A Study on Chinese EFL Teachers' Work Engagement: The Predictability Power of Emotion Regulation and Teacher Resilience

Abstract

Employing a sequential mixed-methods design, the current study examined the role of Chinese EFL teachers' emotion regulation and resilience in predicting their work engagement. To this end, 314 Chinese EFL teachers with various academic degrees and teaching experiences were opted from different schools, institutes, and universities of China. To obtain the quantitative data, Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES), Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC), and Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) were electronically distributed among participants. Performing correlational analyses, a strong association was found between teacher resilience and work engagement. The inspection of the correlations also revealed a moderate correlation between cognitive reappraisal and resilience as well as cognitive reappraisal and work engagement. To probe the predictability power of teacher resilience and emotion regulation (cognitive reappraisal), structural equation modeling (SEM) was performed. The results of the SEM analysis demonstrated that Chinese EFL teachers' work engagement was predicted significantly and favorably by their resilience. Using semi-structured interviews, some qualitative data were also collected to fully understand Chinese EFL teachers' perceptions of work engagement. The thematic analysis (TA) of Chinese EFL teachers' responses to interview questions resulted in two main themes and 14 sub-themes, revealing extrinsic and intrinsic factors contributing to teaching engagement. The findings of TA illuminated that both personal resources and job resources can predict teaching engagement. The pedagogical implications for administrators and teacher trainers are further discussed.

Chinese English as a Foreign Language Teachers’ Self-Efficacy and Psychological Well-Being as Predictors of Their Work Engagement

“…Several researchers have also probed into the antecedents of this construct (e.g., Skaalvik and Skaalvik, 2014 ; McIlveen and Perera, 2016 ; Van Der Want et al, 2019 ; Topchyan and Woehler, 2021 ). Nonetheless, only a few scholars have investigated the antecedents of ESL/EFL teachers’ work engagement ( Greenier et al, 2021 ; Xie, 2021 ). To narrow this gap in the literature, the present inquiry aimed to examine the degree to which Chinese EFL teachers’ work engagement may be predicted by their self-efficacy and psychological well-being.…”

“…Due to the importance of work engagement, over the last two decades, a rising number of studies have been conducted to delve into the determinants of foreign/s language teachers’ engagement (e.g., Saks, 2006 ; Parker and Martin, 2009 ; Skaalvik and Skaalvik, 2014 ; McIlveen and Perera, 2016 ; Buric and Macuka, 2018 ; Perera et al, 2018 ; Chan et al, 2020 ; Topchyan and Woehler, 2021 ). Nevertheless, factors contributing to English as a foreign language (EFL) and English as second language (ESL) teachers’ work engagement have rarely been studied (e.g., Greenier et al, 2021 ; Han and Wang, 2021 ; Xie, 2021 ). It implies that the value and significance of this construct in English language classes are not widely recognized by researchers and academics.…”

The Impact of Chinese EFL Teachers’ Emotion Regulation and Resilience on Their Success

“…Stanford (2001) believes that resilient teachers inherently generate deep involvement and satisfaction in their occupation. Resilience has been studied in association with different educational variables such as work engagement and emotion regulation ( Xie, 2021 ), stress ( Rizqi, 2017 ), and learning motivation ( Kim and Kim, 2021 ). Despite its importance in education, research on resilience is in scarcity ( Hiver, 2018 ), and there is an intense need to study its contribution in instructional contexts.…”

Chinese English as a Foreign Language Teachers’ Immunity and Mindfulness as Predictors of Their Work Engagement

“…Debate on providing access to highly engaged teachers is of critical importance in the recent educational context and research ( Staiger and Rockoff, 2010 ; Pianta et al, 2012 ). A body of research has tried to study the effectiveness of various factors on teachers’ work engagement including content knowledge, technological pedagogical content knowledge ( Han et al, 2020 ; Özgür, 2020 ; Bao et al, 2021 ; Beyranvand and Mohamadi Zenouzagh, 2021 ), teacher-efficacy and teacher autonomy ( Skaalvik and Skaalvik, 2014 ), emotion regulation and resilience ( Xie, 2021 ), and teacher intrinsic motivation ( Bal and Bakker, 2010 ). To pursue this line of inquiry, the present study aims to examine the role of teacher immunity and mindfulness in predicting English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers’ work engagement in the Chinese context.…”

“… Bakker et al (2008) consider feeling energetic and absorbed by the work as the effective constituents of work engagement being relevant to teacher immunity. While several studies have been conducted on different factors influencing teacher engagement, particularly in the Chinese context ( Hiver, 2017 ; Zeng et al, 2019 ; Han et al, 2020 ; Xie, 2021 ), the important variables of teacher immunity and mindfulness have received less attention. To our knowledge, few studies have been done on the relationship among immunity, mindfulness, and teachers’ absorbedness, i.e., work engagement, particularly in China.…”