Well-being Of Teachers Research Articles

Understanding the relational well-being of primary school teachers in rural South Africa

Understanding the relational well-being of primary school teachers in rural South Africa

Considering Race in Teacher Well-Being

Despite evidence that teachers’ professional experiences are racialized, few studies have quantitatively examined possible racial disparities in teachers’ job satisfaction. Using data from a nationally representative survey of teachers in the United States, we find that Black teachers report significantly lower job satisfaction than their White colleagues. Moreover, we find that teacher perceptions of school safety are the primary predictor of this gap in job satisfaction. We argue that centralizing race and racialized experiences in consideration of teacher job satisfaction will open new sites of inquiry in educational research and can guide educational policy to promote equity in K–12 schools.

The Role of Principals in Enhancing Teacher Well-being in Schools in Rural Communities

This study sought to understand the factors that teachers and school management team members perceived as having the potential to boost teacher well-being in rural schools and the role the principal plays in promoting teacher well-being. A stratified sample of school managers and teachers from a rural high school in the Mopani district of the Limpopo province participated. A total of fourteen semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with seven teachers, yielding four enablers to teacher well-being and three roles which principals could play to support teacher well-being. The findings revealed that strong principal-teacher relationships, disengaging from work to socialize, adaptability, and a green school physical environment promote teacher well-being. The role of the principal in supporting teacher well-being is multi-faceted, encompassing the creation of a positive school culture and traditions, developing and maintaining a conducive green school environment, and promoting teacher adaptability.

School leadership in a non-western context: how is paternalistic leadership related to teacher well-being and commitment in collectivist versus individualistic school cultures?

PurposeThe present study aims to examine the moderation role of school culture attributes (individualism versus collectivism) in the relationship between paternalistic leadership and teacher commitment, mediated by teacher well-being.Design/methodology/approachThe data included 1,152 teachers across 104 schools in Türkiye using a multilevel moderated mediation SEM model to test relevant hypotheses.FindingsThe results showed that teacher well-being fully mediates the relationship between perceived paternalistic principal leadership and teacher commitment. Additionally, the collectivist orientation of school culture influences the strength of the association between paternalistic leadership and teacher commitment indirectly through well-being. More precisely, paternalistic leadership has a stronger link to teacher well-being and commitment when teachers identify the culture of their schools as relatively more collectivist.Originality/valueThis study offers empirical evidence of paternalistic school leadership in promoting teacher well-being and commitment depending on the school culture in a non-western country context.

The Impact of Emotional Labor on the Work of Aesthetic Education Teachers in Universities

This review examines the impact of emotional labor on university aesthetic education teachers, focusing on cultural influences, organizational contexts, and the evolving demands of the teaching profession. By synthesizing recent literature, the review highlights key themes such as the effects of emotional labor on teacher well-being and teaching effectiveness, while also identifying gaps in research, particularly in cultural and longitudinal studies. The findings suggest that integrating emotional labor awareness into professional development and supportive leadership practices is crucial for improving teacher well-being and student outcomes. The review concludes with recommendations for future research and policy directions to address these challenges.

The long-term effects of perceived instructional leadership on teachers' psychological well-being during COVID-19.

The COVID-19 outbreak led to widespread school closures and the shift to remote teaching, potentially resulting in lasting negative impacts on teachers' psychological well-being due to increased workloads and a perceived lack of administrative support. Despite the significance of these challenges, few studies have delved into the long-term effects of perceived instructional leadership on teachers' psychological health. To bridge this research gap, we utilized longitudinal data from 927 primary and secondary school teachers surveyed in two phases: Time 1 in mid-November 2021 and Time 2 in early January 2022. Using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM), our findings revealed that perceptions of instructional leadership, especially the "perceived school neglect of teaching autonomy" at Time 1 were positively correlated with burnout levels at Time 2. Additionally, burnout at Time 2 was positively associated with psychological distress and acted as a mediator between the "perceived school neglect of teaching autonomy" and psychological distress. In light of these findings, we recommend that schools prioritize teachers' teaching autonomy and take proactive measures to mitigate burnout and psychological distress, aiming for the sustainable well-being of both teachers and students in the post-pandemic era.

