Archive

• Resilience and Beyond

  December 4, 2019 9:39 PM Comments Off on Resilience and Beyond

  

  Resilience is a basic psychological health and safety skill that can be developed by individuals and teams. Resilience is a person’s capacity to bounce back from adversity and to find a new and healthy “normal.” Positively oriented psychological strengths and capacities, including resilience, can be developed and measured in a workforce. Doing so will help organizations and their members to flourish and thrive.

  Team Resilience

  Team resilience is more than the combined personal resilience of individual team members. A resilient team performs well when faced with adversity, perhaps undergoing a small decline in performance, and then becomes stronger in the process. A resilient team takes stock of workplace pressures, assesses the risks of stress and burnout, and identifies actions to proactively address these. In resilient teams, members are mutually supportive, have a clear sense of purpose, and collectively adapt to changing circumstances. And taking a cue from positive psychology, teams also need to identify sources of positive energy and do what they can to strengthen and cultivate these.

  

  Team resilience can be developed and strengthened. Research has identified unique team-based features of resilience that contribute to higher team performance. Practically, this emphasizes the need to focus on group – as well as individual – resilience. Psychologist Monique Crane offers advice for managers on how they can support their employees – and teams – to be more resilient.

  This boils down to four actions managers can take:

  • reducing unnecessary drains on their resilience
  • promoting adaptive workplace behaviours and thinking when faced with difficulties
  • supporting the development of personal and social resources
  • enabling employees to access these resources.

  This advice focuses on developing individuals’ psychological resilience. However, it also is clear that drains on resilience include many organizational features, such as unnecessary bureaucracy or administrative requirements, that in themselves are a source of stress for employees.

  Connecting resilience and leadership

  With this background on resilience, I would now like to share relevant insights from an action-research project that examined how resilience, leadership and well-being are interconnected. I was the research consultant on the Resilience in Leadership Project, which the Alberta School Employee Benefit Plan (ASEBP) conducted in collaboration with educational system leaders across the province. ASEBP administers a province-wide group insurance program offering a variety of health benefits, employee and family assistance, and loss of life and disability insurance to employees and their dependents in the educational sector.

  The project’s starting point was the recognition that educational leaders face heightened risks to their well-being, given the demands of their role in an educational system defined by rapid change, rising expectations and resource constraints.

  Leaders are expected to support school system improvements, most notably aimed at making education more inclusive and promoting healthy school communities. Indeed, the project’s survey of educational leaders confirmed that resilience and leadership are interrelated, and in turn influence both educational leaders’ well-being and school system performance.

  Beyond resilience

  The study concluded that today’s educational leaders need more than just resilience. That’s why psychologists have developed the broader concept of “psychological capital” (PsyCap) to encompass not only a person’s capacity to be resilient, but also to be hopeful, confident and optimistic. When combined, these positive psychological traits are better predictors of well-being and performance than each attribute on its own.

  PsyCap is similar to what educational experts Andy Hargreaves and Michael Fullan call “professional capital,” which combines individual talent, collaboration and sound educational decision-making. Studies link PsyCap to a range of individual well-being and workplace performance outcomes, such as absenteeism, intentions to quit, job satisfaction, commitment, and organizational citizenship behaviours. The latter attribute is central to inclusive leadership (i.e. encouraging everyone to be a leader), because it refers to employees going beyond their job descriptions to help co-workers or benefit the organization and all of its stakeholders.

  

  An effective way to develop resilience in a workforce is through leadership styles that promote the capacities captured in PsyCap. This requires managers to connect on a personal level with the employees who report to them. Leaders who are positive and authentic, thoughtful and transparent, and who build confidence and commitment among their staff will be actively cultivating PsyCap in others. PsyCap is positively contagious; as described by experts, it “trickles down and ripples out,”¹ leading to positive behaviours by others in the organization.

  Among the educational leaders we studied, PsyCap had a significant and positive relationship with their health, well-being and stress. Respondents with greater PsyCap – in other words, who feel optimistic, confident, resilient and hopeful – were far more likely than their colleagues with low PsyCap to report very good or excellent general and mental health and high life satisfaction. They also experienced less stress and reported fewer symptoms of burnout.

  Connecting leadership, well-being and resilience

  One of the project’s objectives was to illuminate the relationship between educational leadership, well-being and resilience. So the survey also measured transformational leadership (TL) behaviours based on a widely used and validated leadership assessment tool, the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire.

  Transformational leaders contribute to the future success of their organization by encouraging their colleagues to see opportunities and challenges in new ways. They also motivate others to strive for higher levels of performance, are admired and trusted, stimulate creative thinking, and are attuned to individuals’ growth needs by acting as a coach or mentor. In short, transformational leaders go far beyond a “transactional” or goal-oriented management style by enabling individuals to achieve their potential, find innovative solutions to challenges, and embrace change.

  The practical implication is that psychological capital contributes to school system performance by supporting a transformational style of leadership and higher engagement among senior administrators.

  Assessing your psychological capital and leadership style

  The study and follow-up consultations were a catalyst for reflection and action. The results helped to raise awareness about the importance of connecting psychological skills, leadership style and well-being. The professional association representing educational leaders used the findings in its leadership development program, succession planning, and supporting its members’ health and wellness. Leaders themselves were better informed, having evidence-based insights to guide how they could involve other staff in promoting workplace well-being.

  Teachers and educational leaders who possess strong psychological capital are transformational leaders.

  If you and your organization are interested in developing the psychological capital and leadership skills just described, see Figures 1 and 2 for the key behaviours that must be your focus.

  Figure 1:

  

  Figure 2:

  

  Above all, teachers and educational leaders who possess strong psychological capital are transformational leaders. We’ve now seen how strong psychological capital and a transformational leadership style set the stage for inclusive leadership, by inviting employees to take responsibility for making the workplace better. It certainly helps in this regard if senior managers signal to others in the organization that through dedicated collective effort, specific improvement goals will be achieved. Senior managers must regularly and consistently communicate the importance of employee well-being to the organization’s success, using language that resonates for all staff.

  

  Training for managers is a vital component of a comprehensive strategy to promote overall well-being. That’s why the U.S. Centers for Disease Control recommends training supervisors on what they can do to reduce stressful working conditions for direct reports and enhancing workers’ stress reduction skills. Furthermore, pooled results from numerous studies show that training can improve managers’ mental health knowledge, promote non-stigmatizing attitudes towards mental health, and enable them to support employees experiencing mental health problems. These are all prerequisites for achieving higher levels of workforce well-being.

  Borrowing successful practices from occupational health and safety (OHS), we know that mandatory safety training increases workers’ awareness of safety issues and reinforces safe work practices. The same no doubt would apply to basic workplace well-being training. Researchers are now recommending providing apprentices and students with broadly-based OHS education, which would include the promotion and protection of psychological as well as physical health. This surely is a worthy mission for schools.

   

  Illustration: Diana Pham and Adobe Stock

  First published in Education Canada, December 2019

  ---

  1 C. M. Youssef-Morgan and J. L. Stratman, J. L. (2017). “Psychological Capital: Developing resilience by leveraging the HERO within leaders,” in M. F. Crane (Ed.), Managing for Resilience: A practical guide for employee wellbeing and organizational performance (New York: Routledge, 2017), 60.

• Love, Heartbreak, and Teacher Emotional Well-being

  9:36 PM Comments Off on Love, Heartbreak, and Teacher Emotional Well-being

  

  Losing your passion for a calling you once loved is a kind of heartbreak, says Astrick Kendrick: occupational heartbreak. She explores the emotional labour of teaching and its role in teacher burnout and exhaustion. She also suggests steps that can be taken to “to ensure that rather than experiencing occupational heartbreak, educators stay committed to their heart’s work.”

  I don’t remember a time when I didn’t want to be a teacher. From the first day of primary school, I looked at my teacher and decided that was what I wanted to be when I grew up. I didn’t explore any other career options, and when it came time to apply for post-secondary education, I applied to one university and one faculty. The only time I dealt with any uncertainty was in deciding between primary or secondary specialization. Thanks to a love for reading and a respect for my high school English teacher, I chose secondary English/Language Arts.

  Twenty-four years later, I feel no regrets for following my “calling” even though my understanding of the profession has changed dramatically. Teaching is still my passion, and I have a deep love for engaging with students and connecting them to the language arts. Experiences with teaching a subject area that I didn’t explore in my undergraduate degree (Physical Education) in seven different schools with complex students has sorely tested that passion over time. And on one particularly difficult day, it almost extinguished that fire completely. Nearly losing my love for teaching was devastating and drove me to understand what had happened. Instead of giving up my life’s work, I decided to pursue graduate studies to understand more about teacher emotional well-being.

  “Just as a carpenter is expected to provide manual labour as a part of their job description, educators are expected to provide emotional labour to maintain a calm and engaging school culture.”

  Emotional labour and education

  When I began my research for my Doctor of Education in 2015, I discovered the concept of emotional labour. This organizational construct, first described in The Managed Heart by Arlie Hochschild in 1984, describes the influence of organizational feeling rules on the expression of emotions by individual people as they go about their daily work. Just as a carpenter is expected to provide manual labour as a part of their job description, educators are expected to provide emotional labour to maintain a calm and engaging school culture. Unlike the carpenter who uses their physical body to perform job tasks, a teacher provides their positive emotions – enthusiasm, positivity, and joy – to perform their work. Even in times when a teacher might not feel calm and confident, she will act that way with her students.

  Hochschild used the metaphor of acting to describe the portrayal of expected emotions while engaged in paid work. She described two types of organizational performance related to providing emotional labour: superficial and deep acting.

  To understand these concepts, first consider the following hypothetical situation:

  The date is June 17, and many of the students in a school are writing their Provincial Achievement Exams. Freda, a Physical Education teacher, has been assigned to supervise a group of students as they finish up this two-hour exam. She has spent the school year building positive relationships with these students, but she has struggled to connect with Joshua. All term, Joshua has displayed inattention, interrupted her when she was explaining games in class, and actively distracted other students in inappropriate ways. Her everyday interactions with Joshua are often difficult, but she is committed to building a strong relationship with each student.

  The allocated exam time is nearly complete, with about half of the students waiting patiently for the rest to hand in their work. Rather than drawing or reading quietly like his peers, Joshua alternates between hopping onto the class couch, tapping his pencil repeatedly on his desk, and loudly whispering to anyone who is nearby. Freda repeatedly asks him to respect his classmates who are trying to focus on their exam.

  Superficial acting would be used to mask the inappropriate emotions felt by the individual. Ongoing superficial acting in a workplace has been associated with emotional burnout and exhaustion. In this scenario, Freda might use superficial acting to cover up her mounting frustration with Joshua. While she might feel like screaming and yelling at him to quiet down, Freda would strive to speak politely and firmly to him. At the end of the exam supervision, Freda might feel fatigue from managing her frustration and might be irritable when interacting with another person.

  

  Deep acting, on the other hand, reflects an alignment between the person’s actual emotions and the expected display of emotions. If Freda, understanding that Joshua’s parents could not afford his medication, felt compassionate rather than frustrated by the displayed behaviour, her emotional display would line up with her actual feelings. This deep acting has been shown to be a protective factor against emotional burnout. In this case, Freda would feel fine after the supervision and would complete her day without any further concern.

  Providing emotional labour is an expected part of being a teaching professional, as it should be. Teachers are normally the only adults with impressionable students at any given time, and if they appear frazzled, angry, or frustrated, it will be difficult to create effective pedagogic relationships with their students. Portraying organizationally expected emotions is a necessary part of maintaining professionalism, but if this emotional labour is primarily accomplished through superficial acting, the educator will eventually experience emotional burnout or unexpected outbursts.

  Love, heartbreak, and educational turbulence

  In my doctoral research, love stood out as an emotion associated with deep acting and was a protective factor for educators dealing with difficult times or situations. Teachers expressed love for students and love for subject area as reasons that they came to, and stayed in, the education field.

  One of my participants described this love as “heartwork,” a pun on hard work. As a system level leader, she was responsible for assisting other educators with promoting the health and well-being of students. She poured her heart into the work because she was passionate about the positive academic outcomes associated with improving the health of children and youth. She was devastated when, due to financial cutbacks and restructuring, her job disappeared and all the work she had done along with it.

  The change in financial priorities created educational turbulence for my participant. The other participants identified changes to curriculum without corresponding professional development; teaching in subject areas outside of the teacher’s expertise; and unmanageably complex classes of students as all causing educational turbulence leading to their occupational heartbreak. Unlike the sustaining effect of engaging in heartwork, heartbreak resulted in a devastating emotional exhaustion that forced the participants to question staying in the profession that they loved.

  What can schools and leadership do?

  Since completing my study in 2018, I have been presenting my findings to other teachers to determine if the experience of providing emotional labour is consistent and relatable to other teachers. I have spoken to over 100 teachers about this idea, and they have resoundingly agreed that providing ongoing emotional labour has contributed to their exhaustion and burnout at work.

  “Simply recognizing that providing emotional labour is a part of educator professionalism is a first step.”

  At the end of my workshop, I ask the question, “What do you need in order to release organizationally inappropriate emotions so that you can effectively work with students?”

  The educators had several suggestions that could be implemented in school settings, many of which involve small, cheap tweaks to the work day:

  • More breaks, less emails, less demanding extracurriculars: we are spread too thin. We are getting away from actually being present and focused on our students.
  • Reduce the workload, increase opportunities for teachers to have calm in their day.
  • Class sizes (especially given the increasing diversity of our population) need to be reduced. Special needs students need to be supported.
  • Respect teacher transition time… Allow the teacher a few minutes before the next class comes in.
  • Ensure each staff member has a defined break period each day. Reduce expectations during break times so that breaks are actually breaks. Don’t organize so many meetings; give teachers the time they need to prep and decompress.
  • Offer activity and sport opportunities for staff during the work day and/or on non-instructional days. Create a staff work-out space.
  • Increase supports for teachers who are struggling mentally.
  • Carefully team up teachers to create support systems.
  • Create a Zen room that teachers can go to.
  • Say thank you and recognize successes.
  • We need a strong champion for teachers in the media.

  Stakeholders, such as parents, educational assistants, teachers, school administrators, and system leaders, can all play a role in promoting emotional health within the school system. Simply recognizing that providing emotional labour is a part of educator professionalism is a first step. The ethical next step is to find ways to ensure that when educators have provided intense emotional labour, they are provided with a safe place during their work day – through uninterrupted time, in a physical location, or with a trusted friend – to release their emotions in a healthy manner.

  

  Ultimately, determining what to do in the aftermath of providing emotional labour needs to be addressed by educators and supported by school and system leadership. Having a frank conversation with staff teams about what they need, and then following through with the requested supports and resources, is the best way to ensure that rather than experiencing occupational heartbreak, educators stay committed to their heart’s work.

