The Conversation January 5, 2024 by Vaughan Cruickshank, Brendon Hyndman
Many people believe teaching is an easy job involving short days and long holidays. Anyone working in the profession, however, will tell you this is not the truth.
They will tell you teaching is a rewarding job, but that teachers are stressed and overworked. This has been made worse by a severe teacher shortage in recent years…
… So while teachers may appear to get more holidays than most other professions, the reality is they are not actually on holiday for all of this time.
It is more a mix of flexible work from home, school-based meetings and preparation for the following teaching term, and some holiday downtime to unwind in between tasks.
Research shows many people deeply appreciate teachers’ dedication to our school communities.
However, there is work to be done to change widespread and incorrect perceptions about their work hours or holidays, which misrepresents and devalues the work they do.
