International Perspectives on Teacher Well-Being and Diversity: Portals into Innovative Classroom Practice (Understanding Teaching-Learning Practice) 9811616981, 9789811616983

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Understanding Teaching-Learning Practice

Timothy R. N. Murphy Patricia Mannix-McNamara   Editors

International Perspectives on Teacher Well-Being and Diversity Portals into Innovative Classroom Practice

Understanding Teaching-Learning Practice Series Editors Robert A. Ellis, Griffith University, Brisbane, QLD, Australia Peter Goodyear, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

This series publishes research on contemporary teaching-learning practices, and in particular, studies that provide evidence of the intertwined relationship between how practice informs research and how the outcomes of research can effectively inform practice. The series publishes studies that make use of diverse methodologies and conceptual framings that foreground real-world practice and trace the connections between teaching, learning activities and experiences, and learning outcomes. Focusing on research that goes beyond disciplinary, sectoral and national borders, the series reflects the following views on understanding teaching-learning practice: • Student learning is central: one cannot understand effective teaching without understanding successful learning. • Evidence of the quality and character of teaching-learning practice is best understood in context; the broader landscape in which it occurs must figure prominently in its analysis. • A real-world application of research outcomes to improve teaching-learning is best informed by a real world analysis of its practice; the challenge lies in completing the circle. • Innovations in learning and teaching practice, including those which involve new technologies, create quality, coherence and sustainability issues, which need to be addressed. The series acknowledges the growing complexity of learning and teaching activities in context and studies the roles of digital and material tools and new spaces in teaching and learning. In doing so, it recognises the increasingly diverse nature of educational work and aims to publish studies combining multiple data sources to create richer, robust, more interpretable, more action-oriented evidence. The ongoing goal of the series is to improve the scholarliness of practice - helping it to be better informed by research - and synergistically, to improve the practical applicability of research designs and outcomes.

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/14356

Timothy R. N. Murphy · Patricia Mannix-McNamara Editors

International Perspectives on Teacher Well-Being and Diversity Portals into Innovative Classroom Practice

Editors Timothy R. N. Murphy University of Limerick Limerick, Ireland

Patricia Mannix-McNamara University of Limerick Limerick, Ireland

ISSN 2522-0845 ISSN 2522-0853 (electronic) Understanding Teaching-Learning Practice ISBN 978-981-16-1698-3 ISBN 978-981-16-1699-0 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-1699-0 © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore

This book is dedicated to the well-being of all teachers who are committed to their learners in ethnically and socially diverse classroom teaching contexts

Foreword

The European project is based on the idea that nations with diverse backgrounds, cultures, languages and histories share a common ambition for peace and prosperity and on the conviction that this diversity can help us to realise that ambition. However, while on the one hand diversity can be seen as enriching, it can also create tensions. Diversity is often associated with inequality and social injustice, such as when certain groups have a higher status or income or are more valued than other groups. This makes diversity a promise, an aim, a challenge and a mission. This multi-layered perspective on diversity is not only true for society as a whole but also for education. Diversity in schools can be considered as an asset and a source for learning by recognising the cognitive, social, creative or ethical capital of each and every pupil. Such an understanding of the school’s mission, configured around equality of opportunity for all, is recognised as being pivotal for strengthening social justice in societies. This challenge for schools—on the one hand to embrace diversity as a source for inspiration and learning and on the other hand to fight unequal opportunities and strengthen opportunities for all—is largely the responsibility of teachers. They are the ones who can embrace diversity within classrooms, supporting pupils and fostering their capabilities regardless of their background. The awareness of the importance of teachers in creating societies that embrace diversity should lead to education policies that put teachers at the centre. Increasingly, however, teaching as a profession, is being impacted by a focus on performativity and associated expectations. This often occurs without due regard for the necessary conditions that are essential for teachers to play their role and to meet the expectations and challenges that they are confronted with. Teacher well-being is one of these essential conditions. Teacher-focused policies are not only about attracting enough teachers to the profession but also about creating the conditions that can invite teachers to stay passionate and inspired throughout their teaching career. Education policies should not only focus on the well-being and learning of pupils but also on the well-being and learning of teachers, as the latter is the precondition for the former. From this perspective, this book International Perspectives on Teacher Well-Being and Diversity: Portals into Innovative Classroom Practice is a very welcome contribution to the understanding of teacher well-being. Based on inspiring cases from a vii

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variety of schools, the authors elaborate the concept of teacher well-being and the elements that are important to it. They emphasise key sources for teacher well-being like ownership (e.g. through engagement of teachers in action research and action learning focused on their own classroom practice), meaningfulness (that the things they do are meaningful to themselves and their pupils), self-efficacy and agency (that they are able to have an impact on their pupils) and autonomy (that—together with their colleagues—they have the room to make decisions on what fits best their pupils). The authors also identify inhibitors that can reduce the success and well-being of teachers: workload, stress, performativity pressures, lack of autonomy and isolation. Strengthening the key sources for teacher well-being, as well as ameliorating the impact of the inhibitors, can result in increased overall happiness and contentment for teachers, characterised by personal professional fulfilment, satisfaction and purposefulness, which in turn, will influence the well-being and learning outcomes of pupils. The various contributions in this book offer a theoretical exposition on teacher well-being, together with a social agenda, alongside a practical application and exploration. Through the use of well-designed research activities within the everyday context of schools, these elements are combined and enriched, strengthening our understanding of teacher well-being, both in theory and practice. The insights that are presented in this book can help to support teachers, school leaders and policymakers at local and national levels, to strengthen their efforts regarding teacher well-being, not as a one-off effort to support novice teachers, but as a challenge that remains important throughout the lifespan of a teacher’s career. One of the strengths of this book is the way in which the authors put the messages they have for teachers, school heads and policymakers into practice themselves. This book developed from an international project funded by the European Commission. Through the diversity of project partners, the project itself was based on the value of diversity—not only within Europe but also including South Africa as a partner that is characterised—maybe even more than Europe- by diversity. This results in messages that transcend local contexts and can be inspirational for a variety of education systems. The authors also recognise and embrace the understanding that teachers cannot solve inequality and deal with both the promises and tensions of diversity on their own. In writing this book, the authors actually rephrase the adage ‘it takes a village to raise a child’, to a new one: it takes both a school, a social and an academic community to support a teacher.

The authors embodied this both within their local context by considering teacher well-being through collaborations between universities and schools, as well as through cross-national collaborations, bringing different elements of and perspectives on teacher well-being together in this book. As such, International Perspectives on Teacher Well-Being and Diversity: Portals into Innovative Classroom Practice can be a valuable source for both teachers, school

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heads, policymakers and researchers giving conceptual, practical and inspirational insights into how teacher well-being can be strengthened within schools across the world. Marco Snoek Professor Teacher Development and School Improvement Centre of Applied Research in Education Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences Amsterdam, Netherlands

Acknowledgements

International Perspectives on Teacher Well-Being and Diversity: Portals into Innovative Classroom Practice was inspired by the editors’ participation in an EU Erasmus+Funded Project on Teacher Well-Being and Diversity: Managing language and social diversity in classrooms (TWBD) 2016–2019 (2016-1-NO01-KA201022081). The project team included five HEIs: University College Copenhagen (UCC), Denmark; University of Limerick (UL), Ireland; Mary Immaculate College (MIC), Limerick, Ireland; Oslo Metropolitan University (OsloMet), Erasmus+ Lead Partner (formerly Oslo and Akershus University College), Norway; and, University of the Western Cape (UWC), South Africa. Each HEI was aligned with a partner project school. Together with their partner schools, each HEI contributed a chapter for International Perspectives on Teacher Well-Being and Diversity: Portals into Innovative Classroom Practice. Their contributions, together with the two specialist chapters (Chapters Two & Three) provided by contributors external to the Erasmus+project, greatly added to the learning and research evidence in this publication. Dr. Timothy R. N. Murphy and Professor Patricia Mannix-McNamara, School of Education, University of Limerick, as editors, also wish to acknowledge in particular the editorial assistance of Dr. Gerry Jeffers, Maynooth University, in the production and compilation of this book. Additionally, they are very grateful for the advice and support provided by Nick Melchior, Lay Peng, Jayanthi Krishnamoorthi and colleagues of the editorial team at Springer throughout the publication process.

