Session with PGCE MFL student-teachers thinking about workload and trying to make work sustainable

1. Thinking about time in schools -
an alternative view on workload
Phil Wood
@HEReflections1

2. Reflecting on Workload and Time
WorkIntensity
Time
1. Begin by drawing a line for
overall work intensity across a
year
2. Add any lines for sub-
categories you wish to add
3. Annotate/exemplify any points
on the graph you think are
important

3. • Organisations are increasingly changing from a character of ‘stable and
durable’ to ‘ephemeral and temporary’.
• Organisations are underpinned by the understanding and meaning of
time
• The acceleration in organisations is in part the result of the ‘efficiency’
narrative.
• Workload = efficiency measure = cost
• Rise of Homo efficientius
• Leads to the creation of workload allocation models (WAMs)
“In the past the man has been
first; in the future the system
must be first.”

4. 2000 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2013 2016
Primary
classroom teachers
52.5 52.0 52.5 50.5 50.0 52.0 52.5 51.0 50.0 59.0 55.5
(23.2)
Secondary
classroom teachers
51.0 50.5 50.0 49.5 49.5 49.0 50.0 50.5 50.0 55.5 53.5
(20.7)
Perceptions of workload %
Workload is a very serious problem 52
Workload is a fairly serious problem 41
Workload is not a very serious problem 5
Workload is not a serious problem at all 0
Don’t Know 2
Government Measurement of Workload

5. Assumptions
• Time is understood as ‘clock time’ – but highly abstract
• Workload calculations are less focused on time than economic cost
• Focus on ‘clock time’ can lead to a fixation with ‘efficiency’

6. Reflecting on the Complexity of Time
Rhythm
Temporal Density
Intensification
Fragmentation/incoherence
Acceleration

7. Rhythms
Low
Temporal
Density
High
Temporal
Density
• Seeing time as rhythmic
• How do rhythms fit together across the
academic year?
• Increasing level of high temporal densities as
more ‘efficiency’ is sought
• Lack of low temporal density – less ‘slow’
time and ‘excess’ time

8. Time and Autonomy
• Constraint in work practices leads to a
feeling of time pressure
• Greater professional autonomy leads to a
lesser perception of time pressure
• Hence, giving teachers greater opportunity
to work collaboratively, and on issues they
feel are important, the less time pressured
they will feel

9. 2.3
2.6
2.9
3.2 3.2
4.2
4.4
Intensification Work beyond school General Perception Non-school activity Rhythms Relationships Autonomy
Summary of Workload Questionnaire
(n=7)

10. Consequences • Accelerated existence – attempts to fit in
as much as possible in a given time slice.
Hence severe intensification of work
• State sanctioned black market in
professional time
• Reliance on the ‘ethic of care’ which is at
the centre of the values and philosophy of
majority of teachers
• Unsustainable timescapes being created –
retention and recruitment issues
Need to begin to think about time in other
ways……

11. Potential Impacts
• May start out enthusiastic and keen to develop ideas/practice/provision
• We end up doing more than we should per contract because we enjoy it
• Feelings of agency and professionalism
• Strong ethic of care – but impossible to ‘complete’ teacher work!?
• Organisations continue to catch us up – the enjoyable extra becomes mandatory
• Reach a threshold beyond which agency disappears
• Loss of autonomy
• Often loss of relationships and support structures – staffrooms like the Mary Celeste

12. • Zombie innovation
• Lack of time for development. Impact on
teacher identity
• Stress/Anxiety
• Overwork
• Burnout
• Impact on sleep and then mental state

13. Finding a Way Forward
Organisational Level
• Understand complexity of time – move away from ‘efficiency’ models
• Foster autonomy
• Make time for relationships
• Foster dialogue
• Honest and more accurate understanding of the time it takes to complete activities
Personal Level
• Re-evaluate our ethic of care
• Develop dialogues and practices focusing on temporal cultures (e.g. e-mail, work-life balance,
resource, sustainability, support levels to students)