As teachers, we’re said to be on the front-lines of education – pressing forward inch-by-inch to achieve learning objectives and make a difference in spite of the constant spectre of burnout looming just ahead. Our efforts in education are cast in the language of warfare, with hero teachers being lionized in the same way we talk about war heroes.
This is not news – the way we talk about teaching in Malaysia mirrors how we talk about the military. We put “hero” individuals on a pedestal to avoid talking about inconvenient realities, like how Malaysian teachers are facing a massive mental health crisis. A 2019 survey of 356 Malaysian teachers in the Klang Valley found that 9.9% of teachers reported having severe-to-extremely severe depressive symptoms while 23.3% of teachers reported severe-to-extremely severe anxiety. These are jaw-dropping numbers, but it’s definitely far easier to talk about teachers who manage to make it all work instead of the vast number of teachers suffering in silence.
Talking about hero teachers helps us avoid inconvenient systemic issues. Recent news, such as that of a teacher in Sabah who provided free meals to students in need, showcase yet another way in which our systems have failed to serve our students, with individual “hero” teachers having to step in. Through the lens of the hero teacher, actions such as these show the truth in the saying that guru ibarat lilin, but the lens of the hero teacher does not hold our institutions and systems accountable.
The idea of the “hero teacher”, as Teaching Tolerance wonderfully explains, also implies that teachers are saviours who are saving students from something. It tells us that teachers should overwork themselves because “it’s all for the kids”. It puts an undue amount of pressure on teachers, who then doubt themselves and their ability to contribute due to the frankly unrealistic expectations the myth of hero teachers has created.
The idea of the hero teacher is even included in our systems, with teachers who meet certain criteria being awarded the status of “guru cemerlang”. Has the status of guru cemerlang helped the teaching profession or hurt it? Do ideas like “guru cemerlang” or “hero teachers” help promote the collaborative, continuously improving and learning culture we would like to see in schools?
We need to move forward from the idea of the hero teacher – educators are people trying their best to make a difference, and we should focus on supporting educators through concrete measures, by advocating for better working conditions, benefits and professional development opportunities.
Highlighting hero teachers doesn’t help anybody – it hurts our teachers, hides the failures in our systems and holds the teaching profession back. It’s an idea more suited for fiction than our lived reality.
This Merdeka Day, in service to our teachers, let’s liberate our consciousness from the idea of a hero teacher. Teachers are people and should not feel pressured into being heroes – we’ll know we have succeeded when all teachers feel valued and respected as people working a job, instead of as heroes making sacrifices.
© August 2020 – Kularetnam Vijayakumar ’18
Teach For Malaysia Alumni Network 