Personal Health Resources for Special Educators

During the pandemic, part of the dilemma faced in special education is based on the needs of our students, and how parents were thrusted into the role of teacher and behavior manager. In a newspaper issue from the East Bay Express, special educator Jennifer Madigan (2020) published an article called “Special Dilemma” on the struggles with virtual learning and online learning “in the age of coronavirus” (Madigan 2020). Madigan encourages school districts and educators to get informed and begin reading guidelines by the California Department of Public Health. The goal is to solve today’s dilemma: the stress being put on students with special needs and the stress being put upon families. With new forms of individualized education programs, through virtual learning it is important to focus on the meaning of “individualized” and the role of special educators.

While reading this publishing, I realized a pile of issues and developed my own inquiry about special education in today’s age. I wanted to explore the provocation in Madigan’s newspaper article, by diving into the new age of individualized education. I began to notice a public sphere that is working to “design specialized instruction based on the specific needs of the student and deliver face-to-face direct instruction for their students” (Madigan 2020). Madigan does not so much focus on the direct way to support educators, but rather the direct ways for educators to support children in today’s age. This led me to consider the needs of the educators, and as a health educator, my focus is obvious. I want to propose that we as members of our society should build upon public-private support systems for community-based organizations that offer biopsychosocial health services and spiritual care.

During these times, our social structures require both a government reform to create programs for in-person education and a restructuring of the entirety of our society. This is the second step, but the first step would be to support educators with all health services to facilitate a safe and secure path as educators reenter in-person schooling. In Predictors of Burnout and Self-Efficacy Among Special Education Teachers, Alyson Margaret Martin (2010) offer results from their investigation on “the correlation and predictive relationships between the dependent variables of emotional demands, role conflict, quality of leadership, administrative support, coworker support, teacher stressors and, demographic/job-specific characteristics” (2010, p. 137). The existing literature on burnout consistently reveals the reality of the situation, that special education programs have been underfunded and teachers have too many demands and stressors.

Over the last decade, it has become clear that “special education is in a state of need; there is a need for further research to define what school districts need to do to hire and retain highly qualified teachers who feel successful and satisfied working in special education” (Martin, 2010, p. 137). In “The Relationship of Practical Commitment to Religious Beliefs and Psychological Hardiness with Job Burnout Experienced by Teachers in Special Needs Schools,” Babaei et al. (2020) measured the relationship between religion beliefs, which theoretically create psychological “hardiness,” and job burnout. Babaei et al. found a negative relationship between hardiness and emotional exhaustion, but a positive correlation between hardiness and personal performance. These data suggest that job-specific characteristics such as hardiness and personal beliefs, but the data does not consider how special educators can be better supported by special education programs.

The dominant discourse on burnout continues to focus on ways to attract educators with job-specific characteristics for a special educator, and the discourse focuses more on social relations than individual health. However, during the age of coronavirus there has been a rise of reflections on overcoming burnout. How can we support special educators during the age of coronavirus? In “Overcoming teacher burnout at special needs educational institutions: resources for reflection and on the meaning of life,” Lyudmila et al. (2020) designed a study that evaluated teacher burnout after a program that empirically demonstrated the effectiveness of introspection to overcome emotional exhaustion. This study “demonstrated empirically that Communicative Reflection, Process of Life, and Locus of Control–Life were personal resources for overcoming teacher burnout at the special needs educational institutions” (Lyudmila et al. 2020, p, 180). One could argue for education programs and support systems to offer special educators personal health resources such as mindfulness (Sun et al., 2019).

I find it is important to consider the potential programs that offer knowledge on personal health, as special educators are placed into a position to put their needs after everyone else’s needs. As I consider the dilemma faced by our local special educators, I recognize how Madigan does not mention concerns about her own psyche as an educator, but rather seh refers to the outer world and how stressed the parents and children are. “As a professor of special education, I am overwhelmed with the potential long-term repercussions of this pandemic on our most vulnerable children. I have witnessed first-hand the decay in learning and the impact on my grandson’s academic growth since March of this year when learning moved online.” Here, Madigan addresses a multitude of issues in relation to swift switch into virtual learning, but she does not state how online education is affecting herself—as a significant participant within a public sphere of insufficient resources and the lack of support systems.

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References

Babaei et al. (2020). “The Relationship of Practical Commitment to Religious Beliefs and Psychological Hardiness with Job Burnout Experienced by Teachers in Special Needs Schools.” Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Vol 6, Iss 1, Pp 47-59.

Lyudmila, Molchanova. (2020). “Overcoming teacher burnout at special needs educational institutions: resources for reflection and on the meaning of life.” EDP Sciences, Vol 210, p. 180-55.

Madigan, Jennifer. (2020). “Special Dilemma.” East Bay Express. 21-27 October 2020.

Martin, Alyson Margaret. (2010). Predictors of Burnout and Self-Efficacy Among Special Education Teachers. eBook.

Sun, Jin. (2019). “The mediating effect of perceived social support on the relationship between mindfulness and burnout in special education teachers.” Journal of Community Psychology, Vol. 47 Issue 7, p1799-1809. 11p. 1 Diagram, 2 Charts.