Exploring key predictors of teacher well‐being, job satisfaction and burnout: Building a broader conceptualisation of teacher resilience

Abstract

This study responds to the urgent teacher retention and mental health crisis by exploring the factors that enable teachers to thrive (or not) within this challenging profession. Using a social‐ecological framework of teacher resilience, we explore the relative importance of multiple individual level and contextual level factors as predictors of three resilience‐related outcomes (well‐being, job satisfaction and burnout). Relative Weights Analysis was conducted on survey data from 2943 teachers in England, demonstrating that which factors are most important for teacher resilience depends on which outcome of the resilience process is being considered. The explained variance attributed to individual versus contextual factors was approximately two‐thirds to one‐third for well‐being, with the reverse pattern observed for job satisfaction and burnout. In other words, while well‐being was primarily associated with individual level factors (e.g. self‐care and emotional intelligence), job satisfaction and burnout were mainly linked to contextual level factors (e.g. school culture and leadership practices). These findings highlight the importance of adopting a multidimensional perspective that extends beyond a narrow focus on teacher well‐being to encompass broader indicators of thriving. The results underscore the need for a balanced approach to intervention research which targets teachers' environments as well as supporting teachers to develop their repertoire of individual competences and coping strategies, if we are to support teachers to be well satisfied and engaged in their work.