Analysis: ‘We need to ensure that we do not make unnecessary demands on our teachers’

THE payment of a six-figure sum to compensate a teacher for occupational stress raises genuine concerns about the demands that we place on the profession. The payment is for the excessive workload to which the teacher was subjected and the failure of their employer to respond to concerns expressed.

There is no doubt that teaching can be stressful. Teachers are dealing with a generation less likely to accept their authority automatically. Respect has to be earned and attention won. There is a greater accountability and many teachers feel intimidated by the demands of inspection and local procedures for quality assurance.

Many have a sense of overwhelming change, which they find difficult to cope with. Most feel that they are having to cater for more complex and demanding learners and some resent the policy of inclusion, which, they feel, forces them to deal with young people whose needs they cannot meet.

Against this background, one sympathises with those who cannot cope, but we need to remind ourselves that teaching can also be hugely rewarding.

The key to balancing stress and satisfaction lies with effective management. We need to allow teachers to focus on the improvement of practice, rather than on changing the content of what they do. We need to do more to recognise their achievements and to build their confidence.

We need to respect their professionalism, but they need to engage more through professional review. We need to be more open and collegiate in our schools and that means changes for all of us. Teachers can make a massive difference in young people’s lives.

Teaching is important work of great responsibility and that brings stress.

“We need to be ambitious for our young people and their achievements and that will place demands on teachers, but these are demands that teachers should be making of themselves.

What we need to ensure is that we do not make unnecessary demands and that we heed Lawrence Stenhouse’s advice, that “it is the job of all educationalists outwith the classroom to support teachers for only they are in a position to deliver effective learning”.

• David Cameron is an education consultant and former education director of Stirling Council and president of the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland.