In her latest article published by GESS Education, Shona O’Callaghan, CEO of Empowering Creative Minds, brings renewed attention to a message she has been sharing since the very beginning of her work in education.
An article titled What About the Teachers? carries the same message ECM has championed from the very beginning. Our CEO has consistently voiced this across schools, leadership forums, and even on the TEDx stage, long before it became part of the wider conversation.
For years, conversations around inclusion have focused on student needs. Children’s rights, personalised pathways, learner profiles, and reasonable adjustments rightly take centre stage. Yet Shona argues that an imbalance has quietly developed. Teachers are expected to carry expanding expectations without equal consideration for the conditions under which they work.
This is not a critique of teacher commitment. It is a question of system design.
In the article, she explores the structural link between teacher wellbeing and student outcomes. When educators are overwhelmed, chronically stressed, or operating in survival mode, their relational capacity diminishes. Not because they care less, but because the system reduces their ability to care well.
Her message is clear. Inclusion cannot survive if it depends on teachers absorbing more pressure.
The article also challenges a common misconception in education reform. Support does not mean adding more strategies, more documentation, or more initiatives.
Teachers are not lacking effort. They are carrying accumulation. Sustainable change requires removing barriers, simplifying expectations, and restoring professional trust.
A significant section of the piece also highlights neurodivergent educators. Shona has long spoken about the strengths neurodivergent teachers bring to schools, including creativity, empathy, innovation, and deep insight into difference.
However, she also addresses the tension many experience when systems are not designed to accommodate varied ways of thinking and working. Psychological safety, she argues, must apply to adults as well as students.
This perspective is not new to those familiar with her work. It is foundational. From her TEDx talk to international school partnerships, the message has remained consistent. Sustainable inclusion must include the adults who make learning possible.
The article ultimately reframes the central question facing education leaders. Instead of asking how teachers can do more, perhaps the better question is how systems can be designed so teachers can continue doing their work well and stay well while doing it.
As global reports continue to highlight teacher shortages and rising attrition, this conversation becomes increasingly urgent. Inclusion is not only about supporting children. It is about building systems where every human within the school community can belong.