“Sharpen the Saw”: Sustainable Self-Care for Early Career STEM Teachers

By: Natalie S. King, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Georgia State University
Christopher C. Jett, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Georgia State University
Andrea Dziengue, Director, Field Experiences, Georgia State University

DSPETL Teaching Fellows participate in a Signature Experience at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens.

Early career STEM teachers are a huge benefit to the profession. They provide innovative instructional ideas and advance STEM education but are often drained in their quest to become highly effective teachers. Covey and Covey (2020) presented habits of highly effective people, and noted that being proactive, beginning with the end in mind, and putting first things first are a few key practices. The last habit is the focus of this blog—sharpen the saw—preserve and enhance the greatest asset you have, you. Devote time to renew yourself physically, spiritually, mentally, socially, and emotionally.

Teacher well-being has become increasingly important with burnout stress from anxieties related to COVID-19, administrative support, and interactions with parents (Pressley, 2021). A study focused on teacher well-being indicated the omnipresent culture of performativity and its consequences on how teachers interact with their students and colleagues (Murphy et al., 2020). In addition, novice teacher attrition rates can be attributed to factors such as adverse job conditions and an exceeding workload, especially for those who have difficulty with classroom management or feel demoralized in the teaching profession (Amitai & Van Houtte, 2022). Furthermore, states are increasingly controlling educational decisions and eroding teachers’ professional autonomy in the classroom. Bettina Love (2023) discussed that while many efforts are focused on creating policies, structures, and initiatives that recruit Black teachers, not enough is being done to retain them. She highlighted the need for an infrastructure to keep, protect, value, and affirm our educators – particularly Black teachers who are underrepresented in the profession.

In our NSF Noyce Track 2 Project, Developing STEM Professionals as Educators and Teacher Leaders (DSPETL), we have the unique opportunity to support 27 early career science and mathematics teachers. The goals of DSPETL are to (a) recruit and prepare STEM professionals who are willing to remain as highly effective teachers in high-need secondary schools and (b) engage in robust professional learning experiences for teacher leadership.

In this blog, we discuss our approaches to supporting early career teachers who experienced burnout with multiple pandemics of COVID-19, anti-Black racism, and climate change. They started teaching virtually and then were forced to return in person with pressures from administration to address learning loss and return to normal. In supporting our Teaching Fellows to become highly effective teachers and teacher leaders, we emphasized sustainable self-care and their ability to “sharpen the saw”. This led to our intervention which we describe in the next section.

Our Intervention Through Signature Experiences

The DSPETL project includes Signature Experiences, which are professional learning opportunities throughout the year to support the learning and growth of our Teaching Fellows. These full-day workshops are typically hosted in community settings.  The partnering organizations that we select have a STEM focus or outreach initiatives for teachers and/or students.

We have visited the Georgia Aquarium where we were greeted by the President and CEO, Dr. Brian L. Davis, watched the shows, and learned about their classroom outreach programs. We’ve gone to Zoo Atlanta to see conservation in action and to the Atlanta Botanical Garden to learn about their internships and programs that contribute data to the scientific community. The Garden’s school programs coordinator also facilitated lessons on the Fibonacci sequence in nature and modeled how teachers can introduce botany to their students. At the Fernbank Science Center, our Teaching Fellows participated in a scavenger hunt in the museum and viewed a show at the planetarium. We’ve also visited BlackRock Atlanta and learned about investments and how teachers can provide real-world applications of mathematics.

These are just a few examples of our Signature Experiences that gave rich opportunities for the Teaching Fellows to deepen and apply their content knowledge as well as to explore local STEM contexts. Each session includes time for the organization to share information with us and provide a tour of the facilities and then we incorporate our own professional development activities. This often includes engaging our nonprofit partner – 100 Black Men of America — who facilitates multiple sessions on mentoring and leadership in the community.

The Teaching Fellows spoke, and we listened. Our professional development workshops went from focusing on pedagogical practices to the well-being of teachers. Audre Lorde (1988) stated that “caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation and that is an act of political warfare” (p. 130). We understood that our pivot was necessary as a change in learning environment alone was insufficient to meet their needs.

We partnered with a company called Restore More as our first step in embedding critical self-care within the induction-level initiatives. The mission of Restore More is to build capacity through restorative practices, anti-racism, and social emotional learning. They facilitated a workshop titled Critical Self-Care and Agency for the Busy Teacher. Our Teaching Fellows learned how to personally define critical self-care and received strategies on how to implement these practices and tools to ensure long-term sustainability. They were informed about their rights as teachers to protect their safety and well-being and fostered community through restorative practice circles. The Teaching Fellows were inspired to continue the work of self-care and began facilitating their own workshops within our Signature Experience sessions and their local schools. They also explored the Dimensions of Self-Care, created sustainable goals for each school year, and engaged in other cohort-organized programming.

