Recent discussions about education have brought renewed attention to educator well-being, reflecting growing interest in the conditions that help teachers thrive throughout their careers. National research released this year suggests encouraging movement in several areas, with fewer teachers reporting frequent job-related stress and difficulty coping with workplace demands than in the previous year. Even so, teachers continued to report higher levels of stress, burnout, and other well-being challenges, while student behavior, compensation, hours worked beyond contract time, and administrative responsibilities remained among the most commonly cited sources of strain.
“These findings suggest that supporting educators calls for a broad perspective that considers both the demands of the profession and the environments and organisational cultures in which those demands are experienced,” says Dr. Thomas Maridada. As the founder of the Center for Strategic Leadership and Organizational Coherence (CSL) and CEO of the Institute for Organizational Coherence (IOC), he argues that conversations about teacher well-being can extend beyond workload and compensation to include school cultures that encourage trust, psychological safety, and shared learning, where seeking guidance is recognised as part of professional growth.
Much of the national conversation emphasizes staffing shortages, compensation, and expanding responsibilities. Those topics remain important, yet they represent only part of the picture. According to Maridada, the organizational culture surrounding educators can significantly influence how those demands are experienced each day. Schools where collaboration, mutual respect, and professional dialogue become part of everyday practice may create conditions that help teachers navigate increasingly complex instructional, behavioral, and social-emotional responsibilities with greater confidence.
Through CSL and IOC, his work focuses on helping districts strengthen leadership development, professional learning, and human capital systems that encourage educators to learn collectively while building organizational capacity over time.
A meaningful part of that work involves challenging a longstanding professional expectation that many educators quietly carry with them. Maridada notes that teachers often enter the classroom with a deep sense of responsibility for every student’s success, an admirable commitment that can also create the impression that every challenge should be solved independently.
As instructional expectations continue to evolve alongside advances in literacy research, multilingual education, artificial intelligence, and student mental health supports, the range of expertise expected from individual educators will likely continue to expand. In environments where evaluation receives greater visibility than collaboration, Maridada notes that asking for assistance may be interpreted as diminishing professional credibility instead of demonstrating a commitment to improvement.
“Professional excellence grows through curiosity, reflection, and shared learning,” Maridada says. “The willingness to ask thoughtful questions reflects a commitment to students’ success because every conversation creates another opportunity to strengthen instruction, and excellent instruction ignites growth in learning.”
This perspective aligns with organisational research describing psychological safety as a shared belief that people can contribute ideas, acknowledge uncertainty, and discuss challenges without concern that doing so will invite embarrassment or judgment. Within schools, that can create opportunities for teachers to examine unsuccessful lessons, analyse student learning, exchange instructional strategies, and refine practice through honest professional dialogue. Maridada suggests that such conversations may allow expertise to circulate throughout an entire faculty instead of remaining isolated within individual classrooms.
The significance of those conditions becomes even clearer as schools continue addressing teacher retention. According to an industry report, approximately one in seven public school teachers either changes schools or leaves the profession every school year. The report also found that teachers who experienced stronger leadership support and higher workplace satisfaction were considerably less likely to leave.
“Those findings tell us that investments in organisational culture can complement efforts focused on staffing, compensation, and professional resources by creating environments where educators have greater opportunities to improve their practice over time, creating a culture of competence,” Maridada states.
For Maridada, creating that environment begins with leadership behaviours that invite learning across every level of a school. He says, “Principals who acknowledge their own learning curves, request constructive feedback, and replace questions such as ‘Who made this mistake?’ with ‘What can we learn from this experience?’ can help establish expectations that continuous improvement belongs to everyone.”
Organizational structures may influence whether those messages become part of everyday practice. Instructional rounds, peer observations, coaching cycles, collaborative lesson design, mentoring partnerships, and professional learning communities can create valuable opportunities when their purpose emphasizes shared inquiry instead of high-stakes evaluation. Teachers observing one another to exchange instructional ideas, analyse classroom evidence, and discuss student learning together can contribute to a professional community where expertise expands through collaboration. Through CSL and IOC, Maridada works with districts to strengthen these kinds of systems so professional learning can become an ongoing feature of school life instead of an occasional event.
Long-term solutions may emerge from viewing schools as learning organizations for adults as well as students as conversations about educator well-being continue. Workload, compensation, and staffing remain important considerations, yet the quality of daily professional relationships also deserves thoughtful attention. Maridada believes that schools cultivate stronger foundations for continuous improvement when trust, openness, and shared responsibility become defining characteristics of the workplace.
Robert Haynes, a psychology graduate from the University of Hertfordshire, has a keen interest in the fields of mental health, wellness, and lifestyle.
