Citation

Cann RF, Riedel-Prabhakar R, Powell D. Int. J. Appl. Posit. Psychol. 2021; 6(2): 195-218.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s41042-020-00045-5

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Teacher wellbeing is critical for effective implementation of positive education programs (Quinlan 2017; Slemp et al. 2017). Yet, few studies have explored teachers' experiences of wellbeing, and how to enhance their wellbeing, beyond a focus on their individual practices. This case study examines teachers' perceptions of leadership practices that influenced their wellbeing in an urban high-school in New Zealand. Purposive sampling was used to select three 'high wellbeing' and three 'low wellbeing' teachers, who then participated in semi-structured interviews and completed a wellbeing journal. This article focuses on the leadership actions that teachers identified as enhancing their well-being (feeling valued, meaningful professional development, agency in decision making) and the essential skills leaders demonstrated (relationship building, contextual competence, social and emotional competence) that influenced teacher wellbeing. A model of positive school leadership is presented which outlines recommendations for leaders to enhance teacher wellbeing.

Language: en

Keywords

Education; Leadership; Positive leadership; Teacher wellbeing