Walking with teachers: A study to explore the importance of teacher wellbeing and their careers

Abstract

Teacher turnover and retention is a global challenge. It appears that in times of teacher shortages, policymakers often focus on recruitment. Yet, it could be argued that focussing on retaining experienced teachers not only addresses teacher shortages but provides additional benefits to the teachers, their students, and the teaching profession. The aim of this interpretive case study was to investigate the views of experienced primary school teachers. Twelve teachers, who had taught in English primary schools for more than five years, participated in walking interviews. The research looked at the areas where teachers want to feel supported by the culture of the school, created by the leadership team.

The impact of distributed leadership on teacher commitment: The mediation role of teacher workload stress and teacher well‐being

“…School leadership has been identified as one of the crucial drivers of teacher well-being (i.e., Collie, 2021;Collie et al, 2012;Hulpia et al, 2009aHulpia et al, , 2009bLangford & Crawford, 2022;Leithwood et al, 2020;Liu et al, 2022;Windlinger, 2021). For example, Langford and Crawford (2022) have found that support from school leadership enhances teacher well-being in the UK context. When focusing on distributed leadership in particular, Liu et al (2022) found that distributed leadership affects teacher well-being, predicated by organisational trust in the Chinese context.…”

“…Scholars have generally focused on identifying the influential organisational drivers of teacher well‐being by emphasising social relationships, school climate and physical working conditions, again with some inconsistent results (e.g., collegial support by Kidger et al., 2016; physical working conditions by Chen and Chi‐Kin Lee, 2022). School leadership has been identified as one of the crucial drivers of teacher well‐being (i.e., Collie, 2021; Collie et al., 2012; Hulpia et al., 2009a, 2009b; Langford & Crawford, 2022; Leithwood et al., 2020; Liu et al., 2022; Windlinger, 2021). For example, Langford and Crawford (2022) have found that support from school leadership enhances teacher well‐being in the UK context.…”