What Makes Teachers Well?
A Mixed Methods Study of Special Education Teacher Well-being
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32674/jise.v9i2.2170Keywords:
teacher well-being, school climate, special education, mixed methods research, person-environment fit, dual factor model of mental healthAbstract
Using a longitudinal convergent-mixed-methods approach, researchers explored how secondary special education teachers understand and experience well-being in their work as educators. Researchers were interested in how teachers’ reported levels of well-being, as well as interpretations of well-being, shifted over the course of the school year. Evidence from this study suggests that teachers’ subjective experiences matter, but the contexts in which they teach can shift their experiences, which may be connected to overall well-being. Simply reducing stressors and/or burnout will not necessarily result in improved well-being for teachers. School-wide efforts to improve relationships within the school building, providing space for teacher leadership, explicitly naming shared values, and recognizing the emotional calendar of the school year may facilitate teachers’ well-being.
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References
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Sutcher, L., Darling‐Hammond, L., & Carver‐Thomas, D. (2016). A coming crisis in teaching? Teacher supply, demand, and shortages in the U.S. Report of the Learning Policy Institute. Palo Alto, CA: Learning Policy Institute.
Suldo, S. M., & Shaffer, E. J. (2008). Looking beyond psychopathology: The dual-factor model of mental health in youth. School Psychology Review, 37(1), 52-68.
Schaefer, L., Long, J. K., & Clandinin, D. J. (2012). Questioning the research on early career teacher attrition and retention. Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 58(1), 106-121.
Sumsion, J. (2007). Sustaining the employment of early childhood teachers in long day care: A case for robust hope, critical imagination and critical action. Asia‐Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 35(3), 311-327.
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Warren, J. M., & Hale, R. W. (2016). The influence of efficacy beliefs on teacher performance and student success: Implications for student support services. Journal of Rational-Emotive & Cognitive-Behavior Therapy, 34(3), 187-208.
Billingsley, B. S. (2004). Special education teacher retention and attrition: A critical analysis of the research literature. Journal of Special Education, 38(1), 39-55.
Boe, E. (2014). Teacher demand, supply, and shortage in special education: A national perspective. In T. P. Sindelar et al. (Eds.), Handbook of research on special Education teacher preparation (67-93). NY: Routledge.
Brouwers, A., & Tomic, W. (2000). A longitudinal study of teacher burnout and perceived self-efficacy in classroom management. Teaching and Teacher Education, 16(2), 239-253.
Brunsting, Nelson C., Melissa A. Sreckovic, and Kathleen Lynne Lane. "Special education teacher burnout: A synthesis of research from 1979 to 2013." Education and treatment of children 37.4 (2014): 681-711.
Collie, R. J., Shapka, J. D., Perry, N. E., & Martin, A. J. (2015). Teachers' beliefs about social-emotional learning: Identifying teacher profiles and their relations with job stress and satisfaction. Learning and Instruction, 39, 148-157.
Conley, S., & You, S. (2017). Key influences on special education teachers’ intentions to leave: The effects of administrative support and teacher team efficacy in a mediational model. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 45(3), 521-540.
Creswell, J. W., & Clark, V. L. P. (2018). Designing and conducting mixed research methods: Third Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA. Sage Publications.
Edwards, J. A., & Billsberry, J. (2010). Testing a multidimensional theory of person-environment fit. Journal of managerial issues, 476-493.
Herman, K. C., Hickmon-Rosa, J. E., & Reinke, W. M. (2018). Empirically derived profiles of teacher stress, burnout, self-efficacy, and coping and associated student outcomes. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 20(2), 90-100.
Jansen, K., & Kristof-Brown, A. (2006). Toward a multidimensional theory of person-environment fit. Journal of Managerial Issues,18(2), 193-212.
Jeon, L., Buettner, C. K., & Snyder, A. R. (2014). Pathways from teacher depression and child-care quality to child behavioral problems. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 82(2), 225-235.
Jennings, P. A., & Greenberg, M. T. (2009). The prosocial classroom: Teacher social and emotional competence in relation to student and classroom outcomes. Review Of Educational Research, 79(1), 491-525.
Keyes, C. L., Eisenberg, D., Perry, G. S., Dube, S. R., Kroenke, K., & Dhingra, S. S. (2012). The relationship of level of positive mental health with current mental disorders in predicting suicidal behavior and academic impairment in college students. Journal of American College Health, 60(2), 126-133.
