‘Sticky Objects’ and pathways to wellbeing: teacher understandings of and practices in positive psychology in their classrooms

The project focusses on teachers working in EAP in universities in Saudi Arabia and UK. Teacher emotions are an important factor within any classroom, affecting students’ learning, behaviour and motivations, and teachers’ own motivations, behaviour, health and well-being. The rise of L2 teacher emotional exhaustion and burnout is also indicative of the power of teacher emotions in the life of the classroom and of the teacher beyond it. It follows that study of teacher emotion is of vital importance in understanding key aspects of the classroom and how teachers navigate their journeys of development within the profession. The project takes an EP approach, seeking to work collaboratively to develop understandings of emotions, quality of life and wellbeing.

Impact

The project will add to the development of stronger and more detailed theoretical understanding of teacher emotion and teacher well-being in the classroom. The methodological approach used will enable findings and theory development to be linked more closely to teacher classroom realities.

Publications and outputs

Planned:

Language Teaching Research journal article on the case study findings.

Theory based article for Journal of Happiness Studies: discussion of findings concerning language teacher well-being in relation to wider theories of well-being and quality of life.

Research methodology article for Journal of Qualitative Research Methods. (Use of ‘sticky objects’ and emotion diaries using app. as a methodological approach.)