ABSTRACT
This chapter offers strategies for dealing with profound disappointment in teaching and relevant preemptive approaches. Failure can reify imposter syndrome for those who fear that at their core, they are unqualified to teach. The chapter explores the impasse and downward spiral, the psychological contract, and misperceptions between students and teachers. Educators have begun using the psychological contract to understand academic work. Five strategies help people prepare for potential disappointment and failure: care for self and others, accept our fallibility and that of others, make the psychological contract visible, recognize and resist the relational paradox, and build and nourish relationships. Brookfield and Robertson suggested formalizing a process of support among colleagues, calling on faculty to create professional development groups. Learning from failure and resulting clarity can lead to a more precise sense of where we as teachers can improve and adjust and which factors are outside our control.
