On Liberating Teachers
by Chad Ratliff
“Leaders who do not act dialogically, but insist on imposing their decisions, do not organize the people—they manipulate them. They do not liberate, nor are they liberated: they oppress.”
Paolo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed
Today teachers are faced with unprecedented demands resulting in extremely high levels of burnout and attrition. A matrix of pressures bears down on the profession, many stemming from the antiquated system we have inherited from the industrial revolution. We are now well into the twenty-first century; however, our school systems have been left far behind. Fortunately, there is hope that these systems can be transformed from within by applying systems and design thinking to this problem.
Educators are finding themselves uniquely positioned to be the agents of this change. However, in order to do this, educators need a toolbox of skills that will help us build inner resilience, change the way we think about school, and empower our students. Teacher Burnout Turnaround provides such a toolbox and comes at a particularly critical juncture in education. As we try to change our teaching and learning to adapt to the challenges of living in a pandemic, these skills are more essential than ever. Those of us who are committed to this transformational process will find this an essential guide.
Educational dialogue takes place on three levels: philosophy, policy, and practice. Policy is the political manifestation of a philosophy that defines the purpose of schooling. Practice is rooted in and driven by one’s own philosophy within the context of policy. Too often, teachers give little thought to the cultivation of a philosophical foundation, so their practice defaults to prior educational experiences. This means the vast majority of public school teachers are traditionalists without even knowing it.
Liberating teachers—adult learners—begins by exposing them to how schooling can be different, and how that difference can change our calculus of winners and losers. But this isn’t done by projecting slides on a screen; it requires that one person who, in the face of dissonance, will change and then bring others along. One person at a time, the fundamental philosophical shift essential to deep change becomes practice. A leader can’t mandate agency. Leaders first have to know educators as individuals, then give them the autonomy to reflect on challenges to their beliefs. That begins with understanding how the tightly-held beliefs about schooling were formed, as well as how they became part of DNA of education.
Essentially, two types of schooling exist: that which seeks to assimilate and oppress and that which seeks to enlighten and empower. This book speaks to those of us committed to the latter. Incremental shifts in practice are not the focus of our work. We are committed to significant transformation of the teaching and learning culture in our schools. We have learned that for educators to change pedagogies, they must commit to learning how to learn in today’s world. This means reflection, inquiry, and study in collaboration with colleagues and mentors. Provocation of thought and processing drives professional growth beyond superficial change to deep change, that which results in substantively different learning experiences for young people. We see this occur when professional learning opportunities shift from normative learning (top-down and program-driven) to experiential learning that gets educators out of the box. When our educators own their learning, seeing themselves as designers, creators, and makers, they shift their approach to working with learners.
Tish Jennings trusts teachers. She believes many problems in schools can be solved through an authentic emancipation of the energy, commitment, imagination, and potential of teachers and principals. This accessible guide for school change keeps students and teachers at the center of the work to ensure deep, meaningful, sustainable, and long overdue shifts in traditional schooling. As the education sector and indeed, society as a whole, undergoes a period of great historical change, the timing is perfect for Teacher Burnout Turnaround: Strategies for Empowered Educators.