If that sounds familiar, I want to begin by saying that you are not alone!
My interest in advocacy fatigue comes from my own professional journey. As an EAL coordinator in an international school, much of my work extended far beyond teaching English. Supporting newly arrived students and their families often meant helping them navigate unfamiliar systems, cultures and languages. It also meant working alongside students with refugee backgrounds and witnessing the realities of displacement.
Those experiences shaped my career, inspiring me to pursue doctoral research on the lived experiences of students with refugee backgrounds. This then motivated me to retrain as an art psychotherapist, where multilingualism, creativity, and healing come together to create a transformative therapeutic space. Across these different roles, one theme has remained constant: wellbeing. Not only the wellbeing of students and families, but also the wellbeing of the educators who walk alongside them.
When caring becomes emotionally demanding
Many educators enter the profession because they care deeply about children and young people. For those working with multilingual learners, that commitment often extends beyond curriculum and language learning. We become advocates, helping students and their families navigate systems, challenging inequitable practices, and ensuring that students receive the support they need.
This work is meaningful. It is also emotionally demanding.
Over time, repeatedly witnessing inequality without always having the power or resources to change it can take its toll.
Advocacy fatigue is, at its heart, a state of emotional and moral exhaustion resulting from persistent exposure to inequity. It can leave us feeling frustrated, helpless, cynical or emotionally depleted, not because we care too little, but because we have cared deeply for a long time.
Advocacy fatigue is, at its heart, a state of emotional and moral exhaustion resulting from persistent exposure to inequity. It can leave us feeling frustrated, helpless, cynical or emotionally depleted, not because we care too little, but because we have cared deeply for a long time.
One of the important messages I wanted to emphasise during the webinar is that advocacy fatigue is not simply another name for stress or burnout.
Understanding what advocacy fatigue is and what it isn't
Although advocacy fatigue shares characteristics with burnout, compassion fatigue and secondary traumatisation, these are not interchangeable concepts.
Burnout is typically linked to ongoing workplace demands and exhaustion, such as when a teacher juggles too many commitments. Compassion fatigue, by contrast, arises from the cumulative emotional toll of caring for others in distress, for example, regularly supporting students who have experienced traumatic events. Secondary traumatisation refers to the psychological impact of being indirectly exposed to another person's trauma, often through hearing detailed accoutns of traumatic experiences, as commonly occurs in counseling settings.
Advocacy fatigue is different.
Its roots lie in persistent exposure to systemic barriers and inequalities combined with a sense of being unable to influence them sufficiently. For many educators, this may mean recognising what students need while lacking the institutional support, resources or agency to respond effectively.
That distinction matters because it shifts the conversation away from individual resilience alone. If advocacy fatigue emerges from systems as well as individuals, then addressing it also requires systemic thinking and change.
Recognising the signs
Advocacy fatigue rarely arrives suddenly. More often, it develops gradually.
Many educators continue doing the work while feeling increasingly emotionally drained. They may notice a growing sense of frustration, reduced optimism, or a feeling that their efforts are making little difference. Some begin withdrawing from conversations or initiatives they would once have embraced enthusiastically. Others experience guilt for feeling tired when they know students continue to face significant challenges.
These responses are understandable.
Rather than seeing them as personal failings, I believe we need to recognise them as signals that something requires attention.
Moving beyond self-care as an individual responsibility
Self-care is often presented as a list of activities such as exercise, mindfulness, or taking time away from work. While these practices certainly have value, they cannot be the whole answer.
Throughout the webinar, I encouraged participants to think about wellbeing more broadly. Sustainable advocacy requires collaborative environments where educators themselves feel supported, connected, and able to exercise professional agency.
Supportive relationships matter. Reflective supervision matters. Collegial conversations matter. Feeling that your concerns are heard and acted upon matters.
In other words, maintaining our capacity to advocate is not simply an individual responsibility. It is also a collective one.
Advocacy Fatigue
Webinar recording
Continuing the work, sustainably
Advocacy is essential. Our multilingual learners need educators who are willing to challenge barriers and create more inclusive learning environments.
However, if we are to continue doing this work over the long term, we must also recognise the emotional labour it requires.
For me, that is the key understanding in preventing advocacy fatigue. We need to recognise and address the emotional demands of advocacy to sustain our work over time. Caring should not mean caring at the expense of our own wellbeing. By recognising advocacy fatigue, talking about it openly, and creating cultures of support within our schools, we can sustain both ourselves and our commitment to our multilingual learners.
Ultimately, looking after ourselves is not separate from advocacy. It is what enables us to continue advocating wholeheartedly.
Recommended reading
Crisfield, E. (2025) Multilingual Practices in Schools: Flexible Continuum of Practices adapted from Duarte, J., & Günther-van der Meij, M. (2018, December). A holistic model for multilingualism in education. EuroAmerican Journal of Applied Linguistics and Languages, 5(2), 24-43. DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.21283/2376905X.9.153
Griffin Basas, C. (2015). Advocacy Fatigue: Self-Care, Protest, and Educational Equity. Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice, 32(2), 37-64.
Kapitan, A., & Kaptian, L. (2023, May 12). Language is power: anti-oppressive, conscious language in art therapy practice. International Journal of Art Therapy, 28(1-2), 65-73. https://doi.org/10.1080/17454832.2022.2112721
Teacher Horizons. (2025, August 19). Connection is the curriculum: An interview with MARIO Education’s CEO.
UK Trauma Council. (n.d.). Trauma. Retrieved 2025, from