PACZion – EU Interreg IV A Project on Teachers' Health (2008 – 2011)
Assoc. Prof. Milada Krejčí, PhD1, Prof. Norbert Seibert, PhD2, Ass. Prof. Petra Vojtova, PhD1
1Dept of Health Education, Faculty of Education, University of South Bohemia, České Budějovice, Czech Republic
2Dept of Pedagogy, Faculty of Education, University of Passau, Germany
Intentions, objectives, methods
Researches concerning teachers’ health support that teachers’ occupation, due to complex spectrum of educative and educational tasks, leads to psychological and physical burn-out syndrome. Results of investigative survey PAllianCZ (2006) support that more than 66% of Czech and Bavarian teachers are affected by the burn-out syndrome, which was eventually the reason for their early retirement, which in turn means very high expenses for state (in Bavaria it is € 375 000 ). Timely system measures concerning education and formation of teachers’ health, as planned within a partnership network, will contribute to improvement of quality of both teachers’ work and lives.
Owing to acquired cooperation of network’s partner (health insurance company, medical background and cooperation), project’s work team will ensure an offer of educative program for teachers. Under the introductory training in the consulting center (Bad Griesbach), groups of chosen teachers (around 60 participants) will be examined individually (psychologically, physically). In the course of 2 years they will be undergoing special program concerning support and responsible care of their own health, minding their individual differences. Once every 6 months, an evaluation of effectiveness of care of personal health will be carried out in the consulting center, with the opportunity to correct the conception of health care and self-control. In the end there will be given a statement about the change of state, in accordance with participant’s reaction to given salutogenetic program. Network’s partners will remain main contact persons in the intentionally founded consultation center.
In České Budejovice, the Center for a healthy lifestyle of department for health education (in Faculty of Education, University of South Bohemia) will serve as the special consulting center. Its aims and tasks are the same as the ones of the Bavarian side. The joint project is put together by the partnership parties, with University of Passau holding the leadership. With regular consultations with experts, a catalogue of preventive and curative activities leading towards responsibility of personal health, a care improvement was developed. Both sides are cooperating closely, as evident from current cooperation, and coordinators from Czech and Bavarian parties form the administrative side of the project. In order to minimize the language barrier, a German speaking coordinator (staying in Ceske Budejovice) is involved in the project. The technical background of the project lies with the responsibility of the doctors and psychologists as well as the advisory centers for healthy lifestyle on both workplaces, where the teachers – participants are supported and diagnosed. The whole project exhibits close succession in individual phases and it will be closely documented until the end.
The participant is expected, with the help of medical and psychological team of experts to come to individual Salutogenetic plan in the course of the mentioned research period of time. The main goal is to boost personal financial resources and acquire a permanent high professional satisfaction of teachers. It also aims at eliminating, or significantly lowering, the burn-out quote in the long term. It is to be exemplarily proven upon teachers, that it is possible to strengthen one’s health by their own care and to gain coveted results by these means.
Program evaluation, recommendation |
Being able to work in one’s profession “with passion“ and with joy for as long as possible, acting in a health-conscious way for oneself and returning this positive climate of contentment to the educational work and to the pupils, that is the ideal of each student of teaching at the beginning of his or her training. However, reality teaches us otherwise. Germany is in the middle of a campaign for better education – the learning success of or pupils serves as a quality criterion of a “high-wage and high-performance country“and puts us under pressure, is a challenge at school not only for pupils but also for teachers who need to meet certain standards and guidelines of society and whose educational, specialist and didactic skills significantly influence the success of pupils. As current studies on classroom teaching (cf. Hattie, 2003; Sanders/ Rivers, 1996) show, at least 30% of pupils’ success is directly connected with the personality of the teacher, it is obvious that the emphasis of educational and health politics should be put on improving the physical and mental stability of teachers, all the more so after recent statistical data on early retirement (23 %; in comparison to other public officers: 17 %; Federal Statistical Office 2008) or on the burnout syndrome (Schaarschmidt 2002/2007, Weber 2004, Seibert et al. 2007) provide alarming findings on the current health condition of teaching staff. In this context, it is not only the personal fates of teachers who are at risk of burning out or have fallen ill that move us due to the consequences for the person who is affected, his or her family or social network. From a systemic or economic point of view this tendency seems to cause more and more reason for concern, as absences due to sick leave and early retirement from service put a financial burden on the school system due to transitional arrangements and covering arrangements, as well as on the government and the healthcare system as the providers of social benefits. Becoming aware of this alarming situation has been attempted for several years, offering solutions and measures on various levels of the government and the school, however, with hardly any noticeable success.
State-aided pilot projects on teachers' health in Bavaria were abandoned after a while and the counseling service for these inquiries was transferred to the school counseling agencies of the governments. Those, however, hardly manage to cope with the great demand for autogenic support measures due to a lack of financial and human resources. On the meso level, health support within schools depends on an open-minded governing board of the school which should be able to enable implementation as part of the administrative setup. Thus it is left to those concerned to assume responsibility for participating in classes and seminars on various health disciplines, choosing from teacher specific catalogues for continuing education, from the local offers of health insurance companies or health care organizations. In reality, this usually happens in a very selective way, the choice is made according to personal preferences and often without any professional counseling or support. Due do the lack of continuous medical monitoring, there is no proof of efficiency so that the time the chosen measure will be effective might be rather limited and the commitment displayed will bring few results. The project’s basic objective is to prove the long-term efficiency of individual and, in particular, accompanied measures for professional health support, which, at the end of the project, is to manifest in the form of a stabilization of the participating teachers' and students' individual health condition and to prove the profitability of workplace health promotion.
