Striving or Thriving? World Language and English as a Second Language Teachers’ Professional Quality of Life

Abstract

Attrition remains a critical issue in language education, affecting both teacher retention and student learning. This cross-sectional study compared experiences of secondary traumatic stress, burnout, compassion satisfaction, and intent to leave among 63 world language (WL; French, 41.3%; Spanish, 52.4%; German, 6.3%) and 61 English as a second language (ESL) K-12 teachers to better understand themes related to attrition. Using the ProQOL-5, participants reported moderate levels of burnout, secondary traumatic stress, and compassion satisfaction overall. WL teachers experienced significantly higher levels of secondary traumatic stress than their ESL peers; however, ESL teachers were more likely to consider leaving the profession. Responses differed across groups, but both WL and ESL teachers included workload concerns and issues with administrators as reasons for having thought about leaving the profession; though most planned to stay, many listed their main reason for doing so as financial, and several described feeling “stuck” in their roles or uncertain about alternative career paths. These findings underscore the complex relationship between professional stressors and career intentions, pointing to the need for targeted support strategies in language education.