When Teachers Become Parents: Parenthood Influence on Greek Teachers’ Professional Lives

Eirini Kalantzaki,Ioannis Christopoulos,Konstantina Koutrouba

doi:10.26417/ejser.v7i1.p20-30

Abstract

The present study examines 30 Greek teachers’ views about changes that took place after they became parents regarding teaching and learning, communication and cooperation with students and parents, and attitudes towards teacher profession. The data were collected through semi-structured face to face in-depth interviews, based on 25 close- and open-ended questions, and classified into categories using content analysis. The research indicates, inter alia, that parenthood had a major impact on teachers’ empathy, on attitudes towards low-achievers, and on the implemented teaching procedures per se. It also shows that teachers who became parents tend to improve their communication with their students’ parents, to be more tolerant of criticism, and to be more patient and supportive as regards students’ academic and socio-affective achievements. Regarding at-home planning and preparation, and physical, mental and emotional fatigue of teachers during parenthood, the present study reveals developing burning-out symptoms, which are, however, counterbalanced by strong feelings of rewarding love and acceptance displayed by their students. It finally shows that parenthood does not subjugate the professional aspirations of vivid, ambitious teachers, although female teachers who became parents are expected to face more obstacles than their male colleagues during their professional and family life, especially if they hold a position in school administration, lack the provision of at-home help or have family children who display learning or other physical disabilities or misbehavior problems.

Highlights

Extensive research over the past years has convincingly shown that parenthood has a major impact on professional life. since, after becoming parents, both men and women have to redefine their values, re-hierarchize their priorities and develop personal traits and features that facilitate effectiveness in both roles, the professional and the parenting one (Drago, 2001; Frone, 2003; Hudson et al, 2001)
The difficulty of so many factors’ effective management by professionals who became parents is further aggravated when professional and parental demands are conflicting (MacDonald, 1994; O’Connor, 2008), for example when the same person is expected to be strict and over demanding at work but pliant and consenting at home. From this point of view, the teacher profession seems to be privileged, given the fact that, prima facie, the same person is expected to deal with children at work and at home, to develop in the course of time unified personality traits that are effective in job and in family (Stoeber & Rennert, 2008; Zembylas, 2003), to organize personal and professional life in a compact, unaltered way and in the form of harmoniously communicating vessels, or, in other words, to conveniently develop only one role practised in two different places, at school and at home (Parker et al, 2012; Rice, 2003)
The existing, research clearly reveals teachers’ effort to achieve balance between professional, family and personal life, not always with successful outcomes (Day et al, 2007; MacDonald, 1994); sometimes imbalance derives from the excessive demands and expectations that parent teachers have from themselves and the social environment they live in (Edwards et al, 2002; O’Connor, 2008), in other cases the professional knowledge accumulated from work seems to be ineffectively applied in the family setting, and, the experience deriving from in-family life cannot be utilised at school since students’ expectations and needs are shaped in different social and financial settings, or the students seem to have completely different cognitive, affective and social abilities than teacher’s family children (Gannerud, 2001; Wentzel, 2002)

Summary

Introduction

Extensive research over the past years has convincingly shown that parenthood has a major impact on professional life. since, after becoming parents, both men and women have to redefine their values, re-hierarchize their priorities and develop personal traits and features that facilitate effectiveness in both roles, the professional and the parenting one (Drago, 2001; Frone, 2003; Hudson et al, 2001). The difficulty of so many factors’ effective management by professionals who became parents is further aggravated when professional and parental demands are conflicting (MacDonald, 1994; O’Connor, 2008), for example when the same person is expected to be strict and over demanding at work but pliant and consenting at home From this point of view, the teacher profession seems to be privileged, given the fact that, prima facie, the same person is expected to deal with children at work and at home, to develop in the course of time unified personality traits that are effective in job and in family (Stoeber & Rennert, 2008; Zembylas, 2003), to organize personal and professional life in a compact, unaltered way and in the form of harmoniously communicating vessels, or, in other words, to conveniently develop only one role practised in two different places, at school and at home (Parker et al, 2012; Rice, 2003). Teachers perceive such differences as interesting challenges which prevent professional stagnation and possible burning-out, and enrich daily life with motivating or mind-provoking experiences (Eren, 2015; Skaalvik & Skaalvik, 2011)

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Conclusion