teacher well being in english language teaching an ecological approach

List of Contributors xi Introduction: Teacher Well-Being in English Language Teaching: An Ecological Introduction 1LUIS JAVIER PENTÓN HERRERA, GILDA MARTÍNEZ-ALBA, AND ETHAN TRINHPART I

Luis Javier Pentón Herrera currently serves as Assistant Professor at the

University of Warsaw, Poland, in the Department of Modern Languages and the Institute of Applied Linguistics His current research focuses on social-emotional learning (SEL), identity, emotions, and well-being in language and literacy educa-tion, Indigenous students from Latin America, immigrant and refugee education, and autoethnography and storytelling.

Gilda Martínez-Alba is the Assistant Dean at the College of Education at Towson

University, Maryland, USA Her research interests include ELT wellness, based literacy instruction for multilingual learners, and SEL.

asset-Ethan Trinh is a Vietnamese immigrant, activist, feminist, writer, queer researcher,

and teacher educator pursuing their doctorate at the Middle and Secondary Education Department, Georgia State University, USA Their research interests are autoethnography, storytelling, queer studies, and new materialism in ELT.This edited volume brings the important topic of teacher well-being to the fore, presenting a range of high quality and cutting-edge contributions that illuminate, advance and educate readers on the challenges and criticality of achieving teacher well-being in English language teaching (ELT) Taking Sarah Mercer’s call for action to make teacher well-being a priority in the ELT field, and adopting an ecological perspective reflective of the stance that teacher well-being is a societal duty and not a personal responsibility, the contributors present theoretically and methodologically innovative research studies from all around the world The term ‘teacher’ is used to refer to those who deliver English instruction in a variety of formal and informal educational settings and at different levels, including K–12 schools, adult education, higher education, teacher education programs, and in community organizations Chapters offer clear implications for research and prac-tice, and explore effective practices and interventions that can contribute to the improvement of teacher well-being overall Addressing a profession that is not only characterized as being filled with high levels of stress but also delving into specific challenges around ELT in particular, the authors crucially speak to themes around the additional emotional investment and labor that come with being an English language teacher As such, it will appeal to academics and researchers in the field of ELT, including scholar practitioners and teacher educators.

Teacher Well-Being in English Language Teaching

The Routledge Research in Language Education series provides a platform

for established and emerging scholars to present their latest research and discuss key issues in Language Education This series welcomes books on all areas of language teaching and learning, including but not limited to language education policy and politics, multilingualism, literacy, L1, L2 or foreign language acquisition, curriculum, classroom practice, pedagogy, teaching materials, and language teacher education and development Books in the series are not limited to the discussion of the teaching and learning of English only.

Books in the series include:

Complexity in Second Language Study Emotions

Emergent Sense-making in Social Context

Richard J Sampson

Performed Culture in Action to Teach Chinese as a Foreign Language

Integrating PCA into Curriculum, Pedagogy, and Assessment

Edited by Jianfen Wang and Junqing (Jessie) Jia

Virtual Exchange for Intercultural Language Learning and Teaching

Fostering Communication for the Digital Age

Martine Derivry and Anthippi Potolia

Technology in Second Language Writing

Advances in Composing, Translation, Writing Pedagogy and Data-Driven Learning

Edited by Jingjing Qin and Paul Stapleton

Teacher Well-Being in English Language Teaching

An Ecological Approach

Luis Javier Pentón Herrera, Gilda Martínez-Alba, and Ethan Trinh

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Names: Pentón Herrera, Luis Javier, editor | Martinez-Alba, Gilda, editor | Tính Trịnh, Ethan, editor.

Title: Teacher well-being in English language teaching : an ecological approach / edited by Luis Javier Pentón Herrera, Gilda Martínez-Alba, and Ethan Trinh.

Description: New York, NY : Routledge, 2023 | Series: Routledge research in language education | Includes bibliographical

references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2022024035 (print) | LCCN 2022024036 (ebook) | ISBN 9781032324197 (hardback) |

ISBN 9781032324203 (paperback) | ISBN 9781003314936 (ebook)Subjects: LCSH: English teachers Job stress | English teachers Job satisfaction | Well-being | English language Study and

teaching Psychological aspects | English language Study and teaching Foreign speakers | LCGFT: Essays.

Classification: LCC PE1128.A2 T366 2023 (print) | LCC PE1128.A2 (ebook) | DDC 428.0071 dc23/eng/20220721LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022024035LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022024036 ISBN: 978-1-032-32419-7 (hbk)

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List of Contributors xi Introduction: Teacher Well-Being in English

Language Teaching: An Ecological Introduction 1

LUIS JAVIER PENTÓN HERRERA, GILDA MARTÍNEZ-ALBA, AND ETHAN TRINH

PART I

Positioning Teacher Well-Being in English

1 Psychological Perspectives on Teachers’ Well-Being:

4 ESL Teacher Well-Being in Sri Lanka:

LAKMINI GRANT SIRIWARDANA

5 Radical (Collective) Self-Care: Reflections for the

ELISABETH L CHAN

PART III

Teacher Well-Being at the Mesosystem 97 6 English Language Teacher Well-Being and

Professional Identity Construction: A

MOSTAFA NAZARI AND ISMAIL XODABANDE

7 Appreciative Inquiry as a Pathway to Language

TAMMY GREGERSEN, SARAH MERCER, AND FAREEN ANGEL MERCHANT

8 Vicarious Trauma and the Unregulated Education

of Preservice Adult Language Instructors 129

KATIE CROSSMAN

9 English Teacher Well-Being in the Face of the

Pandemic: An Investigation in the Southeast of Nigeria 147

UGOCHI MBAGWU

10 Embedding Well-Being into Language Teacher Education and Professional Development: Starting

AMEA WILBUR AND TASLIM DAMJI

11 Building Young Teacher Well-Being in Universities: A Case Study of the Teachers’ Development

YUSHAN ZHU

PART IV

Teacher Well-Being at the Macrosystem 187 12 Language Teacher Candidates’ Emotion Labor:

Transcending Circulating Language Ideologies 189

HAZEL VEGA AND CHRISTIAN FALLAS-ESCOBAR

13 What University-Level Institutions Are Doing to Promote Teacher Self-Care and Well-Being:

CHRISTINE COOMBE AND DOAA HAMAM

14 English Language Teaching Associations on Teacher Well-Being during the COVID-19

GEORGIOS KORMPAS

15 Palestinian English Teachers’ Challenges for

ANWAR HUSSEIN-ABDEL RAZEQ

Antonio Aguilar-Diaz is a member of the Bilingual Interest Group

Leadership Team at the National Association of School Psychologists.

