Managing Faculty Stress During the Back-to-School Season

Resurgent COVID, a highly charged political climate, back-to-school stress management, tight budgets and crowded classrooms—these are just a few of the stressors that educators are contending with as another school year begins. As students and staff alike reluctantly return to the grind, wishing for a few more days of summer, it’s not hard to see why the return to school can often be stress inducing. And when teacher stress is high, conflict often follows.

Strategies for Managing Stress and Conflict in the Classroom

Understanding how to manage stress while also diffusing potential conflict in the classroom is a crucial skill for educators. Rather than letting conflict take control, there are ways to turn stress and tension into opportunities for learning and growth. Here are a few strategies to help manage teacher well-being with grace and reduce the likelihood of conflict overshadowing the educational mission.

Draw Clear Boundaries

In any classroom or public school environment, establishing boundaries is essential. Particularly when political or controversial topics are in the air, it's important to be clear about what will and will not be allowed in your presence. With students and colleagues, set firm but fair boundaries about political discussions. For example, with colleagues, you might agree to focus discussions on professional tasks, fostering a work environment that prioritizes collaboration and minimizes distractions. With students, a slightly different approach might be needed. Perhaps you set a rule that political discourse is allowed only when initiated and moderated by you.

In subjects such as high school civics or U.S. history, politics may naturally become part of the curriculum. In those cases, teachers can’t outright avoid the topic, but they can establish rules to foster civil discourse. Modeling how to engage in civil dialogue about difficult topics is one of the most valuable lessons you can impart. Not only does this approach help reduce the likelihood of conflict, but it also provides a teachable moment where students can learn how to discuss contentious issues without losing respect for one another.

Keep Eyes on the Prize

When tensions rise—whether in a class discussion, staff meeting or casual conversation—it can be helpful to refocus everyone on the main goal: student success. Reminding yourself and others of the primary goal—student success—may help reframe stressors and distractions in a more productive light. If someone introduces a potentially divisive topic or injects a stressor into the classroom, ask a simple question: How does this promote student success?

Improving student outcomes is a unifying goal that transcends the day-to-day pressures of the job, teacher stress and personal stress. By bringing the focus back to the shared mission of helping students succeed, you may help reduce conflict and keep the conversation on a positive, solution-oriented path.

Turning Conflict Into Opportunity

If you’re willing to take the challenge head-on, conflict doesn’t always have to be a bad thing. Conflict, when handled with care and intention, can be transformed into a learning opportunity. At its core, conflict often arises because people hold strong feelings about their positions. These stances are frequently tied to underlying interests and personal values, many of which are shared across differing perspectives. If you’re able to dig beneath the surface-level behaviors and explore the underlying interests, you may uncover common ground.

When people feel heard and understood, it may become easier to find resolutions that satisfy those involved. As an educator, you may have a unique opportunity to turn classroom disagreements into lessons on communication, empathy and negotiation. In this way, conflict doesn’t derail the educational process; it becomes a part of it.

Break It Down: Managing Stress Over Time

For many educators, the cumulative weight of stress throughout the school year can feel overwhelming. From grading papers to managing student behavior to dealing with administrative demands, it’s easy to feel like the stress never ends. This feeling, known as presentism, can limit your creativity and resilience by making it seem like the current moment of stress will last forever. But, as many seasoned teachers will tell you, the stress of today doesn’t last forever.

One way to combat presentism is to break down overwhelming tasks into smaller, more manageable pieces. For example, many teachers, including those in resource-strapped districts, may love their jobs but still face challenging days. On those days, they remind themselves that they only need to get through the remaining hours of the day. They can get through the week. They can make it to the next term. Before long, they’re thinking about summer breaks and bike rides in June. By breaking down challenges into digestible pieces, they manage to maintain a positive outlook in difficult moments.

The lesson here is that while stress is inevitable, it doesn’t have to be all-consuming. Managing stress one step at a time can free you from presentism and help you approach problems with a clearer, more adaptable mindset.

Passing Along Conflict-Resolution Skills

As an educator, you don’t just manage stress and conflict; you can also teach your students how to do it. Students often look to their teachers as role models, and the way you handle difficult situations in the classroom can leave a lasting impact. By modeling effective communication, empathy and conflict resolution techniques, you provide your students with tools that will benefit them both in and out of school.

Who knows? With time and practice, you might even start to enjoy turning conflict into an opportunity for growth. Helping students develop these crucial life skills not only improves the classroom environment, but also prepares them for future challenges. Encouraging students to view conflict as something that can be resolved, rather than avoided, helps build a more empathetic and resilient community.

Teacher Well-Being and Stress Management

Beyond managing classroom conflicts, educators must prioritize their own teachers well-being and find methods of stress management for teachers that align with their daily routines. Stress can build up over time, and without proper stress management, the pressures of returning to school can lead to burnout. Administrators and schools can provide support for teachers by implementing teacher wellness ideas such as mindfulness activities, exercise programs and peer support groups. Additionally, faculty members should be given the tools and resources to learn how to manage academic stress effectively.

For new educators, transitioning into a teaching role can bring added challenges and stress as they adjust to their new responsibilities. If you're a new teacher facing these pressures, learning how to deal with this transition is critical. You can read more about managing the transition from teaching to broader academic roles in a blog post on transitioning from professor to university administrator, which offers valuable insights into handling such shifts.

Some schools might also benefit from a faculty management system that provides teachers with tools to track classroom stress levels, manage workloads and maintain balance during the school year.

Navigating Stress and Conflict With Confidence

As the school year progresses, the stress of balancing classroom responsibilities, managing students and handling administrative pressures is inevitable. However, by adopting effective stress management techniques, setting clear boundaries and embracing opportunities for growth, educators can navigate these challenges with confidence. Whether you’re a seasoned teacher or a newcomer adjusting to a new role, learning to manage both teacher well-being and classroom conflict will impact not only your own experience, but also the success of your students.

Remember, conflict doesn’t need to be avoided; it can be transformed into an opportunity for dialogue, learning and empathy. By focusing on student success and maintaining open lines of communication, educators can turn potential stressors into valuable moments for personal and professional growth.