An exploration of positive psychology strategies to promote teacher flourishing

Thesis

Data on teacher wellbeing, or illbeing, paints a bleak picture of a profession suffering from anxiety, stress and burnout (Education Support, 2023). Students need teachers who can model psychological wellbeing and who are functioning optimally (Weare and Gray, 2003). Yet there is a gap in the literature focusing on proactive teacher wellbeing interventions in the UK. There is some support for teachers already suffering from poor mental health, but proactive resources to promote optimum mental health are lacking. The majority of wellbeing initiatives either focus on students (Waters & Loton, 2019) or are reactive - trying to fix an existing problem. The field of positive psychology has a growing body of literature with empirically validated strategies to improve wellbeing which are resource-free and can be implemented at the individual level (Vanderweele, 2020). Therefore, the aim of this research is to explore a range of positive psychology strategies to promote teacher flourishing. Flourishing is defined in this context as a heightened state of psychological wellbeing (Seligman, 2011). Eight secondary school teachers working across four schools in North West England participated and collaborated in an eight-week online intervention. Using Seligman’s (2011) PERMA framework, the intervention explored strategies to increase positive emotions, bolster relationships and support accomplishment. The PERMA Work Profiler (Butler & Kern, 2013) survey was used to measure the impact of the intervention alongside questionnaires for each domain (where teachers rated each strategy) and group interviews. The findings indicate that flourishing is highly individualistic and therefore teachers need to be offered a range of strategies with autonomy over which strategies to use and how. The data showed the intervention promoted flourishing for this small sample in the short term, but longitudinal studies with larger samples would be needed to determine the extent to which findings can be generalised and to assess the long term impact.

Authors: Patchett-Byrne, S

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-azoxvg5nq
• Type of award: MSc taught course
• Level of award: Masters
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: LT; questionnaires; interviews; LT2024; Teacher Wellbeing Flourishing Positive Psychology
• Subjects: Teachers; Education; Well-being; Questionnaires; Interviews; Positive psychology