How to Encourage Teachers to Use their Voice

How to Encourage Teachers to Use their Voice
photo credit: www.edutopia.com

How can you encourage teachers to use their voice and be heard?  The Center on Education Policy study recently uncovered just how unfulfilled educators are with their vocation and revealed that almost half of teachers in the United States surveyed would leave their job for a better paying one.

That report also found that teachers who are comfortable expressing honest opinions and concerns are four times more likely to be enthusiastic about their profession. And the survey also found that a teachers’ perceptions of whether their ideas are considered when it comes to school-level decisions seems to be related to their job satisfa ction.

The simple reason: they feel their voices are not being heard. Across the country, teachers believe school administrators disregard their opinions, and it is causing them to think negatively about their schools as well as their own profession.

How do we make sure that most of our teachers have a say in making decisions?

Russell Quaglia, founder of the Quaglia Institute for Student Aspirations suggests three key steps to help improve teacher satisfaction. To increase teacher morale, administration must listen to teachers and solicit feedback throughout the year, learn from their suggestions and always take them seriously.  This must be done on an ongoing basis.

And implications were discovered for students. When teachers have a say in decision-making, it is more probable that they believe that they can make a difference and they are more likely to encourage students to be leaders and make good decisions.

According to researchers, these simple steps can help avoid an “us versus them” mentality among administrators and teachers, and this ultimately improves the school culture for everyone involved.

For more about how to encourage teachers to use their voice, read the original article here:

3-Step Method to Increase Teacher Voice

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Articles written by SensoryEdge are a combined effort of the SensoryEdge publishing staff. At SensoryEdge our focus is to educate, inform, and inspire each person caring for children to be and do their very best. It is not always easy and sometimes we don't take action (or we take the wrong action) because of a lack of understanding the real issues. We hope that the conversations that occur here will help in some small way better the lives of children, their families, and the professionals who work with them.