Saurabh Anand is a Rhetoric and Composition doctoral student at the

University of Georgia and recipient of the 30 Under 30 honor by the International Literacy Association.

Elisabeth L Chan serves as Associate Professor of English as a Second

Language (ESL) at Northern Virginia Community College in Alexandria, Virginia.

Christine Coombe is an Associate Professor at Higher Colleges of

Technology, Dubai Men’s College She served as President of the TESOL International Association from 2011 to 2012.

Katie Crossman is an instructor with an academic research focus in the

School of Global Access at Bow Valley College in Calgary, Canada.

Taslim Damji is an Instructor at Vancouver Community College and the

University of the Fraser Valley.

Christian Fallas-Escobar is Associate Faculty of Applied Linguistics at

Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica He is currently completing a toral program in Culture, Literacy, and Language at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

doc-Tammy Gregersen is Professor of Teaching English to Speakers of Other

Languages (TESOL) in the English Department at the American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.

Doaa Hamam is a Lecturer at Higher Colleges of Technology Her main

research interests are academic writing, teaching with technology, and teacher education.

Georgios Kormpas is the Director of Teaching and the Center for

Executive Education at Al Yamamah University in Saudi Arabia Georgios is a doctoral researcher at Lancaster University in the United Kingdom researching communities of practice.

Contributors

Gilda Martínez-Alba is the Assistant Dean in the College of Education at

Towson University in Towson, Maryland, USA.

Ugochi Mbagwu serves as a Senior Lecturer in the department of English

Language and Literature at Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education, Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria.

Sarah Mercer is Professor of Foreign Language Teaching Methodology at

the University of Graz, Austria.

Fareen Angel Merchant is an early years educator at a K–12 school in

Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and serves as a research assistant at the American University of Sharjah.

Mostafa Nazari is a PhD candidate of Applied Linguistics at Kharazmi

University, and his scholarship has appeared in various journals,

includ-ing the Journal of Teacher Education and RELC Journal.

Luis Javier Pentón Herrera serves as Assistant Professor at the University

of Warsaw in the Department of Modern Languages and the Institute of Applied Linguistics, and as Coordinator of the Graduate TESOL Certificate at George Washington University.

Anwar Hussein-Abdel Razeq serves as an Associate Professor of Applied

Linguistic and Educational Leadership at Birzeit University and Director of the M.A program in Education.

Lakmini Grant Siriwardana is a doctoral student in Second Languages

Studies and an ESL instructor at the University of Cincinnati.

Ethan Trinh is a critical teacher educator and a queer researcher at

Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia.

Hazel Vega is a PhD candidate in the Learning Sciences at Clemson

University and faculty at the Universidad de Costa Rica.

Amea Wilbur is an Assistant Professor and Teaching English as a Second

Language (TESL) Coordinator at the University of the Fraser Valley, Canada.

Ismail Xodabande is a PhD candidate of Applied Linguistics at Kharazmi

University, and his scholarship has appeared in various journals,

includ-ing Computer Assisted Language Learninclud-ing and Open Learninclud-ing.

Yushan Zhu serves as Assistant Professor at Sichuan International Studies

University and as the Co-Director of Confucius Institute of Lomé University.

DOI: 10.4324/9781003314936-1

Recent events such as pandemics, natural disasters, religious persecutions, forced migrations, war, and social and political unrest have affected chil-dren, youth, and adults all around the world These national and global events have intensified the prolonged stressors and challenges of teachers, leading to increased teacher burnout, high teacher attrition, and teacher shortages Teacher stress and burnout have been present in the literature for nearly four decades, with recent publications pointing to the serious consequences these have for the health and performance of educators (Ansley et  al., 2021; Iancu et  al., 2018; Lashuel, 2020; Mercer, 2020; Pentón Herrera et al., 2021) More recently, uncertainty, demands, and rapid changes resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic have pushed many educators to the brink, compromising their mental, social, and emotional well-being.

The teaching field has historically been characterized by being a sion filled with high levels of stress, contributing to low levels of teacher well-being (Enjuto Valentín, 2001; Mercer, 2020) Language teaching, in particular, has been described as a profession requiring additional emo-tional investment and labor compared to teaching other subjects (Golombek & Doran, 2014; King & Ng, 2018; Talbot & Mercer, 2018), “given the strong emphasis on interpersonal relations and the integration of personally meaningful content and identities” (Talbot & Mercer, 2018, p 412) For second language (L2) educators, the issue of emotional labor and well-being is particularly prominent because the language taught is either their or their students’ L2, “which may bring [educators] tremen-dous anxiety and uneasiness The challenge may be exacerbated if the teachers live in a foreign country and need to adapt to the context linguis-tically, socially, and culturally” (Xu, 2018, p 36) In addition to these internal struggles (e.g., emotions, anxiety, stress), English language teach-ers may also be faced with emotional unbalance, mental exhaustion, com-passion fatigue, and/or secondary traumatic stress emanating from vicariously experiencing the traumatic experiences of their English learners

profes-Introduction: Teacher Well-Being in English Language Teaching

An Ecological Introduction

Luis Javier Pentón Herrera, Gilda Alba, and Ethan Trinh

Martínez-(O’Loughlin & Custodio, 2021) Yet, relatively few works have explored effective practices and interventions that contribute to teacher well-being, especially in English language teaching (ELT; Mercer, 2021; Pentón Herrera & Martínez-Alba, 2021).

