Positive Portrayals of Teaching

There are frequent calls for more positive portrayals of teaching. We are encouraged to share the good parts of our jobs, to talk about the joys and the successes, to show people (potential recruits) that teaching is a life-affirming and enjoyable career.

All of that is great. People should talk about positives, and teaching contains a lot to be positive about. You get to introduce students to new worlds and ways of thinking; you get to be there as they grapple with fascinating ideas. Sometimes, teaching is absolutely incredible.

But other times, teaching is less wonderful. Sometimes, there are problems with workload or marking policies, or school culture. And just as teachers with positive experiences should be encouraged to share them, so should teachers with negative ones. Their experience is just as important, and just as valid.

The problem I have with all the calls for positivity is that they quite often ignore the other side, or set themselves in direct opposition to it. Here’s an example, from the Guardians Secret Teacher column. It’s from a while ago, admittedly, but it’s a particularly bald example of what I’m talking about, and the anonymity means that I’m not immediately starting a fight. It’s about a teacher who deals with the negativity in teaching by ignoring it, along with any teachers they perceive as lugging around “ bags of negativity”.

There’s nothing wrong with not being positive. In fact, it’s quite important to sometimes be negative — that’s the only way that problems get identified and fixed. The linked article pays lip service to that, but spends far more time talking about ways to avoid dealing with those issues. The primary way suggested is to not talk to staff who aren’t happy.

As an aside, it rankles with me that the Guardian quite often gives the Secret Teacher column over to authors writing about how great their jobs are; the whole point of an anonymous column is to give a space for teachers to tell the truth without fear of professional reprisal or chilling effects; occupying that space to say that teachers should stop complaining is, at best, rather crass.

The internet abounds with similar articles, tweets, and images suggesting that teachers should just shut up and stop whinging. As a PGCE student, I was advised not to associate with negative teachers — the ones who grumbled and complained. I know the same advice is still given to new trainees. That’s not a good thing, and it’s not good advice. It leads to teachers feeling unable to raise real issues, and isolates them if they do. A teacher with a problem doesn’t need to be ignored; they need to be supported.

Teachers should try and focus on the upsides. Teaching, positive or negative, is not a relaxed and easy career. New teachers especially need to understand that it is worth doing, and it is rewarding. But they also need to know that if they are struggling, they can get help. They need to know that they won’t be shunned for not being thrilled about triple-marking, and that it isn’t whining to have issues with workload. Teaching requires a positive attitude and a willingness to confront, not ignore, problems.

Stress is a big issue in teaching. People work until they burn out, sacrificing their health because they don’t want to let their students and their colleagues down. Many times, I’ve dragged myself into work when I should have stayed home, and I am not an outlier. When I complain, it’s not because I enjoy grumbling, or because I don’t believe in what I’m doing, it’s because I think things can be improved. Is it really fair to avoid talking to me because of that?

Currently, you can find articles online from a range of perspectives, and PGCE students continue to talk to even their most gloomy colleagues. I’m not claiming that negative voices are silenced. However, there is a definite undercurrent in the discourse that views anything less than starry-eyed joy as less valid and mean-spirited, and there isn’t really a pushback in the other direction. Teachers, apparently, should stop complaining, because that doesn’t present a positive view of the profession. There’s this idea that somehow, by sharing their experiences, that teachers are letting their colleagues down. That’s not fair.

I don’t know any teachers who are negative for the sake of it. I know a lot of teachers who are tired and frustrated, but that’s not because they have some personal failing — it’s because they are dealing with systems that are often tiring and frustrating. It’s unfair and unreasonable to sideline their views and to warn other teachers away from them. They haven’t done anything wrong, and they have a right to their opinions.

It’s important that teachers share their perspectives, good and bad. We can’t fix problems we don’t know about, and we won’t want to if we forget why we are teaching in the first place. It may even be true that the current conversation is overly-skewed towards the negatives; that still doesn’t mean that we should only focus on the positives. The best way to get more positive portrayals of teaching isn’t to ignore the people who currently aren’t feeling all that positive. The best way to do it is to make teaching a career in which more people feel positive.