Teachers don’t go to school - they go to work
As employees, teachers are entitled to fair labour practice.
Society has the strange tendency to regard teaching as ‘other’ to the world of work, where norms and values of workplaces don’t apply. Behaviour that would be considered unacceptable in an office, or other context, is often a teacher’s daily experience.
Teachers have internalised this problematic paradigm somehow, seeing themselves primarily as givers, nurturers and heroes. As do-gooders even. Not employees. Not professionals. This isn’t anyone’s fault, but the narrative is both self-serving and self-harming. It obliges teachers to continue to give of themselves at great personal cost. It obliges teachers to accept situations that are objectively intolerable. And, It blinds them to their own faults too.
We need boundaries if we’re going to salvage teaching’s reputation and restore status to the profession.
As it stands, expectations are ever more unrealistic. Workloads have increased. Responsibilities have multiplied, and so has blame and scapegoating.
Teachers say they often feel like mere punching bags for anxious parents, overwhelmed learners, and pressurised management. Treatment that would be considered unfair in any other job is heaped on teachers. We need to dial this back. Low morale and burnout threatens quality education.
Teachers have the constitutional right to fair labour practice as set out in the Labour Relations Act. This includes the right to dignity, to not be discriminated against, and to occupational health and safety.
South Africa has ratified international conventions on violence and harassment in the workplace. Government gazetted these in March of 2022, publishing a comprehensive code that expands the Employment Equity Act. This Amendment recognises violence as including verbal and psychological abuse, and being overworked.
Mistreatment by coworkers, parents, or learners old enough to know better, is an absolute no-no.
Moreover, as much as teachers are disadvantaged when we forget that schools are their workplaces, learners are disadvantaged too: in the absence of clear boundaries, teachers may overstep. And they do.
It is critical to achieve the balance of a friendly, warm and inviting atmosphere, conducive to learning without stress, with a professionally regulated space, governed by consistently appropriate conduct.
Let us remember that the classroom is not an extension of anyone’s living room.
This doesn’t mean that schools must feel cold and institutional, or that pupils are “clients” and “customers”. On the contrary. The educator-learner dynamic is a unique one, based on special care. Rather, it means that everyone in the school community should know their role and behave accordingly.
Schools are, above all, for the adults working there, a place of work. It is not any other kind of place.
*Do you want more information on enhanced professionalism in education? Book the ‘Ethics in Teaching and Learner Safety’ workshop, where we examine relationships and boundaries amongst stakeholders. We frame these issues with a view to creating healthy relationships amongst staff and healthy relationships amongst learners.
Further Reading: Labour Guide