ABSTRACT
The original motivation for this study was to determine the cost (if any) of teachers’ health work. Our initial concerns were associated with the financial costs and burdens to, for example, education systems. Our data analysis helped us to identify what health-work teachers are doing, how much time they spend doing it and the broad clusters of health work that occur across school communities. Some might consider this evidence as ‘good news’. Yet, the deeper analysis presented in this chapter revealed costs and benefits operating at personal and institutional levels. Cognisant of teachers’ concerns that ‘what they do will not be captured by or valued within the metrics of accountability’ (Ball, 2003, p. 223), instituting some measurable outputs of the health and welfare work seemed meaningful. Hence, we framed this analysis around the economic and personal costs of health-related work. We concluded that schools make a substantial contribution of AUD194.2 million per annum towards the health of Queenslanders. Nonetheless, in this chapter, we consider this contribution in light of the personal satisfaction teachers derive from this work, alongside the toll such work exacts on their own health and well-being.
