Poster Presentation 6th World Congress on Positive Psychology 2019

Teachers’ Positive Psychological Functioning: A Review Of The Personal Resources That Promote Teacher Wellbeing. (#586)

Helena Granziera 1 , Andrew J. Martin 1 , Rebecca J. Collie 1
  1. School of Education, University of New South Wales, Sydney

Teacher wellbeing has emerged as an increasingly important consideration for teachers, schools, and the broader education system alike. Although a significant body of research (e.g. Chang, 2009) has examined the antecedents of poor wellbeing in teachers (e.g., burnout), fewer studies have adopted a positive approach to understanding the factors that promote teachers’ positive psychological functioning. The present review examines teacher wellbeing through the lens of Job Demands-Resources theory (JD-R; Demerouti, Bakker, Nachreiner, & Schaufeli, 2001), with a focus on personal resources. Given that personal resources represent a relatively new dimension of the JD-R (Xanthopoulou, Demerouti, Bakker, & Schaufeli, 2007), there is a paucity of literature considering salient personal resources in teaching populations. The present review addresses this gap by synthesising the extant literature to identify the personal resources shown to positively influence dimensions of teacher wellbeing. Specifically this review considers how adaptability, mental and emotional competencies and self-efficacy influence teacher job satisfaction, engagement, organisational commitment, and turnover intentions. This research provides an important focus for future interventions targeting teacher wellbeing, by identifying personal resources that may be cultivated through professional development in schools, pre-service teacher education programs, and broader education department initiatives. Implications and avenues for further research are discussed.