Teacher Demoralization, Disempowerment and School Administration

Abstract

Teacher demoralization is a concept describing the negative emotional experiences affecting teachers’ well-being and quality of teaching. However, since the dominant discourse about teacher demoralization is influenced by psychological perspectives, especially the theory of burnout, most of effort to promote teachers’ well-being and quality of teaching reply on psychological approaches. Nevertheless, teacher demoralization is more socially constructed other than psychologically constructed. Thus, this study aims to identify the potential social causes instead of psychological roots of teacher demoralization. Using in-depth interview data, the study illustrates that school administration may, from teachers’ perspectives, structurally demoralize teachers by disempowering teachers to control over labor process of teaching and to appreciate the instructional values of work and working condition. Thus, school reformers are recommended to empower teachers to exercise control over labor process of teaching and to appreciate the instructional values of their work and working conditions.

Lived experience of pedagogical boomerang in mathematics teaching-learning

“…Research shows that teacher demoralization is related to teacher disempowerment structurally caused by the school administration [56]. According to Tsang and Liu [57], "demoralization is the experience of being unable to cope, together with associated feelings of helplessness, hopelessness, meaninglessness, subject incompetence and diminished self-esteem" (p.24). I was in a similar condition of helplessness and hopelessness.…”

Ideological Disempowerment of Teachers

“…On the other hand, they do not recognize another dimension what I call ideological or cognitive disempowerment which is the deprivation of teachers' power to identify the meanings of their work (Tsang, 2019a). Therefore, I discuss and illustrate how managerialism ideologically disempowers teachers based on my previous research on Hong Kong secondary schoolteachers' emotional experiences (Tsang, 2017(Tsang, , 2019a(Tsang, , 2019bTsang & Jiang, 2018;Tsang & Kwong, 2016, 2017Tsang & Liu, 2016) in this short essay in an attempt to enhance our understandings of teacher disempowerment in the era of managerialism.…”

Understanding Teacher Morale Among Primary School Teachers

“…Literature has suggested various factors that influence the school climate such as teacher morale and collaboration between the administrators and staff (Taylor, 2019) leadership practices (Ross & Cozzens, 2016), collaboration, teamwork, and professionalism (Taylor, 2019), leadership styles (Strasser, 2014), how teachers perceive their responsibilities (Tsang & Liu, 2016), and student discipline (Colcord et al, 2016) as well as and respecting and involving teachers in decision making is seen as a way of enhancing their morale (Erichsen & Reynolds, 2019). Syahril and Hadiyanto (2018) identified four aspects of school climate, namely relationships, personal growth/ development, system maintenance and change, and physical environment.…”