  Study Description

  My doctoral research study explored the lived experience with emotional labour of five female Health Champions as they navigated through systemic instability while implementing Comprehensive School Health projects. I aimed to discover the immediate emotional and embodied experiences identified by five change agents in leadership roles who have served as a pre-service student teacher, educational assistant, teacher, school leader, and system leader while undertaking educational reforms introduced between 2009 and 2016 in Alberta. Framed by complex adaptive systems theory, this study uncovered insights into their common understanding of the phenomenon of emotional labour for educators, both in their daily work and while acting in leadership roles. The findings of this study included: insight into the unique nature of the emotional work of educators and the intensification of emotional labour for change agents in educational settings; a phenomenological example of a possible lived experience with emotional labour; and suggestions for areas of future study on emotional labour, implementing Comprehensive School Health reforms, and improving the wellbeing of educators.

   

  Illustration: Diana Pham and Adobe Stock

  First published in Education Canada, December 2019

• Measuring School Well-being

  9:36 PM Comments Off on Measuring School Well-being

  The concept of happiness in a society is far from novel. The New Economics Foundation has been publishing its Happy Planet Index (HPI) since 2006. The HPI is calculated using a number of well-being and environmental impact indicators available from over 140 countries.

  Since 2012, the United Nations has published an annual World Happiness Report based on “available global data on national happiness and related evidence from the emerging science of happiness, showing that the quality of people’s lives can be coherently, reliably, and validly assessed by a variety of subjective well-being measures, collectively referred to then and in subsequent reports as ‘happiness.’” Results from the World Happiness Report align closely with the Gross National Happiness (GNH) Index developed by Bhutan to provide data for the development of its national policies.

  

  So, the concepts of well-being and happiness are not restricted to individuals but also apply to countries. The same can be said for schools. Although the concept of happiness at the school level is relatively recent, it is quickly becoming accepted across Canada and elsewhere. More than ever, schools strive to provide a “well-rounded education” by finding an equilibrium between a global, holistic education and the more traditional content-focused curricula and also by providing psychologically safe environments where staff and students are engaged, can thrive and be at their best.

  The question therefore is not to debate the importance of school happiness but rather how to measure it so we can then focus on increasing it by building on existing strengths.

  The Mental Fitness and Resiliency Inventory (MFRI^©)

  Questionnaires designed to measure constructs such as well-being or happiness commonly focus on self-assessments, often using multiple choice items or a small number of open-ended subjective questions. Despite the popularity of these approaches – mostly because of their simplicity and low cost – the general public often has little faith in their results because of the overwhelming emphasis on subjective approaches which impact reliability.

  In some cases, individual respondents’ data are used to calculate a group average which is then reported as being the group’s well-being or happiness. Such an approach should be dismissed because it is ill conceived. To demonstrate this, let’s imagine a mathematics test for which all students in the same class received a mark of 50%. Now let’s assume that in a different class, half the students received a mark of 100% and the other half 0 % on the same test. Of course, the class average in both classes is 50 % but no educator would dare claim that these two classes are similar.

  The Positive Workplace Framework used the Mental Fitness and Resiliency Inventory (MFRI) to measure overall well-being and happiness in schools. In contrast to subjective questionnaires, the MFRI contains short, clear descriptions of 32 distinct practices that can be expected to be observed in positive school environments. The online questionnaire is completed by all staff and takes them less than ten minutes. All answers are anonymous and confidential.

  

  The MFRI provides schools with quantitative results on their strengths across three mental fitness sub-domains (relatedness needs, competency needs, and autonomy/support needs) and five resiliency subdomains (relationship assets, professional assets, attitudinal assets, emotional intelligence assets, and adaptation assets). Respondents are asked to indicate how well each described practice is reflective of their school environment using a 5-point Likert scale where 1 = Least like my workplace, 3 = Somewhat like my workplace, and 5 = Most like my workplace. Results of the MFRI’s rigorous psychometric validation study are available.²

  The MFRI report provides a profile of organizational strengths (those practices that are embedded in the school environment) and areas for development (those requiring more promotion and capacity building) related to mental fitness and resiliency.

  The School Happiness Index (SHI)

  Responses to the MFRI are also used to obtain the School Happiness Index (SHI), which is reported on a nine-point scale where 9 indicates a very high level of school happiness. The SHI complements the detailed school-level report by providing a holistic view of the integration of practices known to have a positive impact on the school environment and staff and student happiness in general.

  Studies in francophone schools across New Brunswick show a statistically significant correlation between the SHI and student achievement on provincial assessments. Preliminary results also suggest decreased teacher absenteeism in schools with a higher SHI. This is not surprising.

  Increasing levels of school happiness is not obtained at the expense of student learning. In fact, the research is clear that a happy school environment is a precursor to student success.³ If schools are to provide a well-balanced education, they must first strive to improve their overall school happiness. By administering the MFRI and obtaining their school happiness index, schools now have empirical evidence on which they can act.

   

  Photo: Adobe Stock

  First published in Education Canada, December 2019

  ---

  Notes

  1 https://bonheuralecole.org/

  2 info@wmawellness.com

  3 S. Lyubomirsky, S. King, and L. Diener, “The Benefits of Frequent Positive Affect: Does happiness lead to success? Psychological Bulletin 131, No. 6 (2005): 803-855.

• Social Emotional Learning for Principals

  9:35 PM Comments Off on Social Emotional Learning for Principals

  

  Social emotional learning (SEL) is increasingly recognized as an integral component of education for students, but what about teachers, support staff, and principal? Here the focus is on principals: their own social and emotional well-being as well as their leadership for SEL in their schools.

  “So much of our job as administrators is ensuring that we are showing care for our staff, our students, and our parent community. We do so much to put the social and emotional well-being of our primary stakeholders first, that we forget that first and foremost we need to care for ourselves.” – Canadian Principal

  Social emotional learning (SEL) is increasingly recognized as an integral component of education (www.casel.org). Canadian educators have recognized the importance of promoting SEL in K-12 schools, and evidence-based SEL programs are used in schools throughout Canada. While these efforts demonstrate significant progress, there is a need for greater attention to supporting the social and emotional well-being of teachers, support staff, and principals. Here we focus on principals: their own social and emotional well-being as well as their leadership for SEL in their schools, with examples from an innovative British Columbia school district.

  The problem

  “87 percent of principals feel like they never have enough time to complete their tasks, and more than 72 percent feel pressured to work long hours.”

  Canadian principals have numerous leadership roles within a complex system that has experienced inconsistent changes in policy, the introduction of new technologies, and a growing emphasis on both accountability and on meeting the unique needs of students, including recent immigrants. All of these changes have compounded the stress experienced by Canadian principals, who are already overworked and overloaded. For example, Ontario principals spend approximately 59 hours per week at work, 14 hours more than managers in other occupations, professionals in the public sector, and corporate executives.¹ According to a survey by Statistics Canada, despite the long hours spent at work, 87 percent of principals feel like they never have enough time to complete their tasks, and more than 72 percent feel pressured to work long hours.

  Principals’ health and well-being have suffered as their jobs have become more demanding. Research has shown that principals’ work intensification can lead to excessive work-related stress, burnout, and mental health issues.² As stress intensifies, principals’ self-efficacy can decrease; as burnout intensifies, principals may begin to doubt their ability to fulfill their duties and eventually leave their jobs. To be successful, principals must acquire effective skills and strategies to deal with stress and support their mental health and well-being. This can be accomplished by implementing programs designed to foster SEL and to help principals develop social emotional competencies (SECs).

  Benefits of principals’ SEL

  We assert that by developing the ability to regulate their emotions and behaviour, increasing their social awareness, cultivating healthy relationships, and improving their decision-making skills, principals can increase their effectiveness and better develop the skills to lead the implementation of SEL programs, policies, and practices in their buildings.

  While many have promoted the principal’s role as instructional leader, we believe it is most important that principals become prosocial leaders whose responsibility is to ensure that all staff, students, parents, and community members feel safe, cared for, respected and challenged. Principals’ well-being and leadership form the foundation that influences school climate, teacher functioning and well-being, family and community partnerships, and downstream student outcomes.

  Extensive research evidence shows that fostering principals’ social and emotional competencies (SEC) is likely to yield benefits not only for school leaders themselves, but for all school stakeholders, including students. Principals’ social and emotional competencies should be an important component in systemic schoolwide SEL as it leads to the following four outcomes:

  1. Effective leadership

  Principals with strong SECs tend to be effective leaders who manage their schools by adopting a positive, proactive style. Their self-awareness enables them to recognize inequities that may limit students’ potential and opportunities.

  2. Healthy relationships

  Principals who are more self-aware and reflective develop positive, caring school climates that support social, emotional, and academic outcomes for students. By learning how to listen with full attention and an open and accepting attitude, principals can support teachers to exhibit these same qualities with students.

  3. Effective family and community partnerships

  Principals who develop strong SECs create a more welcoming atmosphere for parents and community agencies. They see parents as essential to children’s competence, thereby making families feel respected and valued. They also build stronger connections with out-of-school programs that serve families and youth.

  4. Effective SEL implementation

  Principals who develop strong SECs are better equipped to lead the implementation of SEL programs, policies, and practices in their schools. Such principals are more likely to naturally become SEL leaders.

  Planning for SEL in Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows School District

  For the past five years, the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows (MR-PM) School District (B.C.) has been exploring and developing an SEL Framework that embeds SEL in the teaching and learning communities. This framework was developed to include five areas of focus:

  • • Evidence-based practice
    • Teaching students SEL
    • School culture and climate
    • Informing and involving parents
    • Social emotional well-being of the adult educators

  The following inquiry question is the guiding focus: “How might we collaboratively create a community that reflects care and belonging so that SEL is evident, explicitly taught, and practiced in the everyday interactions among all members of the community?”

  The District SEL Planning Committee identified that SEL does not occur in isolation but is embedded and intertwined with all aspects of learning. With the redesign of the B.C. curriculum, teaching of the core and curricular competencies is directly linked to teaching SEL skills.

  Action steps to support principals’ SEL

  The benefits of principal engagement in SEL are clear, not only for school leaders themselves, but for all school stakeholders. What may be less clear is how to promote principals’ SEL. The following action steps can be taken to support principals.

  CARE: Mindfulness-based intervention for principals

  Training in mindfulness practices may help principals develop SECs. We have been evaluating a mindfulness-based professional development program originally designed to support teachers that was modified to support principals. CARE (Cultivating Awareness and Resilience in Education) is designed to nurture educators’ self-awareness and reflectivity, and to help them understand and regulate their emotions with the goal of improving health and well-being (www.createforeducation.org). Our evaluation of CARE with principals in rural Pennsylvania showed that principals reported improvements in leadership skills, relationships, and self-care, and increased self-awareness, ability to regulate emotions, self-management and self-compassion.3 Although these findings are promising, experimental research is needed to further investigate the effects of mindfulness programs for principals.

  Example: Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows CARE Training for Principals

  As a result of this school district’s commitment to nurturing SEC in administrators, in the summer of 2016, they all received CARE Program training. One vice-principal commented, “It was awesome! I will be using these strategies moving forward.” Another vice-principal said that they appreciated having the time to practice the CARE skills, while another found “the training to be an excellent reminder of practices I need to incorporate.”

  

  In November 2017, Michelle Davis (author) was trained as a trainer and in 2019, she facilitated the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows (MR-PM) School District CARE training for new administrators. She reflects, “One of the things I’ve learned about being a lone administrator in a school is balance and role modeling. I cannot ask staff to take care of themselves, if I’m not modeling the same. It’s important to have a work-life balance. This job can consume all of you. When we take the time to care for ourselves, it opens us up to being reflective learners. It opens us up to growing as leaders and educators. Some of my quietest moments are when self-reflecting. It helps me see the big picture and where I can have the most impact. If I don’t find those moments, I get caught up in the quick fixes and stay on that loop without making meaningful change. Implementing the CARE practices has helped my leadership skills in that I am more self-aware and can manage my emotions in high-stress situations, which then has a direct impact on the emotions of the staff and students.”

  Effective professional development for school administrators

  Almost all professional development programs for principals focus on improving school performance (i.e. curricula, initiatives, pedagogical strategies) rather than developing skills to support their own well-being or promote effective prosocial leadership. Just as in other industries, professional development programs are needed to: (a) cultivate principals’ own social emotional well-being, and (b) provide principals with the skills to lead SEL implementation effectively.

  “Being ‘burned out’ and ‘busy’ seems to be equated with ‘productivity,’ when in fact principals who are stressed and overworked are less effective.”

  Systems thinking and SEL

  Recently, Goleman and Senge proposed a Triple Focus Model for schools.⁴ This model focuses on emotional intelligence and developing compassion for self and others, with an added focus on systems-level thinking. Such an approach focuses not only on the mindful awareness of the individual, but also on using systems thinking and tools to understand the larger social field. In education, the larger social field is a school’s organizational culture, which includes its system of beliefs and values and the rituals and routines by which they are communicated. The great news is that B.C. has already begun an innovative program for supporting schools to use systems thinking.

  Focus on self-care and work-life balance

  In the current culture of education, being “burned out” and “busy” seems to be equated with “productivity,” when in fact principals who are stressed and overworked are less effective. Provincial governments, divisions, school boards, and professional associations must prioritize promoting a culture of self-care that does not make principals and staff feel guilty for taking time to attend to their own personal well-being.

  As a Canadian principal noted: “We need to be OK with letting some things stay on the to-do list and accept that it will get done another day. Our staff is involved in many district initiatives and projects and as a school leader, I tell staff that we will concentrate on doing a few things well, rather than stretching ourselves and doing everything without deepening our learning.”

  

  Cultivating coaching or mentoring models

  While shorter-term professional development programs may help principals learn how to cultivate their social and emotional well-being, the learning-application process requires sustained support over time. Creating local networks for school leaders could be a useful way to connect principals with other school leaders who face similar tasks and issues. Schools should provide principals with ongoing professional development opportunities and establish mentoring programs to cultivate SECs.

  Example: Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows Mentorship Support for Principals

  MR-PM realized that principals often feel isolated and are unable to find opportunities to reflect and to deconstruct events happening in their buildings with others. Principalship can be a very lonely job! So, MR-PM created a mentorship program for new and nearly new administrators to help them navigate their complex jobs and emotionally challenging days. It has proven to be welcomed by the administrators and considered as a great support for them.

  Longer-term principal assignments

  Research clearly indicates that lower mobility among administrators, teachers and students promotes relational conditions that are conducive to caring. Turnover among principals is a great concern, given their critical role in leading long-term school improvement efforts. Moreover, principal turnover leads to teacher turnover, which increases dissatisfaction and “burnout,” and decreases the potential for satisfying, caring relationships. Principal stability is especially important in schools in impoverished communities where students have greater mobility. Overall, creating greater stability for principals through longer-term assignments would support the development of school environments that foster SEL for all school stakeholders.

  Principals in Canada encounter highly stressful emotional situations on a daily basis. Unfortunately, many school leaders are still learning the skills necessary to respond effectively. Principals who develop their own SECs are better able to establish and sustain healthy relationships, exhibit effective leadership, build strong community partnerships, and implement SEL programs in schools. Based on this evidence, we have recommended several actions that can be taken by school boards, principal training programs, and professional associations to support school leaders’ well-being and the quality implementation of SEL programs in Canadian schools.

