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About three quarters of Australian teachers\u00a0experience substantial stress<\/a>\u00a0in a typical work week, according to a 2021 survey. Another 2019 Australian study\u00a0showed<\/a>\u00a0more than half suffer from anxiety, and about one in five meet the criteria for moderate to severe depression.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not surprising, then, that increasing numbers of teachers are\u00a0leaving the profession<\/a>. Meanwhile, enrolments for education degrees\u00a0have been declining<\/a>.<\/p>\n Teachers in Australia and around the world are under-resourced and burning out, reinforcing the urgent need for\u00a0policy initiatives<\/a>\u00a0to improve their working conditions. But can anything else be done?<\/p>\n Our research shows one way teachers may be able to take more control over their wellbeing at work is by \u201cjob crafting\u201d.<\/p>\n Job crafting is about making noticeable changes to your job to make it\u00a0more engaging and meaningful<\/a>. These are changes you make yourself of your own initiative and they can be small or large. The idea is employees \u201ccraft\u201d their jobs so it more closely aligns with what they value and how they perceive themselves.<\/p>\n Job crafting\u00a0emerged<\/a>\u00a0in management research in 2001, and has since been studied in a range of occupations. There are at least three different ways employees can craft their work:<\/p>\n Studies show job crafting is\u00a0associated with<\/a>\u00a0employee wellbeing, engagement and performance. Studies\u00a0also show<\/a>\u00a0when employees are trained to use job crafting strategies, they show increased performance and work engagement.<\/p>\n In 2022, we conducted 46 in-depth interviews with teachers across all levels in Australia about how they used job crafting. Teachers told us they used job crafting in multiple ways, including by modifying the tasks they did with students and by involving other teachers in their classes.<\/p>\n One primary school teacher spoke about how he combined his hobby of playing cards with his maths lessons. Another primary school teacher spoke of how they emphasised their love of reading in their teaching \u2013 and sought out new ways to read with their students through collaborating with other teachers. A secondary teacher gave us another example of how they work with colleagues during the day, to change classroom dynamics: Other teachers spoke of how they used cognitive crafting by expanding their ideas of what they consider to be the role of a teacher. As one primary teacher noted: A secondary teacher also talked of the importance of thinking beyond the daily \u201cgrind\u201d of their job: Cognitive strategies such as this are key to connecting the job to a larger purpose. This gives work more meaning, which is\u00a0essential<\/a>\u00a0for employee wellbeing.<\/p>\n Our interviewees also spoke of the things that helped and hindered their job crafting.<\/p>\n They told us having too many time pressures and administrative burdens made it difficult to try new approaches. They also said a lack of time, rigid systems, and a lack of autonomy within their schools made it difficult to be creative. One secondary teacher noted: Teachers said they needed time to reflect on their work. They also said they needed school leaders to support their ideas, so they felt safe and free to take risks, which\u00a0research<\/a>\u00a0shows is important for job crafting.<\/p>\n One primary teacher noted how many teachers are fearful of being judged at work. Our research shows teachers are using job crafting to make their jobs more manageable, more enjoyable and more effective.<\/p>\n They also told us the overall school environment can either support these different approaches \u2013 or make it too difficult to try.<\/p>\n While job crafting has significant potential to help teachers in stressful jobs, it is important to note that improving teacher wellbeing is a shared responsibility. And it is up to schools, government and the broader community to better support the important work teachers do.<\/p>\nWhat is job crafting?<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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Our research<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\nI bring a lot of those card games into class with the kids and we find the maths in the games [\u2026] I think they can definitely sense my passion for the games and that makes them more excited. I\u2019ve had quite a few parents say, \u2018My child now loves maths because of the way you play the games,\u2019 which is really nice.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nJust because I love reading books, after lunch we might read a book, or go to another [teacher\u2019s] class and read a book with their kids, and [that teacher] will come to mine. It means I get to meet new kids and they\u2019ve got someone different in front of them, and my kids also have someone different in front of them.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nI love saying to the other teachers, \u2018Hey, do you want to drop into my class because I think you\u2019ll like it\u2019 or \u2018This kid misses you, he hasn\u2019t seen you in ages, do you want to come swing by?\u2019 It\u2019s so nice to have other adults in the room [\u2026] And [for] teachers that you have really good relationships with, you can then model what a healthy relationship looks like to the kids.<\/em><\/p>\n\u2018Helping human beings\u2019<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\nI see myself as helping human beings grow rather than teaching academic knowledge.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nI think teachers can, especially when they\u2019ve been teaching for a while, kind of get into a bit of a grind. And it\u2019s just they see teaching as delivering content. But I don\u2019t see it that way. To me, teaching is all about building relationships with my students and using the content as a vehicle to build those relationships and to hopefully get them to where they need to be in later life.<\/em><\/p>\nWhat helps job crafting?<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\nIf you\u2019ve been teaching for a while, or even if you\u2019re a grad teacher, you spend a lot of time, you know, just surviving. Then to have the energy to think about changing things, even if it is for the better, it\u2019s difficult.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nWe preach mistakes being okay and risk-taking with our kids, but we don\u2019t really with our staff. We like our staff to be neat and ordered and to tick the right boxes [\u2026]. So I think that whole idea of taking risks and challenging educational philosophies would allow people to be more curious in that space.<\/em><\/p>\nJob crafting works, but we need to do more<\/strong><\/h4>\n