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Contents

1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Timothy R. N. Murphy and Patricia Mannix-McNamara

1

2 Practitioner Enquiry and Action Research for Teacher Well-Being . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bernie Sullivan, Mary Roche, Máirín Glenn, and Caitriona McDonagh

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3 The Care/Justice Relation in Teachers’ and Students’ Well-Being . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Maeve O’Brien

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4 Teacher Well-Being and Linguistic Diversity: A Social Justice Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Karen Suzette Collett, Vuyokazi Nomlomo, Someka Ngece, Daniel Jansen, and Elmarie Mackier 5 Teacher Well-Being and Teacher Professional Development . . . . . . . . Sissel Tove Olsen, Aslaug Andreassen Becher, Sigurd Bergflødt, Aina Hammer, Nanna Paaske, Kirsten Palm, and Brit Steinsvik

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6 Teacher-Social Educator Well-Being and Home-School Collaboration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 Maj Borggaard Hansen, Oliver Balck Jensen, Janni Michelsen, Karoline Søgaard, and Katja Sørensen Vilien 7 Teacher Well-Being in an Inclusive Secondary School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 Timothy R. N. Murphy, Patricia Mannix-McNamara, Gerard Slattery, Mary Masterson, Mary O’Sullivan, and John Corry 8 Teacher Well-Being in Diverse School and Preschool Contexts . . . . . . 163 Carol O’Sullivan, Sandra Ryan, and Lisha O’Sullivan 9 International Perspectives on Teacher Well-Being and Diversity: Portals into Innovative Classroom Practice . . . . . . . . . . 189 Timothy R. N. Murphy and Patricia Mannix-McNamara xiii

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Author Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 Subject Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

Editors and Contributors

About the Editors Timothy R. N. Murphy is a Lecturer in Educational Research and Policy at the School of Education, University of Limerick. He is a Graduate of Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, and has researched and worked in a number of educational contexts, including England, the USA and Ireland. He has published widely in the field of education, on topics ranging from education policy and reform, to disadvantage in education, as well as on teacher pedagogical well-being. The latter led to his participation in a three-year Erasmus+EU project on Teacher Well-being and Diversity which provided the inspiration for this book. Patricia Mannix-McNamara is head of the School of Education at the University of Limerick in Ireland. Her experience spans school leadership, systems leadership, organisational culture and climate, workplace wellbeing in education and organisational behaviours and she is widely published in these fields. She serves as an advisor to national bodies and has championed school health promotion for two decades. She is the joint chair of the National Behaviour in Organisations Research Group (BORG) with her colleague Dr. Margaret Hodgins in the National University of Ireland Galway. Her motivation in this text is to place well-being, for both teachers and students, at the heart of teaching culture.

Contributors Aslaug Andreassen Becher Faculty of Education and International Studies, Oslo Metropolitan University, Oslo, Norway Sigurd Bergflødt Faculty of Education Metropolitan University, Oslo, Norway

and

International

Studies,

Oslo

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Editors and Contributors

Karen Suzette Collett Faculty of Education, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa John Corry Secondary School, Limerick, Ireland Máirín Glenn Belmullet, Mayo, Ireland Aina Hammer Faculty of Education and International Studies, Oslo Metropolitan University, Oslo, Norway Maj Borggaard Hansen Department of Social Education, University College Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark Daniel Jansen Primary School, Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa Oliver Balck Jensen Primary School, Bagsvaerd, Denmark Elmarie Mackier Primary School, Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa Patricia Mannix-McNamara School of Education, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland Mary Masterson School of Education, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland Caitriona McDonagh Skerries, Co. Dublin, Ireland Janni Michelsen Primary School, Bagsvaerd, Denmark Timothy R. N. Murphy School of Education, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland Someka Ngece Faculty of Education, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa Vuyokazi Nomlomo Faculty of Education, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa Maeve O’Brien School of Human Development, Institute of Education, Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland Carol O’Sullivan Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, Ireland Lisha O’Sullivan Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, Ireland Mary O’Sullivan Secondary School, Limerick, Ireland Sissel Tove Olsen Faculty of Education and International Studies, Oslo Metropolitan University, Oslo, Norway Nanna Paaske Faculty of Education and International Studies, Oslo Metropolitan University, Oslo, Norway Kirsten Palm Faculty of Education and International Studies, Oslo Metropolitan University, Oslo, Norway Mary Roche Cork City, Cork, Ireland

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Sandra Ryan Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, Ireland Gerard Slattery School of Education, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland Karoline Søgaard Department of Teacher Education, University College Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark Brit Steinsvik Faculty of Education and International Studies, Oslo Metropolitan University, Oslo, Norway Bernie Sullivan Castleknock, Dublin, Ireland Katja Sørensen Vilien Department of Teacher Education, University College Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

Abbreviations

CECDE CPD DEIS DES DH EAL ESRI HOD HSE IIAL INTO LOLT MIC MIREC NCCA NQT OECD OMI PAR PE PLC SESS SGB SMT TC TPWB TWB ULSoE UWC WSD

Centre for Early Childhood Development and Education Continuing professional development Delivering Equality of Opportunity in School Department of Education and Science (until 2011) and Department of Education and Skills from 2011–present Department of Health English as an additional language Economic and Social Research Institute Head of department Health Service Executive Incremental Introduction of African Languages Irish National Teachers Organisation Language of Learning and Teaching Mary Immaculate College Mary Immaculate College Research Ethics Committee National Council for Curriculum and Assessment Newly qualified teacher Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Office of the Minister for Integration (Norway) Participatory Action Research Physical Education Professional learning community Special Education Support Service School Governing Body (South Africa) Senior management team Teaching Council Teacher pedagogical well-being Teacher well-being University of Limerick School of Education University of Western Cape Whole School Development xix

Chapter 1

Introduction Timothy R. N. Murphy and Patricia Mannix-McNamara

Abstract International Perspectives on Teacher Well-being and Diversity: Portals into Innovative Classroom Practice offers a suite of practical methods and research approaches to promote educator well-being in responding respectfully, ethically, and in a strength-based way to growing student diversity. Several themes emerged throughout the book, including the potential of teacher collaboration, the impact of the neo-liberal turn in education, the need for culturally responsive pedagogies, the importance of dialogue with parents, the critical factor of school leadership, and the inter-connection between teacher well-being and pupil well-being. Each of the themes identified above are obvious topics for further research, and the chapter concludes with a consideration of such opportunities.

Teacher well-being as key to quality learning by students is moving centre stage in educational conversations/discourse (see, for example, Hawkins, 2017; Rechtschaffen & Kabat-Zinn, 2014). International Perspectives on Teacher Wellbeing and Diversity: Portals into Innovative Classroom Practice intends to act as a compilation of a suite of practical methods and research approaches that promote educator well-being through supporting teachers and pre-service teachers in schools and university contexts to respond respectfully, ethically and in a strengths-based way to growing student diversity in their specific contexts. It aims to provide a collection of approaches and strategies that can then be selected, applied and/or adapted by readers in ways that respond to the diversity that exists in their specific contexts. As classrooms across the world become more diverse, many teachers aspire to being more inclusive, ethical, culturally sensitive and pedagogically responsive. At the same time, greater student diversity can present tensions and challenges which impact teachers’ well-being. This book offers practical examples from four different T. R. N. Murphy (B) · P. Mannix-McNamara School of Education, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland e-mail: [email protected] P. Mannix-McNamara e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 T. R. N. Murphy and P. Mannix-McNamara (eds.), International Perspectives on Teacher Well-Being and Diversity, Understanding Teaching-Learning Practice, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-1699-0_1

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countries—Denmark, Ireland, Norway and South Africa—that illustrate teacher initiatives in multicultural classrooms and document their impact on teacher wellbeing. The discrete chapters are rich in practical detail as well as conceptualising the emerging issues faced by schools. Teachers, school leaders, teacher-educators and student teachers will find in this book a range of approaches, strategies and dispositions that can be adapted to local contexts. The importance of this focus is underlined by recent research at a European level, such as that of De Paola and Brunello (2016). Brunello and De Paola (2017) remind us that immigrants usually concentrate in less affluent neighbourhoods. A persistent theme in International Perspectives on Teacher Well-being and Diversity: Portals into Innovative Classroom Practice is that socio-economic disadvantage can often be characteristic of ethnically diverse classrooms. Five of the chapters have been developed by classroom teachers, together with their collaborating Higher Education (HEI) partners. Each partner school was intentionally chosen for its potential to provide insights into the focus topic of teacher well-being and diversity. The contributing HEIs include University College Copenhagen (UCC), Denmark; Mary Immaculate College (MIC), Ireland; Oslo Metropolitan University (OsloMet), Norway; University of Limerick (UL), Ireland; and, University of the Western Cape (UWC), South Africa. They, together with their partner schools, have participated in an Erasmus + project Teacher Well-Being and Diversity: Managing language and social diversity in classrooms.

