Cultivating teacher thriving through social–emotional competence and its development

Abstract

We propose the Framework for Cultivating Teacher Thriving, which identifies the important role that teachers’ social–emotional competence (SEC) plays in helping them to thrive at work (and beyond). The framework operationalises SEC by way of teachers’ basic psychological need satisfaction (a sense of autonomy, competence, and relatedness), autonomous motivation, and behaviours as relevant to the social and emotional domains. The three components form an iterative process of social and emotional competence development. The components of SEC are promoted by supportive work environments and, in turn, promote and are promoted by teacher thriving at work (e.g. job satisfaction, organisational commitment). The relationships identified in the framework are situated within different contexts, which influence and are influenced by individual differences among teachers (e.g. recent experiences of adversity). After introducing the model, our focus turns to professional learning as a means for helping teachers further develop their SEC and thriving at work.