Teachers emotional labour and working hours are greatly underestimated, this imperceptible force needs to be seen at work for its administrative contributions to be accounted, and encourage their well – being.
A global teachers status index survey conducted by Varkey Foundation in 2018, across 35 countries to determinate the position held by teachers in societies globally. The study aims to measure the public view of teacher’s hours of work and compared to the actual invisible hours that teachers dedicate, taking account of the hours spent on activities conducted outside the classroom.
At Apni Shala, Mumbai, aims to formulate education associated with social emotional learning (SEL), by enabling weekly programs with teachers and students in schools, and creating a SEL – integrated forum, taking in to account students life experiences and articulate a care – centered teaching practices.
During the team’s interaction, teachers are under the perception that their jobs are limited to their instructed hours and confined to the class. This prompted to formulate an informal survey to determine the view of a common person with regard to the role of a teacher. Respondents are well aware of the responsibilities and the role of a teacher in providing knowledge available to students and in skilling them and providing guidance whenever necessary, however, not recognizing the unseen responsibilities and administrative duties, such as maintaining student records and books, promoting safe environment and formulating parents – teacher interactions. This clearly indicates, teacher’s duties that are not directly connected to students learning, is difficult to quantify.
Data is the primary source of determining at any policy level, however, to our knowledge, there are limited studies that explores the varieties of non – teaching labour that teachers are subjected to. To enhance our understanding with regard to this subject and the different ways in which teachers utilize time in further students learning, semi – structured interviews were formulated at the Apni Shala.
The findings suggest that apart from quantitative and apparent duties of a teacher, a number of crucial elements that are imperative to a young learner’s education and maintaining frame of mind was realized. Elements such as Emotional Labour, Lesson planning for a diverse classroom, responding to change and decision making, understanding a student and interventions, are important imitational sectors that cannot be quantified by data.
There is a lot that can be done to enhance teacher well – being, an intentional reduction of administrative responsibilities and reducing teacher – pupil ratio, will help teachers feel supported and appreciated.