1.1 Teacher Well-Being and Complexity The project of teaching is a complex endeavour. It is recognised, for example, that teachers today are increasingly expected to perform tasks that extend beyond their job description (Kimonen & Nevalainen, 2013). How the teachers’ role is understood is continually being refined in the context of rapidly changing societies (Besson, Huber, Mompoint, & Rohmann, 2015). The job description is never quite fixed and always evolving. Thus, teacher well-being (TWB) is multifaceted. Across the chapters in this edited collection, various perspectives on teacher well-being (TWB) are explored related to the particular contexts that are being considered. In Chap. 2, an understanding of TWB is developed in the context of professional empowerment through situated learning within a self-study action research approach. A number of the chapters consider TWB from a social justice perspective (see for example, Chaps. 3 and 4). In Chap. 3, the author contends that recognition of the caring, relational and affective dimensions of life are recognised are a prerequisite for TWB from a social justice perspective. The South African contributors in the following chapter also evidence how pivotal a social justice perspective is for TWB, especially in the context of multilingualism. And, multilingualism itself is a prominent feature for how TWB is being understood (see Chaps. 4, 5, 6 and 7). Across several of the chapters, it is also evident that a longitudinal Finnish study on teacher pedagogical well-being (see

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Soini et al., 2010) provided a theoretical back-drop for how TWB is being interpreted (see Chaps. 2, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8). In these neo-liberal times, Hall and McGinity (2015, p. 5) make reference to the impact that the cult of ‘deliverology’ has on teachers’ sense of professionalism (see also Barber et al., 2010). The net effect, Hall and McGinity contend, is to reduce teachers to the status of ‘compliant operatives’. Teachers can be perceived as ‘the white van men of education’ responsible for ‘delivering’ education policies conceived on the sofa of No. 10 Downing Street (Campbell, 2011), or its equivalent in any other country. The diminution of the status of teachers has resulted in an increase in teacher stress and burnout (Schleicher, 2018). Schleicher’s study reported that one in four teachers in Sweden felt stressed out at school and have seriously considered changing their profession and/or workplace. It also referenced a similar study in England which revealed that 61% of teachers are thinking of quitting the profession altogether (NASUWT, 2017). The diminution in the status of teacher professionalism can also negatively impact teachers’ beliefs in their own abilities, what is referred to in the literature as ‘teacher self-efficacy’ (Schleicher, 2018; Zee & Koomen, 2016). A number of studies have demonstrated a correlation between teacher self-efficacy and job satisfaction and commitment (Chesnut & Burley, 2015; Klusmann, Kunter, Trautwein, Ludtke, & Baumert, 2008). The latter study identified a connection between occupational well-being and a teacher’s sense of satisfaction with classroom practice (Klusmann et al., 2008). A similar link was also made by Soini, Pyhältö and Pietarinen in their study on Teacher Pedagogical Well-being (TPWB) (2010). In that study, TPWB is described by Soini et al. (2010, p. 737), as being constructed ‘in the core processes of teachers’ work that is, carrying out and developing teaching–learning process, including, for example, planning classroom activities, interacting with learners, making evaluations and choosing and developing instructional tools’. Additionally, they also acknowledge the importance of teachers interacting with colleagues for teacher well-being, although their primary emphasis is on the significance of teachers interacting with learners. Ethnicity and social disadvantage are also acknowledged in the literature as impacting on the work of teachers in schools and accordingly on their experience of well-being. In each of the chapters in International Perspectives on Teacher Wellbeing and Diversity: Portals into Innovative Classroom Practice, the collaborating HEIs together with their partner schools respond to challenges of ethnic and social diversity as they impact on teacher well-being.

1.2 Teacher Well-Being in the Context of Ethnic Diversity A recent OECD study on ‘The Lives of Teachers in Diverse Classrooms’ (ForghaniArani, Cerna, & Bannon, 2019a, 2019b)highlighted the pedagogical import of increasing ethnic diversity in classrooms on teachers’ work. It elevated the task

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of developing culturally responsive pedagogies to a ‘professional imperative’ for teachers. A number of the chapters in this book have attempted to respond to this imperative (see Chaps. 4, 5, 6 and 8). Not responding to ethnic diversity in this way can have a negative impact on learners’ motivation, overall well-being and development (European Union, 2017a, 2017b). This, in turn, can have a negative impact on teachers’ well-being. The latter report made reference to the projection that by the middle of the twentyfirst century, it is estimated that 20–40% of Europe’s population could have an immigrant background (European Union, 2017a, 2017b). The EU’s responsibility to all those who are rightfully and legitimately in the EU is enshrined in the ‘Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union’ (European Union, 2012). Although it is recognised that education and training play a crucial role in meeting this responsibility (European Commission, 2016), there is a concern that teachers feel ill-prepared to teach in multicultural settings. An OECD ‘Teaching in Focus’ (2019) reported that across 38 TALIS (Teaching and Learning International Survey)1 participating countries and economies, 12.7% of teachers identified a high need for professional development in this area. The TALIS finding is significant in light of the ‘professional imperative’ referred to above. Also, the under-preparedness of teachers limits the extent to which they can capitalize on the potential benefits of multiculturalism. In its report on ‘Preparing Teachers for Diversity’, the EU recognises that diversity can function as a rich educational resource in classrooms to enrich the competencies and creativity of all learners, promote inter-group contact, as well as offering opportunities for reflection and peerlearning (European Union, 2017a, 2017b, p. 21). The enhancement of such core classroom activities will have a positive impact on teachers’ overall sense of well-being, especially as it pertains to their teaching and learning (Soini et al., 2010). Multicultural Learning Environments (MLEs) as a resource for classroom teaching is also evident in a number of the chapters in International Perspectives on Teacher Well-being and Diversity: Portals into Innovative Classroom Practice (see Chaps. 4, 5, 6 and 8). These authors are also aware of the challenges presented by MLEs for the work of teachers in classrooms. The Danish, Irish, Norwegian and South African chapters acknowledge the importance of developing teachers’ capacities ‘to be empathic and reflexive about their own beliefs, cultural and socioeconomic differences’ (European Union, 2017a, 2017b, p. 20). Such capacities they point out in their respective chapters are very important for developing communication skills for diversity. Teachers with these developed communication attributes are well placed to harness ‘the cultural and linguistic capitals’ of learners with a diverse background, to enhance the competencies and creativity of all learners and to promote cohesion in schools (Meinhoef, 2013). This sense of cohesion is important as it provides a conducive environment for the propagation of teacher well-being (OECD, 2009). Teachers in MLEs also encounter the realities of language diversity. Respecting and nurturing such diversity is central to EU policies, for example, in promoting 1 TALIS

collects internationally comparable data on the learning environment and the working conditions of teachers and principals in schools across the world.

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a comprehensive approach to the teaching and learning of languages (European Union, 2019). It highlighted that only four in ten learners in secondary education reach the ‘independent user’ level in the first foreign language, indicating an ability to have a simple conversation. This deficit is the opposite of what is intended for the ‘European Project’, which proposed that ‘multilingual competence’ would be at the heart of the vision of a European Education Area (European Union, 2019). However, in its ‘Preparing Teachers for Diversity’, the EU recognises that one of the most important challenges faced by learners with a diverse background is that the language of schooling often differs from the language(s) they speak at home (European Union, 2017a, 2017b, p. 21). In this publication, Danish, Norwegian and South African contributors elaborate on this important challenge. It is also considered in the context of Chap. 8 from Ireland. A key insight for harnessing language diversity as a classroom resource is the importance of non-formal learning (European Union, 2014). In reference to this, the Danish authors introduced the concept of ‘læringsglemsel’ (see Chap. 6). It affords all of their participants (teachers, learners and parents) the opportunity to engage with a rich, varied and meaningful, diverse learning context. The resulting partnership between UCC and their project school ‘Nord School’ (pseudonym) highlights the importance of valuing the culture and language of learners with a migrant, minority and/or, socio-economically disadvantaged background. It is acknowledged that this can have a positive overall impact on the motivation, overall well-being and development of all involved (European Union, 2017a, 2017b). Similar approaches are evident in Chap. 5 where the Norwegian teachers, as well as the learners and the parents, recognize the importance of more ‘informal communications’ as part of the multicultural language learning environment. Various EU policies emphasise the importance of teachers engaging with the primary carers of learners, actively reaching out to diverse communities in order to gain deeper insights into parental expectations (European Union, 2019; 2017a, 2017b). A number of the contributors in International Perspectives on Teacher Wellbeing and Diversity: Portals into Innovative Classroom Practice have also found that engagement with the primary carers of the learners to be pivotally significant for effective teaching and learning in MLEs. In both the Danish and Norwegian chapters, reference is made to Nordahl (2007, 2008) who perceives parents/guardians as a resource to be engaged with to activate the learners’ motivation and engagement with the learning process. Chapter 8 foregrounds the work of Smyth, Darmody, McGinnity and Byrne (2009) which also reported on the importance of engagement with parents/guardians. It found that the language difficulties among parents were a greater barrier to learners settling into primary school than the child’s own language difficulties. The impact of the breakdown in communication between the parents and the teachers as a consequence of language barriers is also considered by the South African contributors to this publication (see Chap. 4).

