Along with the emotional work that goes into this relationship frame is the moral dimension associated with social justice.

As professionals, educators/teachers/academics work in a sector where the ideals of equal participation for all students are at the very basis of their roles.

However these foundational perspectives are undermined by neoliberalism which positions the very existence of emotion and morality as not only inappropriate, but fundamentally undesirable. 

For example, neoliberal educational institutions now sort employees on the basis of their performance, so that staff are continually ranked and compared, and their worth determined on the basis of their specific contributions to their employing institution.

Performance management requires staff to evaluate their contribution to their employer against the organisations’ strategic plan and goals, and activities that do not directly contribute towards these are not valued and often actively discouraged.

Research suggests that educators in general now experience extremely high levels of anxiety and stress which impacts on their ability to offer quality learning to their students.

Such anxiety and stress though, are seen as failings.

Neoliberalism positions emotions such as these as irrational so that those who experience emotion in the workplace are seen as not performing effectively.

Feeling disempowered, stressed or over-worked are perceived as problems employees have the responsibility to manage for themselves.

Attending courses such as “Learning to manage change” or “Building your resilience” is one possible solution.

Working harder, in a climate of constant improvement, so that your performance can be judged as ‘better’ than that of your colleagues is another expectation.

Many continue to strive to meet ever increasing expectations with consequent costs to their health and wellbeing.

Along with this is the impact on staff who believe in the moral dimension of their work but feel increasingly unable to find a way to juggle competing demands.

Many became educators because they believed in the value of education as contributing towards social justice.

Many now struggle to maintain feelings of integrity when the education they are delivering is so constrained they can only offer quality learning experiences by working beyond their employed hours.

This disjunction leads to stress, anxiety, and even depression or burn out.

Those who value delivery of high quality learning opportunities beyond their own health and wellbeing continue to do so but for how long?

Others reduce the quality of their teaching but struggle with the consequent feelings of inadequacy, and perhaps feelings of grief at the loss of professional esteem and integrity.

The very high rates of teacher attrition within the first 5 years post-graduation is a symptom of this. 

Moffatt and colleagues recently suggested that resistance to these pressures might begin with a recognition that our emotional responses to the impacts of neoliberalism on the education sector can help us move from positioning ourselves as paranoid victims to agental actors.

Where the oppressive structures of neoliberalism cause us to feel worried, anxious, disempowered and even hopeless, we can use these feelings to reflect: what caused me to feel this way, am I alone in feeling this way, how can I engage with others to work out some kind of collective response?

There is power in the collective; in recognising we are not alone and in working together to support each other.