Experts
Current topics explained by RUG professionals
Suspended teachers
Saskia Peters
Professor of labour law
‘That teacher making an extremist statement on Twitter is interesting from a labour law perspective. Employees tend to think that what they say on social media is a private matter, but if your account is public, that means your statement is in the public domain.
The next question is whether a tweet like that should lead to suspension. That depends on the nature of the tweet. If it’s a threat or a call to violence, it’s actually a criminal offence. Suspension or even firing someone would be completely justified.
I’m not sure that this particular tweet asking ‘Volkert, where are you?’ (editor’s note: Volkert van der Graaf was convicted of politician Pim Fortuyn’s murder in 2002) constitutes a criminal offence; that’s for a criminal judge to decide. But that doesn’t mean it can’t have consequences for this person’s job. Suspension or firing may both be justified.
For that, we need to ask three questions: did the school suffer any damage to its image, are the public statements in line with what the school should expect from a teacher, and did the statement agitate colleagues, students, and parents?
A history teacher was fired for posting extremist statements on the internet mainly because of the unrest he’d caused. Teachers need to take into account that these public statements can have far-reaching consequences for them, even if the statement was made after working hours. To prevent incidents like these, schools should have a social media conduct code.’
Maaike Engels
Postdoctoral researcher of sociology and pedagogy
‘Whenever a situation between a teacher and a student escalates, for example when a student throws a chair at a teacher and the latter grabs the student by the back of the neck, it’s usually because already had a bad relationship. This can influence how students perform.
Bad relationships between teachers and students have been shown to correspond to truancy and poor grades. So there’s a correlation between the general atmosphere at a school and students’ performance. It only makes sense that a poor, conflict-riddled relationship with a teacher corresponds to poor performance in their class. We don’t know whether positive relationships between the student and other teachers can compensate for this one bad relationship.
The way the media responds to incidents involving students and to teachers posting on social media helps make teachers more aware that they serve as an example to kids. But for the actual teachers involved, it’s a nasty situation. Their reputation has been tarnished and they’re distrusted. That makes it difficult for them to return to their place of work.
It’s important that people don’t freeze them out. School management, parents, and the teacher need to communicate with each other, and the teacher and their students need to keep talking to each other as well. Only if you talk about what happened and how the situation impacted people can trust be restored.’
Marjon Fokkens-Bruinsma
Associate professor at the teacher training academy
‘Teachers face a lot of pressure at school. This can negatively influence their well-being and therefore their behaviour in class. We’re interested in figuring out how to improve the well-being of teachers and lower their stress levels by making them more resilient. This can help maintain teachers’ mental health, prevent issues, and ensure they enjoy their work and can function properly.
The literature teaches us there are several factors that impact teachers’ resilience. Some of these factors are personal or emotional, such as motivation, optimism, hope, and a sense of humour in class. But the environment plays a role as well: their relationship with colleagues and a safety net where they can ask for help. The ability to reflect on things also plays an important role.
We’ve seen that teacher training students who focus on their own well-being are more resilient as well. We’ll be starting a research project funded by the Netherlands Initiative for Education Research to figure out whether teachers’ well-being increases if we focus on resilience during training. We want future teachers to be more resilient and better able to deal with the challenges they’re facing.’