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1.3 Teacher Well-Being in the Context of Socio-Economic Disadvantage Immigrant learners face an intersection of multiple potential challenges that can result in multiple forms of marginalisation according to a Report on ‘The Lives of Teachers in Diverse Classrooms’ (Forghani-Arani, Cerna, & Bannon, 2019a, 2019b). One of these is socio-economic disadvantage. Research from the ‘Preparing Teachers for Diversity’ Report (European Union, 2017a, 2017b) found that such disadvantage, coupled with a migrant and, or, minority background, can impact on a learner’s access to good quality education. This recognition is foregrounded in a number of the contributions in this publication. In Chap. 3, Maeve O’Brien is concerned with the challenges faced by Irish teachers who work in schools that are impacted by an intersection of multiple factors. In particular, it focuses on the impact on teachers’ well-being. Similarly, in Chap. 8, Carol O’Sullivan, Sandra Ryan and Lisha O’Sullivan, consider the impact on the wellbeing of teachers who work in disadvantaged multicultural and multilingual school contexts. This is also the focus for Karen Collett and her colleagues in Chap. 4. They highlight the achievements and challenges for TWB and multilingualism at a school located within a high poverty context in South Africa. And, the impact of socioeconomic disadvantage on classroom effectiveness and well-being in the context of an urban secondary school in Ireland is also the focus of the authors in Chap. 7.

1.4 Overview of Chapters in the Book In Chap. 2, Bernie Sullivan, Mary Roche, Máirín Glenn and Caitriona McDonagh offer a taster of self-study action research as they have practised it in the expectation that teachers will begin to experience how it may support well-being and diversity. They explore the idea that self-study action research, where teachers undertake research projects in their own practice, can contribute to teachers’ sense of well-being. Such practitioner enquiries have as their aim the understanding and improvement of practice. Critical self-reflection is an essential aspect of self-study action research, and provides the practitioner with the opportunity of looking at what is good about their practice, as well as what could be improved on. This process allows teachers to focus on the positive, thus enhancing their sense of well-being as they cope with the increasing diversity of their classroom situations. The authors look at the prospect that, through carrying out research in their practice, teachers can experience a sense of empowerment and this helps them to feel that they are in control of their own professional development. This discussion leads them to consider the concepts of teacher identity and teacher agency, and the impact of well-being on these concepts. In the following chapter, Maeve O’Brien draws on her long experience in the field of education as a primary school teacher and home/school liaison co-ordinator in

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DEIS2 schools and her more recent engagement with research and discourses around well-being and care as a researcher, teacher educator and academic in the field of Human Development. In light of this experience and praxis, the chapter explores the relationship between social inequality and the idea of well-being as full human flourishing, an idea or perspective in itself often contested today. Welfarist approaches to well-being often prioritise objective economic/material standards as a condition of well-being development and indicate how material deprivation constricts educational development. In this chapter, the relation between the material, the cultural and affective flourishing is further explored. Additionally, there is a consideration of the challenges of educating for holistic well-being in contexts where young people and their families are struggling with material deprivation and cultural and other forms of misrecognition. Attention is drawn to the relations between these forms of inequality and the pernicious impact they exert on affective life and development for full wellbeing. Turning the problem on its head, it is suggested how social justice approaches to education can only make a real difference when the caring, relational and affective dimensions of life are recognised and taken seriously. In Chap. 4, Karen Suzette Collett, Vuyohazi Nomlomo, Someka Ngece, Daniel Jansen and Elmarie Mackier, further expand on the potential of teacher action research initiatives for the enhancement of teacher well-being. It charts the journey of strengthening teacher well-being (TWB) within a linguistically diverse context through engagement in a critical participatory action research intervention between staff at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) and a local public primary school (Ithemba Primary) (pseudonym) in 2017 and 2018. Using a whole school development approach to change and informed by a social justice perspective, they reflect on how the capacity for teacher well-being and multilingualism was enhanced. The case study demonstrates how the use of collaborative action research using photovoice, within a staff community of praxis, holds the potential to enhance the holistic wellbeing of teachers by addressing the aspects of having, loving, being and meaning in the professional life of teachers. It highlights the achievements of a South African public primary school located within a high poverty context made towards strengthened capacity. Strategies for school and teacher development, as well as a focus on translanguaging as a resource in the staffroom and classroom, are highlighted. Processes to build ownership and sustainability of the intervention are then described. The chapter concludes by drawing out lessons for schools in Europe and South Africa using a whole school development and social justice approach to enhancing teacher well-being within a culturally and linguistically diverse context. Chapter 5 describes the efforts of Norwegian educators from both Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences (HiOA), now Oslo Metropolitan University (OsloMet) and a local, socially and linguistically diverse primary school, to respond to TWB. The participating academics from OsloMet (Aslaug Andreassen 2 Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (DEIS). This was an initiative which was launched

by the Department of Education and Skills (DES) in 2005 to prioritise the educational needs of children and young people from disadvantaged communities. With this initiative, additional supports are targeted at these schools to maximize their educational potential.

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Becher, Sigurd Bergflødt, Aina Hammer, Sissel Tove Olsen, Nanna Paaske, Kirsten Palm and Brit Steinsvik) invited the collaborating teachers to identify areas related to their classroom practice which could impact on their experience of TWB. The teachers suggested that developed strategies for adapted teaching in the context of socially and linguistically diverse classrooms could be helpful. Additionally, they proposed that more effective home–school collaborative interventions could also have a positive impact on their TWB. The chapter presents the findings from investigations into the various innovative classroom and school activities that were implemented as a response to their needs. It emerged that the strategies and activities adopted to support the teachers at this primary school in Oslo are building their wellbeing through the enhancement of practical skills related to teaching, inter-cultural communication and the focus on their health at both individual and collective levels. In Chap. 6, three academics from University College Copenhagen (UCC), Katja Sørensen Vilien, Maj Borggaard Hansen and Karoline Søgaard, collaborated with two teachers from Nord School, Oliver Balck Jensen and Janni Michelsen, to engage in an action learning initiative (AL) similar to the action research interventions as outlined in the previous chapter. In the Danish context social educators are required to collaborate with classroom teachers as part of the educational endeavor. This phenomenon invited the project team to coin the term ‘educator well-being’ to more accurately reflect how teacher well-being is implanted in their context. Similar to the Norwegian project team, the teachers at Nord School were invited to identify focus areas which they considered to be significant for their ‘educator well-being’. The areas identified included developing effective multilingual pedagogies, enhanced home–school collaboration, and effective collaboration between teachers and social educators. The similarities between these and those identified by the former are striking. At the heart of the AL initiative was a home-school collaborative project which invited the children to interview their parents about their childhoods and schooling experiences. The presentation of these narratives by the children in the context of a diverse classroom allowed for an enhanced appreciation and understanding of diversity to emerge for both the children and the teaching staff in the school. Also, parents were invited to participate in these classroom presentations which enhanced home– school collaboration as well as further enhancing the appreciation of the educational potential of linguistic and ethnic diversity. The summative reflections on the TWBD AL project highlighted its impact on the three focus areas that had initially been identified by the Nord School Team as being important for their educator well-being. The analysis on the project also revealed the inter-connectedness between the educator’s and the child’s well-being. Additionally, it emerged that both the participating children, as well as their educators, exhibited enhanced inter-cultural competencies and skills. Finally, but not least, the potential of more informal learning environments as a conduit for an enhanced educator, as well as pupil well-being, emerged as a significant finding from the project. The participants’ engagement with this learning environment invited the question as to whether the sense of empowerment in the school team, combined with the increased curiosity and motivation from the children, resulting from the more informal learning