   

  Illustration: Diana Pham and Adobe Stock

  First published in Education Canada, December 2019

  ---

  1 Pollock et al., Statistics Canada (2015).

  2 J. Mahfouz, M. T. Greenberg, and A. Rodriquez, (2019) Principal’s Social and Emotional Competence: A key factor for creating caring schools (Edna Bennet Pierce Prevention Research Center, Pennsylvania State University: 2019).

  3 J. Mahfouz, “Mindfulness Training for School Administrators: Effects on well-being and leadership,” Journal of Educational Administration 56, no. 6 (2018): 602-619.

  4 D. Goleman and P. Senge, The Triple Focus: A new approach to education (Florence, MA: More Than Sound: 2014).

• The Positive Leadership Inventory (PLI)

  9:33 PM Comments Off on The Positive Leadership Inventory (PLI)

  What makes a positive leader?

  There is a wealth of research that supports the claim that positive leaders have a positive impact on their organisations’ growth and improvement. Schools are no different.

  In addition to confirming our intuitive beliefs about the impact a leader has on their group, research also suggests that positive leadership practices lead to individual benefits on one’s psychological health, emotional well-being, optimal brain function, improved interpersonal relationships, and learning. It goes without saying that schools gain by ensuring that their leaders are positive leaders.

  Regardless of our perception of what makes a “good” leader, there is no doubt that such a leader must demonstrate competencies in several domains. But what are the competencies and practices demonstrated by leaders who are not only good but excellent?

  

  Leaders capable of creating a positive school climate where everyone can be at their best share the characteristic of being able to establish strong interpersonal relationships.¹ These leaders communicate sincerely, whether the message is positive or negative. They are respectful of others and their feedback is communicated in a constructive way without negative emotions. They have confidence in their staff and all school employees and support them during difficult times. Strong positive leaders don’t hesitate to recognize quality work and to value and promote such work in private and in public. They value long-term goals and have the ability to strategize in order to reach their goals. Their charisma gives confidence to their staff and allows them to mobilise and engage the school community. All this, plus they are open to everyone, exude enthusiasm, and have a good sense of humour. Wow, what a tall order!

  Thankfully, what is common to these competencies and practices is that they are observable and therefore can be learned. The work of Cameron² and the synthesis done by WMA Wellness³ show that positive leaders demonstrate competencies across five domains: leadership virtues, positive communication, energizing skills, motivational and knowledge skills, and operational tasks.

  Measuring positive leadership practices

  A key element of the Positive Workplace Framework is a questionnaire designed to evaluate the level of embeddedness of practices from each of the five aforementioned positive leadership domains.

  Although positive leadership practices can apply to everyone in a school setting, the Positive Leadership Inventory (PLI) questionnaire describes practices that school leaders such as principals and vice-principals should demonstrate on a regular basis. The PLI assesses the presence of positive leadership practices associated with healthy and effective school environments. It provides school leaders with quantitative results on their strengths across the five positive leadership sub-domains. The PLI contains short, clear descriptions of 30 distinct leadership practices that can be expected to be observed in positive school environments. Each practice relates to one of the sub-domains described above. All school employees are asked to indicate how well each practice is reflective of their school environment using a 5-point Likert scale where 1 = Not at all, 3 = Sometimes, and 5 = Very often. It takes less than ten minutes to complete the PLI questionnaire online. All answers are anonymous and confidential.

  The PLI report provides a profile of strong leadership practices (those practices that are very frequently demonstrated by leaders) and areas for development (those leadership practices requiring more promotion and capacity building). The report gives leaders empirical evidence which helps them prioritise the areas they wish to continue developing. To facilitate this development, the Positive Workplace Framework offers a suite of targeted resources for each of the leadership domains.

  Results of the PLI’s rigorous psychometric validation study show that the PLI can be trusted to identify existing positive leadership practices. The results of the validation study are available.⁴

  Schools that have the reputation of being “good schools” have leaders who excel in many areas. Implementing the Positive Workplace Framework (PWF) and its practices in daily routines allows leaders to create school environments where mental fitness and resiliency practices can be fully integrated. By integrating positive leadership practices guided by the results of the PLI, leaders can pursue their evidence-based professional development which benefits not only themselves but also their school.

   

  Photo: Adobe Stock

  First published in Education Canada, December 2019

  ---

  Photo: 

  First published in Education Canada, December

  1 J. P. Rolland, L’évaluation de la personnalité. Le modèle à cinq facteurs (Sprimont, Belgium: Mardaga, 2004).

  2 K. Cameron, Positive Leadership: Tools and techniques that create extraordinary results (San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler, 2013).

  3 WMA Wellness (2019). www.wmawellness.com

  4 info@wmawellness.com

• So What About Leadership Wellness?

  9:32 PM Comments Off on So What About Leadership Wellness?

  Work being done by the College of Alberta School Superintendents (CASS), in partnership with WellAhead, aims to increase awareness of the importance of well-being at the highest leadership levels, and to bring systems-wide, comprehensive, collaborative practices for improved levels of wellness in an increasingly stressful job.

  The old cliché, “It’s lonely at the top!” can be very true for school principals, superintendent/directors and other educational leaders. And while not all leadership personalities may present themselves as caregivers, in interviews that my colleague, Jim McLellan, and I conducted with more than 45 Superintendents and their teams in Alberta, they made it clear that they care much more about the wellness of their staff, students and communities than about their own personal wellness.

  It’s common sense that leaders must be well in order for the organizations they lead to be well, whether that be schools or school systems. The metaphor of putting on the oxygen mask on oneself before others applies! Much work related to student wellness and mental well-being is underway in most Alberta school authorities (boards). What will it take to convince education leaders, school boards, politicians and society in general that education leader and staff wellness is worth making a priority?

  As our many baby-boomer leaders near retirement, the supply of quality superintendents is decreasing, while the demand for such leaders, at a time when our schools are facing the highest levels of accountability and greatest standards, is increasing. The reality is that few education leaders are aspiring to principalship and superintendent/director positions. The work is too hard and too stressful. There are so many pressure points that the application pools for education leadership positions are now often very thin. So, what will it take to turn this around?

  This is exactly what the College of Alberta School Superintendents (CASS) are hoping to learn. The three main goals of this initiative include:

  1. To increase the number of school authorities that reflect mental well-being, in the context of wellness, as a key priority.
  2. To increase the understanding among decision-makers at the system, school and policy-maker levels of key elements to school authority integration of mental well-being.
  3. To increase understanding among decision-makers at the system, school and policy-maker levels of the importance of workplace wellness in K-12 education.

  What is the motivation to be involved in this work?

  I was indeed fortunate to be involved in school leadership early in my teaching experience. I certainly did not aspire to such leadership as I considered my career options, while dreaming of making a difference to kids. I suppose leadership came more naturally before I made a decision to learn more about it.

  As I moved to division office in Superintendent–type roles, it became clear that leadership was more challenging than ever. Teaching as a noble profession seemed to be on the decline with our society in general. The explosion of the Internet and social media complicated the work rather than simplifying it. Increasing expectations of what services schools should provide further complicated leadership roles at school and at the school authority levels. And more recently, the polarization of perspectives has increasingly added to the stress in educational environments. I have found this to be true in conversations about all kinds of issues, including priorities, budgets, transportation, buildings and education programs.

  It can be difficult, for many reasons, to seek help when you need it. There is 360-degree pressure and role overload. You can never keep everyone happy.

  In short, while we strive for child-centered and solution-based conversations, high emotions can hijack the agenda. As I also saw friends and family struggle with their own mental health, I wanted to learn more about mental health and wellness, have the autonomy to learn and apply what I learned and to be clear in my purpose to make a positive difference in even a broader way than I could as Superintendent of Schools. Managing key leadership positions, including principals and superintendents, is by its very nature lonely work. It can be difficult, for many reasons, to seek help when you need it. There is 360-degree pressure and role overload. You can never keep everyone happy.

  What’s the good news?

  The good news is that we know lots about what works and does not work in improving and sustaining mental well-being. There are a number of well-researched frameworks that clearly indicate there is no silver bullet. Rather, systems-wide, comprehensive, collaborative practices are required in order to make a positive difference over time. Knowing this, where does one get started? Personal wellness? Student wellness? Staff wellness? Leadership wellness? Workplace wellness? Organizational wellness? YIKES! Leadership theory 101 makes it clear that those with the issues are in the best position to solve those issues. Thus the importance of systems-wide, comprehensive, collaborative practices, including those partners who can add to the research knowledge and skills-based practices that will lead to improved wellness within any organization.

  What are the key practices of the CASS mental well-being initiative?

  Some of the strategies of our work include:

  • Focus on understanding system and school leaders’ needs for professional learning, peer-to-peer connection and resources on the topic of mental well-being.
  • Initiate conversations with all school authorities (boards) across the province of Alberta to learn more about context, successes and challenges to date.
  • Embed and align mental well-being strategies in the Professional Practice Standards for Superintendents and School System Education Leaders.
  • Connect school system leaders and wellness-related partners and initiatives across Alberta.

  Alberta is ripe for such work. There are already many resources available to contribute to such practices. The issue is that these resources and supports are not so well aligned to the perceived needs of the members of the College of Alberta Superintendents. The volume of research and strategies related to student mental well-being can be overwhelming, and there is very little in the research literature related to specific mental well-being practice for leaders. Some very strong support material is not that well known. Another important context is the work related to the fairly new Professional Practice Standards for Superintendents and School System Education Leaders in Alberta. Where the standards come to life for education leaders in the province is in the Leadership Quality Standard Practice Profiles. This is where we hope to embed exemplars of how leaders might best weld wellness and mental well-being with the leadership standards that make up our professional practice.

  

  What can leaders do to ensure their mental well-being?

  There are so many storms that leaders and educators in general face in their work each day. In The Dark Side of Educational Leadership,¹ Polka and Litchka speak about the storm metaphor as it relates to the Superintendent role. Many of the case studies presented could also be very true for any educational leadership position. Their storm survival guide includes:

  • Maintain personal and professional composure.
  • Maintain optimism.
  • Seek out formal and informal mentorship.
  • Stick to one’s principles.
  • Be aware – see the storm coming as much as possible.
  • Seek support.

  As a result of their interviews of 25 education leaders in Canada and the U.S. related to dealing with adversity, Patterson and Kelleher advocate for six practices that their interview data suggest make a significant difference in the mental well-being of leaders.² There is a good deal of congruency between their findings and Polka and Litchka’s:

  1. Accurately assess past and current reality.
  2. Remain realistically optimistic and hopeful.
  3. Be clear and remain true to personal and professional values.
  4. Continue to learn and have confidence in one’s abilities and maintain strong networks. Resilient leaders maintain considerable efficacy.
  5. Invest personal energy wisely.
  6. Act on the courage of personal convictions.

  Granted, these steps sound easy, but are actually more challenging to achieve. I remain very hopeful and optimistic that the pathway to mental well-being lies in the elements of positive psychology. We are well aware of the importance of social, economic and human capital. Although psychological capital³ may be less known, there is much potential in learning and applying practices related to the fairly simple concepts of hope, efficacy, resiliency and optimism.

  We generally know what works in improving mental well-being in a context of wellness. Working Together to Support Mental Health in Alberta Schools⁴ is an important resource that includes a multiple-partner, well-researched framework complete with background information, an assessment tool, six essential conditions of sustainable implementation practices and a basic planning guide to support the work. We also know it takes a minimum of 28 days and a concentrated effort to change practices and habits. Although the issues creating the landscape in which we work each day may be very complex, the practices to improved mental well-being within a culture of wellness can start very simply. If nothing else, start with drinking more water!

  The Stresses of Superintendency

  In their research with education leaders across North America, Polka and Litchka identified many trends related to decreased wellness, including:

  • Compensation not aligned with responsibilities
  • The politics of the role
  • The role has become more complex with more complex issues
  • Too many insignificant demands that detract from purpose and/or student learning
  • Legislative reform
  • Change of governments
  • Loneliness of the position
  • It’s difficult to ask for help, for fear of looking incapable
  • Role overload leads to a sense of loss of professional identity

   

  photo: iStock and Adobe Stock

  First published in Education Canada, December 2019

  ---

  Notes:

  1. Walter S. Polka and Peter R. Litchka. The Dark Side of Educational Leadership. (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Education Publishers, Inc., 2008).
  2. Jerry Patterson and P. Kelleher. Resilient School Leaders: Strategies for turning adversity into achievement. (Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2005).
  3. Luthans, Fred, C. Youssef-Morgan and B. Avolio. Psychological Capital and Beyond (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2015).
  4. Working Together to Support Mental Health in Alberta Schools (Alberta Government: 2017).

• We All Have a Stake in Workplace Wellness

  9:29 PM Comments Off on We All Have a Stake in Workplace Wellness

  You don’t need a pile of research studies to make an educated assumption that healthy employees who feel positive about their jobs will do more effective, productive work. (But the studies exist and some are cited in the pages to come.) And it shouldn’t take much convincing that an enthusiastic and emotionally healthy teacher will have a better impact on students than one that is stressed, exhausted, and/or overwhelmed. As a parent, you can bet I wanted the first teacher for my kids, not the second! Yet when competing priorities jostle for limited resources, staff well-being can get pushed so far to the back that it drops right out of sight.

  We have a tendency to see well-being as solely a personal responsibility. If employees are struggling, they should go to the gym, get better organized, become more resilient or adaptable. But several of our authors dispute this assumption. Self-care, while important, only goes so far. Instead, our authors argue that occupational mental health, like physical health and safety, is a shared responsibility.

  I’d love to think that all employers would try to protect their employees from toxic levels of occupational stress simply because they care about their staff. But let’s be realistic: staff well-being can too often be shrugged off as a “frill” or a strictly personal problem. That’s why we have to recognize that chronically overstressed educators come with a cost to the system. Sick days, stress leave, even leaving the profession are just the most visible impacts of employees who are unwell. An investment in employee well-being is an investment that pays off in reduced HR costs, increased performance, and ultimately increased student achievement.

  All human service professions entail a certain amount of stress. But for those who are passionate about their calling, the work should also be deeply rewarding. That’s what Astrid Kendrick calls the “heartwork” of teaching. It’s what leads teachers and school leaders to go above and beyond, to bring the very best they have to their students (or staff), year after year. When that passion is crushed by relentless stress, she calls the resulting burnout “occupational heartbreak.” The articles in this special issue show some of the ways we can protect our educators’ heartwork, so they can be the committed, energetic, enthusiastic professionals our children need and deserve.

  The EdCan Network has recently launched “Well at Work,” a research and public awareness campaign that calls on education leaders to make teacher and staff well-being a top priority. Check out Network Voices to find out more about this exciting initiative.

   

  ---

  Photo: Dave Donald

  First published in Education Canada, December 2019

• Well at Work

  9:29 PM Comments Off on Well at Work

  

  Despite the fact that stress and burnout are on the rise among staff in Canadian K-12 education systems, investment to support their well-being isn’t keeping pace. As the leading independent national voice in Canadian K-12 education, EdCan is pleased to officially launch “Well at Work” – a new research and public awareness campaign that calls on education leaders to make teacher and staff well-being a top priority.

