Teachers' work life balance and the need of Democratic leadership by Filimon Diamantidis

"Earlier in this research it was written that a more democratic leadership may help teachers in their struggle between personal and professional lives. However, a definition of democracy is needed.  Aristotle speaks about a democracy where the positions of authority are given by lot. Herodotus speaks about the same democracy. This democracy is characterised by isonomy, meaning equality against the law; nevertheless both philosophers argued that it was not a good regime. Aristotle presents Politeia as the best regime and democracy as the "bad side" of it. The development of democracy is to become more aristocratic, meaning that the demos -the mass- elect the aristos who are the citizens that have the knowledge of goodness and justice according to the law. Almost the same is Plato's Politeia, where ‘those who know should rule’. By justice, Plato means the harmonic relation of social groups which secures internal balance, liberty, unity, autonomy and peace. The key words of these regimes that the ancient Greek philosophers present are justice, isonomy and knowledge of the end of existence. Their thoughts on society may be a utopia, but they are the foundation of all modern democratic societies (Aristotle; Dewey, 2007; Microgiannakis, 1992; Petropoulos & Sarres, 2000). Bearing in mind the above, democratic leadership seems to be necessary.

In his book (2005), Woods presents the necessity and the characteristics of democratic leadership in education. Democratic leadership is connected with freedom. Freedom includes justice, deliberation, dispersing leadership, creativity, participation and inclusion, autonomy, critical humanism, an open approach to knowledge and acceptance of diversity. More or less everyone aspires -or should aspire- to these ideas and ideals. Furthermore, living in democratic societies, everyone should ask for such leadership at schools. Let's not forget that there is a double-way connection between schools and society. Schools nurture tomorrow's citizens and society enables schools to have democratic culture (Woods, 2005).  

Stokes (cited in Woods, 2005, p.5) proposes four models of democracy.

1.       Liberal minimalism

2.       Civic republicanism

3.       Deliberative democracy

4.       Developmental democracy

Each one of them has implications for leadership. The fourth, developmental democracy has implications that relate to what is needed for teachers. It involves leadership in the pursuit of common human good and promotes the development of the self and of teachers’ capacities. This kind of democratic leadership protects and preserves the boundary between individual good and the good for all. However, in which way can leaders embrace and promote these characteristics? Woods (2005, pp. 58-62) presents a list of what a leader should do:

·         Ensure there are opportunities for staff to comment on and criticise senior leadership

·         Listen to and engage positively with these comments and criticisms.

·         Encourage and provide opportunities for teachers to engage in shared critical reflection in their own practice.

·         Recognise and value teachers’ professional expertise and judgement.

·         Encourage teachers to take responsibilities, initiate change and take risks (dispersal of leadership).

·         Be attentive to the emotional wellbeing of teachers and students.

·         Reject a deficit model of education which blames students and parents.

·         Create a culture of collective responsibility.

·         Be mediators of school improvement.

·         Help create participative leadership in which all teachers feel part of change and development and have a sense of ownership.

·         Forge closer relationships with colleagues, through which mutual learning take s place.

However, in schools another kind of democracy might be exercised. Woods (2005, p. 82) calls it ‘inauthentic democracy’. In these schools a fake democracy is promoted that tries to imitate a real one. In this way people believe that they have all the rights that are derived from the above list, but, in reality they are controlled, abused and deceived. Considering these and what was written in the previous sections many thoughts are produced.

Let’s start with a metaphoric example. During the previous year a new law about smoking was delivered in many countries. People are forbidden to smoke in closed public places such as schools, hospitals, restaurants, offices etc. The law is right and protects people that do not smoke from becoming passive smokers, while at the same time encourage committed smokers to reduce smoking. All these are very good! However, since smoking is so dangerous for people’s health why is it legal to sell cigars and tobacco? Well, the answer is money. Fewer smokers, especially passive smokers, means less money invested by the governments for hospitalisation and medical care. Additionally, the trade of tobacco is still legal because a lot of money goes to the state coffers as taxes. Something similar happens with teachers. The problem, like smoking, is identified and has to do with increased workload and stress leading to work-life imbalance. On the other hand, although a lot of proposals and measures were implemented, like the smoking law was, results from studies were not satisfactory. Where is the problem? The answer is “focus”. 

Further evidence leads to the same conclusion. Lots of studies like Castros’ (2010), WellcomeTrust (2006), Schools White Paper (Department for Education, 2010), Aspen Institute Program (Wurtzel & Curtis, 2008), IfL (Institute for Learning, 2010), TALIS (OECD, 2009) and others, although recognised the importance of teachers’ wellbeing, when concluding it seems as if they avoided further discussions or proposed solutions on teachers’ well-life imbalance. The focus is on how to make teachers more skilful and effective through CPD in order to fulfil the increased demands of society and markets. The Schools White Paper (Department for Education, 2010) is the best example of such confrontation. It recognises teachers’ increased workload and at the end proposes the increase of skills for the new teachers while at the same time the rate of leaving teaching is high. The whole thing is an oxymoron. Two speculations can be made, which are linked.

The first one is internalisation (Kashefi, 2009), the meaning of which was discussed earlier. There are two views of internalisation. The optimistic view proposes that the investment in resources by participating in decision making, engaging in self-directed teamwork etc. leads to job satisfaction and thereby to increased work performance and productivity level. On the other hand, the pessimistic view that proposes that the system – leaders, employers etc. - manipulates teachers – in fact all employees - into cooperating in the augmentation of workload that leads to increased stress and work-life imbalance (Kashefi, 2009). This leads to the second speculation, which is related with inauthentic democratic leadership as was previously discussed. Teachers believe that the school is “their” school in the way internalisation proposes when at the same time their workload increases. The irony, the dissimulation is that, as seen on the section for leadership, all the proposals lead to dispersal of power in an organisation. The ancient Greek philosophers talked about the “good”. Good is directly related with honesty and trust. If these ideals are manipulated, inauthentic democracy arises.

There are a lot of proposals on how teachers can manage workload. Bubb and Earley (2005) worked upon this challenge with success. However, the necessity of their work identifies the lacking of realistic proposals on how leadership can manage teachers’ workload and thereby work-life balance. This study will try to find the links between teachers’ professional and personal lives, through their career stages, and leadership. The “prevention of the disease” and the “penalisation of tobacco trading” might be the solution. This study will not ask teachers to find ways to control their work-life balance. It will ask leaders to find these ways. The focus must be on teachers as it will lead to effectiveness and good teaching. If the focus is on how to increase demands and results, teachers will not be nurtured and supported, leading to ineffectiveness. The results will not be accomplished.  It is like the myth of Sisyphus, an endless hunt for unaccomplished demands and results."

Part of my dissertation for my MA in Leadership at the University of London, IoE, by the title  

"Teachers’ Work-life Balance – Implications for School Leadership

                   A case study of a Greek school"

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