Teacher Well-Being Across Career Stages: An Ecological Study of Early- and Mid-Career English Teachers in Japanese Secondary Schools

Abstract

Teacher well-being has garnered increasing attention in language education, as it plays a vital role in shaping both their professional lives and student learning. Although its importance is recognised, further research is still needed to gain a more comprehensive understanding of language teachers' well-being. Especially, experienced teacher well-being is considerably under-researched compared to early-career teachers, who have received a dominant focus in previous research. This study explores how teacher well-being is shaped across career stages by gathering data from interviews with English language teachers in Japanese secondary schools, comparing those in the early (n = 3) and mid-career (n = 2) phases. Using thematic analysis, teacher well-being was sought through the combination of ecological and challenges-and-resources perspectives. The study revealed that different multilayered factors intricately contributed to teacher well-being development, ranging from individual to macrosystem levels. This psychological landscape also somewhat varied across career stages, with early-career teachers relying more on external support and mid-career teachers drawing upon internal resources and professional experiences to bounce back from their challenges. The study highlights the crucial impact of multi-level ecological factors on teacher well-being, providing important insights for developing tailored practices to empower language teachers.