  “The well-being of K-12 staff is a high priority for school districts across Canada. As Director of Education, I look forward to the learning from Well at Work to inform our Board’s focus on staff well-being,” says Denise Andre, Director of Education for the Ottawa Catholic School Board and EdCan Chair.

  With 128 years of experience convening stakeholders from across the entire spectrum of Canadian K-12 public education, EdCan is hosting a series of national events to build a common vision for workplace well-being, including:

  Webinar: Making the Case for Workplace Well-Being in K-12.

  This free one-hour webinar presented insights gathered through a large-scale survey of educators and the general public on how to better frame the issue of teachers’ and principals’ well-being. Replay the webinar here: www.edcan.ca/workplacewebinar

  The Case for Investing in K-12 Staff Well-Being: Financial. Legal. Student Achievement.

  This exclusive professional learning session brought together ministry and faculty of education representatives, directors of Education/CEOs, and other K-12 leaders from across Canada.

  National Summit on Teacher and Staff Well-Being (May 2020)

  This gathering will bring together champions, changemakers, and key stakeholders from across the country to learn more about ways to advance workplace well-being in K-12 education.

   

  Well at Work is all about giving schools and school districts the tools they need to improve working conditions for the long term, through amplifying educators’ stories and lived experiences that get to the heart of what well-being actually means and looks like at work.

  For educators, schools, school districts, and ministries of education looking to take their first steps towards creating a healthier workplace, a growing collection of free resources are available for download at: www.edcan.ca/wellatwork.

   

  First published in Education Canada, December 2019

• Teaching Well

  9:29 PM Comments Off on Teaching Well

  Find a quiet place, take a few relaxing breaths, and read Lisa Bush’s new book on how to find balance in your hectic life as a classroom teacher, and get better results from your students.

  In our increasingly complex world, we find increasingly complex classrooms. Teachers spend countless hours creating and assessing content, completing paperwork, and organizing extracurricular activities. This is added to their own home life responsibilities as parents, spouses, and children of aging parents. Many teachers, often those in the early part of their career, find the workload (especially the marking) overwhelming.

  In Teaching Well, Lisa Bush sets out logical steps to help teachers move from surviving in the classroom to thriving in their career. Bush argues that as workload increases, it is often the things that recharge us that are the first to go: exercising, eating right and enjoying a hobby are dropped because a test needs to be graded or emails have to be answered. Bush offers clear, practical ideas to help teachers find the balance between work and life. Next, she asks the reader to critically look around. Look for teacher allies to collaborate with. Look to change assignments from seatwork to tasks that will empower students to become experts. Finally, look at how preparation and after-school time could be organized and optimized more effectively so that there is less to take home, and a chance to refresh and recharge after the workday.

  Teaching Well asks busy teachers to slow down and examine what they are doing. We know that students do better when allowed to reflect. Teachers, too, do better when they can free up time and allow creativity to flourish.

  In the end, one question confounded this reviewer. Who will read this book? The teachers who should read it are drowning in their workload and may not recognize the need, and the teachers who have found the secret to teaching well already know many of Bush’s tips. My conclusion is that teacher leaders, such as a principals, should read this book to help them recognize those on staff who need support – then work with Bush’s ideas to help empower them.

   

  Photo: Dave Donald

  First published in Education Canada, December 2019

  Pembroke Publishers. 2019 ISBN: 978-1-55138-337-8

• The Positive Workplace Framework (PWF)

  9:19 PM Comments Off on The Positive Workplace Framework (PWF)

  

  The Positive Workplace Framework (PWF) is a made-in-Canada strengths-based approach to optimizing staff and student well-being, engagement and performance, with a focus on Mental Fitness, Resilience, and Positive Leadership.

  Who hasn’t been asked to do more with less? “Doing more and more with less and less until eventually you can do everything with nothing” is a notion introduced by R. Buckminster Fuller in 1938 to describe situations where technology could be used. Today, the expression of doing more with less is commonly used when organizations, including schools, strive to lower operational costs and increase productivity in the context of cutting back on human and financial resources without an equivalent reduction in workload and expectations.

  Obviously, this logic has its limits. Teachers are not robots and the extra pressure placed on them to do more with less can lead to unhealthy practices and interpersonal relationships, which increases everyone’s stress. Toxic school environments result, along with increased absenteeism, turnover, mental health problems, and burnout.

  

  In response, many deficit-based programs designed to improve school environments have been developed. First, they identify existing problems and then intervene to solve them. But a person’s psychological well-being is not only influenced by the presence or absence of problems but also by the existence of strength-focused factors present within individuals and their social settings that contribute to positive growth and development.¹

  Few initiatives focus on improving existing strengths in school environments. The Positive Workplace Framework (PWF),² a made-in-Canada strengths-based approach that optimizes staff and student well-being, engagement and performance, is an excellent example of such an initiative.

  The Positive Workplace Framework (PWF)

  The PWF is composed of three distinct but inter-related domains: mental fitness, resiliency, and positive leadership (see Figure 1). In each domain, research-based individual and collective practices known to create positive school environments characterized by high levels of staff well-being, engagement and performance are promoted.

  Figure 1: The Positive Workplace Framework (PWF)

  

  Mental Fitness

  The mental fitness domain is composed of three sub-domains – relatedness, competency, and autonomy/support – that are referred to as “needs.” Seen as the PWF’s foundation, this domain aligns itself with the elements of self-determination theory.³

  Relatedness involves the development of our sense of connectedness with our co-workers. Evidence of relatedness practices being used include welcoming, exchanging with and checking in on our colleagues.

  Competency focuses on our collective sense of worth, to ourselves and to the school. This mental fitness need is met when we recognize and use our strengths and build confidence in others.

  Meeting our autonomy/support need is also important in building psychologically healthy and effective school environments. This can be done by ensuring everyone has a voice and choice and opportunities to collaborate with their colleagues.

  

  Creating psychologically safe and healthy school cultures where everyone can thrive, be happy and be at their best involves being intentional about fostering relatedness, competency and autonomy/support practices within team relationships and daily routines. When this happens, we experience a greater sense of personal well-being, demonstrate higher levels of motivation, and perform optimally. Targeted training for school staff on practices that promote these conditions is an important initial step in optimizing a school’s culture.

  Resiliency

  Resiliency has been defined as the capacity to adapt and realize positive outcomes in daily living despite challenging circumstances⁴ and as the ability to persist in the face of adversity, to bounce back when challenges are encountered, to effectively navigate support systems and to apply resources that sustain well-being.⁵ The American Psychological Association specifies that resiliency is not a trait that people either have or do not have but that it involves behaviours, thoughts and actions that anyone can learn and develop.

  The PWF builds on this latter point and extends the concept of resiliency from the individual to the group. The PWF’s second domain, resiliency, is comprised of five sub-domains (relationship, professional, attitudinal, emotional intelligence, and adaptation) referred to as assets that teams can learn and develop.

  Relationship assets involve practices that build social networks of support and community. Teams displaying strong relationship assets have caring attitudes toward co-workers and ensure social support in difficult or challenging times.

  Professional assets involve practices that build professional confidence, capacity, and problem-solving skills. Identifying and counting on the staff’s collective knowledge and skills, and ensuring the availability and use of appropriate and targeted professional learning opportunities are evidence of a team with strong professional assets.

  Teams that apply attitudinal asset practices show increased optimism and positive dispositions even in the face of difficult situations or challenges. The theory supporting this resiliency asset has its base in positive psychology.⁶

  Emotional intelligence involves the ability to understand and manage emotions, and to communicate in positive and respectful ways with others. Key actions associated with group emotional intelligence assets are understanding our own emotions and those of others, and ensuring positive communication with others in stressful times.

  Adaptation assets involve practices that facilitate adjustment to changing situations through positive coping and thriving strategies. Strong adaptation assets are characterized by implementing plans proactively and solving problems as a team.

  Teams that implement practices aligned with each resiliency sub-domain are better able to cope, learn, and thrive during challenging and stressful times and are better able to move beyond challenges and engage in new opportunities.

  

  Positive leadership

  The PWF’s third domain pertains to positive leadership and consists of five sub-domains (leadership virtues, positive communication, motivational knowledge and skills, energizing skills, operational tasks) consistent with the work of Kim Cameron.⁷

  Leaders with strong leadership virtues foster compassionate behaviour among staff, accept and forgive honest errors and encourage expressions of gratitude. They regularly demonstrate gratitude, compassion, and forgiveness.

  Positive communication occurs when supportive and affirmative language replaces negative and critical language. Supportive communication is honest, congruent, descriptive, specific and reflective. Strong leaders emphasize positive observations and prioritize solution-building approaches.

  Motivational knowledge and skills refer to a leader’s awareness of employee strengths and interests and their capacity to engage everyone in using these strengths in school routines and activities. Motivational knowledge and skills are evident when leaders promote a shared vision and encourage a personal investment on the part of everyone involved in the school’s success.

  Energizing skills are demonstrated when leaders keep staff feeling energized with their enthusiasm, vitality, openness, and optimism. They make time to listen to and understand people, are fully engaged in conversations, value and promote people’s contributions and accomplishments, and follow through on their commitments.

  Operational tasks refer to the ability of leaders to keep staff engaged by clarifying roles and expectations and providing opportunities for teachers to grow professionally.

  Overall, applying positive leadership practices improves organizational effectiveness and enables the implementation of mental fitness and resiliency practices, which lead to psychologically safe and positive school environments where everyone can thrive and be at their best.

  

  Does the PWF apply to my school?

  The Positive Workplace Framework is used successfully across Canada in both official languages. Its implementation follows a train-the-trainer approach supported by numerous online resources and validated measures. This approach has the advantage of building capacity at the school level instead of creating a dependency on external consultants. A small team of “PWF champions” are provided with the knowledge, resources and strategic individualized plans for facilitating, modeling and promoting evidence-informed positive psychology practices that contribute to healthy and effective schools.

  Practices related to mental fitness needs are introduced first, in order to establish a solid foundation for the resiliency and positive leadership practices. The PWF features two validated questionnaires, the Mental Fitness and Resiliency Inventory (MFRI) and the Positive Leadership Inventory (PLI), which provide an objective profile of school environments for each of the 13 PWF sub-domains. Reports are accompanied by over 150 strategies that can be tailored to specific schools based on their respective results and realities. (See our companion articles on the MFRI and PLI). There are also validated versions of the MFRI for students (MFRI-S) and their parents (MFRI-P) available for schools who wish to have these populations contribute to the overall “picture” of the school environment.

  Schools can access the Positive Workplace Framework online learning platform, where a wealth of resources such as short awareness and capacity building activities, e-books, targeted instructional videos, presentation resources for trainers, and adaptable implementation plans that provide rollout strategies, are found.

  Finally, several schools also use the PWF and its resources for more specific applications: for new employee orientation, leadership development programs, professional development activities, and to support individual growth plans and professional reviews.

  In an era when we are asked to do more with less, why not ensure we can thrive and be at our best at school by implementing the Positive Workplace Framework?

   

  Photo: Diana Pham and Adobe Stock

  First published in Education Canada, December 2019

  ---

  Notes

  1 W. Morrison and P. Peterson, Pan Canadian Joint Consortium for School Health Positive Mental Health Toolkit, 2^nd Edition (WMA Products, 2016). http://wmaproducts.com/JCSH

  2 WMA Wellness, Positive Workplace Framework (2019). www.wmawellness.com

  3 E. L. Deci and R. M. Ryan, “Self-determination Theory: A macrotheory of human motivation, development, and health,” Canadian Psychology/Psychologie Canadienne 49, No. 3, (2008): 182-185.

  4 W. Morrison and P. Peterson, Schools as a Setting for Positive Mental Health, 2 ^nd Edition (Pan-Canadian Joint Consortium of School Health: 2013).
  www.jcsh-cces.ca/upload/JCSH%20Best%20Practice_Eng_Jan21.pdf

  5 W. Morrison and P. Peterson,  A Review of School-based Approaches and Practices for Promoting Student Wellbeing (J.W. McConnell Family Foundation, 2015).

  6 M. Seligman, Learned Optimism (New York, NY: Pocket Books, 1998).

  7 K. Cameron, Positive Leadership: Tools and Techniques that Create Extraordinary Results (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 2013).

• The Idea Readiness Tool

  9:14 PM Comments Off on The Idea Readiness Tool

  When great ideas struggle to get off the ground, it may be because people are not ready to adopt them. The Idea Readiness tool helps you take the pulse of your school community to understand how they adopt ideas and tailor your approach accordingly.

  Do you have a new idea to promote workplace wellness that you would love to try in your school community, but don’t know where to start? If so, the Idea Readiness Tool may be right for you. The Idea Readiness Tool was developed by a team of researchers at the University of Alberta in partnership with education sector workplace wellness professionals. The tool has the specific purpose of helping to guide the spread of new ideas within a school community.

  A new idea might be a new process, practice, initiative or policy – as long as it is new to your group. Some examples of ideas that you could try within your school community to promote workplace wellness include:

  At the district level:

  • create a district workplace wellness committee
  • recruit and support wellness champions to plan collaborative learning events
  • implement a district-wide policy to support employee well-being
  • create a nutrition policy for food and drink options provided during meetings and staff events.

  At the school level:

  • set up a collaboration area to promote social connection
  • start an after-work yoga class
  • promote active transportation by creating a bike storage area
  • arrange walking meetings for staff to encourage physical activity.

  The Idea Readiness Tool works with any idea, no matter how big or small.

  

  How and why did we develop the Idea Readiness Tool?

  The Idea Readiness Tool started with some previous research that we did on the diffusion of smoke-free bylaws. This work looked at how municipalities learned from the policies that other jurisdictions implemented. More specifically, we used the Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovation Theory to examine policy learning. This theory looks at the process of change for innovation. The theory follows a bell curve and suggests that as more people try out an innovation, the rate of adoption continues to build until it reaches a tipping point. At this point, the rate of adoption slows and less people are trying the innovation. Using this theory and our knowledge of smoke-free bylaw diffusion, we developed the Policy Readiness Tool. The Policy Readiness Tool is an evidence-based, validated tool that was created to support policy change specifically in municipal and organizational settings.

  After we developed the Policy Readiness Tool, our partners at the Alberta School Employee Benefit Plan (ASEBP) reached out to us. While they liked the Policy Readiness Tool, they found the policy language did not resonate at all levels within a school community audience. They expressed a need for a tool specifically tailored for use in school settings, so together we modified the original Policy Readiness Tool to be more applicable to the unique needs of the school community.

  

  So what is the Idea Readiness Tool and how can it help me?

  The Tool involves three simple steps for you to follow.

  1. Complete a quick 10-question checklist.

  This checklist will help you to identify how ready your school community is for the new idea you are thinking about. The checklist can do this by helping you determine what your group’s adoption style is.

  Is your school community an innovator, majority or late adopter? Use the checklist to find out!

  A couple of quick highlights about these three adoption styles:

  Innovators: Are often the first to try out new ideas. They are adventurous and are not afraid to take risks, even with potential uncertainty.

  Majority: Are deliberate as they take time to figure out if they want to try a new idea. They typically like to see other people try an idea before they dive in. They are of the philosophy that it is better to change as a group.

