The education system of the future faces great challenges. This has been shown not least by the Corona pandemic. Topics such as digitalization or home schooling are playing an increasingly important role. Teachers are at the center of this - especially in dealing with their health. It is now widely known that teachers are increasingly exposed to physical and psychological stress such as burnout and therefore take early retirement more often than other professional groups. The project "Strengthening Bavarian Teachers' Health-Related Competences" (BaLKo) focuses on the health of teachers, their long-term ability to work and their influence on a healthy school system as a whole.
The project is being realized by the Associate Professorship of Didactics in Sport and Health headed by Prof. Dr. Filip Mess. The kick-off event took place on Tuesday, 9 May 2023, in the Dean's Office of the Department of Sport and Health Sciences: "In view of major future tasks such as digitalization, heterogeneity or inclusion, as well as the major socio-medical and societal challenges in this regard, it seems essential to support the ability of teachers to work in the long term and sustainably through a targeted strengthening of their health-related competences," explains the habilitated sports didacticist.
The team receives strategic and scientific advice from the initiator of the project, Prof. Dr. Heidrun Thaiss (President of the German Society for Social Paediatrics and Youth Medicine, public health expert and former head of the Federal Center for Health Education): "Health-competent teachers are the key to successful teaching and at the same time role models for their students. Therefore, we do not approach our project via the occupational safety or occupational health approach, but want to strengthen the health competence and resilience of teaching staff in the sense of personalized prevention, without disregarding the supporting framework conditions for healthy and appreciative behaviour," explains Prof. Thaiss.
The project is being carried out in cooperation with the AOK Bayern. The project, which is scheduled to run for three years, started on April 1, 2023. In addition to Prof. Mess and Prof. Thaiss, who was digitally connected, the Research Associates Friederike Butscher, Simon Blaschke and project manager Jan Ellinger took part in the discussion.
On the part of the AOK Bayern, the responsible division manager Annette Lutz, Simone Helbig, head of workplace health promotion, Martin Felber, Director of the Munich-Ebersberg Directorate Unit, as well as Katharina Seuz, responsible for off-site living environments, met for an initial exchange at Campus D of the Department. "Schools are particularly suitable for health promotion measures because all children and young people of a certain age group can be reached here. The health conditions at schools have a decisive influence on the quality with which the school can fulfil its educational mission. With this project, we want to support schools and teachers in creating a healthy learning and working environment," Lutz explains the social relevance of the topic.
Based on an analysis of the current situation, resources and competences of teachers in Bavaria in dealing with health-related stress are to be identified in order to strengthen them through measures, both analogue and digital. This should enable teachers to reflect on their own health-related behaviour, to actively improve it and thus to successfully cope with external health-related stresses. This ultimately leads to an improvement of the overall situation: "Numerous studies suggest that the health of teachers cannot be considered in isolation. Rather, the effects on the students and the school system as a whole must always be considered in all corresponding measures," explains Prof. Mess.
To the homepage of the Associate Professorship of Didactics in Sport and Health
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Filip Mess
Associate Professorship of Didactics in Sport and Health
Georg-Brauchle-Ring 60/62
80992 München
phone: 089 289 24520
e-mail: filip.mess(at)tum.de
Text: Bastian Daneyko
Photos: Romy Schwaiger