Supporting Teacher Wellbeing: Addressing the Broader Systemic Issues

Teacher retention is a critical issue for education systems globally (UNESCO & International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030, 2024; UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2024), with predicted worldwide teacher shortages reaching 44 million by 2030. These numbers should serve as a warning for educational leaders and policymakers, as teachers are the cornerstone of education systems. When teachers leave the classroom, it negatively affects student learning (e.g., Carver-Thomas & Darling-Hammond, 2019), the overall school environment (e.g., Menzies, 2023), and the implementation of long-term educational initiatives (e.g., Hancock & Scherff, 2010). Thus, school leaders and policymakers must focus on systemic policy reform to better support teacher wellbeing.  

An important point worth making is that K-12 stakeholders, including teachers, experienced the crisis of the pandemic differently, depending on where they were located and at what point in time is being referenced. Since the start of the pandemic, we have published over 50 studies on educator wellbeing across multiple contexts in North America and found similar results. These results inform our grave concerns regarding the future of the teaching profession.  

Teacher attrition has been increasing over the past decade (Kraft & Lyon, 2024), and was exacerbated by the challenges teachers faced during the COVID-19 pandemic (Marshall & Pressley, 2024). The impending teacher shortage is a symptom of broad systemic issues within the education sector. Accordingly, educational leaders are advised to develop systemic, evidence-based policies and practices that better support teacher wellbeing (Bakker & de Vries, 2021; Maslach & Leiter, 2016). Moreover, when sufficient personal and organizational resources are available, even highly demanding workplaces can maintain employee health, foster organizational commitment, and mitigate attrition (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007).  

Building on this understanding of how resources and demands influence teacher wellbeing, it becomes essential to shift the focus from individual efforts to broader systemic solutions. Recognizing teacher burnout as a symptom of the misalignment of workplace resources and demands rather than solely an individual construct aligns with the perspectives of the World Health Organization (2018). Rather than reinforcing a dominant narrative that teachers are the problem and that “intervening on” teachers alone will ultimately improve student performance (Bushaw & Calderon, 2014; Klein et al., 2010), educational leaders and policymakers should consider shifting to more productive and strengths-based perspectives where individuals and systems can work together to empower educators, enhance overall systemic support, and change key outcomes (i.e., increase wellbeing and retention). We urge school leaders and policymakers to avoid one-size-fits-all solutions that are misaligned with the actual needs of teachers and instead focus on multi-tiered approaches. Specifically, Taris (2006) highlighted that applying systemic interventions like participation in mentorship programs, job coaching, collaborative planning, role and task restructuring, and targeted professional learning in areas of interest and growth could enhance teacher resiliency.  

Systemic, Individualized Approaches 

Recognizing that teachers are the main points of contact for students, yet remain only one element within the inter-connected education system, organizations must acknowledge the necessity for comprehensive educational policy reform to improve educator wellbeing. While programming that fosters resilience and positive mental health in teachers is essential, these approaches alone are insufficient in addressing systemic demands that have resulted in educator stress, burnout, and attrition. Recent Canadian research (Sokal & Eblie Trudel, 2024) indicated that 1 in every 3 teachers, 1 in 4 principals and educational assistants, and 1 in every 2.5 school-based clinicians has searched for a new position due to job dissatisfaction, indicating a system in crisis.  Furthermore, a study of over 2000 Canadian teachers during the three years of the pandemic (Babb et al., 2022) identified five categories of coping response patterns, each dependent on the ratio of demands to personal and organizational resources in particular roles. Findings indicated that educators in each category would need unique and varied approaches to achieve post-pandemic recovery and restoration of organizational commitment (Steiner et al., 2022).  

Diverse Educator Voices and Autonomy 

UNESCO, UNICEF, and the World Bank (Ding et al., 2022) have advocated that teacher mental health is paramount in the pandemic recovery period and that “teachers’ wellbeing and their voices should be front and center of efforts to recover learning and build back resilient, equitable, and effective education systems” (para. 4). When teachers are expected to comply with policies that are incongruent with their views of what constitutes meaningful learning and perceive a lack of respect and trust from others, they feel despondent about the loss of their value in their workplace (Daliri-Ngametua et al., 2022) and experience higher levels of burnout (Pressley et al, 2023). Ensuring that all employees have opportunities to contribute to solutions gives them voice and autonomy, key factors identified as lacking in education responses during the pandemic (Sokal et al., 2021). 

Importantly, including educators’ voices (Chan et al., 2021; Walter & Fox, 2021) in the design, implementation, and evaluation of school-based organizational health initiatives should not become an additional work demand. This work must be accompanied by enhanced resources for educators or by commensurate decreases in demands, in turn providing greater respect for the time and effort teachers put into their roles (Will, 2022). Indeed, an American study revealed that teachers prioritized being respected as professionals and having administrators who respected their time and efforts within the realities of their job demands over the monetary rewards of teaching (Pendola et al., 2023). Additionally, Marshall et al. (2022) determined that respect and autonomy were intertwined, as teachers respected for making decisions about their teaching practice during the pandemic were less likely to demonstrate burnout and more likely to experience higher job satisfaction.  

