We saw the need for a teacher support group when a productive discussion on racism was shut down on an online forum. 

As teachers, we have a responsibility to be allies to our pupils and colleagues: racism, homophobia and transphobia affect people’s lives and aren’t mere theoretical concepts that can be put up for “debate” and then tossed aside.

There needs to be a place where teachers can share good practice and discuss ideas with colleagues. Since starting the group - Scottish Teachers for Positive Change and Wellbeing - we have also received messages from LGBT+ colleagues who have told us they often feel unsafe in online teacher forums and real-life staffrooms. This has to change.

Traditionally, teachers have been discouraged from speaking their mind, for fear of it becoming political. Often in teacher forums, discussions around what is viewed as political such as issues around social justice are discouraged or removed. 

Brazilian educator and philosopher Paulo Freire famously said that education could not be divorced from politics, that the acts of teaching and learning were political acts in and of themselves.

Certainly, the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) professional standards encourage critical thinking and teaching of such issues; it is not possible for us to teach these skills if we lack critical thinking ourselves.

A year of Covid: Explore this free special issue of Tes Scotland

Also this week: What teachers told us about the return of all pupils

Qualifications during Covid: Pushback against pressure on schools to handle appeals

Debate: Is Scottish education ‘stagnant and conformist’?

Lockdown learning: Pupils give their perspective on life during Covid

With the emotive discourse surrounding school closures during the Covid lockdowns, many teachers are struggling with the online abuse and tabloid vilification of teachers. Many of us have even received this from friends and family members.

Our group, then, is a safe place for people to share articles and voice concerns without judgement or having to hear unhelpful comparisons to workers in completely different jobs who are just “getting on with it”.  

Despite the challenges lockdown has presented, the past 12 months has provided an opportunity for the profession to network and build contacts like never before, thanks, of course, to our total dependency on the digital world. 

So the group has also become a forum to connect and learn from colleagues all over Scotland and share our experiences. We share opportunities for professional learning, engage through shared reading and encourage discussion at all times. Ultimately, our group’s aim is that we are here for each other.  As one member messaged to say, “I love being a part of this group where I can speak my mind.” 

There’s no complexity here, no “standards” other than common decency and respect for one another. There is a recognition that the profession and, indeed, the country as a whole are facing an approaching tsunami of mental ill health, but there is no stigmatisation and no judgement.

The group understands the need for positivity while also accepting that “toxic positivity” does more harm than good. While it was born out of a global pandemic and the effect that it is having on our profession, one thing is clear: the group itself, the ideas that have come from it, the connections it has created and the power to continue making positive change for a profession we all love, will last long after Covid-19 stops dominating our lives.

And here are our 10 tips for creating a safe online space for teachers:

1. Accept that teaching is affected by politics and allow respectful discussion among colleagues.

2. Accept your own privilege and bias; be willing to always stop and reflect on your own self.

3. Share stories of positivity and hope alongside those of disappointment.

4. Beware of insisting on toxic positivity.

5. Share your interests and experiences outwith education - we are not one-dimensional.

6. Avoid language that comes from a deficit model rather than focusing on strengths.

7. Build each other up.

8. Be wary of becoming institutionalised in our thinking.

9. Be creative.

10 Remember why we became teachers in the first place!

Gemma Clark (@Gemma_clark14), Nuzhat Uthmani (@NUthmani) and Douglas Clark (@mr_d_clark) are teachers in Scotland. Scottish Teachers for Positive Change and Wellbeing can be found here