After three years of facing heightened stress since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic — not just the safety worries, but also the political frays that have followed — it’s no wonder that some teachers are leaving the stormy seas of classroom instruction in search of calmer waters.
For the technically inclined, pivoting to a job in the education technology industry seems like a natural fit. When teachers pack up their classrooms for the last time to start their edtech careers, where exactly are they going?
Our recent analysis of teacher representation in edtech leadership revealed that former educators held a variety of top roles in the companies we sampled, heading teams that handled pedagogy, curriculum, product, marketing and sales.
Former educators told us they had moved on to become UX designers, part of sales teams and founders of their own edtech companies.
Teachers’ interest in making the leap from the classroom to edtech grew after COVID-19 hit, says Eva Brown, herself a former teacher who switched to edtech in 2011 after more than a decade in schools. Brown found herself sharing advice with so many educators looking to emulate her path that in 2021, she published a book on the subject.
In it, Brown not only gives advice on how teachers can begin their search but asks them to reflect deeply on whether an edtech transition is truly the right move for them. The teachers she coaches want a career change for myriad reasons — pandemic-induced stress, unreasonable workloads, lack of support of administrators, safety worries — but Brown says it all comes down to saving their mental health.
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