Teacher wellbeing in England: teacher responses to school-level initiatives

ABSTRACT

This qualitative study explores the types of school-level teacher wellbeing initiatives reported by 51 teachers. The authors argue that the most well-received wellbeing measures are those embedded within supportive whole school cultures which aim to minimise burdensome workloads and maximise feelings of autonomy, relatedness and competence. Analysis shows that the least effective initiatives were those that reacted to a perceived problem, but did not seek to address the cause of perceived poor wellbeing. In some cases, activities such as compulsory cooking or sports sessions infringed upon teachers’ basic needs for autonomy. Such initiatives acted as a barrier to teacher wellbeing when they were seen to respond to a perceived demand for accountability, or contribute to burdensome workloads by placing additional demands on teachers’ time. Overall, teachers favoured school policies and practices which were conducive to promoting meaningful workloads, rather than one-off or limited-duration wellbeing activities.

KEYWORDS:

• Wellbeing
• stress
• workload
• accountability
• teachers

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.