lester.flockton@gmail.com
Teacher workload and its concomitant stressful effects problem. Primary educators are in a similar boat that has become on people’s lives, wellbeing, and work performance sits high in increasingly difficult to row. the line-up of issues that currently beset the profession. But stop! I do enjoy teaching, however the paper work is huge and This is not new – it’s been a viral blight that has eaten away at not the best pay while you are just starting out. I have teachers’ occupational health and job satisfaction for almost as friends my age with zero qualifications earning more on many years as a I can recall. The thing is, it’s not new – but it’s a stress free jobs where they do not need to take any worries very different strain, and a strain that is constantly mutating as home at night. a result of being fed new micro-organisms, bacteria and archaea I love the kids but the amount of paper work and long found in many ideas and policies. Moreover, it is pandemic. It hours are ridiculous, and the salary doesn’t allow much besets systems around the Western world and particularly those money for myself.(3) systems whose ideas New Zealand has been wont to imitate. What was being revealed almost twenty years ago internationally It was recently reported from a follow up to a 2017 health and well-being survey that teachers shows that two decades later, and education leaders are under despite lots of empty placatory more pressure than ever before. talk from Government agencies, Repeated studies have their responses have amounted to Un s a f e w o r k i n g h o u r s , consistently shown the little or nothing. students with high levels of incredibly high NCEA related learning needs and increasing The spiralling demands workloads are being blamed for of government initiatives, workload for secondary high levels of ‘burnout’ among incessant record keeping, teachers and management staff educational plans, targeting educators – and there has been in schools.(4) and inspections, have left no sign of this abating teachers reeling. A working It seems that despite all of the week of 50 hours is average. issue-evasive, side-walk talk of despite pressures to address Many are doing 70. This is creating a ‘learning system’(5) the not only bad for teachers, it’s the problem. system engineers and wand wavers harmful to children. 2001(1) are themselves incapable of it. Mass burnout has hit the They keep adding more and more to the lot of teachers. They profession with a national shortage of skilled teachers just don’t seem competent in keeping their feet on the ground looming and a growing reticence among young people to and their retinas attached. Their flashes and floatings of vision (2) enter a field so plagued with problems. 2001 and love of excitable talk, talk, talk are their hallmarks. (Where New Zealand has been battling a critical teacher shortage in a does this sort of simplistic, light-headed fizziness come from and, number of parts of the country, and when teachers departing worryingly, might it infect the minds of the vulnerable and party the profession are asked why, typically we hear them say that players, or worse still, the Minister of Education?) workload is a major reason. Then when you take a look at Take the latest example: reporting to parents, and more current government/Ministry of Education demands, you find precisely ‘real time’ reporting to parents. This has an interesting a startling number of mandatory compliances: 107! While these background – it’s a sort of ‘purple’ policy idea resulting from compliances are deemed the Board’s responsibility, we all know pre-election blue (National) policy metamorphosing into red that means the Principal’s responsibilities, and we also know that (Labour) policy. Remember National promising ‘National many flow onto the work of teachers. Only about 20 per cent of Standards Plus’ – a real time reporting appetiser for their voters. those compliances are around finances and asset management. No longer would parents have to wait until half-year or end-ofCurriculum (including assessment), Health & Safety, and year to get data on their children’s achievements. It would be Personnel (including appraisal) have the lion’s share. instantly available on their cell phones at work, at dinner time, Repeated studies have consistently shown the incredibly high bath time, story time. Data would be streamed ‘real time’ for NCEA related workload for secondary educators – and there every individual child by teachers and schools (think workload). has been no sign of this abating despite pressures to address the But National lost the election and the app never came to light,