  Late Adopters: Are often skeptical of new ideas and like to maintain the status quo. They like to wait for the majority group to adopt a new idea before taking it on themselves. In some cases, they may even require an organization-wide mandate to make the change.

  2. Identify strategies to apply in your school community.

  Now that you have figured out the level of readiness of your school community (for this idea), it is time to lay out which strategies you want to use. The Tool provides a detailed list, based on level of readiness, of strategies that you can use.

  Here are some sample strategies to use based on your school community’s adoption type.

  Innovators:

  • Present the idea in a way that sparks the school community’s innovative spirit.
  • Identify a wellness champion in the school community to help carry the idea forward.

  Majority:

  • Emphasize that other schools, similar to theirs, are adopting the idea (specific examples are helpful too).
  • Look for incentives to help the school community adopt the new idea, such as awards and funding.

  Late Adopter:

  • Find evidence that shows the positive outcomes the idea can have for a school community.
  • Build relationships with school administrators to gain support for your idea.

  3. Use the resources to help carry out the strategies.

  Accompanying all of the strategies are helpful school-specific resources to help you to move the new idea forward, such as:

  • Alberta Health Services’ guide Healthy Eating in Schools: Policy recommendations
  • Alberta School Employee Benefit Plan’s blog The Sandbox: Your space for healthy school recommendations
  • Pan-Canadian Joint Consortium for School Health’s Positive Mental Health Toolkit.

  Whether you are a teacher, support staff, administrator, parent, wellness champion, or anyone else interested in encouraging healthy school community development, the steps in the Idea Readiness Tool will support you in implementing your new idea. Find out how our partners at ASEBP use the Idea Readiness Tool with school districts in Alberta in the sidebar “From Idea to Action.”

  What should I keep in mind when using the Idea Readiness Tool?

  • There is not a good or bad adopter type. Every adopter type has its own strengths and weaknesses.
  • Your school community may be at a different level of readiness for each new idea. It is important to come back to the checklist for each new idea, and identify new strategies and resources to support that idea.
  • A new idea can be anything (e.g. a process, practice, policy or initiative) as long as it is considered new by the group thinking about its adoption.
  • The checklist can be completed individually or as a group.

  From Idea to Action: Bringing the Idea Readiness Tool to life

  by Patricia Tallon

  How does the Idea Readiness Tool stand up to application in the real-world of education? The workplace wellness liaisons at the Alberta School Employee Benefit Plan (ASEBP) shared how they incorporate the Idea Readiness Tool into their work with school districts.

  ASEBP’s top three reasons why the Idea Readiness Tool is worthwhile:

  1. Moving from Why to How

  When we are excited about an idea we can quickly move from idea to action without stopping to assess how the readiness of others should impact our process to move an idea forward. Assessing readiness should happen before you start action planning and inform your action planning.

  2. Common Language

  When we all use the same terminology and process, we can have a mutual understanding that will lead to success.

  3. Staying Motivated

  It is easy to lose motivation when we pitch an idea and it falls flat. The Tool has empowered wellness champions to learn that they could have pitched the idea in a way that aligned with their colleagues’ readiness to more effectively gain buy-in.

  The Tool in Action

  While working with a school district wanting to advance their mental health strategy, ASEBP workplace wellness liaisons facilitated a workshop to guide the district wellness committee through the Idea Readiness Tool in order to explore the idea of offering a training program to increase staff competence around mental health.

  The committee completed the Tool’s checklist in two ways – once as if the committee itself was the school community they were bringing this idea back to, and again with the actual school community in mind. This exercise showed the committee that they were Innovators, while their school communities were a mix of Majority and Late Adopters. This was an “ah-ha” moment as they realized in the past, they had moved into action too quickly. With this realization and rise in motivation, the committee then began to explore the strategies outlined in the Tool to support working with a mix of the Majority and Late Adopters. They landed on providing evidence for all those impacted and connecting with leaders throughout the school district to provide more information, before moving forward with the training.

  The committee attributed their success in implementing this idea to using the Idea Readiness Tool, developing a common language around readiness and being more deliberate in planning how to communicate their idea. Now, The Idea Readiness Tool has become part of their process from generating ideas to moving them into action.

  The Idea Readiness Tool has proven to be a valuable tool to support the challenging yet important task of promoting healthy workplace environments within K-12 education.

   

   

  Find out more

  The full Idea Readiness Tool is available in PDF format and online at www.ideareadinesstool.com. The website includes videos to explain what the Tool is and how it can be applied; the checklist; and the comprehensive list of strategies and resources. Or visit The Sandbox to spark new ideas and connect with other wellness champs!

   

  Photo: iStock and Adobe Stock

  First published in Education Canada, December 2019

• Nunavik’s Compassionate Schools

  9:09 PM Comments Off on Nunavik’s Compassionate Schools

  Nunavik’s Kativik Ilisarniliriniq school board launched the Compassionate Schools initiative to better support its students, who experience disparities in health and well-being. Elements of the program include training in understanding trauma, Restorative Practice, and a universal system of Positive Behaviour Interventions and Support (PBIS).

  Kativik Ilisarniliriniq is a school board located in Nunavik, a remote region in northern Quebec. Inuit, who have inhabited the region for thousands of years, live in 14 small fly-in villages spaced along the Hudson and Ungava coasts.

  The project aims at facilitating the social, emotional and academic success of students, while simultaneously educating teachers and staff on the impacts of trauma on the brain; it also seeks to provide maximum support to teachers.

  The region’s legacy of colonization includes residential schools, forced relocations to the high Arctic, sled dog slaughters and the Sixties Scoop,¹ yet it suffers from an extreme paucity of resources to help people heal from the impacts of intergenerational trauma. As a result, the current generation of children experiences disparities in health and well-being.

  Members of the region’s school board, Kativik Ilisarniliriniq (KI), wanted to find a solution to the resulting challenges they saw students facing. Inspired by schools in Washington that had dealt with similar challenges, KI launched Compassionate Schools as a pilot project in three of its 17 schools in 2012.

  

  The project aims at facilitating the social, emotional and academic success of students, while simultaneously educating teachers and staff on the impacts of trauma on the brain; it also seeks to provide maximum support to teachers. Each school adapts the approach to its home community so as to establish a positive, safe, consistent and predictable framework that is culturally relevant. Schools receive training as well as individual support from a dedicated coach on staff. A travelling regional pedagogical counsellor also visits regularly to encourage reflective practices and build skills in improving class climate, student engagement, and support for students with challenging behaviours.

  The progressive implementation of the Compassionate Schools framework reached an important milestone in 2017. That year, all 17 schools had received training on teaching practices that take into account the trauma that may affect some students, and were introduced to the design of a universal system of Positive Behaviour Interventions and Support (PBIS), which creates a consistent intervention approach throughout the entire school. All schools additionally received training in Restorative Practices, an approach that helps facilitate relationships and trust. Schools use these as a foundation for responding to wrongdoing in a way that promotes community outreach, empathy and accountability.

  The foundation of PBIS is universal prevention for all students and staff. Examples include teaching behavioural expectations school-wide as well as adopting school-wide approaches to recognizing positive behaviours. Teachers play a major role at this tier as they build relationships with students that can break down the self-doubt, hopelessness, fear, and barriers against trust that can plague students who have experienced trauma. By having clear, consistently taught expectations with frequent feedback, teaching students self-regulation skills, providing calm areas, and striving to identify and meet the needs behind students’ behaviours, teachers and other staff are able to create environments that are psychologically safe for students; as a result, they can feel confident to take the risks necessary to grow and succeed.

  Early interventions are introduced for at-risk students who do not respond to the universal prevention. “Check-in Check-out” is one such intervention that involves pairing students with a trusted mentor who provides daily encouragement and support. Goals are set using a progress report with specific co-constructed objectives for which the student receives feedback throughout the day from each teacher. To date, school teams from 15 of our schools have received training on team processes and interventions for at-risk students.

  While previously Compassionate Schools Services was a stand-alone project, it has recently merged with Complementary Services. This department is responsible for special education, student counseling and psychological services, as well as a wide variety of other support services. The new department, Complementary and Compassionate Services, led by Tunu Napartuk, will be well positioned to ensure a continuum of academic, mental health and special education services at all levels of prevention and intervention, using a common framework.

  With the integration of the Compassionate Schools approach into the delivery of special education and psychological services to students, we are proud to see the school board at the forefront of some of the best practices identified by recent Canadian and international research.

  

  Inside the Harmony Room

  By Jenny McManus

  The beat of the drum brings the group together around the carpet. We celebrate the morning improvising an ayaya song to notice the subtle changes in nature – like the sun shining brighter through our window – to recognize students’ effort and achievement, and to strengthen their memory recall. Beaming with pride, the students clap out the number of stars they earned that morning as tokens for following expectations based on our school values of respect (susutsaniq), unity (tatiqatigiiniq), harmony (saimautiniq), and vision (tukimuatsianiq).

  Every morning, we remind ourselves to listen openly, stick together, be peaceful, and dream big with posters on the wall that we made together, hand gestures that silently redirect, and smaller cards to flip to indicate unexpected behaviour. Each student has a colour on the wall for displaying their names, stars and evidence of learning. In the Saimautivik, or Harmony Room, they find a sense of belonging that nurtures friendships, empathy, and growth.

  

  The Saimautivik is a social and emotional learning space at Pitakallak School in Kuujjuaq. Spearheaded by Jenny McManus, the Compassionate School teacher, it provides a home base for a nurture group, social skills groups, and extracurricular activities. Nurture groups are inclusive interventions for students that the Boxall profile (an online assessment tool) identifies as having delays in social, emotional, or behavioural development and who are struggling to flourish in the regular classroom environment. The Saimautivik brings together teachers and support staff to provide evidence-based practices to support our students in need and experiment with new directions in learning.

  As a traditional Inuit value, harmony brings peace between people, agreement between ideas, and understanding in place of conflict. A classroom can be warm and inviting, with comfortable spaces for gathering and calming down, tables for sharing meals or collaborative projects, and nooks for using hands-on materials. The Saimautivik’s bright colours invite play and creativity, yet its organization supports the daily routines and serious, focused study.

  Using tools that Compassionate Schools and Complementary Services promote the targeted interventions are supporting growth and change on a school-wide level.

  Through the security of routine and predictability, caring adults who model positive relationships, clearly and mutually defined expectations, food sharing, opportunities for hands-on and paper-based numeracy and literacy, and engaging activities that are developmentally appropriate, the students make great gains in their development in a short period of time. Using tools that Compassionate Schools and Complementary Services promote, such as the Zones of Regulation and other trauma-informed approaches, the targeted interventions are supporting growth and change on a school-wide level.

  Teachers, families, and the students themselves share stories of increased confidence, wider social circles, and greater academic achievement. Since the introduction of the intervention halfway through this school year, behavioural referrals have been reduced by half.

  Rejected furniture and random supplies used to accumulate in this unused classroom; students would hide there when escaping their responsibilities. Now a place for healing and learning, it challenges the traditional concept of a classroom and the role of a teacher.

   

  Find out more

  Join our team! Visit www.kativik.qc.ca to view current job openings!

   

  photo: Jenny McManus

  First published in Education Canada, December 2019

  ---

  Notes

  1 The “Sixties Scoop” refers to the large-scale removal or “scooping” of Indigenous children from their homes, communities and families of birth. This practice took place during the late 1950s until the early 1980s and it has affected Inuit communities. The physical and emotional separation from their birth families also left many adoptees with a sense of lost cultural identity, which continues to affect adults and Indigenous communities to this day.

• Better Together

  9:04 PM Comments Off on Better Together

  With wellness becoming so mainstream and direct links connecting employee wellness to productivity, why are so many educators experiencing chronic fatigue, stress-related illnesses, feeling overwhelmed or unwell – or even leaving the profession? Roth argues that we cannot expect teachers to implement health and wellness programs without support: everyone, at all levels in the education sector needs to buy in.

  Every time I walk into a classroom, I find myself in absolute awe of the teacher. I’m amazed at how they accomplish their long list of daily tasks, manage 25-30 students, deal with student emotions and behaviours, and complete the math lesson they planned the night before. Educators today are faced with ever-expanding To-Do lists and frequently the expectation that they do more with fewer resources. No longer are teachers “just” responsible for instructing academic content. Educators are now required to teach emotional regulation and social skills, while managing the diverse learning needs in classrooms that exceed the optimal number for student achievement of 18 students per teacher. They also work with students from incredibly diverse backgrounds and those with challenges related to socio-economic status, physical challenges and mental health issues.

  I can’t help but wonder: Who’s taking care of educators who do so much for others every day? Whose responsibility is it to care for teachers, nurture healthy schools and classrooms and ensure that everyone in the education sector is supported in their health and wellness endeavours?

  Like most rewarding challenges in life, I would say it takes a village.

  The case for wellness

  Workplace wellness has been part of the daily vernacular in every career sector for quite some time. Extensive research on employee health and wellness clearly demonstrates that a healthy workforce is a productive workforce. And honestly, it seems like a fairly simple premise. If we are feeling good and taking care of our own needs, then we’ll be able to provide a quality product or service. With wellness becoming so mainstream and direct links connecting employee wellness to productivity, why are so many educators experiencing chronic fatigue, stress-related illnesses, or lack of job satisfaction? Why are so many feeling overwhelmed or unwell?¹ Why are many leaving the profession in search of new careers? It’s easy to find ideas on self-care in this information age, so why aren’t teachers doing a better job of wellness?

  We simply cannot expect teachers to implement health and wellness programs without support. When I work with teachers, they easily list what to do in the classroom to meet the needs of their students, but figuring out what they need for their personal well-being is not as simple. Upon asking a teacher what she did for her own self-care routine, she became tearful on the realization that she’d been focused on the needs of others and had completely lost sight of what she needed. Without encouragement and permission to put personal wellness on the agenda, many teachers find themselves in the same situation.

  This is why we need a big-picture team approach to teacher wellness. Many of the issues that create stress in the workplace are systemic challenges that educators have very little control over. In order for wellness initiatives to take root and grow, everyone, at all levels in the education sector, needs to buy in.

  In business sectors, health and wellness programs have been in place for several years and companies such as Google and Delta Hotels know that investing in these initiatives benefits the bottom line with increased productivity, lower absenteeism, improved employee satisfaction and reduced employee benefit costs. In education, there are unique challenges impacting wellness initiatives. Increasing workloads, funding limitations, insufficient support personnel, population and demographic diversity of school communities, rigid work hours, reduced autonomy, difficulty seeing improvement in one’s teaching abilities and increased pressure to demonstrate improved outcomes are factors leading to burnout.

