Testing the main determinants of teachers’ professional well-being by using a mixed method

Abstract

Measuring the perception of professional well-being appears as a problematic issue in past studies. Literature reviews show that previous studies have not yet reached an agreement on measures of teachers’ professional well-being. Furthermore, when we consider the cultural context, a research gap becomes clearer. The aim of this study was to delineate measures of teachers’ perceptions of professional well-being in the framework of positive psychology. The study tested the theoretically suggested measures using quantitative and qualitative data gathered from different sample sizes in line with the mixed-method research paradigm. Data belonging to a large sample size (n = 3637), medium sample size (n = 679) and small sample size (n = 29) were analysed through a mixed method with a multiple phase design. The study concludes that the main determinants of teachers’ professional well-being are self-efficacy, job satisfaction and recognition.

Keywords:

• primary school teachers
• professional well-being
• mixed method
• confirmatory factor analysis
• structural equation modelling