English as a foreign language teacher’s well-being, resilience, and burnout

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30827/portalin.vi43.28350

Keywords:

EFL Teacher, Online Teaching, Professional development programs, Resilience, Teacher burnout, Well-being

Abstract

Teaching poses a significant challenge for teachers as they are facing a plethora of stressors in their profession; consequently leading to burnout. So, it is fundamental to detect the issues that affect their burnout. For instance, it is essential to cultivate resilience which is the ability to persist and cope with difficulties and adversities in the process of teaching. Furthermore, it has been shown that the well-being of educators plays a critical role in this process, so this study tries to inspect the significance of these issues in the online teaching context. The study involved 341 English as a Foreign Language teachers who agreed to participate and were given three questionnaires to complete. Structural equation modeling was employed to study the structural model of the construct. The results indicated that teacher resilience accounted for 5.9% of the variance in teacher burnout, and teacher well-being was interpreted for 1.0% of the variance in teacher burnout. While each of the two constructs had a significant role in burnout, teacher resilience was a better predictor of burnout than well-being. Finally, the important implications and recommendations for professional development programs are presented.  

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

Nan Ding, Nanjing Normal University, China

Assistant Professor in Spanish Language and Culture, School of Foreign Languages and Cultures, Nanjing Normal University, People’s Republic of China.

Yiyu Wang, Peking University, China

J.D. & J.M. candidate, School of Transnational Law, Peking University, People’s Republic of China.

Yongxiang Wang, Nanjing Normal University, China (Corresponding author)

Full Professor in Applied Linguistics, School of Foreign Languages and Cultures, Nanjing Normal University, People’s Republic of China.

References

Allen, J., Rowan, L., & Singh, P. (2020). Teaching and teacher education in the time of COVID-19. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 48(3), 233–236. https://doi.org/ 10.1080/1359866X.2020.1752051.

Brewer, M. L., Van Kessel, G., Sanderson, B., Naumann, F., Lane, M., Reubenson, A., & Carter, A. (2019). Resilience in higher education students: A scoping review. Higher Education Research & Development, 38(6), 1105–1120. https://doi.org/10.1080/07 294360. 2019.1626810.

Campbell‐Sills, L., & Stein, M. B. (2007). Psychometric analysis and refinement of the connor–davidson resilience scale (CD‐RISC): Validation of a 10‐item measure of resilience. Journal of Traumatic Stress: Official Publication of The International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, 20(6), 1019–1028.

Chen, X., Huang, C., Wang, H., Wang, W., Ni, X., & Li, Y. (2021). Negative emotion arousal and altruism promoting of online public stigmatization on the COVID-19 pandemic. Frontiers in Psychology, 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg. 2021.652140.

Clough, P., & Strycharczyk, D. (2015). Developing mental toughness: Coaching strategies to improve performance, resilience, and well-being. Kogan Page Publishers.

Collie, R.J., Shapka, J.D., Perry, N.E., & Martin, A.J. (2015). Teacher well-being: Exploring its components and a practice-oriented scale. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 33(3), 744–756. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734282915587990.

Cosgun, G. E., & Savaş, P. (2019). Use of information and communication technology by in-service English teachers for self-directed professional development. Electronic Journal of Foreign Language Teaching, 16(2), 230–249.

de Sousa, J. C., Pinto, F. R., de Lacerda Leite, J. C., de Pádua Araújo, A., da Silva, P. M. M., & de Castro, A. B. C. (2018). Relation between burnout syndrome and resilience in higher teaching activity. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 9(5), 177–186.

Deng, Q., Zheng, B., & Chen, J. (2020). The relationship between personality traits, resilience, school support, and creative teaching in higher school physical education teachers. Frontiers in Psychology, 11(3), 23–97. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.568906

Derakhshan, A. (2022). Revisiting research on positive psychology in second and foreign language education: Trends and directions. Language Related Research, 13(5), 1–43. https:// doi.org/10.52547/LRR.13.5.1.

