Teachers wellbeing : essentials for pursuit of sustainable development in teaching and learning

Teachers in general and particularly in the Global South are facing increasing challenges in ever persistent and demanding teaching and learning environments. While understandably so much of the concern of Sustainable... [ view full abstract ]

Teachers in general and particularly in the Global South are facing increasing challenges in ever persistent and demanding teaching and learning environments. While understandably so much of the concern of Sustainable Development in education has focused on school level activities and teachers as instrumental actors to the enactment of global educational initiatives, the concerns of teachers have been neglected. In particular, teachers in rural areas are by default expected to deliver so much more with less. Exploring teachers’ resourcefulness and their own sense of ‘helplessness’ this presentation will address concerns of teachers’ empowerment; challenges of translating aspirations for learning into tangible outcomes; complexities of aspiration and career progression

This presentation will draw on an ethnographic data, individual interviews, as well as focus group discussions with rural teachers. Utilising the Wellbeing Conceptual Framework (White 2008) the presentation will offer a unique analysis of the lived experiences of teachers and their pursuit to accommodate needs of all learners in challenging environments and the implication for their own wellbeing in their pursuit to teach rural children in rural schools.  It will specifically address teachers own concerns and perceived ability/inability to maintain their own wellbeing and well-becoming in both a personal and professional sense; the compromises they make; and the implications for the national and global level commitments to learning and sustainable development.