Teaching-as-Caring and Caring Institutions: An Ecological View of TESOL Teacher Well-Being

Abstract

This study explores how teachers’ well-being is shaped by their ability to participate in cultures of care through their teaching practices and within their respective institutions. With a focus on teacher agency at play in their interactions with students, colleagues, and their institutions, this study contributes to a growing body of research examining language teacher well-being from an ecological perspective. Analysis of interviews and other artefacts illustrates how teacher agency in enacting and participating in cultures of care was both supported and constrained. Findings illustrate the potential for institutional cultures of care to promote or jeopardise teacher well-being based on whether teacher agency is supported or constrained in enacting teaching practices in line with teachers’ values. This study adds to an ecological understanding of teacher well-being by highlighting how well-being is shaped by individual teachers’ practices as well as affordances and constraints within teachers’ institutional contexts.