment where this was not only encouraged but also the expectation? Addressing youth’s mental health needs, which have undoubtedly increased as a result of the pandemic, has promoted an urgency that makes it difficult to remember to care for ourselves first so that we can best support those around us. We must be intentional in prioritizing educators’ well-being.
Acknowledgements
This blog post was developed by Ruth Cross, SEL Senior Consultant at the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, with input from Dr. Catherine Bradshaw and Erin Wofford.
