It seems axiomatic that teaching quality affects the richness of students’ learning experiences, outcomes and equitable opportunities for all. While this is so, what we seem to miss largely in our focus on students’ experiences is its seminal link to teachers’ experiences and wellbeing. While teachers are critical actors in providing rich and equitable educational experiences to students from diverse backgrounds, the broader educational system influences their actions. Factors like curriculum design, standardized testing, funding disparities, and administrative policies shape what teachers can and cannot do. We argue that for developing an equitable educational renewal, we need to gain an understanding of the injustices meted out to teachers by the educational and social processes and their damaging effect on them. This symposium which hinges on the link between teacher wellbeing and student flourishing (Cherkowski & Walker, 2018) sees teacher wellbeing holistically including supportive professional relationships, professional growth and a feeling of self-actualization. Toward this, first, the panelists in this interactive symposium, who come from six different contexts, use lived experiences from teachers’ lives to provide a vivid picture of the social and institutional dynamics by which teachers’ status and identity are disregarded, constraining the quest for their self-actualization. Then we engage the audience in a discussion on the question: What is the expression of respect and support teachers in schools and universities require from public, students, officials/administrators, colleagues and media to reawaken the inner voice of their calling?

Significance

This symposium not only helps eschew a deficit view of teachers by identifying the mediation of culture in their cognition, but also paves the way for creating school environments that promote feelings of belonging, respect, value, and trust for both teachers and students.