Good Teaching in Difficult Times: Demoralization in the Pursuit of Good Work

Teacher Demoralization, Disempowerment and School Administration

“…A significant impact is teacher demoralization (Santoro, 2011). For instance, since the wave of educational reform has centralize-decentralized school system in Hong Kong, more and more Hong Kong teachers have been reported as being stressful, dissatisfied, anxious, exhausted, and depressed (Cheng, 2009).…”

“…According to Lumsden (1998), teacher morale is the feelings or emotions teachers have about their job based on the extent to which the school context is viewed as meeting teachers' goals in teaching. Thus, teacher demoralization may occur when teachers interpret the school context as not favoring them to fulfill their goals in teaching (Santoro, 2011). In other words, teachers may still be demoralized once they interpret the school context as unfavorable, even though school reforms have not disempowered them, and vice versa.…”

“…In other words, the "low morale schools" and "high moral schools" may not objectively exist. Nevertheless, the subjective interpretations of schools were still significant to investigate teacher demoralization because the subjective interpretations may influence how the participants feel in teaching (Santoro, 2011(Santoro, , 2012Saunders, 2013).…”

“…eachers are reported globally as demoralized in the context of school reform (Nodding, 2008;Santoro, 2011;Wang, 2013). According to Clarke and Kissane (2002, p. 733), demoralization is the experience of being unable "to cope, together associated feelings of helplessness, hopelessness, meaninglessness, subject incompetence and diminished self-esteem."…”

Theory and Practice in Teaching English Economicsvocabulary

“…As it is recognized by all pedagogues and teachers, Doris A. Santoro asserts that the teaching process represents an intellectual and moral practice full of contradictions, impediments and challenges, having two major characteristics: quotidian and extraordinary (1).…”