Derakhshan, A., & Zare, J. (2023). The impact of altruistic teaching on English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners’ emotion regulation: An Intervention Study. Brain Sciences, 13(3), 458–473. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci13030458.

Derakhshan, A., Dewaele, J.M., & Azari Noughabi, M. (2022). Modeling the contribution of resilience, well-being, and L2 grit to foreign language teaching enjoyment among Iranian English language teachers. System, 190(2), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system. 2022.102890.

Derakhshan, A., Eslami, Z. R., Curle, S., & Zhaleh, K. (2022). Exploring the validity of immediacy and burnout scales in an EFL context: The predictive role of teacher-student interpersonal variables in university students’ experience of academic burnout. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 12(1), 87–115. https://doi.org/10.14746/ssllt.2022.12.1.5.

Engels, N., Aelterman, A., Van Petegem, K., & Schepens, A. (2004). Factors which influence the well-being of pupils in Flemish secondary schools. Educational Studies, 30(2), 127–143. doi: 10/1080.0305569032000159787.

Ergun, A. L. P., & Dewaele, J. M. (2021). Do well-being and resilience predict the foreign language teaching enjoyment of teachers of Italian? System, 99, 102506. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2021.102506

Fathi, J., & Saeedian, A. (2020). A structural model of teacher self-efficacy, resilience, and burnout among Iranian EFL teachers. Iranian Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 9(2), 14–28.

Fornell, C. & Larcker, D. F. (1981). Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. Journal of Marketing Research, 18(1), 39-50.

Fredrickson, B. L. (2001). The role of positive emotions in positive psychology: The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. American Psychologist, 56(3), 218–226. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.56.3.218.

Friedman-Krauss, A. H., Raver, C. C., Morris, P. A., & Jones, S. M. (2014). The role of classroom-level child behavior problems in predicting preschool teacher stress and classroom emotional climate. Early Education and Development, 25(4), 530–552. https://doi.org/10.1080/10409289. 2013.817030.

Gallant, A., & Riley, P. (2014). Early career teacher attrition: New thoughts on an intractable problem. Teacher Development, 18(4), 562–580. https://doi.org/10.1080/13664530.2014.945129.

Gao, Y., Zeng, G. Wang, Y., Klan, A. & Wang, X. (2022). Exploring educational planning, teacher beliefs, and teacher practices during the pandemic: A study of science and technology-based universities in China. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 903244. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.903244.

Greenier, V., Derakhshan, A., & Fathi, J. (2021). Emotion regulation and psychological well-being in teacher work engagement: a case of British and Iranian English language teachers. System, 97(2),102–446. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2020.102446.

Gu, Q. (2018). Reconceptualising teacher resilience: A social-ecological approach to understanding teachers’ professional worlds. In M. Wosnitza, F. Peixoto, S. Beltman, & C. Mansfield (Eds.), Resilience in education - Concepts, contexts and connections (pp. 13–33). Cham: Springer.

Han, K. (2021). Fostering students’ autonomy and engagement in EFL classroom through proximal classroom factors: autonomy-supportive behaviors and student-teacher relationships. Frontier in Psychology. 12:767079. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.767079.

Hu, L., Bentler, P.M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. SEM, 6(1), 1–55.

Karimi, M. N., & Adam, S. B. (2018). A structural equation modelling analysis of the relationships between perceived occupational stress, burnout, and teacher resilience. Journal of Second Language Teacher Education, 1(1), 49–72.

Kim, L. E., Oxley, L., & Asbury, K. (2022). My brain feels like a browser with 100 tabs open”: A longitudinal study of teachers’ mental health and well‐being during the COVID‐19 pandemic. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 92(1), 299–318.. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjep.124504.

Kim, L.E., Jorg, V., & Klassen, R.M. (2019). A meta-analysis of the effects of teacher personality on teacher effectiveness and burnout. Educa-tional Psycholy Review, 31(3), 163–195. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-018-9458-2.