What Is Well-Being?

Well-being, sometimes used interchangeably with the term wellness, has a

long distinguished history of philosophical exploration Human beings have long considered what makes a life worth living and what makes indi-viduals feel well, happy, and accomplished Lessons from great philoso-phers like Aristotle’s cogitations on morality and virtues (O’Keefe, 2015) and Confucian thinkers Mencius’s and Xunzi’s writings on cultivating proper feelings and attitudes necessary for full participation in the family and community (Kim, 2015) point to the fact that our most important life decisions and events are connected to well-being Although well-being remains a difficult concept to define, specifically because of its intricate, multilayered nature, most readers will agree that it is essential for our hap-piness, flourishing, and successful development as human beings.

Although different conceptualizations exist, we agree with The American Psychological Association’s definition of well-being as “a state of happi-ness and contentment, with low levels of distress, overall good physical and mental health outlook, or good quality of life” (APA Dictionary of Psychology, 2020, para 1) Moreover, we also agree with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (2018) that well-being has a direct cor-relation with—and directly affects—the quality of life Lastly, well-being occurs when people are content with their lives (both professionally and personally), feel fulfilled, and are capable of transforming experiences into long-lasting positive memories and emotions In our book, we define well-being as a state of equilibrium where individuals experience health, happi-ness, and prosperity, all of which lead to developing life satisfaction, self-realization, and the ability to engage in socially responsible behav-iors—personally, professionally, emotionally, and spiritually—that produce long-lasting positive effects Further, we hold that well-being is not an individual duty, but the responsibility of society and ecological systems where individuals reside as a whole.

Why Teacher Well-Being from an Ecological Perspective?

As a result of the events teachers have been going through in their work environments, most recently the global pandemic, they need time to regroup More specifically, teachers need to feel supported with opportu-nities to reflect on and build on their well-being (Stafford-Brizard, 2021) Although practices targeting the social-emotional learning (SEL) of stu-dents have increased significantly as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic

(Li et al., 2021), teacher well-being, a vital foundation for SEL (Pentón Herrera & Martínez-Alba, 2021), has not been a priority Instead, schools have adopted sterile and impersonal practices encouraging teachers to engage in self-care, placing the responsibility of being well on teachers alone Similarly, school-wide workshops on wellness have been imple-mented, but for many teachers, these practices are hollow and just repre-sent a way of ‘weaponizing’ self-care by holding teachers accountable to report that they are well.

At the time of writing this introduction in the fall of 2021, some of our teacher-colleagues have confided in us that most of the self-care work-shops and other wellness practices are just there for schools to say that they did it, but offer little substance for educators In the words of one of our colleagues,

[The leadership] says they care about our well-being, but they do a breathing or meditation exercise at the beginning of workshops or meetings, then assign us a never-ending list of additional duties and responsibilities, and finalize our training with “remember to self-care.” How can I self-care when they keep giving us additional work and responsibilities with everything else going on?!

Our colleague’s concerns greatly resonate with what we have personally experienced as teachers and with what we have seen online For example, on November 16, 2021, Bored Teachers, a platform that amplifies educa-tors’ voices, posted a video titled “Why So Many Teachers Are Leaving This Year – A Teacher’s Rant” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlYo35YV-DY) In this video, the teacher explains the reasons behind teachers’ exhaustion, which are compounded by other school per-sonnel shortages (i.e., bus drivers, etc.), upset parents, and never-ending responsibilities added by school officials In the video the teacher shared,

We got admin [administration] and district officials shouting “practice self-care” while continually adding a million things to our plates If y’all really cared about us practicing self-care, we wouldn’t be made to feel bad when we need to take a mental health day or when we have to take a personal day off I mean, you got teachers out here coming to school mentally sick, coming to school physically sick because their admin makes them feel bad if they have to miss a day because there’s a teacher shortage I shouldn’t have to sacrifice my health because y’all don’t have any teachers Our prep [preparation] time is gone because there’s a teacher shortage and a substitute teacher shortage So, nine times out of 10, we are having to cover a class during our prep period So, when am I supposed to lesson plan, grade these papers, [and] get prepared for teacher observation?

(Bored Teachers, 2021)

The messages shared by our colleague and the teacher in the video are also reflected in our teacher-friends’ social media posts While writing this book introduction, there were two memes we saw in our teacher-friends’ social media posts that particularly resonated with us and the work we are doing In the first meme, there was an individual drowning with many papers (signifying tasks or responsibilities to complete) with the caption “me, trying to make it through the 2020/2021 school year.” At the bot-tom of the visual, there was an individual (identified as ‘them’, which sig-nifies the school leadership and stakeholders) yelling, “Don’t forget to practice self-care!” In the second meme, teachers were depicted as helpless individuals being strangled on the floor by “the demands of the 2020–21 school year” while an individual captioned as “admin” watches from afar yelling A woman entering the room captioned as “the presenter of self care PD [professional development]” is seen there watching the event motionless.

Although these comedic representations might give us a chuckle, the reality in these memes is no laughing matter; instead, it is a pressing and concerning one Teachers feel helpless, burned out, and drowning, and there is only so much individual self-care practices can do for teachers’ well-being when everything else in the educational system and society is overwhelming them School systems have the duty to give teachers the space, resources, and time to engage in authentic self-care behaviors that will result in real long-term well-being Teachers’ well-being is not a com-modity; it is a vital element of the school ecosystem, and without healthy teachers, schools are forced to shut down (Velez, 2021), tremendously affecting students, families, the community, and the educational field as a whole.