Outdoor education program: Assessing student performance, mental health, and teacher well-being

Outdoor education program: Assessing student performance, mental health, and teacher well-being

The digital aspects of the wellbeing of university teachers

IntroductionIn the past few decades more and more studies have put the mental health and wellbeing of university lecturers in the limelight, especially considering the fact that lecturers’ scope of responsibilities have been significantly transformed and expanded as a result of the massification and diversification of and structural changes in higher education. These changes intensified the workload, already rather high, thus negatively affecting lecturers’ wellbeing. It is worth investigating how the increasingly marked presence of digital technologies affects the characteristics of teachers’ workload. In this study, we intend to investigate the impact of digitization on the various areas of workload and work activities of university lecturers at a large university with many faculties, on the one hand, and teachers of institutions teaching in minority languages, on the other.MethodsThe online questionnaire compiled and based on the findings of our previous qualitative study was completed by teachers at one of Hungary’s biggest universities, the University of Debrecen, and lecturers at other institutions of higher education providing for the Hungarian ethnic minority across borders and affiliated with the University of Debrecen, altogether 596 people. The database created obtaining the data was named Central and Eastern European Teachers in Higher Education (CEETHE, 2023), IBM SPSS 29 software was used to analyze the data.ResultsDigital technology plays a basic role in lecturers’ work. Its importance is shown by the fact that the majority of respondents (54%) experiences significant or very severe stress in connection to technological problems. The majority of time spent with digital devices is included in working hours, so these technologies play a prominent role in dissolving the boundaries between professional and private life. Furthermore, many people find their use more exhausting than mental work performed without relying on them.ConclusionBy continuously developing the digital competency of university lecturers it is possible to mitigate the stress triggered by technological problems as well as reduce screen time. It is necessary to ensure that institutions of higher education introduce policies that ensure work-life balance for teachers.

Teachers’ Well-Being and Instructional Efficacy: Basis for Professional Development Plan

This study investigates the impact of various aspects of teacher well-being on instructional efficacy, focusing on emotional aspects, work engagement, relationships with stakeholders, sense of purpose, and accomplishments. It examines how these factors influence planning and preparation, the learning environment, instructional effectiveness, and professional responsibilities. Conducted in Roosevelt County Schools, Montana, during the 2023-2024 school year, the study used a descriptive correlational approach with mixed methods, focusing on quantitative research. Data were collected via an adapted survey from 198 teachers and analyzed using statistical tools like mean, frequency, percentage, standard deviation, Spearman Correlation Test, and Kruskal-Wallis Test. The findings revealed no significant relationship between teacher well-being and demographic profiles such as age, race, years of experience, position, and grade level. However, higher educational attainment was significantly related to emotional well-being, accomplishments, and instructional efficacy in several areas. Age also influenced professional responsibilities. The study suggests that schools should prioritize well-being initiatives tailored to teachers' specific needs to enhance instructional efficacy. By promoting support systems and focusing on well-being in their planning processes, schools can create a positive and supportive learning environment that benefits both teachers and students.

The mediating role of mindfulness and emotion regulation in the relationship between teacher self-compassion and work engagement among EFL teachers: A serial mediation model

This study investigates the role of self-compassion in fostering work engagement among English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers, employing a serial mediation model that incorporates mindfulness and emotion regulation as potential mediating variables. Utilizing a cross-sectional design, the researchers examined self-reported data from 322 EFL teachers in Iran. Participants were recruited using a convenience sampling strategy, reaching out to directors of private language institutes across various districts who then distributed the survey to their teachers. Standardized measures were used to assess self-compassion, dispositional mindfulness, and emotion regulation strategies. The findings provide robust support for the hypothesized model, revealing a significant positive association between self-compassion and work engagement, partially mediated by both mindfulness and emotion regulation. These results suggest that cultivating self-compassion among EFL teachers may be a valuable strategy to enhance their overall well-being and promote a more engaged and fulfilling work experience. The study contributes to the advancement of knowledge regarding teacher well-being and offers practical implications for the development of interventions targeting self-compassion, mindfulness, and emotion regulation within educational settings.