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context, could help to nurture and develop the mutuality of understanding which is a prerequisite for diverse learning environments? Chapters 7 and 8 both have a focus on the impact of social and ethnic diversity in the Irish educational context. The former explores teacher well-being as it relates to classroom practice in the context of an urban, DEIS (disadvantaged), secondlevel school. The latter chapter interrogates the concept of well-being with a view to outlining its breadth and complexity. Application of the term in schools is then explored in the context of an urban, DEIS, primary school, through the use of focus group interviews in order to determine how teachers internalise the definition for themselves. Éire Community College (Éire) (pseudonym), which is the focus of Chap. 7, is considered to be a truly ‘community’ college in its ethos, its intake of students being reflective of its diverse surrounding community. It is in a DEIS designated school. Two teachers from Éire, Mary O’Sullivan and John Corry, collaborated with four academics from the School of Education at the University of Limerick, Patricia Mannix-McNamara, Mary Masterson, Timothy Murphy and Gerard Slattery, to explore teacher well-being as it relates to the classroom practices of teachers at Éire Community College. Initially, several teachers were invited to engage in a focus group to explore their understandings about TWB as it relates to their teaching and learning. The emergent findings suggested that participation in a ‘Teacher Learning Community’ (TLC) was a pivotal ingredient for the experience of ‘teacher pedagogical well-being’ (TPWB) at Éire Community College. The latter was derived from previous research by Soini et al. (2010) on TWB in the context of classroom practice in Finland. For phase two of the project team’s engagement with Éire Community College, they conducted focus groups with two existing TLCs at the site school. These were conducted with a view to maximizing their potential toward supporting the teachers’ experience of TPWB as part of their professional work. In Chap. 8, Carol O’Sullivan, Sandra Ryan and Lisha O’Sullivan, in a manner similar to Maeve O’Brien in Chap. 3, interrogate the concept of well-being with a view to outlining its breadth and complexity. Application of the term in schools is then explored with a particular focus on how teachers internalise the definition for themselves. Using research undertaken with a group of teachers working in a multicultural and multilingual pre-school and primary school, the chapter outlines the extent to which the participants reflect on their own well-being in their personal and professional lives and the structures in place to support their needs in this complex and often challenging context. Qualitative research by means of focus groups was undertaken with the entire staff of the school. Data were analysed with a view to identifying facilitators of and challenges to, teacher well-being. Findings indicate that the teachers tend to overlook the importance of their own well-being in order to address the concerns and needs of the children in their care. In the concluding chapter, Timothy R. N. Murphy and Patricia Mannix-McNamara review the chapters by reflecting on the primary focus of this edited volume: teacher well-being in the context of ethnically and socially diverse classrooms. In a section on ‘Teacher Well-being: Looking Forward’ they consider the potential of teacher collaboration for the work of teachers in ethnically and socially diverse classrooms.

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References Barber, M., Moffit, A., & Kihn, P. (2010). Deliverology 101: A field guide for educational leaders. Corwin Press. Besson, B., Huber, J., Mompoint, P., & Rohmann, S. (2015). Education for change change for education. Strasborg: Council of Europe. Brunello, G., & De Paola, M. (2017). School segregation of immigrants and its effects on educational outcomes in Europe. European Expert Network on Economics of Education (EENEE) Analytical Report No. 30. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union. Campbell, A. (2011). The Blair years: Extracts from the Alastair Campbell diaries. Random House. Chesnut, S., & Burley, H. (2015). Self-efficacy as a predictor of commitment to the teaching profession: A meta-analysis. Educational Research Review, 15, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev. 2015.02.001 De Paola, M., & Brunello, G. (2016). Education as a tool for the economic integration of migrants. Germany: Institute of Labor Economics (IZA). This paper is an adapted version of an analytical report prepared by the European Expert Network on Economics of Education (EENEE) for the European Commission. European Commission. (2016). Action Plan on the integration of third country nationals. Retrieved December 02, 2019, from https://www.eumonitor.eu/9353000/1/j9vvik7m1c3gyxp/ vk4uddwirrso. European Union. (2019). On a comprehensive approach to the teaching and learning of languages. Official Journal of the European Communities, 2019/C 189/03. European Union. (2017a). Preparing teachers for diversity: The role of initial teacher education final report. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union. https://doi.org/10.2766/ 637002. European Union. (2017b). School segregation of immigrants and IRS effects on educational outcomes in Europe. Publications Office of the European Union. European Union. (2012). Charter of fundamental rights of the European Union. Official Journal of the European Communities, 2012/C 326/02. Retrieved December 3rd, 2019, from https://www. refworld.org/docid/3ae6b3b70.html. Forghani-Arani, N., Cerna, L., & Bannon, M. (2019a). The Lives of Teachers in Diverse Classrooms: OECD Education Working Paper No. 198. Paris: OECD. Forghani-Arani, N., Cerna, L., & Bannon, M. (2019b). The life of teachers in diverse classrooms. OECD Education Working Papers No. 198. OECD. doi: https://doi.org/10.1787/19939019 Hall, D., & McGinity, R. (2015). Conceptualizing teacher professional identity in neoliberal times: Resistance, compliance and reform. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 23(88). https://doi.org/ 10.14507/epaa.v23.2092. This article is part of the Special Issue on New Public Management and the New Professionalism in Education: Compliance, Appropriation and Resistance Guest Edited by Gary Anderson & Kathryn Herr. Hawkins, K. (2017). Mindful teacher, mindful school: Improving wellbeing in teaching and learning. SAGE Publications Ltd. Kimonen, K., & Nevalainen, R. (2013). Transforming teachers’ work globally. In search of a better way for schools and their communities. Sense Publishers. Klusmann, U., Kunter, M., Trautwein, U., Ludtke, O., & Baumert, J. (2008). Teachers’ occupational well-being and quality of instruction: The important role of self-regulatory patterns. Journal of Educational Psychology, 100/3, 702–715. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.100.3.702. Meinhoef, U. H. (2013). Cultural diversity in Europe : a story of mutual benefit, EUI RSCAS, 2013/71, Global Governance Programme-67, Cultural Pluralism Retrieved from Cadmus, European University Institute Research Repository. https://hdl.handle.net/1814/28120. National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT). (2017). The Big Question 2017: An opinion survey of teachers and school leaders. Birmingham: NASUWT. www. nasuwt.org.uk/uploads/assets/uploaded/7649b810-30c7-4e93-986b363487926b1d.pdf.

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Nordahl, T. (2007). Hjem og skole: Hvordan skape et bedre samarbeid. [Home and school Cooperation. How to improve the cooperation]. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget. Nordahl, T. (2008). Hjem og skole. Hvordan skaber man et bedre samarbejde? Hans Reitzels Forlag. OECD. (2019). How education systems respond to cultural diversity in schools: New measures in TALIS 2018. Teaching in focus, No. 25. Paris: OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/1baa28 5c-en OECD. (2019). Teaching practices, teachers’ beliefs and attitudes. Creating effective teaching and learning environments: First results from TALIS. (pp. 87–135). OECD Publishing. Rechtschaffen, D., & Kabat, J. (2014). The way of mindful education: Cultivating well-being in teachers and students (Norton Books in Education). WW Norton & Company. Schleicher, A. (2018). Valuing our Teachers and Raising their Status: How Communities Can Help, International Summit on the Teaching Profession. Paris: OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10. 1787/9789264292697-en Soini, T., Pyhältö, K., & Pietarinen, J. (2010). Pedagogical well-being: Reflecting learning and wellbeing in teachers’ work. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 16(6), 735–751. https:// doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2010.517690 Smyth, E., Darmody, M., McGinnity, F. & Byrne, D. (2009). Adapting to diversity: Irish schools and newcomer students. Dublin: The Economic and Social Research Institute. Retrieved from www.esri.ie. Union, E. (2014). Conclusions on multilingualism and the development of language competences. Council of Europe. Zee, M., & Koomen, M. Y. H. (2016). Teacher self-efficacy and its effects on classroom processes, student academic adjustment, and teacher well-being: A synthesis of 40 years of research. Review of Educational Research, 86(4), 981–1015. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654315626801

Timothy R. N. Murphy is a Lecturer in Educational Research and Policy at the School of Education, University of Limerick. He is a Graduate of Teachers College, Columbia University, New York and has researched and worked in a number of educational contexts, including England, the USA and Ireland. He has published widely in the field of education, on topics ranging from education policy and reform, to disadvantage in education, as well as on teacher pedagogical well-being. The latter led to his participation in a three-year Erasmus+ EU project on Teacher Well-being and Diversity which provided the inspiration for this book. Patricia Mannix-McNamara is head of the School of Education at the University of Limerick in Ireland. Her experience spans school leadership, systems leadership, organizational culture and climate, workplace wellbeing in education and organizational behaviours and she is widely published in these fields. She serves as an advisor to national bodies and has championed school health promotion for two decades. She is the joint chair of the National Behaviour in Organisations Research Group (BORG) with her colleague Dr. Margaret Hodgins in the National University of Ireland Galway. Her motivation in this text is to place wellbeing, for both teachers and students, at the heart of teaching culture.