In this book, we approach teacher well-being from an ecological spective because we believe teacher well-being is a societal duty, not a personal responsibility An ecological model considers individuals, rela-tionships, organizations, communities, policy, society, and how they all fit together, which is very important to take into account since health is affected by multiple factors For example, public and institutional policies can have a positive effect on teachers by creating rules and regulations to promote healthy environments (American College of Health Association, n.d.) When looking more closely at the factors affecting teacher well-being, we can best make sense of them by using Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) ecological lens: micro (e.g., individuals and their relationships), meso (e.g., credentialing regulations of teachers), and macro (e.g., national policies in education) Through this lens, we can further unpack how an ecological perspective can be beneficial through its consideration of all facets of a person’s life.

per-In this edited volume, we amplify the clarion call to action made by Sarah Mercer (2021) and urge the ELT field to make well-being a priority both in research and practice Teacher “well-being is not a vacuous

nonsense It is the absolute core of what it means to exist as a human being within a social and global ecology” (p 21) Thus, in this edited volume, we place teacher well-being in ELT front and center throughout the dif-ferent chapters that speak directly to teacher well-being in ELT at the micro, meso, and macrosystems Our vision is that this edited book will serve as foundational work in the field, advancing the conversation of teacher well-being as an ecological responsibility rather than a personal duty.

The Organization of This Edited Book

We have divided this edited volume into five parts.

Part I Situating Teacher Well-Being in English Language Teaching

The contributions in Part I: Situating Teacher Well-Being in English Language Teaching provide a foundation for the edited volume by situat-ing and expanding the understanding of teacher well-being in ELT In Chapter 1, titled “Psychological Perspectives on Teachers’ Well-Being: Principles and Possibilities,” Antonio Aguilar-Diaz provides a general overview of the available literature regarding teacher well-being and emphasizes the wide array of stressors that teachers face today Antonio Aguilar-Diaz concludes the chapter by proposing ideas of what can be done in order to support teachers’ personal growth and overall well-being in ELT and beyond In Chapter 2, titled “Situating Teacher Well-Being in English Language Teaching,” Gilda Martínez-Alba, Luis Javier Pentón Herrera, and Ethan Trinh situate teacher well-being in ELT by providing a brief overview of existing published works highlighting the effects of well-being on teachers’ personal and professional lives The manuscript is divided into three main sections, each addressing a salient topic found in the currently available literature about language teacher well-being—namely, (1) emotions in ELT, (2) work-life balance in ELT, and (3) ser-vices and supports in ELT.

Part II Teacher Well-Being at the Microsystem

The contributions in Part II: Teacher Well-Being at the Microsystem shed light on how English language educators engage in practices that contrib-ute to well-being In “A Poetic Autoethnography of When Poetry Became My Synergistic Approach for Pedagogy and Andragogy” (Chapter 3), Saurabh Anand engages in a poetic autoethnography to explore teacher well-being Findings from his study suggest that the act of reading and writing poetry can be the next step toward healing-centered education However, those affordances go beyond benefiting learners’ language acquisition as it also helps emotionally vulnerable teachers such as himself

In Chapter 4, “ESL Teacher Well-Being in Sri Lanka: An Autoethnography,” Lakmini Grant Siriwardana employs autoethnography to understand her experiences as an ESL teacher in Sri Lanka Lakmini Grant Siriwardana finds that lack of opportunities for professional development, lower salary scales, job instability, and workload sometimes caused her burnout, mak-ing her feel drained both mentally and emotionally, and affecting her over-all well-being In Chapter 5, “Radical (Collective) Self-Care: Reflections for the Activist TESOL Educator,” Elisabeth L Chan takes a critical femi-nist lens to explore radical self-care, walking readers through reflective practices for strengthening critical consciousness and suggesting commu-nity actions for radical self-care and sustainability.

Part III Teacher Well-Being at the Mesosystem

The contributions in Part III: Teacher Well-Being at the Mesosystem highlight the direct effects of organizational support (or lack thereof) on teacher well-being In Chapter 6, “English Language Teacher Well-Being and Professional Identity Construction: A Self-Determination Theory Perspective,” Mostafa Nazari and Ismail Xodabande present a qualitative study exploring the un(der)explored nexus between Iranian English lan-guage teacher well-being and professional identity construction Findings highlight how the teachers’ subjectivity clashes with institutional particu-larities to shape their well-being and the associated bearings for their pro-fessional identity construction In Chapter 7, “Appreciative Inquiry as a Pathway to Language Teacher Well-Being,” Tammy Gregersen, Sarah Mercer, and Fareen Angel Merchant share the findings of a study con-ducted at a United Arab Emirates institution preparing English teachers The study demonstrated that using an appreciative inquiry lens provided positive, constructive, collaborative feedback on teachers’ classroom performance, proving empowering and positive for their well-being In  Chapter 8, “Vicarious Trauma and the Unregulated Education of Preservice Adult Language Instructors,” Katie Crossman provided insights on how instructors of adult learners in Canada experience vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue, and burnout.

In Chapter 9, “English Teacher Well-Being in the Face of the Pandemic: An Investigation in the Southeast of Nigeria,” Ugochi Mbagwu employed a qualitative case study to explore English language teachers’ well-being in selected tertiary institutions in the southeast of Nigeria Data reflected that lack of emotional support from the workplace and poor psychological well-being were some of the factors that hindered teachers’ effective ELT  at the institutions In Chapter 10, “Embedding Well-Being into Language Teacher Education and Professional Development: Starting the Conversation,” Amea Wilbur and Taslim Damji address well-being through a trauma-informed lens and provide pedagogical trauma-informed practices to promote well-being in the teaching profession In Chapter 11,

“Building Young Teacher Well-Being in Universities: A Case Study of the Teachers’ Development Center in SISU,” Yushan Zhu analyzes the cur-rent situation of young teachers in Chinese higher education and shares possible solutions provided by the practice of the Teachers’ Development Center at Sichuan International Studies University (SISU).