Assessing the interplay: teacher efficacy, compassion fatigue, and educator well-being in Australia

AbstractIn Australia, there is a growing concern about the well-being of teachers with many expressing their intention to leave the profession or indeed have already left. Various reasons have been suggested for this trend, with burnout being identified as one of the factors. This study investigates burnout in Australian teachers as one of the constructs which make up compassion fatigue (CF), a reduced ability to empathise with others. Moreover, it explores secondary traumatic stress (STS), which also contributes to CF and occurs when a person learns about the traumatic experiences of someone under their care. Both constructs may severely impact the ability of teachers to form close relationships with their students. As part of the present study, 1939 Australian teachers were surveyed about their quality of life, well-being, classroom efficacy, and trauma awareness. Findings demonstrate that teachers with higher levels of well-being and with higher perceived classroom efficacy are less prone to burnout, reducing the risk of emotional exhaustion and disengagement often associated with this phenomenon. Conversely, connections were found between lower well-being of teachers and educators' awareness of trauma and their susceptibility to STS. Recommendations are made for further research exploring the barriers and enablers of compassion fatigue as well as positive teacher well-being, in order to develop targeted initiatives to better prepare and protect teachers to work with a cohort of students who are increasingly demonstrating symptoms of trauma and poor well-being.

Technology use and employee well-being among teachers during Covid-19: moderating effects of school support and detachment from work

PurposeThis study examined whether job and personal resources could buffer the negative effects of technostrain and information and communication technology (ICT) availability demands on employee well-being.Design/methodology/approachThe data were collected among Finnish comprehensive school teachers (n = 323) between December 2020 and February 2021 through an online questionnaire. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were employed to analyse the main and moderating effects.FindingsThe results indicated that technostrain was positively associated with burnout and negatively associated with work engagement. These associations were stronger than those of ICT availability demands. The moderated regression analyses revealed that psychological detachment buffered the negative effects of technostrain on cynicism and a sense of inadequacy. School support acted as a moderator by buffering the negative impact of technostrain on emotional exhaustion and cynicism. Furthermore, school support was found to be an important job resource in terms of boosting work engagement when ICT availability demands were high.Originality/valueThis study provides insights into the role of resources in buffering possible burdening effects of technology on teacher well-being when adopting online teaching in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Unveiling the Nexus: Organizational Climate and Psychological Well-Being of Secondary School Teachers in Kuala Selangor

Unveiling the Nexus: Organizational Climate and Psychological Well-Being of Secondary School Teachers in Kuala Selangor

The impact of teachers' perceived competence in information and communication technology usage, and workplace anxiety on well-being, as mediated by emotional exhaustion.

The 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted by the United Nations in 2015, emphasizing the importance of achieving peace, prosperity, and well-being for all people. With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, sustainable health has become an important issue. Teachers were forced to adopt distance teaching, necessitating rapid upgrading of their ICT skills and integration into e-learning, which caused tangible and intangible pressures on teachers and impacted their well-being. This study examined the effects of ICT competence on teachers' workplace anxiety, emotional exhaustion, and well-being during the pandemic from the perspective of Social Cognitive Theory (SCT). A quantitative research methodology and a questionnaire survey with a total of 21 questions were used as the primary research design. The snowball method was employed as a sampling method for online questionnaires from September to October 2021. A total of 216 questionnaires were collected, of which four incomplete questionnaires were excluded, leaving 212 valid questionnaires, with a valid questionnaire recovery rate of 98.1%. The valid questionnaires were analyzed using Smart Pls 4.0 Partial Least Square Method Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The study found that teachers' ICT competence could significantly reduce emotional exhaustion and enhance teachers' well-being. However, there was no significant effect on workplace anxiety. Additionally, well-being was not directly affected by workplace anxiety, and teachers' well-being needs to be mediated by emotional exhaustion to be indirectly affected. Emotional exhaustion plays an important mediating role between teachers' ICT competence and workplace stress, both of which are important mediators of well-being. From a practical point of view, to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030, it is ideal to have good health and well-being for the whole person. This study facilitates the development of strategies to improve the well-being of teachers, which provides an empirical basis for the enhancement of mental health and well-being of educators.