even though it was virtually ready to be put in place and for schools to comply (think workload). Then! Mr Hipkins countered Mr English’s fixation on reporting student achievement by declaring his government would instead focus on student progress (pure Hattieism). A nonsense, of course, because you cannot have one without the other. Regardless, he set up a Curriculum, Progress and Achievement Ministerial Advisory Group headed by a consultation company director and former Ministry of Education manager responsible for the NZ Curriculum and then for the design and implementation of National Standards. Among the group’s ‘ideas’ – wait for it – is the introduction of ‘real time’ reporting via devices such as cell phones. They have already gone so far as to bring, powhiri and banquet a techno agency from Canada to demonstrate their wares and their fitness for New Zealand. But it seems that the stable door is already open, and the horse is bolting without the need for Hipkin’s advisory committee – at least in some places: More than 100 schools have signed up for a new online system, LINC-ED, which allows teachers, parents and children themselves to update the children’s learning goals and progress at any time during the year. LINC-ED is designed with teacher workflow in mind. Teacher’s time is valuable and we believe that their focus should be on creating great learning experiences for their students. LINC-ED allows teachers to share this great learning in authentic ways that values teachers time. Powerful tracking tools allow teachers to manage their workflow.(6) So it seems that real time technology reporting might already have some appeal for some, although we might wonder how the word ‘workflow’ relates to the word ‘workload’. In trying to uncover the breeding grounds for those viral demons that feed teacher workload, I discovered that not every teacher or every school becomes infected. There seem to be varying levels of immunity, and we need to ask why. A reasonably recent NZCER survey (7), for example, reported that 65 per cent of teachers said their workload is so high that they were unable to do justice to the students they teach. So this raises the question, what about the other 35 per cent? I would suggest that this statistic reflects serious differences in schools’ cultures. Some cultures are under the heavy persuasion of overheated ‘mis’leaders and teachers who are hellbent on entertaining, consuming and embellishing whatever is the latest on the education catwalk or box of sparklers. In healthy work places there is a strong, insistent culture headed by the
principal and fully supported by second tier leaders where no new externally promoted ‘innovation’ is taken on or tried unless the principal and staff have been absolutely convinced that (a) it will benefit teaching and learning in the school, and (b) it will not add to existing workload, and preferably reduce it. A few examples (many more are available): Charter targets Workmore School: has a charter with 6 goal areas containing 16 targets. These are further expanded into 61 ‘actions’ and 55 ‘outcomes’. It’s crazy. The Ministry liked it. (True case) Workless School: has a charter with only two targets in its strategic plan. The Ministry said they should have more. Workless school said the law doesn’t require it, and we won’t be adding unnecessary work to please you. (True case) Teacher Inquiries Workmore School: All teachers have to write, do, write, and regularly report ‘inquiries’ – an imposition created by a couple of Ministry patronised academics whose main work is to do inquiries – not to teach children full-time. (True case) Workless School: teacher inquiry is regarded as happening moment-by-moment and part of everyday pedagogy as teachers reflect on what learning is happening now in their classroom, then deciding how they will respond to emerging needs and strengths of students. In this school – there is no paperwork associated with inquiry – unless the teacher chooses to (but gets no brownie points for doing this). (True case) Staff meetings Workmore School: teachers are required to attend up to 4 meetings every week. This is a pure example of overheated leadership and is tantamount to incompetent school management. Teachers are made to feel guilty and behind the school’s eight ball if they attempt to challenge this regime. (True case) Workless School: one 20 minute admin meeting each week (before school), and one one-hour staff/team meeting per week that is dedicated to teaching and learning (no admin). Works brilliantly! (True case)
Work incrementalism is alive and well in far too many schools that are constantly trying to catch new stars – or create stars that will be seen to twinkle more brightly than other schools. So much of this incrementalism is far from transformational. Somehow the overheated and ‘mis’leaders need to be reined in and cooled down. But the system reformers keep fuelling them up! Workload is a two-pronged problem. A blow torch needs to be pointed at both of them. Scrub all of those high sounding, Ministry-ticked goals and replace them with one simple goal: “All teachers love teaching in our school, and all of our children love learning in our school.” That could be quite transformational and lead to a much-needed paradigm shift. References ‘It’s time to limit the load,’ Times Educational Supplement, UK, editorial, April 13, 2001
(1)
Sean Fine, The Globe and Mail, February 5, 2001
(2)
https://educationcentral.co.nz/teachers-drowning-in-paperwork/
(3)
https://educationcentral.co.nz/workload-demands-at-dangerouslevels-for-primary-school-leaders/
(4)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOmSNDtsfTQ (viewing not recommended)
(5)
https://educationcentral.co.nz/school-reports-make-way-foronline-real-time-technology/
(6)
https://www.nzcer.org.nz/system/files/National%20Survey_ Teacher%20Work_Nov17.pdf
(7)
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