The Teacher’s Wellbeing as a Binary Asset When Working with Newly Arrived Immigrant Pupils

Abstract

The influx of immigrants has led to increased cultural and ethnic diversity in classrooms, presenting unique challenges for teachers who work with pupils with varying linguistic, social, and cultural backgrounds. This paper examines the impact of these challenges on the wellbeing of teachers who work with newly arrived immigrant pupils. It is argued that a lack of knowledge and skills in this area can be educationally, socially, and psychologically demanding for teachers, negatively affecting their wellbeing. Teachers’ wellbeing can be influenced by two main factors: personal and internal factors such as perceptions and ideology and contextual and external factors such as workload, low student motivation, lack of support, conflict with colleagues, and role ambiguity. Despite the importance of teacher wellbeing, it has received less attention than pupils’ wellbeing. Using an ethnographic study that collected data over a school year in two phases, this paper investigates the perceptions and self-constructed pedagogies of the teacher working with newly arrived immigrant pupils. Findings reveal that the teacher’s emphasis on her wellbeing, as well as her pupils’ wellbeing, emerged as the center of her self-constructed approaches. We posit that ‘diversity-related teacher wellbeing’ is crucial in wellbeing pedagogy, given that diversity is one of the main elements in reception classes. For the successful education of newly arrived immigrant pupils, the wellbeing of teachers who work with this group should be prioritized. This paper contributes to the field of wellbeing education by highlighting the importance of teacher wellbeing as a part of wellbeing pedagogy for newcomer pupils. Improving teacher wellbeing may have a positive effect on the wellbeing of newly arrived immigrant pupils, creating a win-win situation. The paper concludes with suggestions for professional support and directions for future research.