The Effect of School Principals’ Empowering Leadership Behaviors on Well-Being at Work: The Mediating Role of Organizational Ostracism

AbstractThis study investigates the impact of empowering leadership exhibited by school principals on teachers’ perspectives on organizational ostracism and well-being at work in educational settings in Türkiye. Applying a cross-sectional research design, we collected responses from 603 teachers in different provinces. The results reveal that empowering leadership has a positive impact on teachers’ well-being. Furthermore, empowering leadership practices significantly diminish teachers’ perceptions of ostracism, thus cultivating a positive and inclusive work environment. Our findings emphasize the pivotal role of organizational ostracism in mediating the relationship between empowering leadership and well-being at work, highlighting the importance of empowering leadership in creating a healthy and supportive school setting. These insights offer valuable guidance to school leaders, teachers, and policymakers in crafting conducive work environments, enhancing teacher–principal relationships, and promoting overall teacher well-being.

Role of Cognitive Appraisal in Coping, Adapting and Psychological Well-Being of Chinese Teachers: A Concept Paper

Teachers are considered a nucleus of educational institutes, their dire efforts act as the accelerating engine of the students' minds that nurture their minds with the best, most incumbent, authentic, resilient and creative thoughts, knowledge, reasoning and information that play a back-supporting role to the future emperors of the countries in their professional life. To do such a huge and exhaustive job, teachers often encounter various challenging situations and circumstances in which stress can be placed at the top among all other issues. This delicate issue has been identified as common among Chinese university lecturers and this issue has been influencing their mental states causing a damaging effect on their job performance. To understand this deliberate scenario, this study has reviewed the previous literature to explore the level of stress and psychological well-being and some helping strategies to sustain psychological well-being and stress adaptation as it is a part of every job and propose a conceptual framework. This proposed framework will have many useful settings for the literature scholars and the targeted units which have been illustrated in the concluding remarks section.

Perfectionism, emotion regulation, and teacher retention: An examination of Iranian early career language teachers' well-being

This qualitative study examined the experiences of early career language teachers in Iran, exploring the complex interplay between perfectionism, emotion regulation, and their implications for teacher well-being and retention. In this regard, through in-depth interviews with 15 participants, the study provided insights on how self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism might affect teachers' sense of well-being. The study findings revealed that while self-oriented perfectionism was associated with a drive for professional growth and job satisfaction, socially prescribed perfectionism contributed to heightened stress and a contemplation of leaving the profession. The study also highlighted the pivotal role of emotion regulation strategies, particularly cognitive reappraisal, in dealing with the emotional demands of teaching, thereby supporting teachers' well-being. Findings also suggested that supportive work environments, opportunities for professional development, and a sense of autonomy are crucial for fostering teacher well-being and encouraging retention. Drawing on relevant theoretical literature, the research emphasizes that addressing the challenges of perfectionism through supportive organizational factors and effective emotion regulation can significantly enhance early career teachers' job satisfaction and commitment to the profession. In light of these findings, the study advocates for targeted interventions that promote a supportive teaching environment, focusing on the development of emotion regulation skills and reducing the pressures of socially prescribed perfectionism. By providing insights into the lived experiences of early career language teachers, this study contributes to our understanding of the factors that might influence teacher attrition, and underscores the importance of nurturing teacher well-being to ensure their retention in the educational sector.

