Almost 50 years ago, veteran educator Dan Lortie (1975) sought to more fully understand the underpinnings of what it meant to be a school teacher. In his book, Schoolteacher: A Sociological Study, he notes that teaching is unlike any other occupation:
While lawyers know whether they have won or lost a case, and architects get to see their designs rendered into a house, teachers must rely on more psychic rewards—subjective experiences that lend themselves towards feelings of success. (Lortie, as quoted in Hargreaves, 2010, p. 145)
That is, teachers rarely know whether they have won or lost in the classroom, and Lortie (1975) concluded that, “Teachers perceive their psychic rewards as scarce, erratic, and unpredictable” (p. 211).
From what I’ve witnessed in schools today as a classroom teacher, instructional coach, researcher, and educational strategist, it seems to me that how teachers felt back in 1975 about whether they were “winning” or “losing” in the classroom mirrors how teachers feel now: fearful, exhausted, and underprepared. Their psychic rewards are indeed “scarce, erratic, and unpredictable.” This situation is compounded by a lack of teacher agency. Rarely can teachers direct their own learning, inspire their own inquiries, or (gasp!) create their own curriculum.
School leaders can change this. They can steer school reform toward a more people-centered experience and increase the psychic rewards of teaching by fostering teacher agency—the heart of what it means to teach.
Defining Teacher Agency
But first, let’s look at what teacher agency means. It’s an ability to claim an intellectual teaching life that centers its heartbeat in classrooms, to feel conviction around one’s teaching and learning work, and to make decisions that are both based in research and connected to the community. Teacher agency has sustained me throughout my educator work. As I’ve defined the term elsewhere,
Teacher agency is fostered in spaces that position teachers as intellectual beings, change agents, and community leaders. It is also nourished by communal connections that are maintained within the school itself. Teacher agency is real decision-making power in terms of the types of learning experiences teachers are a part of and have access to that are connected to developing their goals. (Minor, 2023, p. 146)
The Role of the Thought Sanctuary
So how might school leaders promote teacher agency within a school community? To start, they must create time and space for teachers to honestly and earnestly share their experiences. I’ve dubbed this space a thought sanctuary—a ritualized space free of checklists or heavy agendas where teachers come together to share stories and experiences that are part of the richness of their daily teaching lives. There are no hard and fast rules about when these types of gatherings should take place or who should lead them, but, in all cases, thought sanctuaries should:
- Honor joy, curiosity, and research.
- Promote flexible thinking and teacher-driven agendas.
- Foster ideation and creativity. (Minor, 2023)
For example, in one school I work with, teacher and restorative justice coordinator Joy Canning built a thought sanctuary for both students and teachers in her classroom, dubbed “The Den.” There, students and teachers brainstorm ways to build on restorative practices; students also use the space to engage in peaceful activities, such as crafting, reading, and gaming.
Owning one’s learning is a powerful psychic reward.
The thought sanctuary doesn’t always need to be initiated by teachers or be an add-on to their already busy day; rather, it can take place during existing professional learning time or a staff meeting.
Whether your teachers are getting together during or after the school day, consider shaping the teacher meeting using the following elements of thought sanctuaries as your guide.
Honor Joy, Curiosity—and Research
School leaders can cultivate joy-filled thought sanctuaries by encouraging teachers to celebrate even the smallest of school or student feats, display photo montages that honor recent school experiences, and recognize important teacher life events. Include music, soft lighting, and even ambient YouTube backdrops that feature scenes from nature. This might sound cheesy, but research shows that pleasant sensory experiences in learning environments can reduce stress and increase a person’s level of dopamine, a neurotransmitter that plays an important role in motivation, pleasure, and learning (Batt-Rawden & Tellnes, 2011).
Curiosity, an essential component of all learning (especially the kind that is joyful!), is a crucial part of the thought sanctuary. Just as we pose questions to students in inquiry-based learning, invite your staff to explore various topics during the session, such as inclusion, flexible grouping, or integrated co-teaching. Have them look at challenges the school might be facing, such as decreased student or family engagement, lack of teacher morale, or the varied stances on an upcoming curricular adoption. Encourage teachers to research these issues and include adequate time in the meetings for them to do so.
In most teacher workshops I facilitate—I conduct one, for example, on how to develop student-centered instruction in a standards-based world—teachers engage in pocket research. This involves short bursts of research on a given issue; teachers can immediately use what they learn in their classrooms. Diving deep into issues, as well as into pertinent hot-button issues, primes teachers' curiosity and cultivates ownership of their thinking.
