Educators have the best job in the world. They have the responsibility of helping others find their purpose in life. Every profession there is depends on them. Why is it that people with the greatest responsibility tend to not make time to care for themselves? We have often heard you cannot pour from an empty cup. In order for you to be effective and make a difference in the lives of others, you must be certain you are up for the task. The responsibility of helping others achieve their goals sometimes means putting yours on the back burner. This can lead to burnout. Educators must be better to themselves so they can be good to their students.
TopEducare Is Loving Care
Educators have the best job in the world. We have the responsibility of helping others find their purpose in life. Every profession there is depends on us. Why is it that people with the greatest responsibility tend to not make time to care for themselves? I have often heard you cannot pour from an empty cup. In order for you to be effective and make a difference in the lives of others, you must be certain you are up for the task. It is my goal to be the person God created me to me. I wholeheartedly know it is my purpose to support educators. Alas, I will admit there are times when I do not practice what I preach. The responsibility of helping others achieve their goals sometimes means putting yours on the back burner. This can lead to burnout. To not burnout on the work I am so passionate about I am seeking ways to help others like me be better. We must be better to ourselves so we can be good to our students.
Let us get underway by acknowledging the trials of faculty in higher education. One of these challenges is high student to faculty ratios (Blix, Cruise, Mitchell, and Blix, 2016). Research shows that 20% of 265 university faculty members reported exhaustion, with more female faculty members experiencing emotional exhaustion, and men showing higher mean depersonalization (Lackritz, 2015). In another study, faculty members often complained about the many demands placed on their time and the effect and impact on the condition of their teaching, they still stove for excellence (Birkhead, 2020). Furthermore, students have proclaimed that their academic performance is better when they have increased access to faculty (Bryan, Weaver, Anderson-Johnson, & Lindo, 2013), and positive exchanges with their academic and administrative teams (Graunke & Woosley, 2015). Therefore, when faculty try to provide excellent service, in addition to multiple work demands, they increase their risk for burnout. The perception of minimal resources for too many people leads to increased competition and stress (Doughty, 2016). Universities might have traditionally been regarded as low stress academics has indicated that stress is alarmingly widespread and, on the rise, (Levecque, Anseel, De, Van & Gisle, 2017). Stress can be worsened when individuals have to put personal goals on hold to meet higher education goals. While higher education seeks to foster knowledge advancement and human development through research communities, staff often must sacrifice pursuing a family, or achieving other personal goals outside of academia (Mason, Wolfinger, & Goulden, 2013). It is for these reasons self-care must be a priority.
Self-care is a matter of survival as it sustains and fosters good health (Taylor & Renpenning, 2011). It is also an ethic, to ensure that one can function responsibly, especially in relation to others. Ethics is the study of “oughts” and relationships, including how we ought to relate to ourselves, to others, and to the earth (Marino, 2020). It is useful to think of these “oughts” as a code of values to guide an individual’s choices and actions, which determine the “purpose and the course” of one’s life (Rand, 1964, pp. 188-190). Values are wide-ranging even in a singular context. They project into actions and prompt debate as to what is acceptable conduct, and what is right or wrong. Values in ethics can veer into complex directions when individual confront uncomfortable scenarios, and they have to make tough choices. In higher education teaching and research, ethics mater when individual has to negotiate between their core values and principles, requiring compromise with commonly held beliefs, and the peculiarities of individual situations (Healey et al, 2013). That is a potential cause for personal tension between beliefs and actions. Thattension increases when individuals have to prioritize community values, and academic or professional goals over self-care needs. However, the ethics of care respects the claims of the particular which happens in relationship with others and calls into question, the universalistic and abstract rules of the dominant (Held, 2016). By extension, the ethics of self-care respects the particular, even the personal, sometimes over the universal and dominant. Contrary to popular belief, the personal aspect of self-care is not an indulgent, escapist time to engage in mindless pleasure-seeking (White, 2014).