In 1988, journalist Francine Cunningham wrote in this newspaper about growing evidence of stress-related resignations from the teaching profession in Ireland, noting that in the previous year, these pressures had led to the departure of 50 secondary schoolteachers. The framework of understanding for this phenomenon, however, was slight, as “there has been no solid research done on the subject of teachers and stress in Ireland”, she wrote. But what was coming under scrutiny and “under fire” from teacher trade unions was the “leisurely image of the teaching profession”.
Cunningham noted wryly that research in other countries suggested “in many cases it would be more appropriate for a child to bring a Valium, instead of an apple, for the teacher.” Americans, she discovered, “never slow to coin a phrase”, had duly christened the problem – “teacher burnout”.
That description has now become commonplace and in recent years there has been an abundance of research on it in Ireland, most recently from DCU’s Centre for Collaborative Research Across Teacher Education; 42 per cent of respondents to its survey indicated they are likely to leave the profession due to “crippling burnout”; 86 per cent reported moderate to high levels of “personal burnout”, while 85 per cent reported experiencing moderate to high levels of “work-related burnout”.
[ High levels of burnout and poor mental health among teachersOpens in new window ]
The study carries an added significance, as more than 1,000 teachers from primary and second level participated, making it the largest in-depth study of this topic in Ireland.
It has been apparent for some time now that retention of teachers and their occupational wellbeing are grave issues. An INTO survey in 2023 found that 90 per cent of teachers were struggling with workload; more than 4,000 teachers and 1,100 school leaders provided feedback that suggested an “overloaded curriculum and a tsunami of new initiatives” contributing to a “burnout problem in the profession”.
Another survey, in 2022, for the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals and the Irish Primary Principals Network, found that 64 per cent of second-level principals and deputy principals were “experiencing burnout due to stress”, far higher than the figure of “34 per cent found in the general healthy working population”. The study also found 39 per cent were diagnosed with stress-related medical conditions in 2022.
Added to this, the Department of Education estimates that during the last academic year there were more than 400 teaching posts at second level unfilled, with a further 800 occupied by teachers unqualified in the subject they were teaching. Last November, INTO data suggested 951 teaching positions were unfilled at that point, with a projected shortfall of 2,767 teachers for the 2024/25 school year.
There are issues facing teachers common to other professions, most obviously the cost of housing, technological change and excessive managerialism. But there are other factors that especially impact educators: curriculum overload, administrative burdens, student anxiety, neurodiversity and the often unrealistic expectations that exist about the extent of their educational and welfare roles. The Covid pandemic also posed particular challenges and turned teachers into health and social workers while also managing a new hybrid teaching.
Teachers have always had to adapt and embrace change, and so they should, but they also have particularly heavy responsibilities in relation to managing complex youth, character formation and expectations based on the contemporary societal climate.
It is easy to be sentimental about a simpler, golden age of teaching and teachers; writers and filmmakers have long been attuned to the scope for satisfying dramas and morality tales centred on the inspiring teacher. James Hilton’s 1934 novel Goodbye Mr Chips became a hugely successful film in 1939. It is dewy-eyed and nostalgic, but Hilton’s book did highlight the tensions between Chips and a new business-oriented headmaster who Chips sees as wanting to turn the school in to a “factory for turning out snob culture based on money and machines”.
Chips maintains his school should emphasise a sense of balance, especially when “ideas of dignity and generosity were becoming increasingly rare in a frantic world”.
These pressures have long been relevant. Renowned Kerry writer and teacher Bryan MacMahon, who began teaching in Listowel in 1931, refused, when looking back in 1987, to romanticise his experiences. He recalled the rigidity of the inspectorate system and the monthly progress record as “the bane of his life”, and squalid buildings and conditions that witnessed some children and teachers “in mud up to their knees”. There were battles too, about patronage, control and funding.
But he also underlined the importance of balance: teachers needed to avoid being ground down in order to remain “bright and shining for the children”. He learned to ask himself, “how can I educate these children without killing myself?”
There are too many wrecked teachers out there; too many hate their jobs; too many depart prematurely. Addressing the reasons why and finding a better balance is necessary not just for their welfare, but for wider societal wellbeing.
