The Vulnerability of Teaching and the Importance of Empathy and Support

Brene`Brown, the well known sociologist and author, appeared on the long running popular American news program 60 Minutes the other night talking about vulnerability, empathy, and risk-taking. The above humorous and/or frightening photo, posted by Education to the Core, has been making the rounds on Facebook. What’s the connection between the two?

Whether it’s teacher supervision, teacher evaluation or teacher observation, for most teachers, and even principals, observations are not a joyous experience. Observations for most teachers are an incredibly vulnerable experience that by its critical, evaluative nature inhibits teacher risk-taking instead of encouraging it. For many on both sides of the observation aisle it feels like an obligatory hoop jump with each person playing their part in the play. Where’s the empathy?Where’s the compassion? Where’s the growth?

For a minute I’d like you to think about the unique process that is a teacher observation. There is no other job that I am aware of where a boss comes in, intently watches you work, and takes notes on a massive number of performance indicators, while providing ratings or grades that factor into your evaluation and, therefore, the retention of your job.

To shed light on the vulnerability that is a teacher being observed, I want you to picture a couple of hypothetical workplace observation scenarios. First, imagine working as a barista at a coffee shop and having your boss sit down at the end of the counter, pull out her laptop and take notes while watching you do your job for the next 20-80 minutes. She doesn’t say anything when she’s done; she just gets up and leaves, smiling or acknowledging you in some way if you’re lucky. You have no sense of how things went; you just have to wait. 

The next day if you’re lucky, but more likely a few days later, your boss invites you into a meeting in her office, and sitting behind her desk tells you what she saw. She proceeds to share her developmental (evaluative) ratings of a seemingly inordinately large number of different barista skill areas. These ratings are on a one to four scale, ranging from needs improvement to outstanding. She offers advice on what to improve. It might be one area with suggestions on how to get better; it might be a number of areas without any advice on how to improve. The information and ratings from this observation, which takes place on average, one to two times per year, factor significantly into whether you keep your job. 

How would you feel when you saw your boss walk in and plop down at the counter with her laptop? Would you be calm and relaxed? Would you be scared, frightened, nervous? Would you feel vulnerable? What if she happened to watch you on a crazy busy day? What if there were some particularly rude customers that day? What if something was wrong with the espresso machine that slowed the service? How do you explain these things to the boss?

Now imagine you work in outside sales and your boss decides to meet you at your first call of the day. He takes out his laptop, sits on the side as unobtrusively as possible, telling you to act like he’s not there. He watches and takes notes on the meeting. Again, this observation takes place a couple of times per year, maybe three, four, five times if you’re lucky. The next day, he invites you into his office, tells you what he saw and shares the long list of developmental ratings for your sales skills. You receive advice on what to do better, maybe you’re given resources on how to get there. Once again this observation factors largely into the decision of whether to keep you. Your boss doesn’t know this customer, doesn’t know how long you have had a working relationship with them. How would you feel when your boss met you at the sales call? 

Sounds crazy right? In any other job the workers would probably revolt. I challenge you to tell a friend not in education about the process of teacher evaluation. Ask them how they would feel if it was this same way in their job. If they are like my friends they will tell you it sounds horrible.

Who would look forward to this process? Who would want to take risks in their practice knowing that getting it wrong might lower their ratings? Who wouldn’t feel vulnerable in this process? How comfortable and how much trust do you think you’d have in your boss with observation/evaluations being conducted in this manner? Now add to the process, what’s the boss like? Nice? Mean? Altruistic? A tyrant? Involved? Aloof? Transparent? Tough to read? Caring? A jerk? It all factors into the vulnerability teachers feel when being observed.

My hope in sharing these hypothetical workplace scenarios is that it deepens your understanding of what it feels like for teachers being observed. I encourage you to use this awareness to guide actions, both now and when we’re back to our new normal. Take actions that support and spark teacher embrace of risk-taking. Build trust; build safe working relationships with your teachers. When as observers we understand the feelings of vulnerability teachers experience when being observed we naturally have greater empathy for them. When as observers we also empathize with the other challenges of teaching live unpredictable human beings, especially now, and use our emotional intelligence during our interactions with teachers, it leads to more compassionate action. And, it’s fair to say we can all benefit from compassionate action right now 

Right now our teachers are desperately missing seeing their students in person on a daily basis; they are desperately missing interacting with their teaching peers in person on a daily basis. They are not missing teacher observations. Always, but especially during this challenging time, demonstrate empathy, compassion, and understanding for your teachers. In many ways, teachers and principals alike are full of uncertainty and feeling vulnerable right now. Frankly, we are beginners again in largely new jobs, charting unnavigated waters. Let’s make sure our efforts are focused on supporting our teachers. Encourage, support, listen; be there for them. 

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