Resilient Teachers, Resilient Schools: Building and Sustaining Quality in Testing Times
I begin this paper by considering the learning entitlements of every student in every school in every country of the world. I believe that each one has an entitlement not only to the provision of educational opportunities, but also to be taught by teacher
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Introduction I begin this paper by considering the learning entitlements of every student in every school in every country of the world. I believe that each one has an entitlement not only to the provision of educational opportunities, but also to be taught by teachers who, as well as being knowledgeable about curriculum and pedagogically adept, are constant and persistent in their commitment to encouraging their students to learn and achieve, regardless of the students’ own motivation and existing knowledge or ability; and who are themselves demonstrably passionate about their own learning. In one sense, these are self-evident truths about the core task of every teacher to engage students in learning which will assist them in their personal, social and intellectual development. In another sense, however, the ambitions which are embedded in these truths will not always be easy to achieve consistently over a 30 year career span. Students are not only entitled to the best teaching. They are also entitled to be taught by teachers who are well led. School leaders, especially principals, play a key role in successfully steering their schools through changing social and policy landscapes; in providing optimal conditions, structures and cultures for learning and teaching; in enabling teachers to respond positively to the unavoidable uncertainties inherent in their everyday professional lives; and through this, sustain their commitment, wellbeing and effectiveness in making a difference to the learning, achievement and life chances of children and young people. It is these, together
© Qing Gu This paper is drawn from Day and Gu (2014) “Resilient Teachers, Resilient Schools”. Q. Gu (&) School of Education, The University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2017 X. Zhu et al. (eds.), Quality of Teacher Education and Learning, New Frontiers of Educational Research, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-3549-4_8
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with the nuanced and dynamic interactions between personal, workplace, socio-cultural and policy environments which support and enable those who stay in teaching to continue to teach to their best and sustain them in doing so. As students in successful schools have told us, their teachers and principals are not there for the money. They are there because they ‘care about us’. It is strong leadership and a collective as well as individual sense of moral purpose and ethic of care that make these schools resilient and effective. Yet as the social glue of societies and many families begins to thin outside the school, accounts also continue to emerge of the disenchantment and alienation of many students and of tired teachers within schools for whom learning has become a chore and for whom teaching has become ‘just a job’. Much research on teachers’ work and lives notes with alarming regularity in many countries, the lowering of teacher morale, rises in stress, presenteeism and, in its extreme form, burnout. Themes of ‘teacher attrition’ and ‘stress’ contin
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