An Investigation of Psychosocial Risk Management in Teaching

<p dir="ltr">There is little doubt that teaching, as a type of work, can be both rewarding and hazardous. However, little has been done to interrogate teachers’ perceptions of work, or to identify the psychosocial hazards that may be inherent in teachers’ work or work system. The question of whether teachers are sufficiently able to recognise a work-related hazard is particularly relevant in relation to schools as workplaces.</p><p dir="ltr">This thesis employs a mixed method multiphase exploratory approach to investigate teachers’ perceptions of work, hazard, and safety. Three studies were conducted with an industry cohort using interviews, focus groups, and an anonymous online survey. Results indicated that regardless of school sector or location, teachers experience and can recognise relational, organisational and systemic factors that impact on their capacity to carry out their duties. Despite this, teachers do not refer to them as psychosocial hazards without prompting.</p><p dir="ltr">Similarly, despite the presence of teacher workload studies in the teaching literature, workload, and other psychosocially hazardous aspects of teachers’ work (such as lack of autonomy and time pressures), are rarely characterised as hazardous or framed as hazards. When viewed through a work-related safety lens, the implications for recognising these factors as potential psychosocial hazards becomes significant. This is because a work-related safety lens recognises hazardous aspects of teachers’ work such as workload, behaviour management, and time pressures as psychosocial hazards and labels them as such. It is argued that doing so reveals the important role played by language and the recognition of psychosocial hazards in the risk management process in schools.</p><p dir="ltr">Review of WHS priorities in NSW with consideration of the relevance for teaching illustrates how this thesis provides critical evidence to inform the gap between what is known about work, hazardous work, and the teaching profession. Recognising and labelling hazardous aspects of teachers work as hazards underscores the need to evaluate psychosocial risk management strategies used in school settings in future research. It also draws attention to the value of using the language of WHS in school settings.</p>