S06 E03: Staff wellbeing as we transition back to on campus learning, with Katrina Bourke

This interview is with Katrina Bourke of Katrina Bourke coaching, who you may remember from way back in Series 2. We talk about schools around Australia returning to on campus learning for all students, and the way that transition is playing out for teachers and leaders and school staff, and what we can do individually and collectively to support ourselves and each other during that transition and the challenges of the ongoing uncertainty around the way the school system and the COVID-19 crisis will continue to unfold. I really wanted to release this episode this week because I believe it’s important, timely conversation for educators as schools navigate this current transition, which is happening right now.

 

I want to take a moment to pause and acknowledge something else happening right now. If you’re listening to this episode at the time of its release, in the first week of June 2020, there are protests in the USA this week following the murder of George Floyd in police custody, which is following on from a long list of police brutality against BIPOC, black, indigenous and people of colour, and I want to acknowledge the hurt and trauma and injustice of that. To my US listeners, particularly African American listeners, I am thinking of you. Black lives matter.

 

In Australia, it’s also Reconciliation Week and we have our own black lives matter movement because we also police brutality here. According to the Guardian Australia’s Deaths Inside project, there have been “at least 432 Aboriginal deaths in custody since the royal commission in 1991.” If this is news to you, or even if it’s not, I will put a couple of links in the description of this episode that I recommend you read for the Australian context of this, because it gets so little media or public attention here. I acknowledge and recognise the pain and trauma of this injustice for Aboriginal people here in Australia too.

 

If you’re following @selfcareforteachers on social media you may have seen that this week I am participating in the #amplifymelanatedvoiceschallenge, which is about centering the voices and lived experiences of folks of colour, so I’m not posting my own content on social media this week. I’m sharing the work of BIPOC teachers and leaders and content creators in my stories, and listening and learning, reflecting on my privilege and how I can unpack that going forwards. This isn’t a one and done thing, it will be ongoing internal work for me and for all of us to unravel how society conditions us and what we allow to continue at the expense of black and indigenous lives. I want to say also that I don’t need praise for this, it’s not about me, and I’m not at all sure of the right response but I know that ignoring this and saying nothing would be wrong. I support the #blacklivesmatter movement, it is a matter of human rights. To my listeners who are white, I invite you to spend some time reading and learning about it, too. Start with the links below and then keep learning, and listening to the lived experiences of folks of colour.

 

Links Ellen mentioned:

 

 

Links mentioned in the interview: