This text is part of the special Acfas Congress booklet
“It is a problem that persists over time. We were already talking about it in the 1980s”, notes Simon Viviers, organizer of the symposium Mental health and well-being at work of school staff in Quebec at the next Acfas Congress. At the end of a pandemic which affected schools, which also had to build the plane in full flight, the symposium wants to take stock of the situation.
“It’s as if we weren’t able to do prevention,” remarks Simon Viviers, professor in the Department of Foundations and Practices in Education at the Faculty of Educational Sciences at Université Laval. He has been interested for several years in the problems of mental health at work in this sector. The state of teachers’ mental health has particularly deteriorated in the last two decades. Consequence: teachers, especially at the beginning of their careers, desert the profession.
Moreover, “many bear the suffering experienced, and we end up with all sorts of undocumented troubles; it has consequences for the family, the spouse, the quality of education,” he adds. Teachers thus take the stress on their shoulders in order to give the best to the students, but at the cost of their mental health, and affecting in the long term their ability to fully offer what they have to offer.
A symposium to take stock
The pandemic has exacerbated and propelled mental health problems to the fore in all areas, including that of education: the Superior Council of Education has moreover produced a report on the question, and the Ministry of Education, organized a symposium on well-being at school. The colloquium Mental health and well-being at work of school staff in Quebecwhich will take place on May 12 and 13, aims to take stock of the state of the mental health of school personnel.
The symposium will begin with the presentation of the preliminary results of a vast epidemiological survey on the mental health of teaching staff conducted by the INSPQ among 10,000 respondents. International experts will also shed light on the debate.
In addition to focusing on the mental health of teachers, the symposium will focus on management and support staff. “This is what makes the colloquium original,” says Mr. Viviers. “Staff in the professional sector and adult education will not be left out. It is important to have the most inclusive perspective possible,” he insists.
A role taken for granted
The pandemic has had a significant impact on school principals, whose crucial role is often underestimated, explains Emmanuel Poirel, co-leader of the symposium and professor in the Department of Administration and Foundations of Education at the University of Montreal. .
“We knew it was a difficult job, but the challenges have multiplied in times of pandemic”. While a business manager is responsible for 10 or 15 employees, secondary school principals, for example, are made up of a very small management team (one management position and a few assistants) for 200 employees. “They don’t have an accountant, a communications manager… The departments have to do everything,” continues Mr. Poirel.
Caught up in their school and constantly in emergency and crisis management, the directors find little time to be pedagogical leaders, “what they are hired for”, observes Mr. Poirel.
Professor Poirel also notes a marked loss of interest in management positions. “That, we had not anticipated,” he says. Principals are mostly former teachers who rise to management positions; but right now, teachers are no longer interested, and some principals want to return to teaching, summarizes Mr. Poirel, who will present preliminary data from a large survey on the mental health and well-being of school principals. educational institution during the health crisis.
Started just before the pandemic, this survey collected data from more than 1,000 departments, which revealed that they were already weakened by the enormous workload, despite their resilience. “They develop good strategies not to burn out, and make sure to distance themselves from their emotions. But that’s the risk,” he believes. In-depth interviews were also conducted in March 2021, to provide an update on their mental health in the midst of the pandemic, and the investigation is ongoing; another measurement will be taken in October 2022 to follow the evolution.
A critical perspective
The second objective of the symposium is to open the scientific debate and to reflect on the theoretical concepts, in particular by examining the approaches used.
“Some are very oriented on individual accountability, while it’s much more complex than that, we can’t limit ourselves to that,” says Emmanuel Poirel. Asking individuals to improve their ability to better manage stress ignores collective dynamics. “We must change the organization of work,” he argues.
Over the past twenty years, we have in fact observed the arrival of a new type of management in the public sector, modeled on the private sector. Emphasis is placed on academic success and on quantified indicators. “However, not everything is quantifiable; the sense of work is absent from the managers’ dashboard,” emphasizes Mr. Viviers. This loss of meaning has an impact on the well-being of employees.
The organizers of the symposium hope that this inventory will feed into prevention practices and policies. “We hope that representatives of school services, unions and the Ministry of Education will be present, so that they broaden their horizons and take full measure of what is a problem for the people who take care of our children on a daily basis” , concludes Mr. Viviers.
This first symposium will be, it is hoped, the first of a series of symposiums that will present the positive effects of the interventions inspired by this state of affairs.