This week on rabble radio, Dr. Lisa Everitt joins Kiah Lucero to talk about the emotional labour and burnout that teachers and education assistants in Canada are facing. The two also discuss the "HEARTcare" plan – a research project aimed at improving educator well-being.

About our guest and the HEARTcare project

Dr. Lisa Everitt has worked as an executive staff officer with the Alberta Teachers Association since 2006. Everitt has held several roles at the association and has developed expertise in labour relations, employee benefits plans, educational research, and women in leadership. Prior to joining the Association, Everitt taught high school mathematics in the Northwest Territories and Alberta. While her interest in compassion fatigue, emotional labour and educator burnout includes an academic perspective, it also has been informed by her work as a teacher working with vulnerable young people as well as her experience assisting teachers and school leaders struggling with mental emotional health.

Research conducted by the association over the course of the COVID19 pandemic revealed high levels of moral distress, symptoms of burnout, and compassion stress for Alberta teachers. This session focuses on the findings of these studies and addresses HEARTcare planning, a guide based on collective compassion to plan for mental emotional wellness for teachers and school leaders. The HEARTcare plan was designed by Dr. Astrid Kendrick of the University of Calgary following an Alberta Teachers Association and Alberta School Employee Benefit Plan sponsored two year study that examined the consequences of providing emotional labour at work.

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