More than Burnout: The keys to teacher well-being

A research-informed guide for happier teachers

In a nutshell:
Teacher well-being—defined as teachers' happiness, health, and life satisfaction—is essential for high-quality education and long-term teacher-student relationships.
Strong predictors like autonomous motivation, meaningful work, competence, hope and positive relationships directly enhance well-being, while stressors like neuroticism, disengagement coping, and disruptive student behavior negatively impact it.
Moderate positive associations include engagement, workplace climate, work-life balance, resilience, grit. Moderate negative correlates include physical health, burnout and distress.
Addressing these factors through supportive leadership, professional development, and school-wide interventions can empower teachers to thrive, benefiting both educators and learners.

This post has been in the works for a month. A heavy workload at school this time of the year forced this writing hiatus.

I am now entering the part of the year (Dec - May) where I tend to post less, and the maths teacher in me wants to back this up with data. Here’s a graph that shows how many posts I have been posting month-wise :)

Now you might wonder, has my well-being has taken a dip during these months too?But despite the heavier workload—just a moderate predictor, as the research says—I’m doing well. And that’s exactly the point: understanding the factors that shape teacher well-being can help us navigate the highs and lows, which is what this post is all about.

This great paper from June 2024 - Factors Associated with Teacher Well-Being - A Meta-Analysis - warrants a brief but potentially very useful, take-aways post. Along with the above paper, I also added a few insights from this paper - A meta-analysis of the antecedents of teacher turnover and retention.

A small note: When I come across useful meta-analysis for these I do two things

• I look for mental-models and insights related to the core topic (which is Teacher Well being in this case)

• I remind myself that the research and findings do not automatically apply exactly as is to my own context. I can use the insights as an evidence-informed foundation for learning and problem-solving.

Here are take-aways that I will refer to when I discuss Teacher well-being with the team:

What is teacher well-being?

The paper defines Teacher well-being’ as the overall happiness, health, and life satisfaction of teachers in their personal and professional lives. It includes feeling valued and supported at work, maintaining positive relationships with students and colleagues, and managing stress effectively.

From the literature four interconnected types of teacher well-being are identified:

1. Hedonic Well-Being: Focuses on happiness, positive emotions, and life satisfaction.

2. Eudaimonic Well-Being: Emphasizes personal growth, purpose, and achieving one’s potential.

3. General Well-Being: Includes social relationships, feelings of vitality, and overall mental health.

4. Occupational Well-Being: Relates to job satisfaction, work-life balance, and feeling supported in the workplace​

Why does teacher well-being matter?

To be honest, I can’t imagine myself or any other teacher being good at our jobs if well-being was seriously compromised.

I used to teach high school maths and my own personal experiences have taught me some things about teacher wellbeing.

An analogy we use in school often - there’s a reason the flight attendant asks you to put your own oxygen mask on first and then put the child’s mask on.

Content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge surely play a massive role in a teacher's success. So many of us can recall that teacher in our lives, who ignited a passion for a discipline because they helped us see the beauty in it through their passion and creative pedagogy. These teachers need to have the freedom and autonomy to express their ideas and passion through their work. Teachers who feel like a cog in a machine and are disconnected or overloaded with work, find it hard to bring this version of themselves to class.

But beyond lighting the spark of curiosity, at its very core, teaching fundamentally involves building relationships. Also, these teacher-student connection-building interactions are not transactional, they are long term. They must be authentic and must be nurtured.

If a teacher’s own well-being baseline is low, how then will they be able to effectively connect with and nurture the children in their care?

You may argue that the negative impact of stress applies to all professions - everyone’s productivity is low if their well-being is low. Yes, that is true, but I do think the impact is significantly greater for teachers because of how central long-term, interpersonal connection is to their role.

Here’s a summary from the literature:

Teacher well-being matters because it directly affects the quality of education and the overall learning environment for students. Teachers with high well-being are more engaged, motivated, and effective in delivering lessons, which leads to better academic outcomes for students. Positive teacher well-being also fosters healthier teacher-student relationships, creating a supportive and nurturing environment for learning. When teachers feel valued and supported, they are less likely to experience burnout or leave the profession, helping to address teacher shortages and maintain consistency in schools. Ultimately, teacher well-being contributes to a more positive and sustainable educational system that benefits both educators and learners.

What factors affect teacher well-being?

Here is a brief visual summary of the factors influencing teacher well-being and the consequences

Positive Influences

Strong Positive Predictors

1. Autonomous Motivation:

1. Autonomous motivation is self-driven motivation, in which teachers feel a sense of agency in the work they do. This aligns well with Self-Determination Theory research with identifies Competence, Autonomy and Relatedness as key factors for motivation,

2. This is the strongest predictor of teacher well being

3. Promoting Autonomous motivation - see this blogpost: Nobody wants to be a robot: Motivating Teachers and Students for details on competence, autonomy, relatedness and how we can build them in our teams

2. Hope and Optimism:

1. Hope is a positive motivational state that reflects agency (goal-directed energy) and pathways (planning to meet goals)​. Optimism is a general expectation that good things will happen in the future​

2. Both of these were also strong predictors of teacher well being

3. Promoting Hope and Optimism. Here are two previous blogposts with strategies for promoting Hope and Optimism - Building Resilience and Hope, Nourishing Patient Optimism

3. Competence:

1. Competence covers two aspects - the teacher's feeling of competence in role (competence satisfaction) and an actual good fit for the role they are playing (Job competencies).

