Teacher Well-Being among English Lecturers and Instructors in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

In the recent years, the importance of teacher well-being (TWB), which plays a key role in teaching quality and students’ educational outcomes, has encouraged a plethora of empirical studies across various disciplines. However, there are four notable gaps in the literature on TWB: (i) most studies focus on TWB in terms of negative psychological states and ignore the impact of positive states; (ii) few studies examine TWB in the Saudi Arabian context; (iii) most researchers have failed to propose how TWB can be improved; (iv) maintaining TWB among foreign language (FL) and English as a second language (ESL) teachers is challenging because of the unique demands of their roles. Therefore, to address these gaps in the literature, the current study examined TWB among Saudi ESL lecturers and instructors in terms of the positive aspects of their work life that measured their sense of personal accomplishment via a valid survey instrument and proposed ways to improve TWB. A sample (n=129) of Saudi lecturers and instructors completed a three-part survey designed to measure TWB in terms of both negative and positive psychological states: emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation, and personal accomplishment. The results highlight that on average, the Saudi ESL teachers sampled had relatively high levels of TWB as indicated by their low depersonalisation scores and relatively high personal accomplishment scores. That said, the teachers’ relatively high average emotional exhaustion score (20) indicated that they felt moderately overworked, exhausted, and emotionally exhausted. On the light of outcome, the study represents an effort to improve teaching effectiveness, student outcomes, and educational governance and provide useful insights for Saudi Arabian educational stakeholders to enable them to better provide all students with highly motivated, well-supported, and well-qualified teachers.