Part IV Teacher Well-Being at the Macrosystem

The contributions in Part IV: Teacher Well-Being at the Macrosystem advance the conversation by looking at teacher well-being in ELT through the lens of social practices and ideologies In Chapter 12, “Language Teacher Candidates’ Emotion Labor: Transcending Circulating Language Ideologies,” Hazel Vega and Christian Fallas-Escobar employ a compara-tive case study to examine teacher candidates’ (TCs) emotional responses to language ideologies that prescribe and enforce marginalizing identity positions Findings have implications for teacher education in the United States and Latin America, with special regard to the adoption of teacher education policies and practices that may cultivate English and bilingual education TCs’ engagement in practices of well-being In Chapter 13, “What University-Level Institutions Are Doing to Promote Teacher Self-Care and Well-Being: Reflections from the Gulf,” Christine Coombe and Doaa Hamam discuss best practices for university-level teachers in the Gulf and share recommendations and strategies to improve teachers’ well-being In Chapter 14, “English Language Teaching Associations on Teacher Well-Being during the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond,” Georgios Kormpas highlights events organized by English language teach-ing associations (ELTAs) during the COVID-19 pandemic that supported the well-being of English language teachers and suggests that ELTAs can play a pivotal role in the future of well-being for English teachers Lastly, in Chapter 15, “Palestinian English Teachers’ Challenges for Well-Being and Excellence,” Anwar Hussein-Abdel Razeq focuses on the challenges that Palestinian English teachers currently face in performing their teach-ing duties and the strategies they use for their cognitive, emotional, and physical well-being.

Part V Final Thoughts and Ecological Pathway Forward

In the final chapter, “Concluding Thoughts on Teacher Well-Being in English Language Teaching: An Ecological Pathway Forward,” Ethan Trinh, Gilda Martínez-Alba, and Luis Javier Pentón Herrera summarize the key elements and findings discussed throughout the book, ending with reflections for next steps Within that, the micro, meso, and macro-systems are fleshed out to provide a clear picture of how wellness is being addressed around the world, which sheds light on many positive methods in place that can be replicated and implemented in other contexts We end

this chapter and edited volume by describing enigmas that remain swered and providing some suggestions for ecological explorations of teacher well-being in English language teaching and beyond.

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PART I

Positioning Teacher Well-Being in English Language Teaching

DOI: 10.4324/9781003314936-3

In recent years, there has been a considerable amount of research ing teacher well-being levels However, many of these studies have focused on ameliorating negative states of teacher well-being (McCallum et  al., 2017); for example, teachers’ increased stress levels (Curry & O’Brien, 2012), teachers’ increasingly demanding workloads (Buchanan et  al., 2013; Yin et al., 2016) and teacher burnout (Antoniou et al., 2013).

explor-Although few studies have examined teacher well-being from a positive perspective, high levels of teacher well-being have been shown to have significant positive effects across a number of domains While research is scarce in this area, Kern et al (2014) evaluated the well-being levels of 153 Australian education staff in a single school, of which 60% were teach-ers They found that staff members who were doing well across multiple well-being domains were also more committed to the school and more satisfied with their health, life, and chosen occupation Similarly, Brouskeli et al (2018), in their study of Greek secondary teachers’ resilience and occupational well-being, found a positive correlation between these two factors They concluded that programs to support teachers’ well-being should be a priority in education systems and recommended further research around factors that contribute to and enhance teacher well-being (Brouskeli et al., 2018).

Çimen and Özgan (2018), in their Turkish qualitative study of the tors that contribute to the psychological capital of teachers, defined psy-chological capital as a higher-order construct that draws from positive psychology, comprising the four facets of hope, self-efficacy, optimism, and resilience They found that teacher psychological capital increased when teachers helped their students succeed and overcome problems, par-ticularly if the teachers were working in low socio-economic schools Furthermore, teacher-participants reported that solidarity and teamwork between colleagues and being reminded that teaching improves new gen-erations and builds toward the future, affected their psychological capital

fac-1 Psychological Perspectives on Teachers’ Well-Being

Principles and Possibilities

Antonio Aguilar-Diaz

as the motivation of feeling responsible for creating a better society made them more determined to reach their objectives (Çimen & Özgan, 2018).

Besides the studies evaluating teacher well-being levels, there is a city of research examining the effects of teacher well-being on teaching practice or on student learning This is coupled with the absence of both a commonly used definition of well-being and standardized well-being measures as it pertains to teachers and school settings A good example is Duckworth et  al (2009), who examined the influence of teacher well-being as measured by grit, life satisfaction, and optimism in novice teach-ers at the start of the school year against their students’ academic gains at the end of the year They found teacher grit and life satisfaction were predictive of student academic gains Similarly, Caprara et al (2016) found in their study of over 2,000 teachers working in Italian junior high schools that the students of teachers who had higher well-being levels, as mea-sured by self-efficacy beliefs and job satisfaction, received higher final grades.

pau-Importance of School-Based Social Relationships for Students

Linking school-based social relationships to adult health school peers and teachers comprise the two major groups of social actors with whom stu-dents interact on a daily basis (Coleman, 1961; as cited in Kim et  al., 2020) Despite potentially different domains and magnitudes of influence, it is well documented that other students and teachers have a profound effect on students’ lives (Fan et al., 2012; León & Liew, 2017; Moore et al., 2018) When learners experience a sense of belonging to their school and have supportive relationships with other students and teachers, they are motivated to achieve academic success and exhibit higher levels of social, emotional, and behavioral adjustment (Kiuru et al., 2015; McGrath & Van Bergen, 2015) In particular, school peers and teachers shape stu-dents’ socialization and development processes in ways that affect indi-viduals’ long-term health and well-being (Umberson et  al., 2010) Relationships among students and between students and teachers may also shape students’ future health as adults through multiple channels that are not necessarily mutually exclusive, and the pathways may be distinct for different health outcomes.

Recent studies in the social sciences have made important contributions to our understanding of how social processes trigger physiological pro-cesses that help to explain the link between social relationships and health (Umberson & Karas Montez, 2010) The stress response framework sug-gests that positive relationships with others in schools may promote healthy development of regulatory systems (such as enhancement of immune, cardiovascular, and endocrine functioning), whereas negative relationships may lead to physiological responses that place individuals at  risk of poor health Prolonged exposure to poor relationships with

individuals (teachers or students) may cause chronic stress, which in turn evokes physiological stress responses (e.g., elevated serum leptin levels; Kohlboeck et al., 2013; Siegel et al., 2018) The consequences of expo-sure to such stressors likely unfold over the entire life course, and thus adolescent social relationships may have long-term consequences for adult health For example, physiological disturbances during adolescence likely contribute to the development of cardiovascular disease risk through their adverse effects on nocturnal blood pressure recovery and elevated blood pressure (Steffen et al., 2003).

