Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Perspectives on English Language Education: Insights from Cukurova University School of Foreign Languages, Yonca Özkan,Meryem Özdemir Yılmazer, Editör, Blackswan Publishing House , Ankara, ss.12-30, 2024
Well-being is the experience of prosperity, happiness, and health, crucial to teachers’ motivations, occupational satisfaction, and quality of life. Higher well-being in education is linked to more effective teaching, personal welfare, better student relationships, and academic success. Several factors that need to be explored, particularly at the personal and institutional levels, affect EFL instructors’ well-being. Thus, this qualitative case study investigates institutional and individual-level factors influencing EFL instructors’ well-being in the workplace. The researcher collected the data from six EFL instructors working at the School of Foreign Languages (SoFL) through semi-structured interviews, which were thematically analyzed through Quirkos 2.5 software. A convenience sampling technique was utilized. To discover the individual and institutional factors affecting EFL instructors’ well-being, positive organizational scholarship was exploited by scrutinizing three pillars of positive psychology. The research identified eight key themes that influence the well-being of teachers, such as work-life balance and workload, support system and collegial relationship, meaning and professional identity, the physical environment and resource availability, professional development opportunities, teacher-student relationships, autonomy, and decision-making involvement, physical health and its impact on welfare in the workplace. Important insights revealed the substantial impact of workload spillover on personal time, the value of supportive relationships and professional independence, and the necessity for sufficient physical and professional resources. Additionally, participants highlighted the essential importance of relationships between teachers and students. Sufficient physical and professional resources are crucial for job satisfaction and teacher autonomy, and having the freedom to make decisions enhances teachers’ feelings of belonging. This paper suggests reducing workload, reinforcing support mechanisms, and applying fair administration policies to increase EFL instructors’ well-being at the workplace. It also presents implications for administrators and policymakers that well-being is a socially and collectively determined phenomenon, emphasizing the need for collaborative action to improve it.