Commitments to employment equity principles, policies, and practices must be at the forefront and embedded in wellbeing practices and policies (Walter et al., 2024). Edmondson (2019) contended that leaders must promote psychological safety, so individuals feel safe and speak up with ideas that foster measured risk-taking and innovation. These critical challenges suggest that it is essential for school leaders to take a deep look at the wellbeing and mental health interventions and practices provided, ensuring diverse representation at the table during policy development.  

Balancing Resources and Workload for Educators 

While there is an intentional focus on students’ mental health and wellbeing, there is rarely coursework aimed at developing teachers’ wellbeing (Bradshaw et al., 2023). Professional learning is often one-size-fits-all and implemented in short-term sessions disconnected from teachers’ experiences and instructional needs. Existing literature highlights that pre- and in-service professional learning must include wellbeing and mental health topics, be ongoing, individualized, connected to teacher experiences, and reflective (Dunst et al., 2019). Teachers who receive high-quality systems-based wellbeing and mental health resources demonstrate increased wellbeing and lower job-related stress, including fewer intentions to leave (Steiner et al., 2022). Additional factors that support wellbeing include supportive working conditions and having access to at least one employer-supplied mental health resource (e.g., counseling, employee assistance programs, or peer support groups; Steiner et al., 2022). Other approaches shown to positively affect mental health include cognitive-behavioral therapies (Agyapong et al., 2024) and mindfulness (Marshall & Pressley, 2024). We recommend daily, informal practices that foster positive adult relationships and supportive environments within school communities, as peer support is one of the most valued mental health resources (Steiner et al., 2022). 

As students’ academic, social, and behavioral needs have increased since the pandemic (Sokal et al., 2024), so have teachers’ workloads. Lovinson and Mo (2022) found that teachers would prefer additional counselors, nurses, and inclusion specialists on their teaching staff over having a 10% pay increase. Steiner et al. (2022) provided recommendations for addressing stress by decreasing workload, including supports and resources to manage students’ behavioral, social, emotional, and academic challenges, and including more time for planning and reflection. Additionally, during the pandemic, teachers who taught in schools and districts whose daily schedules allowed for adequate planning time were much more optimistic about professional work (Marshall et al., 2023).  

It is incumbent upon school leaders to be attentive to teachers’ workloads, as well as the professional time afforded to them to complete their assigned work. Bakker and de Vries (2021) provided a reminder about the nature of systemic workplace changes necessary to support and allow for replenishment and recovery. Suggestions involved leaders increasing communication to better gauge staff stress levels and organizations enhancing human resource programs supporting wellbeing and developing policies to facilitate disconnection from daily work during leisure time. Teachers supported through these strategic approaches are more able to focus on teaching, resulting in higher instructional self-efficacy associated with staying in the profession (Lücker et al., 2022).  

Concluding Remarks 

 International research illustrates that teacher wellbeing is a critical component of the overall health and effectiveness of education systems. Teachers are the most important in-school factor influencing student achievement, happiness, and satisfaction (White & McCallum, 2022), and ample research emphasizes the interconnectivity between teacher and student wellbeing. Schools can ensure long-term organizational health and retention of their teachers through policies and practices that foster systemic approaches to teacher wellbeing, ultimately benefiting the entire education system. 

Webinar 

Supporting Teacher Wellbeing: Addressing the Broader Systemic Issues
(EdCan Members Event)
March 17, 2025 | 1:00pm – 2:00pm ET

^{Cet événement se déroulera en anglais, mais des sous-titres en français seront disponibles pendant la session.}

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Author Notes 

Tim Pressley https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3670-9751 

Laura Sokal https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7543-8416 

Lesley Eblie Trudel https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0602-7402 

Heather L. Walter https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7390-2051  

David T. Marshall  https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1467-7656 

There is no known conflict of interest to disclose. 

Address correspondence to Tim Pressley, Christopher Newport University, 1 Avenue of the Arts, Department of Psychology, Newport News, VA 23606

Meet the Expert(s)

Dr. Tim Pressley

Associate Professor, Christopher Newport University

Tim Pressley, Ph.D., is an associate professor of psychology at Christopher Newport University and is a faculty member for the university’s master’s in teaching program. He received his Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from Florida State University and has a background in elementary education.

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Dr. Laura Sokal

Professor of Education/Researcher, University of Winnipeg

Laura Sokal is a Professor of Education at the University of Winnipeg.

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Dr. Lesley Eblie Trudel

Associate Dean Faculty of Education, University of Winnipeg

Lesley Eblie Trudel, PhD, is a former Assistant Superintendent of K–12 Schools, now Associate Dean in the Faculty of Education at the University of Winnip...

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Dr. Heather L. Walter

Assistant Professor of Special Education and Senior Scholar, The Center for the Advancement of Wellbeing, George Mason University

Dr. Heather L Walter is an Assistant Professor of Special Education and Senior Scholar for The Center for the Advancement of Wellbeing at George Mason University.

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Dr. David T. Marshall

Associate Professor, Auburn University

David T. Marshall (Ph.D., Virginia Commonwealth University) is an associate professor of educational research and evaluation in the College of Education at Auburn University and is a founding research affiliate of the Plains Research Center.

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