The Interplay Between Workplace and English Language Teachers' Well-being: A Case Study

Date

2024-4-16

Author

Ateş, Salih Can

Metadata

Show full item record

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Item Usage Stats

71
views

50
downloads

Cite This

The profession of language teaching, due to its frequent engagements with diverse subjects in various situations, can involve elevated stress levels, poor working conditions, diminished motivation, and language teacher attrition and burnout. On the other hand, teachers who experience high levels of well-being in their working contexts generally teach more effectively and build up better relationships with their learners, colleagues, and administrative superiors. Even though there are studies investigating language learners’ well-being in Türkiye, language teachers, their well-being, and its relationship with their teaching contexts have not been investigated thoroughly. This study aimed to explore English language teachers’ well-being in relation to organizational and interactional factors. In accordance, a qualitative case study was conducted at a private middle school in Türkiye. Through the participation of 8 English language teachers, data were collected with semi-structured interviews and weekly diary entries over one and a half months during the 2023-2024 academic year. Collected data were analyzed by a combination of 5-step-analysis and thematic analysis methods. The findings of the study revealed that the participants experienced fluctuating levels of well-being in relation to the organizational and interactional factors in their workplace. While positive interactions with educational stakeholders, additional financial benefits, and feeling of safety contributed to participants’ well-being positively, organizational factors such as excessive workload and expectations, work-life balance, physical space, technological infrastructure, and insufficient salaries decreased their levels of well-being.

Subject Keywords

Well-being, English language teachers, English language teachers' well-being, organizational factors, interactional factors

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/109190

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis