As the education sector undergoes seismic shifts, moral injury has become increasingly widespread. Whether you are a faculty, staff, or executive leader, no one is exempt from the harsh realities of our times. This is happening in education across the board from preschool and kindergarten classrooms to the most prestigious of doctoral granting research institutions. Professionals within the education sector are experiencing heightened levels of moral distress that is resulting in moral injury.
What is Moral Injury? Moral injury results from a betrayal of your sense of what is right and wrong. It often begins with experiences of moral distress, the sense that things are just not right but worse you can’t do anything about it. Moral distress is cumulative and for some it becomes a moral injury. This injury is essentially an existential wound, a piercing of your soul. It’s something that you can not easily shake; a rage, sense of despair, and helplessness that you had not previously known.
Many faculty and staff feel betrayed by the institutions and leaders they trusted. This is certainly not surprising as departments are shuttered and scores of positions are eliminated, often with little or no justification. Research programs that took decades to build, gone, falling victim to funding cuts. Long held values and policies in education, such as shared governance, academic freedom, and even tenure in some cases being eliminated. Faculty expected to do more, to figure out teaching in the context of the ever changing landscape of AI, and with students who are increasingly disillusioned and disengaged. Faculty as well as staff face impossible demands and expectations on a daily basis and they bear witness to decision making that violates long held shared values in education.
Those in executive leadership roles face different but equally impossible demands. Forced to make either decisions that violate their own values or step down and exit. There are the high profile exits like President Jim Ryan of the University of Virginia who spoke openly about the moral dilemma he faced in his decision to step down. And there are the leaders who unceremoniously leave or are forced out.
The recent exodus of countless senior executives in higher education in the US is unprecedented and the departures are increasingly abrupt. The constant leadership churn trickles throughout the system fueling anxiety and uncertainty. Whether you speak with professionals in public or private institutions, small, medium or large, teaching or research focused, the sentiment is the same….professionals in these institutions are anxiously watching. Uncertainty is endemic. It’s unclear who or what you can trust and the shared values seem non-existent.
Hallmark signs of moral injury within the education sector are withdrawal and isolation accompanied by a deep sense of shame, guilt, and helplessness.
So, how to deal with this?
Recognize you are working in morally injurious times. You aren’t imagining it and it’s not your fault.
Remember to take time to focus on the small joys that remain present in your day to day experience, remind yourself to look for them and allow yourself to focus on them, at least for a moment.
Seek out others who understand moral injury and who can support you. Isolation and withdrawal, however tempting, will intensify your pain. Solidarity and connection is vital to healing and recovery from moral injury.