2. Competence satisfaction and Job Competencies are both strong predictors of teacher well being

3. A couple of blog posts related to developing teacher competence: Teachers need ‘just right’ learning too, Coaching Teachers - when is feedback most powerful, Elevate team with 1:1 check-ins, Nobody wants to be a robot: Motivating Teachers and Students

4. Teacher-Student Relationships and Social Relationships

1. Teacher - Student and social relationships are defined as interpersonal characteristics of teachers. It is the quality of interactions and relationships teachers have with their students and colleagues, mentors etc.

2. Relationships with students were one of the strongest predictors of wellbeing. Social relationships were also a strong predictor.

3. Improving teacher-student relationships requires both individual teacher-focused interventions (e.g., mindfulness and emotional skills or teaching SEL tools mentioned in this post) and school-wide programs that promote a positive behavior climate and supportive culture.

5. Meaningful Work

1. Meaningful work refers to teachers perceiving their work as valuable, purposeful, and contributing to something larger than themselves.

2. It is considered a strong predictor of teacher well-being,

3. For more meaningful work, help teachers connect daily tasks to a larger purpose through professional development and reflective practices. At the school level, foster a supportive culture that recognizes and celebrates teachers' contributions and impact

Moderate positive influences

6. Engagement

1. Engagement refers to teachers being emotionally invested, enthusiastic, and actively involved in their work.

2. It is considered a moderate correlate of teacher well-being.

3. To foster engagement, encourage teachers to pursue autonomy and mastery in their roles while creating opportunities for meaningful and energizing tasks.

7. Resilience, Grit

1. Resilience and grit reflect teachers' ability to cope with challenges and persist through difficulties to achieve their goals.
   They are considered moderate correlates of teacher well-being.
   To build resilience and grit, provide emotional skills training and create a supportive environment that helps teachers develop perseverance and adaptive coping strategies.

8. Workplace Climate

1. Workplace climate refers to the overall supportive and positive environment in schools that promotes collaboration and respect.

2. It is considered a moderate correlate of teacher well-being.

3. To enhance workplace climate, prioritize supportive leadership, encourage open communication, and foster a culture of trust and collaboration.

9. Work-life Balance

1. Work-life balance refers to teachers’ ability to manage their professional responsibilities while maintaining time for personal and family life.

2. It is considered a moderate correlate of teacher well-being.

3. To support work-life balance, implement flexible schedules, manageable workloads, and policies that promote harmony between work and personal life.

Strong Negative Predictors

1. Neuroticism

1. Neuroticism refers to a tendency toward negative emotions such as anxiety, stress, and emotional instability.

2. It is the strongest negative predictor of well-being

3. To mitigate neuroticism, provide teachers with emotional regulation training (SEL tools post) and stress management programs to enhance psychological resilience.

2. Disengagement coping

1. Disengagement coping refers to avoiding or withdrawing from stressors rather than actively addressing them.

2. It is a strong negative predictor of general well-being.

3. To address disengagement coping, equip teachers with proactive coping strategies and encourage problem-solving approaches through professional development programs. See this post on helpful vs unhelpful coping strategies

3. Disruptive Student Behavior

1. Disruptive student behavior refers to behavioral issues that demand teachers' time, energy, and emotional investment to manage.

2. It is a significant negative predictor of well-being

3. To address disruptive behavior, schools can implement positive behavior interventions, provide teachers with classroom management training, and promote student support systems.

Moderate Negative Influences

4. General/ Physical Health:

1. General/physical health refers to the overall mental and physical well-being of teachers, including vitality and freedom from illness.

2. It is a strong positive correlate of well-being

3. Often, health issues may be beyond the scope of the organization but they can suppor with flexibility and understanding. To proactively support general/physical health, schools can promote teacher wellness programs, encourage physical activity, and provide mental health resources.

5. Burnout and Distress

1. Burnout: Burnout is characterized by emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced personal accomplishment. Distress: Distress encompasses psychological stress, anxiety, and depression

2. They are strong negative correlates of teacher well being.

3. To mitigate burnout and distress, schools can implement stress management programs, reduce excessive workloads, and provide emotional support systems.

Consequences

Of course well-being predicted job satisfaction and commitment to teaching whereas low well-being was associated with intention to leave. Interestingly, the other paper said that ‘intention to leave’ and ‘actually leaving’ were quite different from each other and was also worth investigating in future studies.

Final Thoughts

Teacher well-being is foundational to the quality of education and school environments, and addressing its predictors—through supportive leadership, meaningful work, stronger relationships, and proactive strategies—can empower teachers to thrive personally and professionally.

Promoting Teacher Well-being is so much more than just organising a well-being event or reducing workloads. While they can help, it is clear that leaders can take a multi-pronged, systemic approach to better well-being for teachers.

As a starting point, I reflected on Teacher wellbeing with my leadership team using this framework. Here is a Summary Table of the findings that I used to anchor the discussion. It has two prompts for reflection and we filled out the columns during the discussion. Hope you use it (just make a copy) to have a wonderful discussion with your team, like we did!