Standard Presentation (25-minute) Language Teacher Wellbeing in Times of Change. more

Sat, Sep 16, 11:15-11:40 Asia/Tokyo

Our physiological states and emotions can often be described as ‘contagious’ for the learners we teach (Mercer and Dörnyei, 2020); therefore, if teachers bring negative emotional states to the classroom such as stress or anxiety, it is likely learners will not fully engage. Wellbeing is a state of being comfortable, healthy or happy which is not static and fluctuates over time (Mercer and Gregersen, 2020); thus, consistently acknowledging one’s wellbeing is fundamentally important. When COVID-19 hit, English language teaching was disrupted with a majority of teachers forced into an emergency remote teaching environment which caused much change and concern. With the balance between professional and personal life challenging to manage (Pourbahram and Sadeghi, 2022), the pandemic and emergency remote teaching has likely encouraged negative influences on wellbeing hindering certain factors such as pedagogy, social engagement and lifestyle habits. Recently, with virus restrictions relaxed, institutions have now transitioned back to the physical classroom. The presentation highlights findings from a quantitative study regarding English language teacher wellbeing during and after emergency remote teaching using Kern's (2014) Workplace PERMA-Profiler that assesses Seligman's (2011) PERMA model of 5 core areas of wellbeing - Positive emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning and Accomplishment.