13 - Teachers' Moral Purpose: Stress, Vulnerability, and Strength

Summary

In this chapter, I focus on values as a central component in teacher burnout. The ideas I explore were triggered in the first instance by Woods's chapter and in particular by his distinction between micro, meso, and macro levels of stress. Whereas Leithwood, Miller, and Smylie explore organizational factors (the meso level), Woods emphasizes changes in government policy and resourcing at the macro level and their impact on individuals (the micro level). I take this idea further, with particular reference to a small but highly significant aspect of teachers' lives. Woods suggests that teachers are likely to suffer stress when their “personal interests, commitment, and resources” get out of line with or pull against key aspects of their social, economic, or institutional environments. Later, he identifies a conflict in values as one of the factors leading to nonaccommodation (“the seedbed of stress and burnout”). By implication, therefore, Woods sees values as part of the “personal interests, commitment, and resources” that teachers need to protect from disharmony if they are to avoid damaging exposure to stress.

To justify this implication, in the first part of the chapter I trace the connection among the notions of commitment, values, identity, and interests. I then focus on two moral values that are a key part of many teachers' commitment and interests.