Illuminate the Way: The School Leader’s Guide to Addressing and Preventing Teacher Burnout

The causes of teacher burnout are often systemic and best addressed with coordinated group support. So what tools do principals and other school leaders need to make a difference?

In Illuminate the Way: The School Leader’s Guide to Addressing and Preventing Teacher Burnout, veteran teacher and instructional coach Chase Mielke outlines the three dimensions of burnout—exhaustion, cynicism, and inefficacy—and provides the methods to help foster agency, relatedness, and competence in your staff.

School leaders have a responsibility to develop the skills, the strategies, and a school culture that emphasize resilience. Decades of psychological and organizational research have shown that we must eradicate the causes of helplessness, which leads to ineffectiveness, and instead promote the conditions of well-being and engagement. The best path to an effective educator is an affective educator who has:

• A strong level of autonomy and an internal locus of control.
• High self-efficacy in diverse teaching contexts.
• Resiliency skills for tackling individual and group challenges.
• Awareness of when and how to regulate diverse emotions.
• Intrinsic motivation to grow oneself, one’s students, and one’s team.
• Positive relationships with students, their families, colleagues, and administration.

Teacher burnout ripples out to the entire school system, and if we want to create thriving schools, we need to support thriving teachers. Help improve your teachers’ well-being and illuminate the way to a more resilient and engaged school.