Klassen, R. M., and Chiu, M. M. (2010). Effects on teachers' self-efficacy and job satisfaction: Teacher gender, years of experience, and job stress. Journal of Educational Psychology 102(3), 741-756.
Kyriacou, C. (2001). Teacher stress: directions for future research. Educational Review, 53(1), 27-35.
LeMahieu, P. G., Nordstrum, L. E., & Gale, D. (2017). Positive deviance: Learning from positive anomalies. Quality Assurance in Education.
Levine, A. C. (2013). The sustaining power of hope: Perspectives of public school teachers. Research in The Schools, 20(1), 57-75.
McLean, L., Abry, T., Taylor, M., & Connor, C. M. (2018). Associations among teachers' depressive symptoms and students' classroom instructional experiences in third grade. Journal of School Psychology, 69, 154-168.
McLean, L., & Connor, C. M. (2015). Depressive symptoms in third-grade teachers: Relations to classroom quality and student achievement. Child Development, 86(3), 945-954.
Miles, M. B., Huberman, A. M., & Saldaña, J. (2013). Qualitative data analysis: A methods sourcebook. Edition 3. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Player, D., Youngs, P., Perrone, F., & Grogan, E. (2017). How principal leadership and person-job fit are associated with teacher mobility and attrition. Teaching & Teacher Education, 67, 330-339.
Renshaw, T. L., & Cohen, A. S. (2014). Life satisfaction as a distinguishing indicator of college student functioning: Further validation of the two-continua model of mental health. Social indicators research, 117(1), 319-334.
Renshaw, T. L., Long, A. J., & Cook, C. R. (2015). Assessing teachers’ positive psychological functioning at work: Development and validation of the Teacher Subjective Wellbeing Questionnaire. School Psychology Quarterly, 30(2), 289-306.
Roffey, S. (2012). Pupil wellbeing - Teacher wellbeing: Two sides of the same coin? Educational & Child Psychology, 29(4), 8-17.
Ruble, L. A., Toland, M. D., Birdwhistell, J. L., McGrew, J. H., & Usher, E. L. (2013). Preliminary study of the autism self-efficacy scale for teachers (ASSET). Research In Autism Spectrum Disorders, 7(9), 1151-1159.
Seligman, M. E. (2004). Authentic happiness: Using the new positive psychology to realize your potential for lasting fulfillment. Simon and Schuster.
Skaalvik, E.M., & Skaalvik, S. (2010). Teacher self-efficacy and teacher burnout: A study of relations. Teaching and Teacher Education, 26, 1059-1069.
Skaalvik, E. M., & Skaalvik, S. (2017). Motivated for teaching? Associations with school goal structure, teacher self-efficacy, job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion. Teaching and Teacher Education, 67, 152-160.
Sutcher, L., Darling‐Hammond, L., & Carver‐Thomas, D. (2016). A coming crisis in teaching? Teacher supply, demand, and shortages in the U.S. Report of the Learning Policy Institute. Palo Alto, CA: Learning Policy Institute.
Suldo, S. M., & Shaffer, E. J. (2008). Looking beyond psychopathology: The dual-factor model of mental health in youth. School Psychology Review, 37(1), 52-68.
Schaefer, L., Long, J. K., & Clandinin, D. J. (2012). Questioning the research on early career teacher attrition and retention. Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 58(1), 106-121.
Sumsion, J. (2007). Sustaining the employment of early childhood teachers in long day care: A case for robust hope, critical imagination and critical action. Asia‐Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 35(3), 311-327.
Warren, J. M. (2013). School counselor consultation: Teachers’ experiences with rational emotive behavior therapy. Journal of Rational-Emotive and Cognitive-Behavior Therapy, 31, 1–15.
Warren, J. M., & Hale, R. W. (2016). The influence of efficacy beliefs on teacher performance and student success: Implications for student support services. Journal of Rational-Emotive & Cognitive-Behavior Therapy, 34(3), 187-208.
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What Makes Teachers Well? A Mixed Methods Study of Special Education Teacher Well-being. (2021). Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Education, 9(2), 223-248. https://doi.org/10.32674/jise.v9i2.2170