For example, when teachers conducted pocket research on inclusion, they quickly discovered that the term is often rigidly boxed into serving students with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs). As we continued our research, the teachers found a broader application. They saw inclusion as a lens through which to develop more inclusive planning routines, such as flexible grouping structures that connect students to a variety of their peers, something they could use the very next day.
Allowing teachers this time to explore what matters in the work of teaching and learning—before we start telling them what to do—invites communal knowledge building. Teachers are more likely to embrace learning if they’re part of that process. Owning one’s learning is a powerful psychic reward.
Promote Flexible Thinking and Teacher-Driven Agendas
If educators focus on cultivating flexible thinking in their classrooms—the idea that there’s not just one “knower” in the room, but, rather, many plausible perspectives and possibilities—they must likewise foster such thinking in their teacher community. School leaders can highlight the importance of flexible thinking by offering protocols that enable teachers to prioritize what they want to learn during their professional learning time and that help ensure accountability.
One simple protocol is called Lean Coffee, which combines Lean thinking with a more casual format (coffee). Created in the spirit of democratic learning by Jim Benson and Jeremy Lightsmith, Lean Coffee is known as the “agenda-less meeting.” This meeting structure calls on participants to gather, build an agenda, and start talking. I use this protocol when I work in schools when the energy is low, the challenges are high, and the time is short. Teams of educators, typically in a grade or department, write down on sticky notes a series of topics they’d like to discuss. These might include English language instruction in a specific subject, student attendance, or an upcoming school event. Teachers nominate a facilitator—facilitators can change from meeting to meeting—as well as someone who will time the brainstorming. Teachers then choose two or three of their sticky notes to post in a visible space, and the group votes on the topics they want to discuss first. The facilitator assigns a given amount of time to discuss each topic, and conversation commences.
Generally, the meetings are highly productive because teachers feel a sense of agency in democratically generating their own agenda. For example, one deliverable many teachers are required to “turn in” to school leaders are meeting notes, a documentation of how they spent their time. Protocols such as Lean Coffee prioritize topics from teachers’ perspectives, and they require an entirely different level of accountability: teachers document what they will try, what they anticipate will change as a result, and later, what actually happened.
Play, along with curiosity and a calm state of mind, are powerful ingredients for innovation.
Foster Ideation and Creativity
Play, along with curiosity and a calm state of mind, are powerful ingredients for innovation. Offering teachers space within professional learning to “play” helps mitigate contentious issues within their teaching lives. Within the context of learning, play enables us to learn through a sense of fun and possibility and helps us take more chances in our work—a near requirement for educators if we’re to challenge the status quo of education.
For example, new curricular mandates can be at odds with student needs. We need to pose bigger essential questions to enable larger possibilities, and those questions need to be based on the lived realities that teachers experience, documented from conversations and spaces where teachers are actively listened to. In one workshop that my organization, The Minor Collective, conducted, teacher feedback generated the following essential question: How can educators be responsive to students and fulfill a mandate at the same time?
Educators work in groups and use a variety of modes to respond, such as through storytelling, poster-making, questionnaire feedback, and handwritten letters. One librarian I work with developed a space in the school library for teachers to engage in this work; there, teachers posted their ideas on notes, developing a trail that tracked their ideation process.
Teachers typically respond to the essential questions we pose with passion and possibility. They circle up at the end of the meeting time to collect notes that may help them better balance good teaching with mandates or address the unique needs of their schools. This work supports a change in teacher practice that makes a difference for students, as opposed to just checking off a deliverable on an arbitrary list.
The Psychic Rewards That All Teachers Need
Today’s teachers are navigating waters that are much more challenging than the ones I sailed through years ago. We see book bans. We see curricular erasure; some U.S. states have barred Black studies and queer lives completely out of classroom life. We see misinformation regarding all kinds of instructional methodologies; in some states, specific mandates regarding what type of curriculum can be purchased are now written into legislation.
Despite all these challenges, as a classroom teacher, coach, and educational strategist, I have looked to teacher agency to resurrect the spirited nature of teaching and learning—those psychic rewards that Lortie refers to that keep so many teachers going. By supporting teachers in this pursuit, school leaders can help them more fully embrace the psychic rewards of teaching and find greater fulfillment—and agency—in their work.