Chapter 2

Practitioner Enquiry and Action Research for Teacher Well-Being Bernie Sullivan, Mary Roche, Máirín Glenn, and Caitriona McDonagh

Abstract We provide an outline of what we understand by well-being and the enablers and barriers to well-being. We explore how, when teachers undertake research projects in their own classrooms, their actions can contribute to teachers’ sense of well-being. Critical reflection provides practitioners with the opportunity of looking at what is good about their practice as well as what could be enhanced, developed or improved. We look at the prospect that, through carrying out research in their practice, teachers can experience a sense of empowerment and this may help them to appreciate the extent to which they are in control of their own professional development. We also explore the risks involved in critical reflection, as well as any possible issues affecting well-being. This discussion leads us to consider the concepts of teacher identity and teacher agency, and the impact that these concepts can have on one’s sense of well-being. We examine the significance of practitioner enquiry for teachers and for school leadership. We conclude with a caveat about the potential for hegemony in the implementation of well-being programmes. Keywords Self-study action research · Living Theory · Critical reflection · Teacher well-being · Enhancing practice · Hegemony

B. Sullivan (B) Castleknock, Dublin, Ireland e-mail: [email protected] M. Roche Cork City, Cork, Ireland e-mail: [email protected] M. Glenn Belmullet, Mayo, Ireland e-mail: [email protected] C. McDonagh Skerries, Co. Dublin, Ireland e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 T. R. N. Murphy and P. Mannix-McNamara (eds.), International Perspectives on Teacher Well-Being and Diversity, Understanding Teaching-Learning Practice, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-1699-0_2

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2.1 Introduction In this chapter, we (Bernie Sullivan, Mary Roche, Máirín Glenn and Caitriona McDonagh) offer you a taster of self-study action research as experienced by four teacher-researchers. We explore how, when teachers undertake research projects in their own classrooms, their actions can contribute to teachers’ sense of well-being. Such practitioner enquiries aim to enhance practice or the understanding of practice. Given that most educational practice is undertaken with social intent—i.e. influencing the learning of others, as well as our own learning, and given also that it takes place in the social context of a classroom, school or other educational settings, which themselves are embedded in the community—what we do and how we do it can affect others as well as ourselves. Critical reflection is an essential aspect of self-study action research. It provides practitioners with the opportunity of looking at what is good about their practice as well as what could be enhanced, developed or improved. This process can allow teachers to focus on the positive, thus enhancing their sense of well-being as they cope with the increasing diversity of their classroom situations. We look at the prospect that, through carrying out research in their practice, teachers can experience a sense of empowerment and this may help them to appreciate the extent to which they are in control of their own professional development. We also explore the risks involved in critical reflection, as well as any possible issues affecting well-being. This discussion leads us to consider the concepts of teacher identity and teacher agency, and the impact that these concepts can have on one’s sense of well-being. There are four sections, each written by one of the authors of the chapter. The four sections are intended to fit together to form one collaborative contribution based on the intersection of self-study action research and teacher well-being. In 2.2, Bernie outlines our understanding of the concept of well-being. She identifies enablers and inhibitors of well-being. She examines the role values play in contributing to an enhancement in practice and in achieving a positive experience of well-being. Mary describes the social and personal contexts of our work in 2.3. She explores the formation of personal and professional identity and examines how factors that contribute to the formation of identity can also influence in a positive manner one’s sense of well-being. In 2.4, Máirín elaborates on how, as practitioner-researchers, we work towards enhancing our practice and our understanding of it. Drawing on the work of Greene (1984), Schön (1995), Brookfield (2017)and others, she explores concepts of self-reflection and dialogue and illustrates the importance of these concepts to enhance practice and to develop a sense of autonomy in relation to responsibility for one’s own practice and one’s own learning. This discussion leads us to consider the concepts of teacher identity and teacher agency, and the impact that these concepts can have on one’s sense of well-being. In 2.5, Caitriona considers the significance of the previous ideas for teacher resilience, relational learning and educational leadership. We conclude by questioning the assumptions around the current trend towards the promotion of well-being and raise awareness of practices that may be hegemonic.

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2.2 Our Understanding of Well-Being Every so often, in the field of education, a new concept or pedagogic practice is presented as being essential for the effective progress of a school’s student population. Teachers are expected to adopt these ideas and implement them fastidiously. Recent examples in the Irish context include curriculum topics, such as Relationships and Sexuality Education, and Literacy and Numeracy strategies, and also administration issues, such as record-keeping in relation to regular standardised testing, and attendance monitoring. Schools are informed that these initiatives are focused on the pedagogic needs of students or on the regulatory principles governing the smooth operation of the school. The premise is that a smoothly running school allows for learning to happen without interruption. The recent interest in, and promotion of, the welfare and well-being of teachers heralds a new departure and is a welcome intervention. This concept focuses specifically on the significance of a healthy and contented state of mind for those involved in the teaching profession. The concern with this topic contrives to combine the personal and the professional aspects of the lives of teachers in a holistic effort to ensure their physical, emotional and mental well-being. The premise here too is that, ultimately, happy teachers create a happy school, leading to a positive teaching and learning environment. The term ‘well-being’ evokes a sense of positivity, engendering attributes such as happiness, contentment and fulfilment. It also conjures up a vision of the teacher as an enthusiastic and well-adjusted educator, happy in their own skin. Drawing on the work of Soini et al. (2010), Acton and Glasgow (2015) define well-being as ‘an individual sense of personal professional fulfilment, satisfaction, purposefulness and happiness, constructed in a collaborative process with colleagues and students’ (p. 5). Well-being, therefore, is more likely to result from situations where teachers can exercise autonomy in their own classrooms, can ground their professional practices in values of freedom, respect, social justice and love, and can countenance the support and advice from colleagues as and when required. This interpretation of well-being constitutes it as the antithesis of the neoliberal ideology that favours individualism, competitiveness and accountability, and that contributes to what Somekh (2011) refers to as an audit culture.

2.2.1 Barriers to Teacher Well-Being Perceptions are widespread that a changing and increasing workload in recent years inhibits and constrains teachers’ sense of professional well-being. Many feel stressed and overwhelmed. Among external factors that impact teachers’ time include more detailed lesson plans, more frequent testing of students and regular collation and reporting of statistical feedback on standardised test results. Teachers are confronted on a daily basis with what Ball (2003) refers to as ‘the terrors of performativity’. In addition, classroom factors may impinge on teachers’ ability to carry out their

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professional duties. For example, the inclusion in mainstream classes of students with learning difficulties as well as students with behavioural issues can put further pressure on teachers, with consequent implications for their health and well-being. Issues in teachers’ personal lives can also impact practice and well-being. The strong connection between the personal and professional well-being of teachers has been highlighted by Day, Stobart, Sammons, Kington, Gu, Smees and Mujtaba (2006) and O’Connor (2008), among others. Research shows there cannot be real professional development without personal development (Spilt et al., 2011). Uitto (2012), citing Clandinin and Huber (2005, p. 56), says that teachers’ own stories about their work illustrate ‘the interweaving of the personal and the professional in teachers’ lives’ (p. 293). What can teachers do to overcome the barriers that preclude them from experiencing a sense of satisfaction in their personal and professional lives? Engaging in dialogue with colleagues would be the first step in this direction. Participating in professional conversations, such as those described in Glenn et al. (2017), would provide teachers with the opportunity to voice their concerns and to seek advice from fellow-teachers on how best to resolve the issues causing them concern. The Cosán Framework for Teacher Learning developed by the Teaching Council of Ireland (2016a) encourages collaboration and engagement in professional conversations among teachers. Sharing ideas in this manner could enhance teachers’ feelings of solidarity and provide them with the benefits of community support. However, in the busy lives of teachers, and taking account of the complexities of classroom life as mentioned in the previous paragraph, where could teachers find the time to begin the process of engaging in professional conversations with colleagues? In the next section, we argue the case for self-study action research as a possibility for filling this lacuna, on the basis that action research is not an add-on, requiring extra time from teachers, but can be integrated into their practice as part of their daily routine. Later, we will see how Mary incorporated her research, which arose out of a concern about an area of her teaching, into lived practice.

2.2.2 Self-Study Action Research as a Positive Influence on Well-Being For the past 20 years, we authors have been undertaking practitioner research in our own teaching practice using a self-study action research approach. We each completed our PhDs using an action research methodology. Since then, we have carried out postdoctoral research (see for example, Glenn, McDonagh, Sullivan, & Roche, 2012), as well as writing papers, presenting at conferences and providing professional development courses for teachers. We co-authored three books on practitioner research and established a network for educational action researchers in Ireland (NEARI). In agreement with Stringer (2014), we believe that.