Kline, R. B. (2016). Principles and practice of structural equation modeling (4th ed.). New York: The Guilford Press.

Leroux, M. (2018). Exploring canadian early career teachers’ resilience from an evolutionary perspective.In M. Wosnitza, F. Peixoto, S. Beltman, & C. Mansfield (Eds.), Resilience in education -Concepts, contexts and connections (pp. 107–129). Cham: Springer.

Lin, C. L., Ye, Y., Lin, P., Lai, X. L., Jin, Y. Q., Wang, X., & Su, Y. S. (2021). Safe sexual behavior intentions among college students: the construction of an extended theory of planned behavior. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(12), 6349-6355. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18126349.

Lo, B. L. K. (2014). Stress, burnout and resilience of teachers of students with emotional behavioural challenges. SpringerPlus, 3(1), 1–2. https://doi.org/10.1186/2193-1801-3-S1-O4.

MacIntyre, P. D., Gregersen, T., & Mercer, S. (2020). Language teachers’ coping strategies during the Covid-19 conversion to online teaching: Correlations with stress, well-being and negative emotions. System, 94(2), 102352. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2020.102352.

MacIntyre, P., Gregersen, T., & Mercer, S. (2019). Setting an agenda for positive psychology in SLA: Theory, practice, and research. The Modern Language Journal, 103(1), 262–274.https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12544

Mansfield, C.F., Beltman, S., Price, A., & McConney, A. (2012). Don’t sweat the small stuff: Understanding teacher resilience at the chalkface. Teaching and Teacher Education, 28(3), 357–367. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2011.11.001.

Maslach, C. (2003). Job Burnout: New directions in research and intervention. Current Directions in Psychological Sciences, 12(5), 189–192. https://doi.org/10.1111%2F1467-8721.01258.

Maslach, C., & Leiter, M. P. (2016). Understanding the burnout experience:recent research and its implications for psychiatry. World Psychiatry 15(2), 103–111. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20311.

Maslach, C., Schaufeli, W. B., & Leiter, M. P. (2001). Job burnout. Annual Review of Psychology, 52(1), 397–422. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.397.

Mercer, S., & Gregersen, T. (2020). Teacher well-being. Oxford University Press.Neff, K. D. (2003). Self-compassion: An alternative conceptualization of a healthy attitude toward oneself. Self and Identity, 2(2), 85–101. https://doi.org/10.1080/15298860309032

Mercer, S., & Gregersen, T. (2020). Teacher well-being. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Pishghadam, R., Daneshvarfard, F., & Shayesteh, S. (2021). Oscillatory neuronal dynamics during L2 sentence comprehension: the effects of sensory enrichment and semantic incongruency. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 36(8), 903-920.https://doi.org/10.1080/23273798.2021.1886312.

Portnoy, G. A., Relyea, M. R., Decker, S., Shamaskin, G. A., Driscoll, M., Brandt, C. A.,Haskell, S. G., & Shamaskin-Garroway, A. (2018). Understanding gender differences in resilience among veterans: Trauma history and social ecology. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 31(6), 845–855. https://doi.org/10.1002/jts.

Richards, K. A. R., Levesque-Bristol, C., Templin, T. J., & Graber, K. C. (2016). The impact of resilience on role stressors and burnout in elementary and secondary teachers. Social Psychology of Education, 19(3), 511–536. https ://doi.org/10.1007/s1121 8-016-9346-x.

Robertson, I. T., Cooper, C. L., Sarkar, M., & Curran, T. (2015). Resilience training in the workplace from 2003 to 2014: A systematic review. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 88, 533–562. https://doi.org/10.1111/joop.12120

Sas, C., Boroş, D., & Bonchiş, E. (2011). Aspects of the burnout syndrome within the teaching staff. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 11(2), 266–270. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.01.074.

