Many teachers I’ve talked with have confessed they have considered quitting at least once in their careers.This was something I experienced after my fifth year teaching, which was when all the fun and excitement had been replaced by feelings of sameness and routine. I remember struggling to stay motivated, which didn’t make any sense as I was in love with teaching - or so I thought.
Although I wanted to change the routine and try something new, I felt like I had done it all: I had a huge repertoire of games, warm ups, teaching materials, resources, cool-offs, quizzes, textbooks, and worksheets. This only made me think I had already learned everything I needed to know and it also propelled me to question whether there was anything left for me to do. It made me wonder whether teaching was what I really wanted to do my whole life. Could it be possible that I was falling out of love with teaching?
In light of the problems above, I reflected on my career, specifically:
Why was I feeling demotivated despite loving my profession?
How can I fall back in love with something I knew I loved?
In order to better understand what I was going through, I read about career stages. Soon, I discovered I had reached a “plateau”. Plateau is a stage many people reach after gaining enough experience working in one field. It is a feeling of frustration, depression and burnout-like resulting from a sense of stagnation and routine (Meister & Ahrens, 2011; Farrell, 2013). Through further reading, I realized I checked many boxes that indicated I had plateaued, some of which were: reluctance and low work motivation, lack of creativity, lack of attention to career development, and decreased performance (Zeinabi et al., 2022). Furthermore, I took the “Educator Plateau Survey” mentioned in Meister & Ahrens (2011, p. 771) to determine the type of plateau you are experiencing, which, according to Bardwick (1986, as cited in Milstein, 1990, p. 173), is divided into three categories: structural, which takes place when growth opportunities seem unattainable; content, which occurs when there is little or no challenge in one’s job; and life plateau, which happens when there is a sense of daily routine. Reflecting upon my situation, I identified myself with the structural and life plateau.
The next question was for me to understand why this happens? I found out there are many factors that contribute to teacher plateau, such as limited growth opportunities, negative school environments, and how long you’ve been working in a place (Meister & Ahrens, 2011). Although some authors have attempted to debunk performance plateau (Goodwin & Slotnik, 2018; Papay & Kroft, 2016) by explaining that teachers perform better as they gain experience, the same authors assert that experience does not automatically lead to improvement in all the cases, as many teachers stick to practiced they’d been doing all their career. This only indicates that plateau is an actual phenomenon, which is likely to happen to teachers either for a short period of time or throughout their entire careers.
Luckily, I found many ways we can overcome it. Overall, it is suggested giving teachers autonomy and independence to decide on their teaching process, strong support systems amongst colleagues, coworkers, and students, and strong professional environments which allow for learning to happen. These suggestions became principles for my professional career, which made me fall back in love with teaching.
Overcoming the plateau stage took me a couple of months but after understanding the underlying factors that produce it, I acted on it in the following ways:
MOOCs: I started learning more about other ways to teach through free online asynchronous courses. This helped me gain different perspectives and knowledge about teaching. The platforms I used were Edx, Coursera, FutureLearn and courses from the OPEN English programs. The best of all is the variety of courses you can take, which go from TESOL methodology to teacher training, language assessment, technology for the EFL classroom, educational policies, educational leadership and online teaching. What’s important is to learn about various topics, as this enriches your experience while letting you gain more mental models to further understand the classroom dynamics.
Professional Development: In addition to the online courses, I also joined professional development programs to learn from experts in TESOL and General Education. I first started through the fanpage of American English for EFL Educators and their Youtube Channel. Then, a friend of mine suggested I follow Teacher Development Webinars on youtube, as normally they develop webinars with experts in the field of EFL. Last but not least, one of the most successful teacher development programs from El Salvador I have gained a lot of knowledge from is Teachers Up. Besides monthly webinars, they have built a strong teacher community through which I have met and learned from other fellow teachers.
Peer Collaboration: Another way I overcame plateau was by working closely with my colleagues. I did this in three ways. The first of those was by sharing with them my concerns regarding my students’ learning, asking for and giving advice based on our experiences, and by sharing materials and resources. This collaboration helped me feel supported knowing that we were all facing similar problems, which we could solve together. The second way was by creating collaborative projects. This helped us build a community sense not just among us as teachers but also among our students. Most of our projects consisted of our students working together despite being in different classes and having different English levels. One more way was by observing my colleagues teach and by having them observe my class. Although this made me feel nervous at the beginning, I discovered that this allowed me to learn from my peers while also improving my own teaching practice, as my colleagues helped me notice classroom situations I was not aware of.
Reading: A habit which took me time to develop - albeit useful- has been reading. It has allowed me to be updated on the latest teaching trends and research, which gives me the chance to experiment new things in my classroom and understand it differently. At first, I didn’t know what to read and get information firsthand; however, I started following some blogs that recommended other blogs and authors. Some of the blogs I’ve learned the most from can be found in my resources button on my website (right here). I cannot stress enough how much they’ve helped me gain knowledge and shape my view of teaching and learning.
Reflection: One last way I overcame plateau was by reflecting about what I was doing in my classroom. How did I know what I was doing was effective? I started seeing my practice as an opportunity to investigate and document what was working. That is how this blog and other articles came to life, as a way to disseminate my classroom findings so it reaches other teachers who might be facing similar issues as mine. This reflection has let me take every new idea as an exciting chance to discover something new. It has been this excitement which has enabled me to fall back in love with teaching.
After implementing all the actions above, besides overcoming plateau, I grew as a teacher in many ways:
Innovation: Given all the knowledge I’d gained, I experimented with new teaching trends in my classroom, some of which worked and others didn’t. In any case, this was quickly perceived by my students, who highlighted how different my classroom dynamic was in comparison to all of their experiences in classrooms.
Expertise development: Another change I noticed was regarding the way I approached and understood classroom problems. Since I had developed many mental models through the reading and webinars, I tackled classroom issues differently, applying all the theory and resources to understand it and find solutions.
Self-efficacy: As a result of all the collaboration, constant reflection, and reading, I started feeling reassured I was capable of dealing with and solving any challenge that might arise in my classroom and, in general, in my teaching career. Although I do feel afraid in the face of new situations, I also feel calm because I trust my skills to learn and confront whatever comes the way.
If you are plateauing, there is nothing to be ashamed of. It is a common stage in any career. What’s important is to recognize it and take actions that can help us enjoy what we love doing.
If you are going through this, I strongly recommend you read two books I have learned a lot from:
Farrell, T. (2013). Reflective practice in ESL teacher development groups: From practices to principles. Springer.
Mann, S., & Walsh, S. (2017). Reflective practice in English language teaching: Research-based principles and practices. Routledge.