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Action research provides a flexible and practical set of procedures that are systematic, cyclical, solutions orientated and participatory, providing the means to devise sustainable improvements in practice that enhance the lives and well-being of all participants. (Stringer, 2014, p. 5)

Our research approach involves cycles of critical reflection and action with the aim of enhancing our practice or our understanding of it. A starting point for reflection in order to uncover an area requiring enhancement could be to ask, ‘What is currently going well in my practice?’ Responding to this question allows us to focus on our successes and accentuate the positive aspects of our practice. Such experiences of positivity can infuse us with feelings of satisfaction and well-being that can act as a cushion against any negativity when we adopt a more critical stance in questions of the kind, ‘What can I do to enhance my practice?’ or ‘What is my concern about my practice?’. Having formulated an initial question in relation to how to enhance our practice, the next step in an action research approach is to devise a plan to achieve this. As we put our plan into action, we constantly reflect critically on the process as we look for instances where the plan may not be having the desired effect—but also acknowledging and savouring success in areas where we can see a change or improvement. Evaluating the progress of our research in this manner provides us with a realistic view of our practice, enabling us to appreciate what we feel is working effectively. We need to be prepared to reassess the situation and devise another plan for areas that we feel could benefit from further enhancement. The focus on cycles of planning, acting, reflecting and evaluating that are the hallmarks of an action research enquiry (Carr & Kemmis, 1986; McNiff & Whitehead, 2006; Sullivan et al., 2016), can endow practitioner-researchers with a sense of purpose and an experience of autonomy that can only increase feelings of well-being and satisfaction. Tobin (2017) is convinced of the potential of action research both to achieve transformation and to contribute to well-being: In a context of mindfulness and wellness, we are not engaged as truth seekers with a mandate to learn and describe. Instead, we adopt authentic inquiry, in which we are transformed by doing research that is itself an agent of transformation of all participants and associated collectives/institutions. (Tobin, 2017, p. 5–6).

We can testify to the importance of values in a self-study action research approach to enhancing practice, where values can be used as the standards of judgement for evaluating the research. We are also convinced of the significance of living out our values in our practice in order to fulfil our commitment to a life dedicated to wellbeing. We will now look at the role of values in living lives committed to enhanced practice and positive well-being.

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2.2.3 The Role of Values in Achieving Enhanced Practice and Well-Being Teaching is a value-laden profession. As teachers, in all our interactions with students, we draw on values such as respect, fairness, equality, care and social justice. Many educational researchers would regard these values as being essential for effective teaching and learning, and for the establishment and sustainability of empowering and reciprocal relationships with students (see for example, Haggerty, 2004; Noddings, 2005; Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2009; Hopkins, 2014; Zeichner, 2015). The Code of Professional Conduct for Teachers (Teaching Council, 2016b) requires teachers registered with the Teaching Council of Ireland to embody values of care, respect, integrity and trust in their professional lives. Clarifying and making our values explicit are also integral features of self-study action research. Having begun with a question as to what our concern or interest is, we then ask ‘Why am I concerned about or interested in this area?’ The answer to this question will reveal what is important for us in the field of education and we can articulate these qualities as our educational values. When we reflect on our practice, we may find evidence that we are living to our espoused values, leading us to experience a sense of satisfaction and well-being. Living to our values is not always the seamless and unproblematic experience that we would like it to be, as we may discover through reflecting critically on our practice. For example, I may claim that I value equality, yet when I reflect on my classroom practice, I may realise that I am focusing more on the high achievers in the class to the neglect of the less able students. Whitehead (1989) describes such a situation as experiencing oneself as a living contradiction, a position that we may find untenable. We feel compelled, therefore, to change our practice, to ensure that it is more commensurate with our values and to maintain a sense of equilibrium thus enhancing our practice and our feeling of achievement. Our values can also be used as the criteria by which we judge our research. Whitehead (2000) suggests that the standards of judgement for assessing action research can be grounded in an individual’s embodied values that underpin the research process. Teachers identify their values at the beginning of their research, maintain an awareness of their values throughout and engage in critical analysis of their practice as they look for evidence of where they have lived to their values. This can allow teachers a measure of freedom in relation to their research process. The sense of autonomy and empowerment that they experience as a result, as well as the valuing of their professional expertise in making judgements about their practice, will contribute significantly to sustaining their sense of well-being.

2.2.4 Connectedness as the Calm in a Sea of Diversity Classrooms today are sites of diversity, accommodating in varying degrees students with cultural, social, ethnic, gender, physical and intellectual differences. Teachers

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struggle to juggle all the competing clamours for their attention on a daily basis. Unsurprisingly, therefore, they often feel that they are working in isolation, that the challenges they encounter in their classrooms are their personal responsibility and that they alone must find solutions to these problems. A change of mindset is therefore required so that teachers can come to realise that there are supports available to them that can lessen their feelings of stress and overload. As a first step towards accessing and benefiting from supports, teachers need to open up lines of communication with their colleagues, but they will only feel comfortable doing this if seeking help is not regarded as a sign of weakness or incompetence. As action researchers, we often enfold our reflection processes within dialogue with others. Nhat Hahn (2013) distinguishes between communication that is healthy and that which is toxic and suggests that mindful awareness can help us avoid the latter. In contrast, ‘Nourishing and healing communication is the food of our relationships’ (p. 8). Teachers at the beginning of their careers may be assigned mentors with whom they can discuss issues of concern to them. Sometimes the mentoring relationship can be an unequal one, with the experienced teacher passing on their expertise to the newly qualified teacher (NQT), with little evidence of reciprocity in terms of a shared learning experience. Cognisant of the inadequate nature of some mentoring programmes, Hargreaves and Fullan (2000) suggest that mentors can sometimes seem more like tormentors. Often the mentoring can consist of induction where the NQT is initiated into the culture and norms of the school by an established teacher. Mooney Simmie and Moles (2011) eschew this reproductive model of mentoring in favour of a productive approach that encourages critical thinking and professional agency. Instances of mentoring or induction usually take place only during the NQT’s first year of teaching, the implication being that they have by then been sufficiently assimilated into the school culture. Coaching is an option not yet widely available to teachers in Ireland. It is an approach based on respect, equality and trust, where coach and coachee can learn with and from each other, and where the coachee is allowed autonomy in relation to issues such as goal setting. A coaching programme can result in enhanced goal attainment, increased resilience, reduced depression, anxiety and stress and increased workplace well-being (Grant et al., 2009). Devine, Meyers and Houssmand (2012) outline various coaching models, of which peer coaching and positive psychology appear most conducive to enhancing teacher well-being. Peer coaching involves reciprocal relationships based on equality of participation and can be a powerful form of teacher professional development. It is a collaborative approach, which Cordingley (2005, in Devine, Meyers & Houssmand, 2012) describes as follows: ‘Collaborating with colleagues to sustain commitment to learning and relate new approaches to every day practice; and seeking out specialist expertise to extend skills and knowledge and to model good practice’ (p. 6). According to Devine, Meyers and Houssmand (2012), a positive psychology approach to coaching focuses on ‘a more holistic view of education building on the strengths of the individual or the system, and developing skills that go beyond the traditional academic subjects to enhance wellbeing’ (p. 6). It would appear, then, that coaching has the potential to contribute to the well-being of the teaching profession.

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Currently, the initiatives mentioned here are focused mainly on NQTs, so the question arises as to how can long-serving teachers acquire the benefit of similar supports from colleagues? Apart from teacher welfare counselling and conciliation services it is largely up to teachers themselves to create opportunities for collegial professional dialogue. Connecting with other teachers and engaging in professional conversations with them is essential for teachers trying to cope with the challenges of the diversity in their classroom contexts. As we mentioned already, finding the time can be a constraint and so teachers need to be inventive, for example, using time allocated for meetings with those teaching the same subject or the same grade. The opportunity for connecting with colleagues can be put to good use if teachers can find the courage to air the issues of concern to them and in return receive advice, emotional support, constructive suggestions and encouragement. These tentative toe-in-thewater efforts at opening the lines of communication with colleagues have the potential to develop into learning communities. In effective learning communities, the focus is very much on collaboration, collegiality and cooperation (Glenn et al, 2017). When participants engage in genuine dialogue, are committed to helping and supporting one another, and have an open and questioning disposition, their interactions will bear fruit in terms of a shared, constructivist and meaningful approach to addressing issues of concern in their practice. It is important that teachers ensure the sustainability of their learning community so that they will continue to benefit from the positive, caring and nurturing qualities of their colleagues that contribute to their sense of well-being and satisfaction. In the next section, we will examine how we are formed professionally by our social and personal histories and contexts. Our sense of well-being is a key aspect of our professionalism and determines where we are located in the cycle of our own professional lives (Fessler, 1985; Steffi & Wolfe, 2001; Huberman, 1989, 1993). Reflection, and the choices we make, as a result, are key for professional renewal and growth (Steffi, Wolfe, Pasch, & Enz, 2000). In 2.3, Mary will explore these ideas as she examines vignettes from her own professional life.