Understanding the importance of retention and career satisfaction is critical, especially during a time when there is a mass exodus of teachers from the profession. Therefore, we conducted an embedded single case study (Yin, 2003) within a larger study examining the recruitment and preparation of STEM teachers. The overall data were collected within clusters to crystallize themes around our efforts to promote sustainable self-care for early career STEM teachers (Ellingson, 2009). Data sources included artifacts from the Signature Experiences, teacher-created workshop materials, and follow-up semi-structured interviews to understand the extent to which Teaching Fellows accomplished their self-care goals. Constructivist grounded theory was the analytical approach employed in this study (Charmaz, 2017).

Sustainable Self-Care for Early Career STEM Teachers

The project leadership team analyzed the data and reflected deeply on how we could support and retain the Teaching Fellows, so they were positioned to thrive in their classrooms and at home. Through the artifacts and transcripts, we noticed that teacher professional collaboration enhanced classroom practices and teachers’ sense of well-being. While the demands on the Teaching Fellows were great, the community that they fostered amongst themselves provided accountability in prioritizing their own physical, spiritual, mental, social, and emotional health. Furthermore, they learned about their rights as teachers and became agentic in advocating for the overall well-being of their students and themselves.

We share a few strategies that were unearthed through data analysis and substantiated via our work with the Teaching Fellows. In doing so, we elevate their voices.

Re-center humanity through in- and out-of-school contexts

 My building has a lot of outside functions that aren’t teacher-related and aren’t school-related, so it treats us as humans. – Jelissa

 I like to do things at work to keep me feeling like a full human being instead of just like a teaching robot. I have started taking walks during my planning period – just 10–15 minutes to walk around the building once or twice… I’m also a full human being. I can be funny, I can be relaxed, I can be happy, and I can make joy with my students. – Sumter

 Prioritize physical and mental health to give 100% in the classroom

 Around the middle of last year, I started making it a priority for my health, so I changed my diet and started doing more exercising. So, this past year, I’ve lost almost 30 lbs. I’m starting to feel better and I’m just making it a priority now.  I can’t do anything in the classroom unless my health is good. So, I’m making a priority for my health. – Jared

 I go to therapy twice a week. I embrace therapy – I love it! I’ve started to use the word “no” so if I don’t have time for it, or it doesn’t fit in, I don’t do it. – Tina

Establish boundaries and be intentional about rest and family time

Making sure that I schedule time for my family on the weekends and not stress about lesson plans or work. I think it’s essential for my self-care emotionally. – Isela

I am very big on establishing boundaries – learning to leave work at work – learning when to cut off and do something else and relax and trying to get that balance especially for my mental health. Thank you DSPETL for allowing me to set these goals for myself because I would not have set them otherwise! – Marissa

As we seek to develop highly effective STEM teachers to serve in high-need schools and communities, we must foreground community and care. An emphasis on well-being is critical for increasing productivity and longevity of teachers. Our project has not experienced teacher attrition for the past three years even with teachers leaving the profession by the droves. We want to encourage the STEM education community to listen to teachers and provide community and induction-level support that is responsive to their needs.

Acknowledgement

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1852889. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Thanks to 2023 ARISE blog series editor Okhee Lee for working with the authors.  See the other blogs focused on culturally relevant learning experiences and justice-centered STEM education, Co-Constructing “Good Trouble:” Understanding and Supporting Teacher Practices for Rightful Presence in STEAM Classrooms by Jackson, Boice, and Alemdar, and Teacher Professional Development Programs Integrating Science and Language with Multilingual Learners by Lee, Grapin, and Haas.

Natalie S. King, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Georgia State University
natalieking@gsu.edu

Natalie S. King is an associate professor in the College of Education & Human Development at Georgia State University and founding executive director of I AM STEM, LLC. Her scholarly work focuses on advancing Black girls in STEM education, community-based STEM programs, and the role of curriculum in fostering equity in science teaching and learning. Dr. King is a recipient of NSF’s Alan T. Waterman Award and the Faculty Early Career Development Award (CAREER). Her research and programs challenge the capitalist agenda for encouraging girls’ involvement in STEM.

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Christopher C. Jett, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Georgia State University
cjett2@gsu.edu

Christopher C. Jett is an associate professor in the College of Education & Human Development at Georgia State University. He is committed to improving K–16 mathematics education as well as advancing racial equity in mathematics education. His work examines Black boys’ and men’s mathematics and racialized experiences. His latest work addresses broadening the participation of Black men in STEM. Dr. Jett is a recipient of the NSF CAREER Award and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.

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Andrea Dziengue, Director, Field Experiences, Georgia State University
adziengue1@gsu.edu

Andrea Dziengue serves as the Director for Field Experiences for the Noyce Track 2 project – Developing STEM Professionals as Educators and Teacher Leaders. She is also a doctoral candidate in Educational Policy Studies at Georgia State University and is a career K-16 educator with over 30 years of experience serving as a middle school teacher, model teacher leader, assistant principal, project administrator, principal, and adjunct professor.