Silva, J. C., Pipa, J., Renner, C., O’Donnell, M., & Cefai, C. (2018). Enhancing teacher resilience through face-to-face training: Insights from the ENTREE project. In M. Wosnitza, F. Peixoto, S.Beltman, & C. Mansfield (Eds.), Resilience in education - Concepts, contexts and connections (pp. 255–274).Cham: Springer.

Solhi, M., Derakhshan, A., & Unsal, B. (2023). Associations between EFL students’ L2 grit, boredom coping strategies, and emotion regulation strategies: A structural equation modeling approach. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2023.2175834.

Southwick, S. M., Bonanno, G. A., Masten, A. S., Panter-Brick, C., & Yehuda, R. (2014). Resilience definitions, theory, and challenges: interdisciplinary perspectives. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 5(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.3402/ejpt.v5.25338.

Talbot, K., & Mercer, S. (2018). Exploring university ESL/ EFL teachers’ emotional well-being and emotional regulation in the United States, Japan and Austria. Chinese Journal of Applied Linguistics, 41(4), 410–432. https://doi.org/10.1515/cjal-2018-0031.

Vaisanen, S., Pietarinen, J., Pyhalto, K., Toom, A., & Soini, T. (2018). Stu-dent teachers’ proactive strategies for avoiding study-related burnout during teacher education. European Journal of Teacher Education, 41(3), 301–317. https://doi.org/10.1080/02619768.2018.1448777.

Van der Meulen, E., Van der Velden, P. G., Van Aert, R. C. M., & Van Veldhoven, M. J. P. M. (2020). Longitudinal associations of psychological resilience with mental health and functioning among military personnel: A meta-analysis of prospective studies. Social Science & Medicine, 255(2),112–814. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. socscimed. 2020.112814.

Wang, X., & Chen, Z. (2022). “It Hits the Spot”: The impact of a professional development program on English teacher wellbeing in underdeveloped regions. Frontiers in Psychology, 13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.848322.

Wang, Y., & Derakhshan, A. (2023). Teacher confirmation and caring as predictors of Chinese and Iranian EFL students’ willingness to attend EFL Classes. Porta Linguarum Revista Interuniversitaria de Didáctica de las Lenguas Extranjeras, (39), 165–192. https://doi.org/10.30827/portalin.vi39.23625

Wang, Y., Derakhshan, A., & Azari Noughabi, M. (2022). The interplay of EFL teachers’ immunity, work engagement, and psychological well-being: Evidence from four Asian countries. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2022.2092625

Wang, Y. L., Derakhshan, A. & Rahimpour, H. (2022). Developing resilience among Chinese and Iranian EFL teachers: A multi-dimensional cross-cultural study. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. https://doi.org/10.1080/0 1434632. 2022. 2042540.

Web, T. L., Miles, E., & Sheeran, P. (2012). Dealing with feeling: a metanalysis of the effectiveness of the strategies derived from the process model of emotional regulation. Psychological Bulletin, 138(4), 775–808.

Winton, P. J., Snyder, P. A., & Goffin, S. G. (2016). Beyond the status quo: Rethinking professional development for early childhood teachers. In L. J. Crouse & S. L. Recchia (Eds.), Handbook of early childhood teacher education (pp. 54–68). Routledge.

Xie, F., & Derakhshan, A. (2021). A conceptual review of positive teacher interpersonal communication behaviors in the instructional context. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 1-10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.708490.

FUNDING INFORMATION:

This study is supported by Jiangsu Provincial Federation of Philosophy and Social Sciences’ Project in 2024 (A Study on the Chinese University Foreign Language Teachers’ Role and Students' Learning Engagement in the Digital Era).

Downloads

Published

2025-01-28

How to Cite

Ding, N., Wang, Y., & Wang, Y. (2025). English as a foreign language teacher’s well-being, resilience, and burnout. Porta Linguarum An International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching and Learning, (43), 147–166. https://doi.org/10.30827/portalin.vi43.28350

Issue

Section

Articles