The project is simultaneously implemented in both regions in four phases and contains as its core a 2-year intensive health and comfort program from five areas:
- relaxation,
- movement,
- nutrition,
- job-related salutogenesis and
- preventive medical health care and consulting.
In addition to the holistic medical component, PACZion puts a special emphasis on an atmosphere of "feeling comfortable and taken care of". Therefore up-to-date health care and consultation centers are available in both Lower Bavaria and the Czech Republic, in Bad Griesbach (D) and Trebon (CZ) respectively; they offer the comfort and wellness setting and are additionally able to support the physical healing process with excellent doctors, state-of-the-art equipment and curative facilities.
In both regions the PACZion expert teams conduct an extensive physical and mental/emotional health check-up with all participants, which is repeated several times in the course of the project. Based on these individual holistic medical histories, experts work out an individual health road map (PAss) for half a year. This road map suggests precise measures from the five areas mentioned above, geared to the individual situation and adaptable to changing demands. Between the half-yearly evaluations in a self-responsible way and with a free choice of places and times, the participants are required to make use of the suggested prevention and intervention measures offered by the listed network partners (e.g. medical facilities – such as medical doctors, osteopaths, physiotherapists, health resort environments, psychologists, massage therapists, but also job-related support options, e.g. supervisors, educational, psychological/social work facilities), but of course if required can always consult with PACZion experts. This will be accompanied by an offer of weekend seminars and classes on various health and job-related issues in individual consulting centers and also at the Universities of Passau and Ceske Budejovice, which is to enable a mutual exchange within the subject group and, due to the group dynamics in becoming acquainted with salutogenetic contents, could have a motivating effect. An additional objective is for the bi-national character of PACZion to be made apparent by realizing the PAss measures in Bavarian as well as in Czech health care facilities, and for jointly held project seminars and classes in Passau and in Ceske Budejovice to document the inter-regional cooperation. After the test period, an extensive final check-up will be performed by the PACZion expert team, which should show a scientifically provable, lasting improvement of each subject’s health condition based on a detailed before-and-after comparison.
Project Impact:
Ability to cope with professional stress, to be educated towards professional satisfaction in terms of Work – life balance, to improve the quality of life, those are the foremost objectives of PACZion. Seminars offered, medical (psychological, physiological) care and examination, activities leading towards care of one’s own health, motivating teachers for their own Salutogenesis, those are the things supporting a good health in a long term. Number of sicknesses is decreased and the joy of being a teacher is boosted. From strictly economic point of view, health expenses are significantly lowered and premature retirement is reduced.
Besides desirable improvements in working field of teachers and in the quality of their lives and their performance in Czech border area, this project will lay basis for further interdisciplinary cooperation between Bavarian and Czech universities, in touristic sphere (wellness) and in educational health care (curative, preventive). Network’s cooperation will support salutogenetic education of teachers, responsibility for personal health; it will lower the number of teachers retiring prematurely, and minimize weakening of teachers’ health.
Permanency is guaranteed by the function of Department of health education, Faculty of Education in University of South Bohemia itself, which is aimed at education and health support on the Czech side, as well as founding the consulting center on the Bavarian side, which quality is guaranteed by the doctors, psychologists and other qualified workers. Institutions on both sides are determined to help solving the endangered health of teachers. In the partnership with health insurance companies, the formation and support of teachers’ health is headed towards permanent care of teachers and their health.
SUMMARY
PACZion is a project on teachers' health and is significantly supported and promoted by the ministries of education of both countries, both countries' governments and by the universities' boards in Passau and Ceske Budejovice. The long-term objective is thus to document the (future) proven benefit of individual health measures taken alongside one's job with a (currently) small number of participants and, on the basis of these scientific data, to initiate processes of administrative change for many Bavarian teachers. Although the PACZion project will be finished by 2011, the vision of a holistic support system at the “school as a workplace“will be carried on and teachers, governing bodies of schools and supervising boards should be encouraged to actively contribute to implementing and institutionalizing teachers' health and to fully use the room provided for salutogenetic measures as far as their possibilities and situations allow. Considering the studies mentioned above on teaching success and its dependency on the teacher's personality, an investment in teachers' health would pay off the most for the pupils entrusted to us who could then enjoy better classes thanks to a more balanced, stable and happier teacher community in a positive school climate.
Keywords: teachers' health, burn-out syndrome, PACZion project, University of South Bohemia in Ceske Budejovice, University Passau
Literature
Hattie, J. (2003). "Teachers make a difference: what is the research evidence? “ paper presented at the Australian Council for Educational Research Conference, 19-21 October, Melbourne, Australia.
Schaarschmidt, U. (2004). Halbtagsjobber?: Psychologische Gesundheit im Lehrerberuf – Analyse eines veränderungsbedürftigen Zustandes. Weinheim: Beltz/ Deutscher Studienverlag.
Schaarschmidt, U./ Kieschke, U. (Hrsg.) (2007). Gerüstet für den Schulalltag. Psychologische Unterstützungsangebote für Lehrerinnen und Lehrer. Weinheim: Beltz.
Seibert, N./ Lehner, F./ Cihlars, D./ Siegel, B. (2007). PAllianCZ – Zwischenbericht Phase 1: Ist-Zustand und Bedarfsanalyse. Passau: Universität Passau.
Seibert, N./ Cihlars, D.(2009). “PACZion – Staying a teacher with Passion. In: Health and Quality of Life II. Ceske Budejovice: University of South Bohemia..
Weber, A./ Weltle, D./ Lederer, P (2004) . Frühinvalidität im Lehrerberuf: Sozial- und arbeitsmedizinische Aspekte. In Dtsch Arztebl 2004; 101: A 850–859
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