  The most important component for supporting teacher wellness is funding – and not just throwing money into an account labelled “Teacher Wellness” but taking a critical look at class size and composition, support for students with special needs, and ensuring we are implementing best-practice policies at every available opportunity. Best practice policies allow teachers to build a classroom community where students grow, thrive, and learn. Budgets are always tight, but the excuse that there isn’t enough money is hard to justify when extensive research shows that the return on investment can be significant. A 2010 review published by the Harvard Business Review stated that well-run comprehensive wellness programs could offer up to a 6 to 1 return on investment.² This may seem too good to be true – but even more conservative data illustrates a returned 3.80 dollars in health care savings for every dollar invested.³

  

  Cost reduction is only one of the benefits achieved by implementing wellness initiatives in school divisions. You can measure absenteeism due to stress leaves and sick days, but there are many other factors that are harder to measure. What are the effects of increased stability in the classroom, which would have a positive impact on individual student mental health and learning? Encouraging and supporting mindfulness strategies reduces stress and improves prosocial behaviours, which translates into less time dealing with behaviour management and increased time on instructional learning. In a data-driven world, measuring these outcomes can be challenging, but critical to supporting health initiatives.

  Although Occupational Health and Safety measures have historically focused on physical injuries, psychological harm related to the job are included in some provincial and territorial Occupational Health and Safety Acts, which places responsibility on employers to take action to support their employees’ mental health and well-being. Mental health initiatives are in the early stages of development in many divisions, and unfortunately there continue to be individuals at all levels of management who continue to view mental health and wellness programs as “fluff.”

  Levels of leadership

  Allocating funds and prioritizing employee wellness programs are first steps, but if we truly want wellness initiatives to take hold, involvement at all levels of a school division is critical. A culture of wellness from the top leaders throughout all levels of employees is necessary to promote engagement and commitment. This requires a significant cultural shift, where an organization begins to emphasize employee well-being not just as a standalone program, but in all policies, programs, procedures, and behaviours. I was pleased, for example, to see more focus on the Mental Health Matters campaign and the hiring of a Wellness Consultant by my school division this year, demonstrating a willingness to support their employees’ well-being.

  After years of working with many administrative and support teams, I’m often able to tell quite quickly if leaders place emphasis on their own personal wellness and that of their staff. How many principals send out emails to their staff after 6 p.m. at night or on weekends? This one small act sets the expectation that work is always on. Buy-in by the senior leaders is essential. When senior leadership shows that wellness is a priority, they become role models for work-life balance, resulting in more successful wellness programming.⁴

  School administrators, principals and vice principals play a critical role in creating a culture of wellness. They set the tone for the school community and by placing an emphasis on teacher wellness, and they can create opportunities for daily wellness to occur. This can happen by modeling a good work-life balance, setting a wellness goal for the school, encouraging time boundaries for work activities, building wellness strategies into the day-to-day schedules of the school, and collaborating with their staff members to find out what people are needing. A whole-school mindfulness five-minute session each day, walking programs over the lunch hour, and encouragement to have a life outside of work provide options to infuse wellness into the workday.

  There is a momentum or trickle-down effect of wellness. When teachers are focused on wellness and supported by funders, employers, administrators and their colleagues, health and wellness spreads to the classroom. Students learn to embrace wellness strategies and to integrate personal wellness earlier in their lives.

  Personal responsibility: this is our life

  The great Canadian poet and musician Gord Downie wrote “No dress rehearsal, this is our life.” Personal wellness comes from within and we have an individual responsibility to prioritize our own health and well-being. While it’s true that there need to be systemic changes, continuing to point blame at others or the system places us in the role of victim. In reality, you are the CEO of your life. Start by fostering self-awareness of what nourishes you physically and emotionally so you can ensure those activities make it to the top of your To-Do list. Understand Us, a mental health initiative and non-profit organization, created the “Share your Recipe” campaign to encourage individuals to talk openly about their “ingredients” for mental health.⁵ I like the analogy of creating your own personalized recipe for mental and physical wellness. Think about what might work for you and commit to pursuing those things that bring you nourishment. Consider working with other professionals such as physicians, therapists, and counsellors for additional support. Look to your professional associations and colleagues for ideas. The resources are out there, but the responsibility falls to each of us to prioritize our well-being and get what we need to feel better.

  

  Better together

  If we want healthy, happy, and productive teachers who are able to focus on and support the learning needs of their students, make positive gains in literacy, improve on-time graduation rates, and create safe schools and innovative classrooms, we need to work together to mitigate the challenges. It’s a process that requires funding, continuous work and commitment by government, school boards, school divisions, school administrators and teachers.

  It’s time for that cultural shift to happen. Embracing wellness and focusing on mental health for teachers will benefit everyone. Let’s work together to give our teachers and our students the support they need for a life full of learning and the pursuit of happiness.

   

  Photo: iStock and Adobe Stock

  First published in Education Canada, December 2019

  ---

  1 Bernie Froese-Germain, Work-Life Balance and the Canadian Teaching Profession (Canadian Teachers Federation: July, 2014).

  2 Leonard L. Berry, Ann M. Mirabito, and William B. Baun, “What’s the Hard Return on Employee Wellness Programs,” Harvard Business Review 88, no. 12 (2010): 104-112.

  3 Soeren Mattke, H. H. Liu, J. P. Caloyeras, et al., Workplace Wellness Programs Study: Final report (Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2013).www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR254.html

  4 Berry, Mirabito, and Baun, “What’s the Hard Return on Employee Wellness Programs,” 106.

  5 “Share your Recipe,” Understandus.ca. https://understandus.ca/uu-initiatives/syr

• Teaching and Learning While Grieving: Lifting the curtain on grief to better support educators and students experiencing loss

  November 27, 2019 3:15 PM Comments Off on Teaching and Learning While Grieving: Lifting the curtain on grief to better support educators and students experiencing loss

  Building strong relationships with students is a necessary part of being a good teacher, yet having the strength to be vulnerable and authentic in these teacher-student relationships often requires that educators repress their true emotions — like anger, fatigue, or frustration — in favour of more “workplace appropriate” emotions. When we think about an emotion as complex as grief, which is rarely discussed in schools, it can be easy to understand why it can be so burdening for teachers to constantly keep a smile on while masking how they truly feel. 

  

  Nine months ago, my mother was diagnosed with cancer. Because she was generally healthy and active, I was naively convinced that she would live to see her 100th birthday. Even as my mother’s health deteriorated and my family duties piled up, I continued teaching at universities and middle schools all while continuing forth presenting my research on ‘emotional labor’ at various conferences. 

  I thought I had been doing just fine at handling all of the stress — whether that be from accompanying my mom to radiation treatment appointments and emergency trips to the hospital, or the overall experience of witnessing my mom gradually lose her independence. Then, one day, while teaching a lesson on poetry during one of my summer school classes, my eyes had unexpectedly filled with tears as I presented a metaphor from the song “The Bridge” by Chris de Burgh. 

  

  To my horror, I had broken a “workplace appropriate” rule as I silently wept while the song played. Fortunately, the song was over four minutes long, and I could use my long hair to shield my face while I tried to wipe away my tears without anyone noticing. By the time the song had ended, I was able to compose myself and make a silly joke about sad love songs while carrying forward with my discussion on poetry.

  My students were clearly uncomfortable during what must have been an awkward moment seeing their teacher cry. They ignored my outburst, kept their heads down, and carried on jotting down notes. I had told them earlier in the week about my mother’s cancer, yet the incident was never discussed and we continued with the lesson like nothing had happened. 

  Why there’s an emotional silence around grief in the classroom

  ‘Grief’ is described in the 2012 Encyclopedia of Human Behavior as the emotional response to bereavement — the loss of a significant person. The process of grieving is often described as a series of stages — denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance — as first defined by Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross in 1969. More recently, grief has been described as being a more complex and nuanced response to loss, rather than merely moving through a series of stages.

  

  The experience of grief can result in many physical and psychological symptoms including sleep deprivation, appetite changes, changes in energy levels, physical pain or discomfort, using prescription or other drugs, and increased risk of illness. While most grieving people experience these to varying degrees, symptoms will ease over time. Nevertheless, depending on the suddenness or severity of the loss, these symptoms can last for weeks, months, or years. 

  Grief is a taboo subject in western schools that’s rarely discussed openly between educators and students. Grieving is very common in childhood, where it’s been estimated that before the age of sixteen, 1 in 20 students in the United States will experience the loss of a parent. 

  

  Discussion on how to help students who are grieving is currently not a priority in pre-service teacher education programs or within school curricula. Classroom lessons about death, dying, grief, and grieving remain a gap in teaching and learning. This silence might stem from a fear of death and dying, or concern that talking about these subjects could trigger unmanageable emotional outbursts from students or staff. Unfortunately, grief continues to be perceived as a private and individual process that doesn’t require school-wide intervention. 

  How to work towards unsilencing grief in the classroom

  There are key ways to surface discussions on supporting children, youth, and adults with the common human experience of grief. 

  Support for students 

  Given the probability that one or more students in every classroom is experiencing grief, educators should become more aware of the psychological and physical symptoms that are associated with it. Grieving children and youth can display a variety of behaviours including inattention, self-blame, clinginess to parents or staff, and overreaction or underreaction to emotional triggers, the latter of which could be misdiagnosed as learning problems. Staff in schools should be made aware of a student who has had a significant loss in their life so that they can be better prepared to assist and support them appropriately. Resources such as After a Loved One Dies by the New York Foundation provide caregivers with suggestions on how to support children who are experiencing the loss of someone who has passed away.  

  Additionally, educators should be aware that this loss of a friend or loved one can have a devastating impact on the student’s home life. 

  

  The student is likely surrounded by grieving adults who may be unable to fully support them. Daily mundane tasks, such as getting ready for school, catching the school bus on time, completing homework assignments, and making healthy lunches, can fall by the wayside due to this disruption in the student’s primary care network. Furthermore, the child or youth may not be getting the emotional support that they need and may be afraid to upset the adults around them by speaking of their own distress. 

  

  Support for colleagues

  As I’ve gone about presenting my research on emotional labor, I’ve heard one dominant comment from educators: “There’s no crying in teaching!” As class sizes become larger and time is spread thinner for teachers, school leaders, educational assistants, and psychologists across more and more students, even less time is available during the school day for grieving adults to express their emotions in their everyday work. 

  Most adults describe grief as something that they eventually come to tolerate, but they nonetheless carry the memory of their loss with them in their daily work. For educators who have experienced loss, often the unspoken rule is that they should just “get on with it” once the immediate crisis of death has passed. Grieving educators are not given the time, space, or relational support that they need during their workday to be the caring, calm adults that students need in the classroom.

  Instead of seeking the end of grief, supportive adults can help fellow colleagues work through it by understanding and adjusting to their expression of the physical and psychological symptoms of grief. Most adults have different ways of expressing their emotions and may do so through physical exercise, writing, speaking, or singing loudly in their car. Rather than moving straight to the common advice of “You need to talk to someone!”, ask “What do you need right now to release how you’re feeling?” or “Do you have the time, space, or relational support that you need to deal with your grief?”

  

  The months-long process of witnessing my mother’s life drain away has opened my eyes to the need for educators to both give and be given space to have conversations about grief in schools. Even as a 47-year old woman, I have felt unprepared to cope with the heavy sadness and broken heart generated by losing my mother, even as I feel gratitude for her long life and legacy of love and support. Schools are a community of support for children, youth, and adults who have lost a significant person in their life. As such, educators have a responsibility to lift the curtain on grief and grieving in the classroom.

  References and Additional Information

  Kennedy, C., Keeffe, M., Gardner, F., & Farrelly, C. (2017). Making death, compassion and partnership ‘part of life’ in school communities. Pastoral Care in Education, 35(2), 111-123.

  Hochschild, A. (2012). The managed heart commercialization of human feeling. Berkeley: University of California Press.

  Kendrick, Astrid Helene. (2018). Inspiring Change: A Hermeneutic Phenomenology Exploring the Lived Experience with Emotional Labor by Female Health Champions Implementing Comprehensive School Health Reforms. Werklund School of Education.

  Kendrick, A. (2018). Let go of toxic workplace ’emotional labour’ in 2019. The Canadian Press, p. The Canadian Press, Dec 20, 2018.

  Kennedy, C., Keeffe, M., Gardner, F., & Farrelly, C. (2017). Making death, compassion and partnership ‘part of life’ in school communities. Pastoral Care in Education, 35(2), 111-123.

  Schonfeld D.J. & Demaria T. (2016) Supporting the Grieving Child and Family. Pediatrics 138(3). AAP committee on psychosocial aspects of child and family health, disaster preparedness advisory council.

  Strobe, M. & Strobe, W. (2012). Grief and Bereavement. Encyclopedia of Human Behavior. Retrieved from https://www.elsevier.com/books/encyclopedia-of-human-behavior/ramachandran/978-0-12-375000-6

   

  Photo: Adobe Stock

• Leading despite your job title

  10:22 AM Comments Off on Leading despite your job title

  If you had to describe the culture of your school, what would you say? If the students, parents, or staff in your school community were asked to describe your school’s culture, what would THEY say? And what’s the impact of this culture on the well-being of your staff?

  The term “school culture” refers to our beliefs, attitudes, perceptions, and ways of doing things, including the quality of the relationships that are developed between colleagues and with students. Culture is often based on both written rules (i.e. a code of conduct) and unwritten rules (i.e. how staff believe they should act and behave, or what behaviour they think is expected of them).

  

  Whether we like it or not, even if our intentions don’t change as we transition towards a leadership role within a school, our job title often leads us to become blocked off from certain channels of information that we may have previously had access to.

  Ed Catmull, author of the book Creativity Inc., explains it like this: “As my position changed, people became more careful how they spoke and acted in my presence. I don’t think my actions changed in a way that prompted this; my position did. And what this meant was that things I’d once been privy to became increasingly unavailable to me.”

  Ed Catmull goes on to say that many new leaders often make the mistake of assuming that their access to these information channels hasn’t changed. He calls this phenomenon “The Hidden”: a blind spot that escapes our field of perception. Ed’s words remind me of the importance of being continually and intentionally looking for these so-called “blind spots.”

  Think about it – what are the implications for school culture and staff well-being if you aren’t aware of your team’s challenges, interpersonal strains, and how your team is coping with work demands? In my estimation, the implications would likely be disastrous. As school leaders, we are stewards of culture and well-being, and so it’s up to us to raise the atmosphere and lead the change that we’d like to see. But how do we stay connected to the “true pulse” of our school culture? In other words, how do we stay constantly in the know about how staff are truly feeling in the workplace, despite our job title?

  

  As a principal myself, I’ve been practicing two winning approaches to ensure that I’m in the loop with how staff are actually living out the culture that we seek to build, while opening up channels of information and communication. The first approach targets staff personal growth, while the second approach targets staff collective development and team spirit.

  Approach #1: Monthly individual meetings

  During the school year, I invite each of my staff to optional monthly coaching meetings, which usually take around 15-to-30 minutes. Meeting dates are selected in advance and marked down in our calendars. In short, we make these meetings a priority.

  During these meetings, we set goals and discuss pedagogy or any other subject that has an impact on their personal and professional growth. In short, these conversations allow us to get to know each other better.

  

  Above all, these meetings provide me with vital information that allows me to help maintain the well-being of my staff members, while allowing me to know where they’re at in terms of classroom pedagogy or other projects they’re undertaking throughout the school year.

  Approach #2: Scrum-style team meetings

  Instead of holding traditional monthly staff meetings, we organize “Scrum” meetings every two weeks. The goals of these meetings include sharing successful practices, keeping informed, promoting peer support, building team spirit, and ensuring positive mental health.

