Chapter 13: “I Need to Take Care of Myself”: The Case for Self-Care as a Core Practice for Teaching

It is well-recognized that teaching is a stressful profession that can lead to burnout, emotional distress, and high teacher turnover (Abel &Sewell, 1999; Ballou, 2012; Roeser et al., 2013). Novice teachers are a particularly vulnerable population (Friedman, 2000) because they are often faced with multiple demands for which they have little previous experience and have limited opportunities to develop a repertoire of coping mechanisms. Given these challenges, it is surprising that teacher education programs generally do not spend time fostering supports for teacher well-being. There is promise, however, from the literature on programs that develop teacher social-emotional competence (SEC) through mindfulness training ( Jennings &Greenberg, 2009; Roeser, Skinner, Beers, &Jennings, 2012). Jennings and her colleagues define SEC as involving five skills: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. They assert that supporting teacher SEC can help to prevent teacher burnout, foster retention, and support teacher mindsets that are associated with effective classroom management (Jennings &Greenberg, 2009; Jennings, Frank, Snowberg, Coccia, &Greenberg, 2013). Here, we argue that self-care, which enhances well-being and has physical, emotional, spiritual, psychological, and social dimensions, “involves purposeful and continuous efforts that are undertaken to ensure that all dimensions of the self receive the attention that is needed to make the person fit to assist others” (Moore, Bledsoe, Perry, &Robinson, 2011, p. 1) Self-care is both an outgrowth and manifestation of mindfulness, and it is critical for teachers to remain in the profession. We also argue that self-care is especially important for the retention and success of novice ESOL (English for speakers of other languages) teachers, that is, teachers who specialize in working with English language learners (ELLs).¹ We draw on examples from data in our 3 years of collaborative work among six teacher educators and nine novice teachers to illustrate the critical importance of identifying self-care as a core practice for teachers of ELLs.