Date of Award

2-1-2025

Publication Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Department

Education

Keywords

basic psychological needs; language teacher wellbeing; positive organizational scholarship; positive organizational support; positive psychology; self-determination theory

Supervisor

Zuochen Zhang

Supervisor

Shijing Xu

Rights

info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

Abstract

Teachers are at the center of educational success. Teachers with higher levels of wellbeing are more open to connecting with others, enjoy higher levels of job satisfaction and performance, and have stronger motivation and commitment to the profession, thus promoting better students’ wellbeing, engagement and achievement. Unfortunately, existing studies show that teacher wellbeing is at risk, characterized by increased work-related stress, rising rates of teacher turnover, and attrition. This trend was exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. Not surprisingly, language teachers are no exception to this trend, and to make matters worse, language teachers experience some additional unique challenges such as emotional exhaustion and foreign language anxiety. The purpose of this study was to explore a pathway to language teacher wellbeing from supporting and sustaining to thriving through investigating the supportive role of positive organizations and sustaining role of basic psychological needs satisfaction during the pathway. Data were collected through a cross-sectional online survey with a sample of 556 language teacher participants from Chinese higher educational institutions. Descriptive analysis found that overall language teacher wellbeing fell under the category of normal functioning with a higher sense of achievement. Structural equation modeling analysis revealed that positive organizational practices including positive human resource, positive organizational practices, and positive relationship significantly supported language teacher wellbeing. Particularly, positive relationship practices produced significant influence on all the five domains of language teacher wellbeing, namely, positive emotion, engagement, relationship, meaning, and achievement. However, positive leadership did not show significant influence on language teacher wellbeing. Furthermore, the satisfaction of basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness significantly mediated the relations from positive organizational support to language teacher wellbeing. In particular, the satisfaction of psychological need for relatedness demonstrated the largest mediating effect. Today, as the whole society, especially educational leaders, are grappling with the problems of teacher retention and attrition, this research casts some new light. In lieu of short-term fixes or band-aid responses, long-term revitalization or bridge-building strategies that satisfy language teachers’ psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness should be prioritized. Other implications were also discussed.

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