  

  Here are five key elements of our Scrum-style team meetings:

  1. Members must stand during the meeting

  2. Each person is invited to answer three questions:

  • What’s something new that I did, or something that worked well, that I could share with the team?
  • What am I going to do that could be helpful to the team?
  • What do I need?

  3. Each person has up to three minutes to share their thoughts

  4. A “Scrum Master” is designated to lead the meeting

  5. A timekeeper is designated to ensure each person gets their three minutes to share.

  These meetings not only allow us to learn about what each person does in their respective roles, but also grants us the opportunity to celebrate successes, offer support, ask questions, get to know each other, and laugh together. At the end of each meeting, people often stay behind to continue on the conversation, and leave with a smile on their face including a sense of satisfaction and pride in knowing that they have an important place on our team. It’s a really fantastic experience!

  

  Maintaining a culture of staff well-being starts with you.

  We all have a responsibility in helping maintain a positive school culture. But as in all workplaces, there are times when things go less-than-well and negativity can infiltrate itself into our culture.

  How do you respond in these less-than-well situations?

  A. Do you become easily bogged down with the negative? Is your first reaction to complain or to judge, or to react strongly on your emotions?

  OR

  B. Are you quick to stomp down the negative? Do you demonstrate empathy by offering help or solutions instead of judgment? Do you take the time to listen carefully so as to truly understand the situation, rather than merely provide answers?

  Let’s take a few moments to think about this – do you find yourself mostly acting like A or like B? When faced with change or challenge, what position do you adopt – one that is more creative or one that is reactive?

  Personally, I always strive to adopt a creative position when faced with challenges. When I allow my growth mentality to take the lead, this gives way to positivity and optimism, which in turn feeds my creativity and allows me to arrive at new solutions. Choosing to be creative has an invaluable and positive impact on well-being, and leads to increased confidence, hope, and energy – all of which keep our “bucket full.”

  

  Building and maintaining a positive school culture starts with you, the school leader. Each person has the power to choose how they’ll react in a given situation. This reaction has an incredible influence on the overall school atmosphere, including the well-being of yourself and of those around you. That’s why it’s so important to never lose sight of the influence we have as leaders each and every day through the words we speak and the actions we undertake.

   

  Photo: Adobe Stock

• Building a Positive Staff Culture

  8:22 AM Comments Off on Building a Positive Staff Culture

  

  A positive school culture makes work and school fun, supportive, and purposeful. But how do you get there? This principal shares his learning about building school culture that is strengths-based, collaborative, innovative and focused, and grounded on the values of trust, happiness, curiosity and care.

  During my 20 years as an educator, I have been part of school staffs who could not talk, would not talk, and even should not talk to each other. I have also worked and learned alongside school staffs who have embraced a positive school culture – one that makes work and school fun, supportive, and purposeful. So how have some staffs created this positive culture while others struggle to get there? This is a question that I have focused on for the past five years as a school principal.

  Culture is hard to see but we can always feel it; it is the vibe of a school – the beliefs, attitudes, and behaviours that exist within a school staff. In any organization, we continually strive to make positive change; however, as Peter Drucker says, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast,” so before we can tackle real change, we need to work as a staff to create a positive school culture. How do we do this?

  At the previous school where I worked as principal, our staff focused on building a positive staff culture for four years. Our goal was to achieve this, not through isolated team-building activities, but in the way we actually did our work together as a staff of educators.

  In one of our first staff meetings, I introduced a collaborative activity and it flopped miserably. When I attempted to encourage more focused conversation, one of our respected veteran teachers stated, “We don’t know how to do this.” I tried rephrasing the instructions for the activity but he interrupted and said, “No, we don’t really know how to talk like this.”

  This was such a turning point in our staff meeting culture, as it was clear we needed to start from there and first build trust, safety, and support. We could not dive into the real work until we established a place where this deeper dialogue could occur.

  We started with creating some norms or commitments for our staff meetings and collaborative time (Hat tip to Cale Birk for the idea). The staff came up with the list below:

  1. The topics will be relevant to what we do (and what we want to do) at our school.

  2. We will be flexible and willing to try new things and ideas.

  3. We will share the successes happening at our school.

  4. We will create strategies to provide equitable opportunities for each of us to share our voice (and not be dominated by a few).

  5. We will acknowledge that a sense of humour is important and will embrace opportunities for light-hearted dialogue.

  6. We will stay on topic and stick to the agenda.

  7. We will have a clear timeline for implementation of ideas.

  8. There will be a clear purpose to the discussion and agenda items.

  9. We will encourage others for their ideas and ask others for clarification, comments, ideas and suggestions.

  10. We will provide time for grade-level collaboration.

  11. We will always make time for getting together and having small group discussions.

  12. We will respect that some may prefer to listen and reflect.

  This set of commitments guided our behaviours and helped create staff meetings that felt safe enough to have the “real” conversations that often only take place in the parking lots and staff rooms. Prior to a discussion that might have some opposing views, we always reviewed and reminded ourselves of these commitments.

  We also discussed the attributes of an effective staff culture. Staff shared their experiences with positive and negative cultures. They then captured words to describe a positive culture and we put them into a Wordle (See Figure 1; thanks to Suzanne Hoffman for the idea).

  Figure 1: Staff description of a positive culture

  

  Through our work as a staff, as well as my learning at previous schools, I came up with what I believe are the Four Pillars of a Positive School Staff Culture. They are:

  • Strengths-based

  • Collaborative

  • Innovative

  • Focused

  I am sure there are other attributes that could be used but these four have been most effective for the schools where I have worked. As you can see in Figure 2, these four pillars are also based on the core values of trust, happiness, curiosity, and care. These values weave their way through the pillars and without them, the pillars can crumble.

  Figure 2: A Positive Organizational Culture

  

  The four pillars

  A STRENGTHS-BASED culture is one that believes that every staff member has strengths that can benefit the school as a whole. Feedback with staff always starts with strengths (character and skills), staff members are given the opportunity to determine their strengths (reflections and/or the ¹), and each staff member is encouraged to use these strengths in their important work with students. Research from the (CLC) in 2002² shared that one of the most effective ways to bring out the best in your employees is to start with strengths. Performance and engagement is significantly increased when feedback and evaluation focuses on strengths rather than weaknesses. On staff surveys, many staff reported that with the focus on strengths, they felt more motivated, safer to be themselves, happier and healthier overall at school. A healthier, happier staff who feel safe and motivated can accomplish so much more with their students and for the school community.

  “As leaders, we often make the mistake of listening to a problem and then jumping to solve it by ourselves.”

  A COLLABORATIVE culture believes “the smartest person in the room is the room itself” (David Weinberger). Staff tap into each others’ strengths and engage in respectful, reflective dialogue to drive professional learning and create positive change. Trust is a huge part of a collaborative culture, and truly listening to others is essential to building trust. Polarizing statements and unwillingness to meet people where they are at will create a challenge to collaboration. By avoiding binary thinking, embracing the “grey areas” and listening to others’ perspectives, we grow as individuals and as a collaborative staff.

  As leaders, we often make the mistake of listening to a problem and then jumping to solve it by ourselves. As a new principal, I had a teacher share a concern with me. Within minutes, I was busy shifting support schedules and trying to solve the problem. I bounced into her classroom to share what I had done, and she grew quite frustrated. She said, “I came to you so you could understand where I was at and so we could come up with solutions together. These solutions don’t really work for me and they will definitely negatively affect other teachers.” I was caught off guard by this feedback but so thankful, as I learned that my job is not to solve problems, but to work with staff to develop effective solutions together.

  An INNOVATIVE culture is one in which educators feel safe to take risks, think critically and creatively, and implement new ideas with support. It moves from the question, “Can we….” to the question, “How can we…” The CLC’s research found that encouraging autonomy and risk-taking is another way to bring out the best in employees. An innovative culture is not necessarily always doing new things; it is one that understands the research around what is effective and is willing to try new ideas to help meet school goals. As Chip and Dan Heath tell us in their book Switch, we need to shrink the change. We need not always aspire for huge risks and changes, rather, we should encourage incremental changes that can be tried for a period of time to see if there is a positive impact. An important role for principals is to find the resources (time, materials, etc.) to support the innovative work of staff, so that good educators can become great educators.

  A few years ago, inspired by Daniel Pink’s book Drive, I offered staff a “FedEx Prep,” which meant that I would provide an extra prep period for six weeks so a staff member could take an idea and put it into practice. The only caveat was that they had to “deliver” – sharing with staff the idea they had implemented and observing the results over the school year. We had teachers work individually and collaboratively to implement ideas in areas such as outdoor education (a school garden), technology (blogging with primaries to help with writing skills), and self-regulation (a teacher and a special education assistant redesigned their classroom and introduced tools to help students be in a more effective learning state). By providing a small amount of time and a few resources, we were able to encourage innovation at our school.

  A FOCUSED culture is one that knows the key areas of growth that the school is working on, as well as the strategies that can have the largest impact. With so many ideas, policies, and procedures being sent our way, principals and school leaders need to be good filters and keep the staff focused on their vision and mission. There are many “shiny new” ideas out there that look and sound great but they may not help your school on its journey. One question we have used to focus is, “What problem are we trying to solve?” If the new idea is not helping us with the problems (or areas of growth) we are working on, we can set them aside until a later date. By having a laser-like focus on clear goals and clearly defined problems the staff is working on, you can filter and prioritize what’s most important for your school.

  The four core values

  Four important values guide our behaviours and our journey toward a positive school culture. To embody any of these well, we must slow down. In a fast-paced world, this is even more important!

  TRUST: At the heart of trust is communication. It is so important for us all to talk less and listen more. In author Mark Goulston’s words, we need to spend more time being interested and less time trying to be interesting. As formal school leaders, we must also be as transparent as possible to make sure that people understand why decisions are made and/or have all the information they need to make decisions. Another important way to build trust is to walk the talk; if we say we will do something … do it.

  Building trust takes time. When I first arrived at my previous school, I posted a sign-up schedule to meet with every staff member to learn more about them and how I could best support them. After a week, not a single staff member had signed up. When I followed up privately with a few people, it was shared that everyone assumed it was an interview and they were nervous to meet with me. This was far from the goal! But the staff didn’t trust me yet. I met with a few individuals informally and then shared that this was the type of conversation I hoped to have in the scheduled times. After that, others started to sign up and they soon realized it was a positive opportunity. Within a few months, I had met with the entire staff.

  “We can still work incredibly hard to support students while also encouraging happiness with staff.”

  HAPPINESS: I always knew happiness was important but until I moved to my current school at Shortreed Community Elementary, I had no idea the impact that a staff can have on each others’ happiness. By having a sense of humour, taking the time to slow down and be there for each other (in good times and bad), and by showing gratitude, we can create a much more positive school staff culture. Going to work each day where people are happy fuels others and makes the difficult work we do much more enjoyable.

  Within my first week at Shortreed, I knew it was a place with a sense of humour. I had worked many hours planning my first assembly to welcome everyone back in September. I wanted to share a bit about me and a slideshow from the first week. Little did I know that the staff had their own plans. Our Youth Care Worker had asked each class to prank me by coming to the assembly and literally sitting wherever they wanted – anywhere and everywhere. As the students entered the gym, my face started to go red at the chaos. Then the whistle blew and all students, with huge grins, quietly moved to their appropriate spots. It was a reminder to not take ourselves so seriously, to have fun and create some happiness in the school. We can still work incredibly hard to support students while also encouraging happiness with staff.

  CURIOSITY: We cannot grow as a school unless we are curious. By seeing challenges as opportunities that we can be curious about, we can then collaborate and work together to meet them. By being curious and ensuring we are asking the right questions, we continually grow as educators, learners, leaders, and people.

  CARE: People need to feel like they belong and they matter. Small acts of caring can go a long way to building a positive culture and community of care. At my current school, our mantra is, “You BELONG here.” This drive to create a sense of belonging is not only for students but also for our families and staff. We need to lead with an ethic of care and model to our staff that we support and look out for one another.

   

  As an educator, I have come to realize that building (and maintaining) a positive staff culture takes time. By slowing down, focusing on the four values of trust, happiness, curiosity, and care while also keeping the four pillars of strengths-based, collaborative, innovative and focused cultures at the heart of what we do, we can help create a positive school staff culture.

  I am thankful to have observed the incredible power of a positive culture. When we all work together to build and maintain this, we feel healthier at school and at home, more motivated and inspired in the important work we do, and because of this, we also see improved results in the achievement and success in our students.

   

  Illustration: Diana Pham

  First published in Education Canada, December 2019

  ---

  1 The VIA Survey is a free survey of character strengths in the world:

  2 Corporate Leadership Council, Building the High-Performance Workforce: A quantitative analysis of the effectiveness of performance management strategies (Washington, D.C.: 2002).

• Self-Reg Isn’t Just for Kids

  November 14, 2019 11:13 AM Comments Off on Self-Reg Isn’t Just for Kids

• Francophone Principals: What unique challenges do they face?

  November 8, 2019 3:37 PM Comments Off on Francophone Principals: What unique challenges do they face?

  Francophone principals in linguistic minority schools encounter unique challenges because of the cultural and linguistic significance of francophone public school systems to their communities. Although francophone principals in Ontario report high job satisfaction (79.2%), there is an urgent need to promote a highly qualified teacher workforce, enhance cultural and linguistic security, and create safe workplaces.

  HERE ARE 4 CHALLENGES FACED BY FRANCOPHONE PRINCIPALS

  1. Substitute teacher shortage:

  • Francophone principals report often or always (88.3%) having difficulty finding qualified French-language substitute teachers. This also means that teacher absenteeism is a significant challenge, with principals having to fill-in for classes.

  2. Pressure from PAL:

  • 54.9% of francophone principals report that their work often or always reflects the direction of Ontario’s Aménagement Linguistique Policy (PAL), which aims to improve how francophone language and culture are being lived out by young people. 
  • While essential, francophone principals find that this policy creates pressure to recruit and retain francophone students, including additional tasks (that English-language schools don’t have), coupled with not enough time or resources to implement it.

  3.  Work safety:

  • Francophone principals report being harassed (e.g. verbally, psychologically) by various stakeholders including parents or guardians, students, teachers, senior officials, other school staff, substitute teachers, other principals, vice-principals, and trustees. 
  • Principals indicate that if they were harassed, it would most likely be by a parent or guardian (60.1%), and if physically assaulted it would most likely be by a student (34.6%).

  4. Emotionally draining situations: 

  • Francophone principals report spending more time on student well-being than any other activity (e.g. staff well-being, French-language services, professional learning). Student mental health, discipline, and cyberbullying often or always place principals in emotionally draining situations.
  • Francophone principals also report spending more time working with parents than other activities (e.g. attending to staff, managing student discipline, participating in student activities).

