By: Nichelle N. Cook, Esq, MA
In anticipation of the 2024-2025 school year, commendably, many school districts have made significant strides toward closing the longstanding wage gap between teachers and similarly credentialed professionals within other fields. Still, retention experts remain skeptical as to whether such initiatives will alone suffice to reduce turnover, given that educator concerns extend far beyond salary. Regardless of the specific reasons individual teachers choose to leave the classroom, what we know to be true is that their presence (or the lack thereof) directly impacts student achievement. We also know that if we expect to address the learning declines exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, we must deliberately take into account the psychosocial stressors existent within the workplace, especially when seeking to retain neurodivergent educators, particularly those with ADHD. That being said, let's dive into the first of three ways that administrators can help these educators to soar.
Disclaimer: Since there are no one-size-fits-all approaches to supporting educators with ADHD, it is important to note that these suggestions serve as simple food for thought rather than rules of thumb.
Introduction
Very few things are as fulfilling to a neurodivergent educator than being afforded the opportunity to support and fully engage students with challenges that mirror their own. Similarly, very few things can be more frustrating to a neurodivergent educator than empathizing with a student's unique needs and possessing the competencies to address them, yet not being afforded the opportunity to do so due to time and space limitations. Accordingly, it is critical that administrators make deliberate efforts to control for these situations as they arise. The first step in doing so is diving into why time and space are so critical among neurodivergent individuals.
Time-blindness
Let's start with the concept of time-blindness, a phenomenon especially common among individuals with ADHD. In a 2023 article published by VeryWell Mind, time-blindness is defined as "the inability to sense the passing of time" and also distinguished as a sensory-based neurological issue as opposed to one's lackadaisical disregard for time. That being said, a neurodivergent educator struggling with time-blindness might be particularly challenged by the rigid planning and instructional schedules present within traditional school settings. As an administrator, one way to support is to recommend time-blocking and afford the necessary time and tools to assist in that effort.
Another reasonable accommodation is the allocation of extended lesson planning time during pre-semester professional development days and providing the necessary materials/documentation needed to successfully plan said lessons. When considering the stressors that typically accompany each new school year, it can be easy for administrators to overlook the importance of simply making certain things accessible to educators. Nonetheless, doing so remains imperative when supporting neurodivergent educators. Though neurotypical individuals have the capacity to adapt in most situations, for neurodivergent educators, navigating these twists and turns can often be far more daunting than meets the eye. Here's why:
Hyperfocus, Distractions & Task Paralysis
While it is commonly known that individuals with ADHD have trouble focusing, what's less commonly understood is that the opposite can equally be true through a phenomenon called hyperfocus. While at first glance this may seem like a good thing as it typically results in extreme productivity, it's important to also note that such focus is to the exclusion of all else including the passage of time. That being said, it is easy for an educator with ADHD to becoming so engaged in planning that shifting their focus away from it become nearly impossible. This is because such adjustments require strong executive functioning skills, which most individuals with ADHD significantly lack. As such, allocating enough time for neurodivergent educators to complete their tasks in excellence, without pressure or distraction, is highly likely to result in a work product more impressive than one could ever imagine (in record time). To the contrary, premature interruption of one's hyperfocus session (or the micromanagement of it) could just as easily lead to task paralysis, potentially resulting in a lackluster work product at best, or the more common and less desirable result -- no work product at all. Either way, such task paralysis is often coupled with feelings of defeat and complete loss of motivation which might reasonably lead to the desire to leave the job, even if they love it.
Impulsivity, Creativity, and Space
Now that we've discussed time-blindness and hyperfocus, let's close by discussing ways to leverage the creativity and innovativeness often associated with ADHD. To adequately discuss this topic, let's start with the prefrontal cortex and its role in controlling executive functioning, specifically inattention and impulsivity and their role in fostering the type of creativity and innovativeness that have the potential to be game-changing - if afforded the proper balance of space and structure necessary to flourish. To maximize this strength in the classroom, the educator must be afforded not only ample time to plan, but also all of the resources necessary to thoroughly do so.
Application:
Example 1: Let's assume that Hypothetical Teacher A is given ample time to plan for a class of 20 students, 40% of which require accommodations. Let's also assume that Hypothetical Teacher A is provided with the necessary textbook, instructional guide, scope and sequence, accommodation sheets, and tools/manipulatives required to effectively differentiate instruction in accordance with the accommodation sheets.
Example 2: Now, let's assume that Hypothetical Teacher B also welcomes 20 students to class with 40% requiring accommodations. Unlike Hypothetical Teacher A, however, let's assume that this teacher receives their textbook one week before school starts, their accommodations sheets on the first day of school, and their instructional guide two weeks into the school year.
Using the information presented in this article, reflect on how these hypothetical circumstances might impact both educators as they seek to perform well while managing their ADHD symptoms?
Stay tuned for an upcoming breakdown of each from my perspective. Until then, ponder your own creative ways to support neurodivergent educators while taking the time to acknowledge the significant contributions they make to the profession.
תגובות