In addition to a direct, physiological pathway, the quality of social tionships in school may indirectly affect students’ health in adulthood by shaping their engagement in health-related behaviors (Petrovic et  al., 2018) For example, when students perceive a lack of social support from and social connection with peers, they are more likely to exhibit physical aggression, risky sexual behaviors, substance use, and poor diet (Holt-Lunstad, 2018) The long-term perspective offered by life course models suggests that health behaviors initiated in adolescence have cascading effects throughout life (Umberson et al., 2010) For example, adult smok-ers tend to begin smoking as teenagers, and smoking is a hard habit to break Thus, adolescents’ cigarette smoking in response to stress has impli-cations for one’s long-term health (Kristman-Valente & Wells, 2013) In fact, a study has documented that peer support has protective effects on adolescents’ healthy behaviors, the benefits of which persist through young adulthood (Frech, 2012).

rela-Theories in social psychology identify psychosocial mechanisms that may explain how social relationships in schools influence mental health in adulthood Relationships with students and teachers may influence one’s mental health because these relationships shape individuals’ feelings, per-ceptions, and behaviors (Bennett, 2005; Inzlicht et al., 2006) Sustaining healthy relationships with peers and teachers brings about social support and fosters a sense of meaning and purpose in life, which may benefit students’ mental health (Cohen, 2004) By contrast, negative relation-ships lower psychosocial resources such as a sense of mastery and control over one’s life, self-esteem, perceptions of social support, and expecta-tions about one’s life chances, thereby leading to worse mental health in adulthood (Mays & Cochran, 2011) Relatedly, school-based social rela-tionships may have indirect effects on mental health in the long run through the development of social and communication skills, an impor-tant determinant of health (Segrin, 2019) The lack of positive interper-sonal relationships in schools is probably one of the biggest impediments to young people’s development of social and communication skills (Neidell & Waldfogel, 2010) Thus, adolescents who struggle with relationships in school are more likely to develop fewer social resources (e.g., friendship, healthy marriage) that promote psychological health in the future (Thoits, 2011).

School connectedness, teaching autonomy, and teaching efficacy have been consistently shown to promote professional well-being and protect teachers from stress (Bottiani et al., 2019) School connectedness and its related constructs (e.g., school climate and workplace social support) have a robust and positive association with job satisfaction, as well as a moder-ate negative relation with burnout (Malinen & Savolainen, 2016) In addition, empirical research indicates a small to moderate association of teaching autonomy with job satisfaction (Koustelios et al., 2004), school commitment (Collie et al., 2018), emotional exhaustion, and depersonali-zation (Collie et al., 2018) For teaching efficacy, prior studies have docu-mented its negative association with burnout (Zee & Koomen, 2016) and positive association with job satisfaction (Skaalvik & Skaalvik, 2017) and work engagement (Dicke et al., 2018).

There are growing concerns about the mental health and well-being of teachers globally, with the stress caused by the job thought to be a key factor driving many to leave the profession It is often claimed that teach-ers have worse mental health and well-being outcomes than other occupa-tional groups, yet academic evidence on this matter remains limited, with some studies supporting this notion, while a handful of others do not (Jerrim et al., 2020) It is no surprise many teachers struggle with some form of mental health problem In fact, a recent study from the University College London Institute of Education reports that one in every 20 teach-ers (or about 5 percent) suffers from a mental illness that has lasted, or is likely to last, more than a year (Smiley et al., 2021).

Current State of Teachers’ Mental Health

Teaching work is stressful; moreover, during the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers’ stress might have been intensified by the abrupt shift to distance education as well as by limited access to social support, which functions as a buffer in experiencing stress A recent study conducted by Jakubowski and Sitko-Dominik (2021) in Poland investigated the relation between distance education and teachers’ well-being, and their close relations and other social relations during the first two waves of the COVID-19 pan-demic The research results show that due to distance work, the distinc-tion between professional work and family life might have been blurred, and as a consequence, teachers’ well-being could have been worsened The isolation required to stop the spreading of the virus might have con-tributed to changes in social relations, in close relations in particular, and at the same time, negatively influenced teachers’ abilities to effectively cope with the crisis situations (Jakubowski & Sitko-Dominik, 2021).

Similar to the study from Poland (Jakubowski & Sitko-Dominik, 2021), as the cases of COVID-19 surged in the spring of 2020, the majority of school districts in the United States transitioned to distance learning, and many school districts continued with distance learning as they entered into

the new school year During distance learning, educators have managed to provide online teaching and digital resources, despite their varying levels of knowledge about which instructional technologies are most effective for whom, how, and under what conditions Ample research has shown that educators commonly face overwhelming workloads, high levels of stress, and significant secondary traumatic stress risks (Borntrager et al., 2012; McCarthy et al., 2019) The COVID-19 pandemic has magnified these risk factors faced by educators (Green et al., 2020), bringing life to a standstill across the world.

Before the pandemic, an emerging body of research showed that tors’ beliefs about their social-emotional learning (SEL) competencies were associated with their classroom management effectiveness and their students’ learning and social-emotional well-being (Jennings & Greenberg, 2009) Researchers and policymakers have also called for leveraging SEL to support teaching, learning, and care for students and educators (Mahoney et al., 2021) However, we have little empirical understanding of how educators’ online teaching experiences, especially their online teaching self-efficacy, interact with their SEL competencies to influence their compassion fatigue amid unprecedented public health and educa-tional crises.

educa-Compassion fatigue was first defined by Figley (1995) as “the natural consequent behaviors and emotions resulting from knowing about a trau-matizing event experienced by a significant other and the stress resulting from wanting to help a traumatized or suffering person” (p 7) Stamm (2010) further defined compassion fatigue as the negative aspects of indi-viduals’ professional quality of life, in contrast to compassion satisfaction, which is considered the positive aspect of one’s professional quality of life Moreover, Stamm (2010) differentiated compassion fatigue into two sub-constructs: (a) burnout, which is characterized by chronic work-related stress, exhaustion, frustration, and anger, and (b) secondary traumatic stress (STS), which is characterized by stress symptoms that helping pro-fessionals experience when witnessing the trauma of those they support In this chapter, compassion fatigue is conceptualized as one integrated con-cept, including two key negative indicators of educators’ psychological well-being: burnout and STS.

