What Is Next?

This is going to be a much shorter post this week as I type this from a homemade sit stand desk on day I can't remember of bad pain, but day 3 of vacation time I took and my body decided that it would be awesome if that time coincided with not being able to be in a comfortable position for more than 2 minutes. 

How I am feeling very much coincides with what I wanted to talk about today, which is how so so many people in education are very deeply exhausted, burnt-out, and I am finding myself asking what is next? I know that K-12 will soon be on summer break, and some folk in HigherEd has been off for a month or so now, but on this Pride weekend I am seeing how much this exhaustion is impacting what folk can do to be in community. Many of my friends and community have chosen to not do anything this weekend because they simply do not have the capacity to be in community. And it is not because we do not see the absolute need, now more than ever to be there and voice the importance of queer, trans visibility, it is just our bodyminds are so exhausted from the perpetual advocacy we do in educational spaces that it is preventing us from being there with others. 

And this sort of burnout is seen in large and small ways. Folk not being able to support or do the kinds of mutual care they do for others in disability and queer community. People feeling even more excluded from events when others do not take their access needs into account. The institutional policies not being reviewed for how they are innately ableist and thus require folk to constantly push back to do the work they were hired to do. The need to stop and reflect on the pedagogical needs around generative AI instead of pushing forward without thinking about the ethics, the lack of inclusion, the bias, and the lack of accessibility. 

And this is being seen with students as well. Students are trying to keep up, and are making choices about the courses they want to take based on the flexibility it can offer and what can mesh with responsibilities they have to family, chosen family, and to the many jobs they are trying to hold down to pay tuition, rent, and food.  

So I have found myself asking about what is next for instructors, for staff, for students, in terms of giving space to rest, in terms of getting the support they need. I have started asking folk questions like "Do you know where disabled students or staff or colleagues can find support that is not accessibility services or HR at your institution?" And sadly the answer is often no, because either they don't know, or those supports besides Accessibility Services simply do not exist. And this is part of the systemic reasons why people are exhausted, burnout, tired. The places for care in the institutions are very difficult to find, and when you look outside the institutions so many who are in the same position, are looking to community for that support when folk in community are already maxed out in what they can further support. 

Supports like designing courses to be more open to the kinds of spaces for rest and reflection that instructors and students need are good, but are things that often work better when they are designed in from the start. That is not to say that you can't put some things in mid term, like an anonymous form asking students what they feel would support them the best now. Or doing actual check-ins with your colleagues, not hey how are you, and not wait for the answer as you walk down the hall, actual hi, I am acknowledging you, I am going to listen and ask, how are you really?

And maybe the students don't know what they need right now, and maybe your colleagues don't have enough energy to even explain how they are really right now, but opening those spaces up for that conversation is important, and will make folk feel like they can return to that space later possibly. And yes it won't give back time, or make bodies that are in pain stop hurting, but knowing you are not alone in whatever eduspace is demanding of you right now, is one place we can start and then maybe, when we have energy, time, ideas, rest, we can find out what is next.