TEACHERS ARE REPORTING alarmingly high rates of dissatisfaction with their work, according to recent surveys by MetLife, the American Federation of Teachers and the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute for Education Sciences. School leaders can be a primary factor for this condition, but they also can be powerful actors in reversing the trend.

To intervene effectively, though, school leaders — those working in central administration as well as site administrators — need to better understand the moral sources of teachers’ dissatisfaction, something that I call demoralization.

The best data we have about teacher dissatisfaction offer little guidance to address the moral concerns that may cause teachers to transfer schools or to leave the profession. This turnover is costly and disruptive and will make achieving the new federal directive under the Every Student Succeeds Act of ensuring equitable distribution of high-quality teachers even more challenging.

Limiting Capacity
Experienced teachers at risk for demoralization may be some of the strongest teachers in their school or district. They are uncommonly dedicated to the profession and their students because they are mission-driven. They have experienced significant success over the course of their careers. Of the teachers I have interviewed for my recent book Demoralized: Why Teachers Leave the Profession They Love and How They Can Stay, all served in leadership roles at the school, district and/or state levels. Some were nationally board certified, and many had received awards for their teaching.

School leaders can reverse demoralization and retain these strong teachers if they become more curious about the moral sources of teacher dissatisfaction. Ask any experienced teacher what drew him or her into teaching and what has kept them going. Most will offer some explanation of wanting to do good work — for students, the community and the nation or on behalf of their discipline.

Demoralization occurs when teachers who are motivated to do good work find they can no longer do so under current conditions. Teachers experiencing demoralization believe they are harming students and/or degrading the profession by following policy and practice mandates that compromise their moral center as an educator.

Reversal Actions
A few of the leadership actions I lay out in my book for addressing teacher demoralization are these.

» LISTEN FOR THE MORAL. Avoid assuming that a teacher’s dissatisfaction comes merely from resistance to policy changes. What about the policy or practice might be challenging teachers’ ability to do good work as they understand it? While I had no authority to alter the conditions faced by the teachers I interviewed, simply listening to them and recognizing their concerns as moral issues was transformative for many.

» PROBE FOR THE MORAL. Teachers may not articulate their moral concerns with obvious ethical terms. Nina, an early childhood educator with 20 years of experience in the New York City public schools, told me she was frustrated because she couldn’t “be creative” anymore. Initially, this sounded like the complaint rooted in her personal preference. Only by asking her to elaborate (“What do you mean by ‘being creative?’” “Tell me what it looks like when you are able to be creative.”) was I able to learn that the mandated curriculum left no room for her to build lessons that addressed students’ emergent questions. Nina’s moral center as a teacher hinged on her helping students to understand their worlds and harness their innate curiosity. Her concern was professionally, not personally, motivated.

» HARNESS THE MORAL. Draw in energized teachers as allies. Teachers experiencing demoralization are eager to resolve their moral concerns and want to be part of the solution. Good-faith efforts to engage teachers’ ethical dilemmas that encourage them to offer possible resolutions can be re-moralizing.

Vanessa, a 14-year veteran teacher in a highly regarded suburban high school, recalled a principal who earned her respect because he shared teachers’ moral motivation. “We had big discussions as a grade level with an administrator once a week,” she explained. “We’d sit in a circle … and sometimes teachers get passionate. I wouldn’t always agree or I would say something and people wouldn’t always agree.”

Despite the potential for these conversations to get heated, she believed they usually found common ground by asking, “Is it good for kids? Let’s do it if it’s good for kids.”


DORIS SANTORO is associate professor of education and chair of the education department at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. She is the author of Demoralized: Why Teachers Leave the Profession They Love and How They Can Stay (Harvard Education Press). Twitter: @DorisASantoro