Points for DEBATE – The Act of Performing Teacher Professional Development and Wellbeing

Abstract

Teaching today unfolds within a landscape marked by both vulnerability and opportunity, where growing shortages and declining morale underscore the urgency of rethinking teacher development as inseparable from well-being and emotional sustainability. Current international reports reveal rising stress, burnout, and attrition, intensified by expanding expectations that often lack adequate structural support. Within this context, the Dialogical Self Theory offers a valuable lens for understanding how identity and well-being emerge through dialogue, reflection, and participation in professional communities. These spaces allow teachers to experiment, reinterpret their roles, and strengthen coherence and belonging. Ultimately, viewing the teacher’s self as dialogical reframes professional development as an ongoing relational process, grounded in meaning-making, connection, and the ethical commitment to remain present in the world of education.