Research has shown that compassion fatigue is correlated with the tion of several helping professions, such as health-care workers, mental health professionals, and social workers (Bride, 2007; Bunce & West, 1996; Kraus, 2005) In recent years, there has been a growing recognition of the vital role of STS, burnout, and compassion satisfaction in teacher retention (Christian-Brandt et al., 2020) For example, based on survey data reported from 163 educators in underserved elementary schools in the United States, Christian-Brandt et al (2020) found that teachers with lower compassion satisfaction and higher burnout were more likely to report their intentions of leaving the field of education While researchers

attri-generally agreed that educators’ stress levels varied depending on specific features and contexts (Ramberg et al., 2020), some studies before the COVID-19 pandemic have shown that school personnel faced high risks of burnout and STS (Hydon et al., 2014; McCarthy et al., 2019) For example, a study based on 229 school staff members across six schools in the northwestern United States showed that school staff members’ self-reported STS levels were as high as what was reported by mental health workers (Borntrager et al., 2012).

school-During the COVID-19 pandemic, countless educators have increased concerns about their own families and students (Hanisch et al., 2020) At the same time, many educators have had to adjust to new ways of teaching, balance their work and home life in the same vicinity, and face uncertain-ties regarding their schools (Hanisch et  al., 2020) While the concerns regarding educators’ mental health and well-being have been raised recently (Green et al., 2020), we have a minimal empirical understanding of educators’ compassion fatigue and how to prevent and reduce it in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond Such an understanding is critical for successfully reopened schools and addressing the educator attrition issue during and following the pandemic Awareness about teacher mental health is growing However, there is not nearly enough being done to mitigate the issue, and many might not realize how com-mon it is—or what is contributing to the problem (Smiley et al., 2021).

Teacher Well-Being and Stress before and during the Pandemic

Teachers are at the front line of our education system, and teaching is a stressful profession under the best of circumstances (Sharifian & Kennedy, 2019) Moreover, teacher stress and poor coping are linked to negative outcomes for teachers and their students (Herman et  al., 2020) Researchers have also noted the severe risk to well-being and adverse men-tal health effects of ecological disasters like COVID-19 on the general population (Prime et al., 2020) Thus, COVID-19 likely only magnified the already high levels of stress reported by teachers.

In a recent study (Yang, 2021), data were collected by distributing surveys to all educators in a school district Participants completed the study voluntarily without incentives During the 2019–2020 school year, there were 116 schools in the participating school district, including 83 district-run schools and 33 district-authorized charter schools Results showed that educators with more years of experience and White educa-tors, in particular, reported higher levels of compassion fatigue than their counterparts Controlling for educators’ gender, race/ethnicity, and years of teaching in education, compassion fatigue was significantly influenced by online teaching self-efficacy, but not educators perceived SEL compe-tencies Moreover, the negative association between online teaching

self-efficacy and compassion fatigue was intensified among educators with a higher self-reported level of SEL competencies (Yang, 2021).

What Needs to Be Done?

Finding a categorical answer to this question is not easy However, Mercer (2021) provides a framework that can help educational leaders respond better to gather a deep understanding of the emotional perspectives sur-rounding teacher well-being The author states that well-being is a basic human right according to the World Health Organization It is the foun-dation of a life well-lived and ought to be the basis of all educational endeavors and encounters The author urges English language teachers to make well-being a priority for research and practice Mercer’s arguments (2021) are based on three pillars First, the need to be serious in defining and understanding well-being for research and teaching and get beyond superficial conceptualizations, which inhibit growth in this area and mean-ingful debate Second, the need to consider well-being for the whole ELT ecology, understanding that well-being does not reside solely within the individual but is socially situated too Finally, collective responsibility in the community to work toward better conditions for well-being for all members of the ELT ecology.

What Can Be Done to Address This Situation?

Now, more than ever, supporting educator well-being is a critical priority for school and district leaders because COVID-19 has exacerbated pre-pandemic challenges in the educator workforce The most common rea-son educators have cited for leaving school employment in the last year (i.e., Chan et al., 2021) is stress, followed by insufficient pay and chal-lenges related to remote instruction and technology As educators con-tinue working during a global health crisis (and beyond), teacher well-being and support will be essential to school and district success Research shows educator well-being is tied to feeling supported, valued, and heard by school and district leaders, as well as peers Furthermore, it also shows that educator well-being is closely connected to educator retention and effec-tiveness in providing student support (U.S Department of Education, 2021).

As schools continue to reopen, it is important to consider that educators and staff will also be returning to school having endured many changes of their own Some will be coping with grief, elevated levels of anxiety, and loss Many teachers, paraprofessionals, homeless liaisons, migrant educa-tion program personnel, teachers in prisons, and mental health profession-als may be struggling as they watch the students they serve and care deeply about going through challenging experiences And still, individuals, such as principals and other school leaders, will continue to wear multiple hats,

for example, as school instructional leaders, social workers, and nutrition service planners To be effective in meeting student well-being and aca-demic needs, the adults in the community must prioritize their own basic mental, emotional, and physical health needs Thus, addressing the needs of all school staff must be a priority in planning (Nowicki et al., 2020).

Mental health professionals are not the sole resource for addressing educator burnout and providing mental health care Social and emotional wellness is a community responsibility that everyone plays a role in Some educators have reported that being intentional in prioritizing their own self-care is restorative, especially as they balance the possible burnout and disconnection with their professional and personal dedication to educa-tion (Croft et al., 2019) However, it is important to remain cognizant that district and school leaders need to give teachers the time and space required for self-care.

