Wellbeing at Work

According to Mercer and Gregersen (2020), teachers’ wellbeing depends on the contextual factors including the institutions and wider educational contexts. The authors posit that teachers can thrive at schools that are positive organizations, support teacher autonomy; and when they identify with their workplace, have positive relationships with their colleagues and can manage innovations. It is crucial here to acknowledge that some contextual affordances are beyond the control of both teachers and managers; and as teachers, we can focus our energy on the elements we can have an impact on.

The following questions might help you question your wellbeing at work as a teacher, and the staff wellbeing at work as managers:

1- (For managers) Is my workplace a positive organization, meaning does it have positive human resource practices, positive organizational practices, positive leadership and does it foster positive relationships?
(Four factors could be considered while evaluating how positive a workplace is. Firstly, positive human resources could entail continuing professional development opportunities. Secondly, organizational practices include availability of resources to the staff. Thirdly, positive leadership could mean inspirational leaders who influence staff intellectually, paying attention to the needs of staff. Finally, fostering positive relationships within an institution means ensuring psychological safety, keeping communication channels open, involving staff in the decision-making and responding to staff feedback.)


2- Am I a good fit with my workplace and do I feel appreciated here?

3- (For teachers) Do I feel belonging to my institution? (For managers) How can the institution promote belonging, can it use collaborative work within the staff for that purpose?

4- (For teachers) Do I have a desired level of autonomy at my workplace?

5- (For managers) Does the institution provide enough autonomy to the staff? (Teacher autonomy is a vital concept as it affects the empowerment teachers feel at work (Pearson & Moomaw, 2005) and because teaching flourishes through creativity and individuality (Mercer & Gregersen, 2020). Having a sense of self-managing the tasks is likely to improve employee wellbeing and job meaningfulness (Morrow & Conger, 2018).

6- (For teachers) How proactive am I when I have troubles at work?
(Mercer and Gregersen (2020) suggest that being proactive about the autonomy-related issues might improve teachers’ wellbeing at work. Among the suggestions are seeking open dialogue, explaining our request for more autonomy and making concrete suggestions regarding how these can be achieved.)

7- (For managers) How can I make sure a proposed innovation will be adopted smoothly?
(According to Rogers’s Diffusion of Innovations, innovations can be adopted faster if they are shown to be more advantageous than previous and if they are compatible, simple, triable and observable (Sahin, 2006).)


Some strategies to improve wellbeing at the workplace

Design your own job-demand resources (JD-R) model: Make proactive changes in your job (Granziera et. al, 2021). See the steps on the website: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/job-demands-resources-model.htm  

Seek Continuing Professional Development (CPR) opportunities suited to your needs. Holmes (2005, p. 102) refers to Anna Craft’s book Continuing Professional Development to provide a list of CPD opportunities. Below is a selection from that list:
• action research 
• self-directed study as well as teacher research linked to awards such as masters and doctorates 
• using distance-learning materials 
• school-based and off-site courses of various lengths 
• peer networks 
• membership of a working party or task group 
• school cluster projects involving collaboration, development and sharing of experience and skills 
• personal reflection 
• experimental ‘assignments’ 
• learning mediated by information technology (for example, through email discussion groups, or self-study using multimedia resources)



References

Granziera, H., Collie, R., & Martin, A. (2021). Understanding teacher wellbeing through job demands-resources theory. In Cultivating Teacher Resilience (pp. 229-244). Springer, Singapore.

Holmes, E. (2005). Teacher well-being: Looking after yourself and your career in the classroom. Routledge.

Mercer, S., & Gregersen, T. (2020). Teacher wellbeing. Oxford University Press.

Morrow, D., & Conger, S. (2018, March). Job crafting, mindfulness, meaningfulness, and work engagement. In 3rd International Symposium on Meaningful Work, Amsterdam, The Netherlands,(March) (pp. 1-7).  

Pearson, L. C., & Moomaw, W. (2005). The relationship between teacher autonomy and stress, work satisfaction, empowerment, and professionalism. Educational research quarterly, 29(1), 38-54.

Sahin, I. (2006). Detailed review of Rogers' diffusion of innovations theory and educational technology-related studies based on Rogers' theory. Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology-TOJET, 5(2), 14-23.