Exposing the triggers and stages of teachers’ demoralization

For many educators, teaching has a moral purpose that is greater than just the technical practice of imparting information to students and assessing their competences. Despite this, there are demoralizing factors that cause teachers to abandon their vocation, and though teacher retention rate is low in several countries, no studies in the Arab region and only a few international studies have investigated the moral dimension of teaching as a contributor to teacher demoralization and job resignation.

“Teaching is not just to do the job of instruction. It has other dimensions which could give teachers a purpose and help better prepare students for the future,” explains Ali Ibrahim from the United Arab Emirates University’s Foundations of Education Department.

Ibrahim and Maha Alhabbash of the UAEU’s Curriculum and Instruction Department have developed a model that explains what triggers teachers’ demoralization and how it develops over time. “The moral dimension of teaching does not mean to teach students manners or impart morality. Rather, it means not to narrow the focus of teaching to be just about the technical delivery of information,” says Ibrahim. “Sharing experience, life lessons, and preparing students genuinely for the future is what it means to have a moral purpose of teaching.”

For their research, the team distributed a survey to primary, middle and high school teachers with five years or more of experience in a district of an Arab country. According to the survey, 24 out of 226 teachers were classified as demoralized, then individual interviews identified the 10 most demoralized teachers, who were interviewed further.

The analysis of the participants’ responses highlighted that they were driven by their students’ developments and their own moral aspirations of making a difference in their students’ lives. On the other hand, their moral purpose was at odds with the institutional requirements. Their demoralization was triggered by several factors, including a negative teaching environment, lack of appreciation by school administrators, low wages, frequent accusations, as well as the inability to cope with new curriculums, such as recently introduced expectations to teach in English and use new technologies.

“When the moral purpose of teaching is obscured or lost, teachers who are driven by this purpose become alienated and they question their belonging to the teaching profession,” explains Ibrahim, who found that the participants experienced three demoralization stages. The initial feelings of stress and discomfort led to dissatisfaction. This was followed by a period of self reflection, when teachers started to develop doubts about doing good with teaching. In the third stage, they felt ashamed, as if they were complicit in an educational system that is not beneficial for the students. This decreased their self-esteem and joy in teaching.

The demoralized teachers reacted in different ways from accepting the system rules or moving to another school to rebelling or leaving the profession.

The researchers pointed out that when educational reforms do not consider teachers’ input and the moral values of the teaching profession, educators might feel disempowered and demoralized.

This is the first study on this topic in the Arab region, but the model could be tested in and expanded to other contexts and cultures using larger samples. Future research could also focus on regaining teachers’ motivation, or “remoralization,” and analyzing demoralization in school administrators.