Connections and relationships that are important for students are equally critical for educators and staff Responsive relationships and strong connections act as protective factors that have specific and tangible bene-fits that improve educators’ mental health For school staff to create regu-lated yet physically and emotionally calm and settled climates, they, too, must be emotionally connected in safe and responsive relationships For communities that are implementing school-wide social and emotional learning approaches, they find that all stakeholders, not just students, ben-efit For example, in implementing school-wide SEL approaches, Stratford Public Schools in Connecticut, United States, provided SEL professional development and found that the professional learning also acted as cathar-tic sessions for the educators and staff to relate to one another, which boosted adult morale Small staff cohorts now lead the SEL growth spe-cifically for the adults in each school within the district (U.S Department of Education, 2021).

Relatedly, any opportunities for educators and staff to be involved in planning allow staff to feel that their voices are valued and allow school leaders to delegate and share responsibilities Across all these relationships is the need for intentionally incorporating community-building and self-care in all activities in the school For example, some school districts have staff tasked with building community and report that they boost positive culture (Chan et al., 2021) Other school districts, such as Hillsborough County in Florida, United States, leverage teacher leaders to take on COVID-19 lead roles in their schools (U.S Department of Education, 2021) Efforts to prioritize communication and collaboration between staff and leadership nurtures, modeling a sense of connectedness that is crucial to supporting teaching and learning.

Current efforts to address the pandemic should also prompt school communities to reevaluate compensatory time off and sick leave policies and practices Policies should be applied equitably and consider hybrid or  remote teaching accommodations for staff with health conditions,

consistent with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance To build intentional systems that support educator and staff well-being, district and school leaders should focus on developing the following: • School leader-to-educator support systems Leaders can build in

time for recurring debrief sessions with all staff members and, when necessary, hold debrief sessions after stressful days This can be sup-plemented with unplanned drop-ins into classrooms as a positive touchpoint (e.g., leave a handwritten note highlighting the effective work that was observed) Leaders should also regularly survey educa-tors to gather data on wellness, including staff perception of work-load and morale Leaders can use these data to identify gaps and to enhance current efforts Leaders should also be a model for well-being; in addition to encouraging educators and staff to prioritize self-care, district and school leaders should model that self-care them-selves (e.g., observing blackout times for work emails) Finally, dur-ing a pandemic or similar events of extreme stress and shifts, it is important for district and school leaders to communicate to teachers that they trust them as professionals For example, the state of Virginia in the United States issued guidance encouraging school leaders to build cultures of instructional risk-taking where educators feel the flexibility to ‘fail forward’ or learn from what went wrong (Quaglieri et al., 2021).

• Peer-to-peer support systems School leaders can set shared staff

norms on well-being expectations, such as how and when staff acts with one another (i.e., leaving daily messages on a bulletin board at the teacher’s lounge) School leaders can prioritize educator men-toring programs to build support systems and prevent burnout For nonteaching staff such as social workers or counselors, school districts can explore being creative in building mentorships across campuses, which can include a “buddy” system to build peer-to-peer support systems on a regular basis Leaders can encourage these check-ins weekly or monthly Some school leaders have reported providing weekly school staff support circle time that mirrors the practices in student circles They also are creating new systems for regular staff-to-staff shout-outs via morning announcements or on bulletin boards In addition, school district officials should welcome educator-initiated, cross-district affinity groups for teachers of color and early career teachers (Quirk, 2020).

• Considerations for educator workloads School leaders can

sched-ule staff (and nonteaching staff, such as school counselors and nology staff) planning time into work hours, and schedule a monthly planning day This is an important way to ensure educators are set up for success within work hours and can prioritize personal self-care after the school day is over School leaders should consider having

tech-fewer meetings to communicate information and instead should vide time to check in with staff For example, rather than meeting to communicate news, school leaders can send daily bulleted news updates via email and can save time, and instead provide some of the time for virtual or in-person office hours This is an important way to ensure educators are set up for success within work hours and can prioritize personal self-care after the school day is over In addition, schools and districts should consider how they can prioritize strategies and interventions to meet student needs, so as not to place multiple responsibilities on individual educators (Darling-Hammond et  al., 2020).

• Transparency in the district and school mental health supports

School districts should increase awareness of available school and trict human resources support for all staff (e.g., who to contact and what supports are available) When possible, school districts should make human resource representatives present on school campuses regularly School districts should strive to make accessible the health services staff need through employee assistance programs This can include regular campus visits or easy user guides Schools can also leverage local resources from local health departments, community partners, or federal resources to provide wellness services remotely or visit school campuses following the proper safety and prevention pro-tocols This can include hosting on-campus wellness fairs, providing free wellness check-ups, free or reduced gym memberships from local community partners, and other self-care (Oxley et al., 2020).

• Intentional space for educators to recharge In educator

develop-ment plans, school districts may consider incorporating a focus on adult wellness and sustainability, with educators on a continuum of learning best practices to preserve their wellness and to support their peers in doing so Also, leaders or culture committees can consider building a quiet and comfortable space for staff to recharge and reset daily at work All staff members benefit from a space to recharge to better support students (Olsen & Guffey, 2016).

This chapter addressed the stressors that undermine teachers’ mental health, such as adapting to new technologies for teaching while working full-time at their homes (Brackett & Cipriano, 2020), and the various strategies that can be considered so that educators can continue to draw on the mental health benefits of finding purpose at work, such as school leader-to-educator support systems, peer-to-peer support systems, trans-parency in school mental health supports, and intentional space for educa-tors to recharge (U.S Department of Education, 2021) Optimal school

environments characterized by high levels of collegial leadership and a sense of fairness and equity in school discipline practices may help mitigate the harmful aspects of external events such as the pandemic on teacher well-being Moreover, school environments that support adaptive teach-ing coping and a personal sense of competence and self-efficacy may also support teacher adjustment (Herman et al., 2021).

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