Unveiling the complexity of teacher wellbeing: A holistic framework and its application in a systematic literature review study

Abstract

This concise opinion/reflective piece presents a framework and its development that examines teacher wellbeing through a holistic lens. The key areas of focus in this paper include an exploration of the concept of teacher wellbeing, the different dimensions and factors that influence it, and a proposed theoretical framework for teacher wellbeing. In the initial stages of investigation, it became evident that teacher wellbeing is a highly complex and vague concept, particularly concerning its dimensions and aspects; therefore a new model was conceptualised. This model has three distinct ways of conceptualising teacher wellbeing: conceptualisation of teacher wellbeing as professionalism, conceptualisation of teacher wellbeing as positivity/ flourishing, and conceptualisation of teacher wellbeing as negativity/ deficiency. This paper aims to introduce the development of the framework and its potential to enhance our understanding. Furthermore, it provides an illustrative example from a systematic literature review on teacher wellbeing to demonstrate its application.