MOMENTS OF CLARITY:

REFLECTIONS ON BURNOUT and RESILIENCE IN HIGHER ED


 

DO I STAY, OR DO I GO?

C. Jenise Williamson

As academics, we work hard to encourage “Aha!” moments in our students. When that “light bulb” goes on, our students’ eyes glisten, sometimes even to tears when the realize they can do more than they ever thought possible. They take the newly acquired information into themselves as an embodiment of a truth they hadn’t known they needed. That is the miracle we hope to see in all our students. But when that doesn’t happen, we extend ourselves further, and often even further than that in the hope that every student will shine.

 Then there is a reality we hadn’t known we would experience. Under-prepared students, lack of administrative support, and subversive politics can cause us to go to boundless measures. No wonder burnout in academia is commonplace.

A Harvard University article by Eric P. Bettinger and Bridget Terry Long states that “high school students understand little about the preparation necessary for college…and high school graduation standards do not coincide with the competencies needed in college….”

Elizabeth Holly believes that working in academia is a high stress job. According to Psychopharmacology and Substance Abuse Newsletter, Holly states, “Regardless of career stage, academics self-report high levels of stress, with more than 70 percent of higher education staff reporting high or very high levels of stress…and more than 25 percent of university faculty report experiencing burnout often or very often” (“Burnout in Academia”). And that was before the pandemic.

What about Leaving?

Much has been written about leaving jobs, and even whole careers, especially lately because of what has become known as The Great Resignation, where millions of people walked out on their jobs during the pandemic. It has reached academia as Joshua Dolezal points out in his article “The Big Quit: Even Tenure-Line Professors Are Leaving Academe.”

More has been written about burnout in Inside Higher Ed’s “Calling It Quits” by Colleen Flaherty and The End of Burnout: Why Work Drains Us and How to Build Better Lives by Jonathan Malesic. These sources detail personal and professional lives that have been upended by academic stress leading to burnout.

What about Staying?

There are plenty of reasons to stay in higher ed: being tenured or tenure-track, supporting a family, loving the rigorous intellectual pursuit of ideas, having summers off, taking sabbaticals, having health benefits, and authentically loving our students who might take us for granted but appreciate us in their own way. And many adjuncts are putting up with little pay and no benefits because they want to stay in touch with young minds and interesting colleagues and to supplement retirement or pre-retirement income. 

Here’s How We Can Cope

We go through it together. In this space, we’ll look at publications and meditations on burnout in higher ed by reflecting and encouraging resilience. Staying in or leaving academia? Riding it out? Not sure? It’s your decision. My hope here is that these posts will give you ideas to consider with many points of reference. I hope you find peace along the way.

 

References

Bettinger, Eric P., and Bridget Terry Long. “Addressing the Needs of under-Prepared Students in Higher Education: Does College Remediation Work?” Harvard University, n.d., https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/btl/files/bettinger_long_2009_adressing_the_needs_of_under-prepared_-_jhr.pdf

Holly, Elizabeth. “Burnout in Academia” Https://Www.apadivisions.org, July 2018, https://www.apadivisions.org/division-28/publications/newsletters/psychopharmacology/2018/07/burnout-academia#:~:text=Regardless%20of%20career%20stage%2C%20academics,often%20or%20very%20often3.

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