Prospective Teacher's Voice Questionnaire (PTVQ): Development of a Questionnaire to Assess Training-Related Voice Symptoms Among Prospective Teachers

AimTo develop and validate a self-administered population-specific survey, available in Spanish, Portuguese, and English, which investigates the prevalence of voice symptoms and perceptions of risk factors associated with training among prospective teachers. MethodsThe present study had three stages: The first stage included a literature review and content validation by experts that supported the survey development. From this phase, we defined six aspects of the PTVQ: (1) target population, (2) research objectives, (3) questions to be included, (5) scales for the answers, and (6) relevance, comprehensiveness, clarity and understandability of the questions. This process was performed in parallel for the three languages (Spanish, Portuguese, and English). The second stage included pilot testing. This involved administering the first draft of the survey to a group of 120 students to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of the survey instrument, identify any potential problems with the survey, and refine the instrument based on feedback from the pilot participants. The third stage includes the restructuring of the questionnaire's voice quality section to eliminate redundant questions. Through PCA, multicollinear variables were condensed, facilitating the removal of redundant items, and ensuring that the final questionnaire comprised only the most relevant and discriminative questions. Results and DiscussionThe final version of the survey, available in Spanish, Portuguese, and English, consists of four sections with a total of 57 questions. The development of the PTVQ represents a significant step toward better understanding and addressing voice disorders among prospective teachers. Future research could further refine the questionnaire and explore its predictive validity in identifying individuals at risk of voice disorders early in their teaching careers. Additionally, interventions based on the findings from the PTVQ could be developed to support the voice health and well-being of prospective teachers, ultimately improving teaching quality and job satisfaction in educational settings.

Why rural teachers are in a poor working state: Double marginalization causes a lack of career identity and hope

Professional development for rural teachers is currently encountering numerous challenges, leading to poor working conditions characterized by a lack of hope. This condition affects not only the quality of rural education but also the physical and mental well-being and work efficiency of rural teachers themselves. To explore why rural teachers experience poor working conditions, 101 of them were surveyed using a questionnaire that covered double marginalization, teacher career identity, and dispositional hope, and the results show the following. 1) Rural teachers’ poor work conditions are associated most strongly with double marginalization. 2) Career identity is an important mediating variable of double marginalization and hope for rural teachers. 3) The double marginalization faced by male teachers in rural areas compared to their female counterparts significantly amplifies the lack of hope. 4) Particularly pronounced is the lack of hope resulting from the double marginalization of rural teachers with less than 15 years of experience when compared to those with careers of 26 or more years. Building on these findings, interventions are proposed in three key areas: (i) reducing the double marginalization of rural teachers, (ii) strengthening career identity, and (iii) enhancing hope. These interventions offer feasible pathways tailored to the needs of educational administrators, teacher development departments, rural schools, and rural teachers themselves.

How to better promote teaching? Unveiling the links between Professional Learning Communities and Intrinsic Motivation among Foreign Language Teachers

Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) assume a vital role in promoting teacher growth and development, while the presence of intrinsic motivation (IM) in the work environment profoundly impacts teacher performance. Unveiling the interconnections between teachers' engagement in PLCs and their intrinsic motivation holds the potential to enhance the overall well-being of both teachers and students. This study used a mixed-methods approach to investigate the relationship between PLCs and IM of Chinese Teachers of Foreign Languages (CTFL) in higher education. The questionnaire survey and semi-structured interviews were conducted among 198 teachers in 19 provinces of China. The quantitative data were analyzed by means of descriptive analysis and regression analyses with SPSS 22.0 and the qualitative data were processed by following thematic analysis. Results demonstrated that the participants' perceptions on their PLCs and IM were at a moderately high level, with mean scores at 3.56 and 3.86 on a 5-point Likert scale, respectively. Regression analyses revealed a significant positive correlation between PLCs and IM. Specifically, Shared Vision (SV), Supportive Environment (SE) and Collaborative Learning (CL) in PLCs were positively correlated with Willingness to Take on Challenges (WTC) and Love for Work (LW) in IM. The qualitative findings highlighted the significance of supportive environment and teacher's work engagement in affecting teacher's perceptions on PLCs. Job Characteristic of foreign language teacher, along with significant others might also influenced teachers' intrinsic motivation. Implications for PLCs leadership and foreign language teachers are discussed.