Stress and Burnout: Voices of Illinois Educators
By Amy B. Wagner and David L. ConradIllinois school districts are struggling to staff schools with qualified educators — and the educator labor supply continues to shrink. Research indicates that many individuals who are qualified to become educators often choose not to enter the field.
Education in Illinois needs to recruit more aspiring educators, but those who persevere through educator preparation may leave the profession early. Pre-service educators who completed their preparation programs divert to a different career after discovering the misalignment between career expectations and the reality of the workload and working conditions, according to an analysis of teacher exit decisions published by Teaching and Teacher Education. Unfavorable compensation, poor working conditions, unstable retirement prospects, curriculum changes, and lack of educator autonomy diminish the allure of teaching.
Meanwhile, of those who remain, many educators feel stuck in their careers. They love working with students but are challenged by unfavorable working conditions and limited growth opportunities. We recently interviewed eight suburban Chicagoland educators to learn what they had to say about retention, working conditions, and career pathways. Participants were veteran educators with at least 11 years of experience. The conversation topics included professional development, burnout, autonomy, and student behavior.
Professional Development is Incomplete
These eight educators felt let down by professional development — they wanted more choices, more time, and more variety. They also want school leaders to listen to their needs and to use their voice to determine their growth needs. And when formal training is provided, educators want time for conversations with peers and trainers to help make sense of the content. School leaders must consider the diverse roles of educators and respect that “one-size” professional development doesn’t fit everyone, especially the music, physical education, and art educators who need differentiated professional development opportunities. Research has established that educators are more likely to embrace professional development that aligns with both their own professional needs as well as the goals of the school.
Burnout Issues for Veteran Educators
The veteran educators felt especially at risk of burnout. With a shifting and transient talent pool, mid-career and veteran educators feel unfairly burdened by the demands to assume mentoring and leadership roles in schools. This smaller pool of experienced educators is burdened with “veteran strain,” an overreaching expectation to serve in leadership roles such as team leadership and mentoring.
Veteran strain was especially problematic during the COVID-19 emergency, when veteran educators were expected to support the transition to remote emergency teaching. Veteran educators did not have the “answers” but were expected to help peers while managing their own personal and professional stressors. In 2021, researchers Melissa Kay Diliberti, Heather L. Schwartz, and David Grant found that stress was the primary reason why educators leave the profession, and the participants in our study agreed. Educators’ workloads are too much, and school leaders should remove responsibilities that are no longer relevant or beneficial.
Educators believe the increased workload has become overwhelming. Several participants described how more work and responsibilities were added to their duties, but nothing was ever reduced or replaced. Although school leaders professed to care about well-being, educators feel this concern is at a surface level, empty of solutions to help them navigate the workload. One educator suggested that listening to educators’ voices would help school leaders identify professional development goals for staff, especially for time management and work-life balance. And because many teaching positions are unfilled, class sizes have increased because administrators are combining classrooms to make sure all students have an educator. And the burden of covering classrooms when a substitute educator is unavailable.
Autonomy and Professional Respect
Educators desire more autonomy in their classrooms and desire recognition for their instructional capacity. Several of our eight educators were burdened by scripted curriculum, with no professional input to supplement the required curriculum. For example, one educator shared frustrations about teaching fractions. She knew from experience that the required curriculum needed supplementation to support the students, but it was not allowed. Others shared that when they were allowed to supplement, the costs for materials and manipulatives were not reimbursed, leaving educators to spend out-of-pocket.
Part of what makes an educator unique is when they can pull something personal from their educator toolbox. With scripted curricula, these “tools” are no longer a resource that can benefit students. While a curriculum should serve as a guide and resource for student learning, there are other approaches to meeting every student’s needs and engaging them in learning. Educators must be allowed to enrich the curriculum with their flair. Ideally, there should be reimbursement for supplies educators buy to make this happen.
Student Behaviors
Educators also shared frustrations with student behaviors and conduct. All eight participants illustrated how student behaviors have shifted during their careers, especially following the COVID-19 emergency. While communities vary in their receptiveness to school resource officers, some educators felt that a well-trained officer could motivate positive student behaviors through relationships and interventions. This has improved the school climate and reduced educator stress in some schools. And by lowering noncompliant student behaviors, instruction time-on-task increased in these buildings.
Would They Do It Again?
After hearing about their classroom needs, the educators were asked if they were starting over and if they would choose to be educators again. The results were varied: two educators said yes, two said no, and four were unsure. Three educators explained they were too far into the pension system and were “riding it out” to maximize their pension benefits. Sharing the internal rewards of teaching, one educator explained:
“Even though I want to say no, I’m going to say yes. It’s always something that I’ve wanted to do. And I felt like I’ve touched a lot of kids’ and families’ lives. And for that, it’s rewarding, even though it’s a hard road. Yeah, you know, it’s a noble road, but it’s not so lucrative. It’s a lot of stress and a lot of time away from family. But in the end, it’s worthwhile because you’re enriching the future.”
However, another educator shared a defeated attitude about the profession:
“I did at one time. And I really liked it at one time, and I don’t think I realized how good it was. But now all I want to do is flee, and if I could retire at this moment, I absolutely would. So, it is no longer fulfilling. Things have changed so much in the district. The students, the behavior, the everything that know I was once, but not today.”
These statements illustrate educators’ mixed emotions about the profession. Educators are hurting right now; over half leave in their first five years of employment. They deserve to have their needs assessed and supported.
Recommendations
We propose that administrators prioritize educators’ needs in the coming school year. Rather than looking for resources to add to the current school dynamic, systematically revisiting school protocol and procedures needs to occur. This should not be seen as another item to “add to the plate” of the teachers. Creating task forces within the school districts that include all stakeholders, especially school leaders, educators, parents, and students, could lead to productive planning for all. Topics that could be included are educator autonomy, professional development options, veteran status requirements, and behavior assistance. Seeing that these task forces meet and make changes for the common good of teachers and students should be completed with rigor and fidelity.
Experienced teachers are essential to our schools and should be highly valued. To better support them, we should reconsider some traditional requirements for veteran status. For instance, must a teacher be tenured to be considered a veteran? Could educators with two or three years of experience, rather than the standard five, also provide valuable mentorship to new teachers? Can teachers who have worked years prior in other professions use that knowledge to expand resources to schools and be regarded as experienced in a nontraditional method? Involving newer teachers in committees can bring fresh perspectives and innovative solutions to school challenges. By distributing responsibilities more broadly, we can reduce the risk of burnout among our most experienced educators.
Changes are critical to addressing the educator labor market crisis. The ultimate goal is to ensure our students have the best educators possible. By supporting aspiring leaders and those who excel in the classroom, Illinois can keep its most talented educators where they can make the most significant difference: with their students. Our students deserve to have the best educators in the classroom, and by supporting our teachers and meeting their needs, we can ensure these students are getting exactly that.
Amy B. Wagner, Ed.D., is a University Lecturer in elementary education in the College of Education and Human Development at Governors State University. Her scholarship illuminates the voices of educators to strengthen the profession. David L. Conrad, Ed.D., is an Associate Professor of educational administration and Assistant Dean in the College of Education and Human Development at Governors State University. His scholarship examines leadership preparation, educator evaluation, and education policy. He serves as president of the Illinois Council of Professors of Educational Administration. Resources associated with this commentary can be found at www.iasb.com/Journal.