  Professional associations, school districts, and policymakers can play a powerful role in addressing the challenges faced by francophone principals. To ease recruitment pressures on principals, professional associations can work more closely with regulatory bodies and initial teacher education programs to increase the number of qualified French-language teachers. School districts can also lead continued professional support on the PAL that better recognizes the importance of principals in implementation. To address harassment and assault, the education sector can work more intentionally to promote principals’ health and safety. Above all, acknowledging the unique challenges of francophone school leaders can allow them to lead more effectively as key drivers of language and culture. 

  Additional Resource Information

  Read the full survey report here:

  Pollock, K., & Wang, F. (2019). Principals’ work in Ontario’s French-language education systems. Retrieved from: https://www.edu.uwo.ca/faculty-profiles/docs/other/pollock/pollock-ADFO-EnglishReport-Final-V10.pdf

  References

  Alberta Teachers’ Association [ATA]. (2014). The future of the principalship in Canada. Retrieved from: https://www.teachers.ab.ca/SiteCollectionDocuments/ATA/Publications/Research/
  The%20Future%20of%20the%20Principalship%20in%20Canada.pdf

  Alberta Teachers’ Association [ATA]. (2017a). The Canadian school leader: Global forces and future prospects. Retrieved from: https://www.teachers.ab.ca/SiteCollectionDocuments/ATA/Publications/Research/COOR-101-13%20Canadian%20School%20Leader.pdf

  Alberta Teachers’ Association [ATA]. (2017b). A national study on the impact of electronic communication on Canadian school leaders. Retrieved from: https://www.teachers.ab.ca/SiteCollectionDocuments/ATA/Publications/Research/COOR-104%20A%20National%20Study%20of%20the%20Impact%20of%20
  Electronic%20Communication%20on%20Canadian%20School%20Leaders.pdf

  Berger, M. J. (2017). French-language education in Ontario: A fresh perspective on leadership practices: Final report. Toronto, ON: The Ontario Institute for Education leadership & The Ontario Ministry of Education. 

  Langlois, L., & Lapointe, C. (2007). Ethical leadership in Canadian school organizations: Tensions and possibilities. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 35(2), 247–260.

   

  Photo: Adobe Stock

• Work Intensification: How the Role of School Leaders is Changing

  November 7, 2019 4:44 PM Comments Off on Work Intensification: How the Role of School Leaders is Changing

  The majority of principals (91.8%) and vice-principals (83.4%) in Ontario believe their job makes a meaningful difference in their school community, and they overwhelmingly find their school a good place to work. However, school leaders are grappling with longer hours, increasing demands, and higher workloads than ever before, which is threatening principal recruitment, retention, and job performance. 

  Here are 5 ways the role of principals and vice-principals is changing

  1. Longer hours:

  • Like school leaders across the globe, Ontario principals work long hours and often feel pressured to do so. 
  • Work often extends beyond the school office due to advances in technology through email, social media, and mobile devices, with principals regularly bringing work home and working late evenings to meet higher workloads. On average, principals spend 11 hours and vice-principals spend 9 hours reading and writing emails per week. 
  • On average, principals work 59 hours per week and vice-principals work 54.5 hours per week. 

  2. Work pace increasing:

  • 60.3% of principals and 44.4% of vice-principals in Ontario agree that the pace of their work is too fast. 

  3. Fewer resources: 

  • Only 38.3% of Ontario principals feel they have the resources they need to do their job effectively (e.g. HR, training to address student or staff mental health concerns, PD on effective relationship building, other colleagues to go to for support).

  4. Same day-to-day work– only more: 

  • Both principals and vice-principals continue to engage in the same kinds of tasks as they did in the past, but the volume of this work has increased (e.g. increased paperwork).

  5. Additional work: 

  • In addition to their usual work of leading a school, both principals and vice-principals are taking on additional kinds of work. 
  • For example, in addition to leadership and management tasks, school leaders are now also responsible for attending to and supporting students’ and teachers’ well-being, which involves increased program development and delivery, additional meetings, and additional pressures to best manage already limited time and funding.

  When these five factors are continually present and school leaders have no downtime to catch up on work or to recover both physically and emotionally from daily work stress, this is called “work intensification.” Work intensification involves managing condensed timelines and a simultaneous increase in the volume and complexity of tasks, activities, and other work demands. As effective school leaders are key to high-performing schools and healthy school environments, work intensification not only threatens school leader recruitment and retention, but also the well-being and performance of both staff and students. 

  Additional Resource Information

  Pollock, K. (with Wang, F. & Hauseman, D. C.). (2017). The changing nature of vice-principals’ work: Final report. Retrieved from: http://www.edu.uwo.ca/faculty-profiles/docs/other/pollock/pollock-opc-vp-report-final.pdf

  Pollock, K. (with Hauseman, D. C.). (2015). Principals’ work in contemporary times: Final report. Retrieved from: https://www.edu.uwo.ca/faculty-profiles/docs/other/pollock/OME-Report-Principals-Work-Contemporary-Times.pdf

  Pollock, K. (with Wang, F. & Hauseman, D. C.). (2014). The changing nature of principals’ work: Final report. Retrieved from: https://www.edu.uwo.ca/faculty-profiles/docs/other/pollock/OPC-Principals-Work-Report.pdf

  Pollock, K., & Wang, F. (2019, March). Le travail des directions d’école au sein des systèmes d’éducation de langue française en Ontario. Récupéré de: https://www.edu.uwo.ca/faculty-profiles/docs/other/pollock/pollock-ADFO-Report-Revised-Final.pdf 

  Pollock, K., & Wang, F. (2019 March). Principals’ work in Ontario’s French-language education systems. Retrieved from: https://www.edu.uwo.ca/faculty-profiles/docs/other/pollock/pollock-ADFO-EnglishReport-Final-V10.pdf

  References

  Alberta Teachers’ Association [ATA]. (2014). The future of the principalship in Canada. Retrieved from: https://www.teachers.ab.ca/SiteCollectionDocuments/ATA/Publications/Research/The%20Future
  %20of%20the%20Principalship%20in%20Canada.pdf

  Alberta Teachers’ Association [ATA]. (2017a). The Canadian school leader: Global forces and future prospects. Retrieved from:https://www.teachers.ab.ca/SiteCollectionDocuments/ATA/Publications/Research/COOR-101-13%20Canadian%20School%20Leader.pdf

   Alberta Teachers’ Association [ATA]. (2017b). A national study on the impact of electronic communication on Canadian school leaders. Retrieved from: https://www.teachers.ab.ca/SiteCollectionDocuments/ATA/Publications/Research/COOR-104%20A%20National%20Study%20of%20the%20Impact%20of%20Electronic%20Communication%
  20on%20Canadian%20School%20Leaders.pdf

  Lim, L., & Pollock, K. (2018). Secondary principal perspectives: How work intensification impacts their vice-principals. OPC Register, 20(3) 22–26.

  Ontario Principals’ Council. (2017). International Symposium White Paper: Principal work–life balance and well-being matters. Retrieved from: https://www.edu.uwo.ca/faculty-profiles/docs/other/pollock/PrincipalWellBeing-17-FINAL-with-Acknowledgement-1.pdf 

  Pollock, K. (2017, September). Healthy principals, healthy schools: Supporting principals’ well-being. EdCan Magazine. Retrieved from: https://www.edcan.ca/articles/healthy-principals-healthy-schools/

  Pollock, K., Wang, F., & Hauseman, C. (2017). Vice-principals’ work: More than being an instructional leader. OPC Register, 19(3), 20–24.

  Pollock, K., & Hauseman, D. C. (2018). The use of e-mail and principals’ work: A double-edged sword. Leadership and Policy in Schools, 1–12 .

  Pollock, K. (2016). Principals’ work in Ontario, Canada: Changing demographics, advancements in informational communication technology and health and well-being. Journal of the Commonwealth Council for Educational Administration & Management, 44(3), 55–74.

  Riley, P. (2016). The Australian principal occupational health, safety and wellbeing survey. Strathfield, Australia: Institute for Positive Psychology & Education. Retrieved from: http://www.principalhealth.org/au/2016_Report_AU_FINAL.pdf

  Wang, F., Pollock, K., & Hauseman, C. (2018). School principals’ job satisfaction: The effects of work intensification. Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy, 185, 73–90.

   

  Photo: Adobe Stock

• How Can Education Systems Support Principals’ and Vice-Principals’ Well-Being?

  4:42 PM Comments Off on How Can Education Systems Support Principals’ and Vice-Principals’ Well-Being?

  Principals and vice-principals often sacrifice their own happiness and well-being to support their staff and students. Many school leaders report working long hours, skipping lunch, feeling isolated in their roles, and being unable to spend time with friends and family because of intense and expanding workloads. The toll of these demands can leave school leaders feeling emotionally and physically exhausted. 

  HERE ARE PROVEN STRATEGIES TO SUPPORT PRINCIPALS’ AND VICE-PRINCIPALS’ WELL-BEING

  PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS can advocate for:

  1. Ongoing professional development (PD) that reflects the realities of being a school leader.  
  2. Coaching or mentoring specifically designed for principals and vice-principals that supports both their professional and personal well-being.
  3. Health assessment tools that allow principals and vice-principals to develop long-term health plans.
  4. Telephone support lines that offer confidential guidance from experienced school leaders, legal representatives, and healthcare professionals. 

  SCHOOL DISTRICTS can:

  1. Develop PD that provides strategies for principals and vice-principals to support their own well-being. 
  2. Promote healthy work environments overall for all members of the school community. 
  3. Negotiate employee health benefits that support school leaders’ well-being and encourage them to be used fully. Health services (e.g. massage therapy, physiotherapy, chiropractic therapy, and professional counseling) or benefits that promote healthy living (e.g. nutrition services, gym memberships) are especially effective. 
  4. Develop realistic expectations around remote work and using email beyond office hours. 

  POLICYMAKERS can:

  1. Consider ways to position school leaders for success by focusing on their priorities as leaders of learning (e.g. by delegating, reducing, and eliminating workload). 
  2. Clarify expectations on how school leaders should be involved in implementing new and ongoing initiatives (e.g. those related to mental health, cyberbullying, technology leadership).
  3. Assess options to reduce the time principals and vice-principals spend on lunch and yard duty. There is ongoing tension between being on duty to supervise students and attending to other time-sensitive issues, which means principals can have difficulty fully engaging in either task.
  4. Encourage school leaders to hire highly qualified teachers who are suited to the local school context. This can be achieved by promoting teacher professionalism (e.g. specialized knowledge and skills, long-term and well-resourced teacher PD). 

  To maximize efficiency and prevent overlap between initiatives, professional associations, school districts, and policymakers can align these strategies to better support the well-being of school leaders and school communities as a whole.

  Additional Resource Information

  Pollock, K. (with Wang, F. & Hauseman, D. C.). (2017). The changing nature of vice-principals’ work: Final report. Retrieved from: http://www.edu.uwo.ca/faculty-profiles/docs/other/pollock/pollock-opc-vp-report-final.pdf

  Pollock, K. (with Hauseman, D. C.). (2015). Principals’ work in contemporary times: Final report. Retrieved from: https://www.edu.uwo.ca/faculty-profiles/docs/other/pollock/OME-Report-Principals-Work-Contemporary-Times.pdf

  Pollock, K. (with Wang, F. & Hauseman, D. C.). (2014). The changing nature of principals’ work: Final report. Retrieved from: https://www.edu.uwo.ca/faculty-profiles/docs/other/pollock/OPC-Principals-Work-Report.pdf

  Pollock, K. et Wang, F. (2019). Le travail des directions d’école au sein des systèmes d’éducation de langue française en Ontario. Repéré à : https://www.edu.uwo.ca/faculty-profiles/docs/other/pollock/pollock-ADFO-Report-Revised-Final.pdf 

  Pollock, K., & Wang, F. (2019). Principals’ work in Ontario’s French-language education systems. Retrieved from: https://www.edu.uwo.ca/faculty-profiles/docs/other/pollock/pollock-ADFO-EnglishReport-Final-V10.pdf

  Alberta Teachers’ Association [ATA]. (2014). The future of the principalship in Canada. Retrieved from: https://www.teachers.ab.ca/SiteCollectionDocuments/ATA/Publications/Research/The%20
  Future%20of%20the%20Principalship%20in%20Canada.pdf

  References

  Alberta Teachers’ Association [ATA]. (2017a). The Canadian school leader: Global forces and future prospects. Retrieved from: https://www.teachers.ab.ca/SiteCollectionDocuments/ATA/Publications/Research/COOR-101-13%
  20Canadian%20School%20Leader.pdf

   Alberta Teachers’ Association [ATA]. (2017b). A national study on the impact of electronic communication on Canadian school leaders. Retrieved from: https://www.teachers.ab.ca/SiteCollectionDocuments/ATA/Publications/Research/COOR-104%20A%20National%20Study%20of%20the%20Impact%20of%20Electronic%20Communication%20on%
  20Canadian%20School%20Leaders.pdf

  Lim, L., & Pollock, K. (2018). Secondary principal perspectives: How work intensification impacts their vice-principals. OPC Register, 20(3) 22–26.

  Ontario Principals’ Council. (2017). International Symposium White Paper: Principal work–life balance and well-being matters. Retrieved from: https://www.edu.uwo.ca/faculty-profiles/docs/other/pollock/PrincipalWellBeing-17-FINAL-with-Acknowledgement-1.pdf 

  Pollock, K. (2017, September). Healthy principals, healthy schools: Supporting principals’ well-being. EdCan Magazine. Retrieved from: https://www.edcan.ca/articles/healthy-principals-healthy-schools/

  Pollock, K., Wang, F., & Hauseman, C. (2017). Vice-principals’ work: More than being an instructional leader. OPC Register, 19(3), 20–24.

  Pollock, K., & Hauseman, D. C. (2018). The use of e-mail and principals’ work: A double-edged sword. Leadership and Policy in Schools, 1–12 .

  Pollock, K. (2016). Principals’ work in Ontario, Canada: Changing demographics, advancements in informational communication technology and health and well-being. Journal of the Commonwealth Council for Educational Administration & Management, 44(3), 55–74.

  Riley, P. (2016). The Australian principal occupational health, safety and wellbeing survey., Strathfield, Australia: Institute for Positive Psychology & Education. Retrieved from: http://www.principalhealth.org/au/2016_Report_AU_FINAL.pdf

  Wang, F., Pollock, K., & Hauseman, C. (2018). School principals’ job satisfaction: The effects of work intensification. Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy, 185, 73–90.

   

  Photo: Adobe Stock

IDEAS TO SUPPORT EDUCATORS : Subscribe to the EdCan e-Newsletter

Quality research, reports, and professional learning opportunities.

Subscribe with your information: Veuillez indiquer les informations suivantes :

Language Preference Langue de correspondance EnglishFrançais EnglishFrançais

Organization: Organisation : Public educational institution Établissement d'enseignement publique Private educational institution Établissement d'enseignement privé University Université College Cégep Ministries Ministères Federation or professional association Fédération ou association professionnel Union Syndicat Non-profit organization Organisation sans but lucratif Educational organization Organisation en éducation Other Autre I am interested inJe suis intéressé-e aux Research-Informed Tools and ResourcesOutils et ressources fondés sur la recherche Workplace Wellbeing StrategiesStratégies sur le bien-être au travail

CloseFermer

Leave this field empty if you're human: