Preventing French Teacher BurnoutReprinted from the National Bulletin, Volume 26, No. 4 (April 2001)Burnout: "The exhaustion of physical or emotional strength or motivation usually as a result of prolonged stress or frustration." Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 10th edition Our featured subject in this issue is STRESS and how to address it before it leads to teacher burnout. Although we do not pretend to hold a monopoly on this problem, the Community College can be an extremely stressful environment. Community College faculty are often thrown into a "stuck in the middle" situation: the complexity of finding common ground in articulation agreements with both high schools and four year colleges and universities, and the need to maintain quality programs while addressing the college mission of meeting the diverse needs of the community. Drs. John and Suanne Roueche document in their book, Between A Rock and a Hard Place, The At-Risk Student in the Open-Door College, that "by 1992, more than one half of all students enrolled in higher education were enrolled in community colleges" (Roueche, 1993 p. 33). Because community colleges offer easy access (minimal entry requirements) and affordability, their students are among the most diverse. Community college students span a full range of age, ethnicity, socio-economic status, educational backgrounds and levels of preparedness for college study. The average community college student is 28 years old and is likely to be a minority, foreign born or a returning woman. Increasing numbers of community college freshmen are first-generation learners with little family support, work 30 or more hours per week, and are academically weak. One third of them live below the poverty level (Roueche, p. 39). The Community College French teacher may be especially at risk for future burnout because of recent enrollment trends. In the face of declining French enrollments in relation to Spanish, the teacher of French may feel an increasing need to be "all things to all people" (students, colleagues, administrators and parents) in order to maintain enrollments and protect her or his program. In addition, low enrollments, poor student performance and resistance to recruitment efforts can fuel worries about job security. An institutional perception of the "non-utility" of French as an academic discipline when compared to Spanish can also sometimes create a sense of diminished self-worth and frustration. Often the French teacher at the Community College is a department of one and has virtually no support system. The authors of this article have a combined total of 33 teaching years at the community college. Because many of our students mirror those described above, recruiting them to the study of French and then retaining them presents special challenges. In one of our first semester classes there are 27 students, of which14 are minorities. Four are linguists with master’s degrees who are highly motivated and are learning French for a specific purpose. One student has a Ph.D. in history. At least 10 are first-generation college students, are under prepared academically, have weak study skills and are very intimidated by the language. They range from 18 to 50 years of age. Other typical students we encounter are foreign students still mastering English, anxious returning adult learners, and retired senior citizens (some in their 70’s or 80’s!) who get free tuition and are auditing a French course "just for fun." The challenge is to know where to direct our efforts… do we teach to the middle and provide remedial instruction for the under prepared? If so, we may frustrate and lose our best students. Do we teach to the top 4 or 5 in the class and let the rest of them fall to the wayside? If we do that, then the program may die due to lack of numbers. We have coddled, cajoled, tutored, counseled and mothered our students to keep them motivated. Building relationships and creating the "community" in the college is an effective way to maintain numbers, but it can be emotionally and physically draining. Our typical teaching load is five courses (plus language labs) per semester. We put in 45-55 hours on campus each week and at least another 8 grading and lesson planning. We serve on multiple committees to ensure that our programs have a voice in college planning. Efforts to promote and market our programs and to provide study abroad experiences take up additional time. Research, writing and professional development are increasingly rare luxuries. Another area of potential complication for the teaching of French at the community college is that faculty are more likely to be part-time rather than full-time. Because French is typically a smaller program when compared to Spanish, administrators may be unwilling to hire a full-time French teacher. Dr. John Roueche wrote an excellent book entitled Strangers in Their Own Land, Part-Time Faculty in American Community Colleges. Roueche et al document in their l993 study that part-time faculty represented 41.72% of the total faculty corps in community colleges. (Roueche, Roueche and Milliron, p. 38) The percentage of part-time faculty is projected to increase even further. Many adjunct instructors hold more than one job and are poorly remunerated for their teaching compared to full-time faculty. An adjunct French teacher typically does not have the time or the energy to spend lots of extra unpaid hours recruiting and promoting the program. Given the stresses many French teachers currently experience, we believe it is important to take a serious look at means of reducing potential burnout. The following suggestions are based upon our own experiences and have proven helpful in dealing with our individual situations. How can you reduce burnout potential? 1. Get to know yourself. Identify your strengths and weaknesses. Be as objective as possible then capitalize on your strengths! They may include: knowledge of subject matter, teaching skills, patience, management and programming skills, creativity, enthusiasm, persuasive ability, sensitivity, intuitiveness, conflict resolution skills, motivator, encourager, etc. Celebrate your strengths. If your weaknesses are interfering with your work, address them. Otherwise they will continue to cause you stress. 2. Be confident of your abilities! Resist the urge to compare yourself to other teachers. There will always be those who speak or write the language more fluently, publish more, etc. That is not an excuse to refuse to learn or improve. Learn to appreciate yourself and move on from there. 3. Learn to say no! If you are doing too much, this is the most important piece of advice we can offer. Saying no may sound impossible, but with a lightened load you can do a better job with remaining tasks, reduce your frustration levels, and actually create more respect for yourself in the long term. 4. Set boundaries to protect your private time. Do you give your home phone number to students? Are your weekends consumed by grading, planning, student activities, etc.? Carve out a special time each week exclusively for yourself and your family. 5. Take care of YOU! Do some type of regular physical/mental/spiritual activity that will help counteract stress levels and restore balance. We all know we should do this but find it hard to implement. Start with little steps. It is worth the effort! 6. Allow yourself to just relax for a portion of every evening without feeling guilty. This "head-clearing" allows you to detoxify emotionally. 7. Resist the temptation to implement more than one or two major ideas learned at any foreign language conference in the classroom per year! Yes, "on est les meilleurs," but our quest to become the best all at once can cause undue stress. 8. When stress mounts, identify it. Put a face on it. Journal writing is helpful here. What is bothering you? Can you do anything about it? If not, can you release it? If the problems continue, is a change of environment necessary? There are a variety of tests and self help books readily available that will enable you to determine stress levels and pinpoint various types of stresses. 9. Establish your administrative, teaching and student priorities each semester. Put them in writing. Then simply do not allow other things to take up more time than they should. Protect those priorities. 10. Be willing to let go of what is called "unreasonable responsibility." You will not be able to motivate, inspire or "turn around" every student who walks into your classroom. Be thankful for those who respond and learn not to blame yourself whenever a student doesn’t catch the vision. Your seed planting may take root later. 11. Be willing to seek out another French teacher for support or idea sharing. Collaboration with a colleague is energizing and can lessen the feelings of isolation. 12. Last, learn not to take yourself too seriously! Look for the humor in difficult situations and be willing to laugh at your own foibles. You will become even more endearing to those around you.
References "Burnout Inventory, Form I" Gray, H. & A. Freeman. 1988. Teaching Without Stress. Paul Chapman Publishing, London. Overland, David. "Stressing the Point: The Effects of Teacher Stress." [http://s13a.math.aca.mmu.ac.uk/Student_ writings/DMELE/DavidOverland.html]. Roueche, John E. and Suanne D. Roueche. 1993. Between a Rock and A Hard Place: The At-Risk Student in the Open-Door College. Community College Press. Roueche, John E., Suanne D. Roueche, and D. Milliron. 1995. Strangers in Their Own Land,: Part-Time Faculty in American Community Colleges. Community College Press. The Commission on Community Colleges welcomes your feedback and suggestions. If you have issues or ideas that you would like to see discussed in the "Community College Connection," or if you would be willing to contribute to an article, please contact Denise McCracken at [dmccracken@stchas.edu]. Created: November 17, 2002
|