2.3 The Social and Personal Contexts of Our Work None of us are blank slates. Our professional identity is formed by several factors, professional and personal. Palmer (2007) defines identity thus: By identity I mean an evolving nexus where all the forces that constitute my life converge in the mystery of self: my genetic makeup, the nature of the man and woman who gave me life, the culture in which I was raised, people who have sustained me and people who have done me harm, the good and ill I have done to others and to myself, the experience of love and suffering – and much, much more. In the midst of that complex field, identity is a moving intersection of the inner and outer forces that make who I am, converging in the irreducible mystery of being human. (Palmer, 2007, p. 13).

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Palmer shows that we come to our teaching lives and to our research with biases, assumptions, prior knowledge and experience, and values. As was said earlier, our values inform who and how we are as we work but we may not ever have interrogated or articulated any of these aspects of our professional identity. As educators, we work in busy social contexts where what we do and how we do it can have a profound influence on the learning of others and, indeed, on their lives. What we often fail to recognise, however, is the fact that our practice—and our sense of control over it—can also hugely affect us at both a personal and professional level. Day et al. (2006b)acknowledge the large body of educational research on the social contexts of teachers’ lives: the broader social conditions in which teachers live and work, and the personal and professional elements of teachers’ lives, experiences, beliefs and practices are integral to one another, and that there are often tensions between these which impact to a greater or lesser extent upon teachers’ sense of self or identity (Day et al., 2006b, p. 144).

They also argue here and elsewhere that identity is often a key factor influencing teachers’ sense of purpose, self-efficacy, motivation, commitment, job satisfaction and effectiveness. They suggest however that, surprisingly, although notions of ‘self’ and personal identity are much used in educational research and theory, critical engagement with individual teachers’ cognitive and emotional ‘selves’ has been relatively rare. Yet these factors are intertwined with teacher well-being. We argue that our ‘enhancing practice’ approach (McDonagh et al., 2012) can contribute to our selfesteem and self-efficacy. To illustrate how researching one’s own practice in a collaborative process with colleagues and students can ultimately lead to personal professional fulfilment, professional satisfaction and purposefulness (Acton & Glasgow, 2015), Mary will describe and explain her personal journey towards professional well-being.

2.3.1 A Vignette: Mary’s ‘Back’ Story I began teaching after 2 years of what was then called ‘teacher training’. I had little or no understanding of educational theory, very little knowledge of the philosophy of education, the psychology of learning or the sociology of the broader contested aspects of teaching. What I had were lesson plan templates, textbooks and some tips and tricks for keeping control of large numbers of small children: tips of the order of ‘Don’t smile until Christmas’. I was a technician, uncritically accepting and implementing the theories and plans of those I considered to be (if I thought of them at all) ‘more knowledgeable others’. I had no language of critique, no understanding of my own prior knowledge, and little or no sense of professional identity (Roche, 2007, 2010; McDonagh et al., 2012).

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At a personal level, I felt overwhelmed. I was anxious for most of the time initially, because, like many staff members in that school, I was a rookie on probation and the inspector called regularly. My teacher identity was very weak. I felt little or no sense of agency or autonomy. I was not really ready for the reality of the classroom. I tried to ‘remember’ the educational theory I had learned in college. I had been a passive receiver of others’ knowledge throughout my schooling, and the teacher training course had reinforced this didactic and technicist model. Switching from student to teacher, for many NQTs like me, was a huge step. It was not until I had been teaching for almost two decades that the sense of treading water and feeling out of my depth left me. This is not unusual: Nias (1989, p. 181, cited in Day, Kington, Stobart, & Sammons, 2006a, p. 604) showed that her research respondents were well into their second decade of teaching before they were likely to have incorporated their professional role into their self-image and thus able to identify themselves as ‘teachers’. She also stated that the teachers’ involvement in activities within the school also provided them with ‘personal and emotional satisfactions within their working lives rather than outside them’.

2.3.2 Developing a Sense of Self-Efficacy My sense of professional identity and self-efficacy came about via a few different routes: I engaged in a professional learning community with space for the kind of dialogue and professional conversation that Clark (2001) refers to as authentic teacher talk; I began to read widely around issues in education; I embarked on postgraduate studies, but, most importantly, I began to engage in the act of critical reflection on my practice in particular and on education in general. I took control of my own professional development. I feel that these four aspects are crucial: professional conversation, critical reflection, professional reading and engagement in research. In my own case, through these four routes, I felt an increasing sense of autonomy and a sense of being less isolated. In hindsight, I realise that my tentative attempts at reflection were the core aspect of experiencing a sense of agency and well-being in relation to my practice, and this reflection depended on having dialogue with critical friends.

2.3.3 Reflecting is Core to Worthwhile Continuous Professional Development (CPD) Reflection is tough. As one Canadian academic writer said to me when I interviewed people for my research, it is not for wimps or sissies: The orientation you have chosen for your work is, I believe, most difficult and most rewarding. For teaching, after all, is an act of self-discovery when it is done well. And that is where so

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much of the gratification lies for such a difficult and challenging work. Those discoveries, alas, are reserved for the few who would undertake such rigorous self-examinations -- not for sissies. I am full of admiration for your quest and am cheering you quietly onward. (Appendix G2, Roche, 2007).

Continuous professional development is crucial for all professionals. In Irish educational contexts, the dominant form of CPD was, (and often still is) a skillsbased, ‘one-shot, knowledge transfer model’ (Conway, Murphy, Rath, & Hall, 2009, p. 187) and was not a feature of my teaching life until the 1990s. Banks and Smyth (2011) draw on the work of Coolahan to show how key developments in teacher professional development took place in two stages—in the late 1960s and early 1970s and during the 1990s. The early phase, they say, involved the restructuring of teacher education and included a growing awareness of the importance of in-service training throughout the teaching career. A second phase took place against the backdrop of social and economic development in the 1990s (Coolahan, 2003). Despite the fact that my teaching career spanned these two phases, I lacked awareness of the fact that I should and could take charge of my own professional development and move towards a model which would acknowledge the idea that I am capable of making judgements about my own professionalism (Glenn et al., 2012). It took deep critical reflection as a postgraduate to come to this realisation. Brookfield (2016, in Fook et al., 2016) states that for reflection to be considered critical ‘it must have as its explicit focus the uncovering and challenging of power dynamics that frame our decisions and actions’ (p. 13). It took many years, a lot of reading, dialogue, reflection and tweaking of actions before I could claim to be doing what Brookfield might call critical reflection. Larrivee (2004, 2008) identifies four levels of reflection: pre-reflection, surface reflection, pedagogical reflection and critical reflection. For a long time, I located myself in what Larrivee (2008) called the pre-reflective or non-reflective level of reflection: At the pre-reflective or non-reflective level developing teachers react to students and classroom situations automatically, without conscious consideration of alternative responses. They operate with knee-jerk responses attributing ownership of problems to students or others, perceiving themselves as victims of circumstances. They take things for granted without questioning and do not adapt their teaching based on students’ responses and needs. (Larrivee, 2008, p. 342).

As I read professionally and began to think more critically, I felt a burgeoning sense of confidence that led to a diminishing of the anxiety and distress I had been experiencing. At the time I was located in what would now be considered a ‘stuck’ school—one where there was a lack of collegiality and where I was unable to engage in professional conversation. As I progressed in my studies, I began to feel a huge sense of relief. Some of this relief was due to recognising that I had found a ‘philosophical match’ in the self-study action research approach (Melrose, 1996). It had also to do with meeting up with a supportive group of like-minded others in an educational community outside of my school context. This was an association of teachers who sought to implement Donnelly’s (1994) philosophy with children (an

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Irish adaptation of Lipman’s (1982) ‘Philosophy for Children’) in their classrooms. As a result, I decided to examine my practice in relation to creating a more dialogical pedagogy. My research began with examining and articulating my educational and epistemological values. The encouragement to begin that process began in the experience of being involved with others in the study group that convened as part of a doctorate programme at the University of Limerick, as well as systematically engaging with literature that adopted a focused critical stance. Through reflecting on and interrogating my values, in the company of others who were doing the same, I came to understand that I greatly value care, freedom and justice. Furthermore, through the experience of studying together with others who were also developing their critical capacities, I came to see that those qualities were often lacking in my practice. As was described earlier, I was experiencing myself as a living contradiction, in that my values were denied in my practice (Whitehead, 1989). I set about addressing this dissonance. In effect, my colleagues and I had formed a professional learning community (PLC). Owen (2016, p. 404, citing Huppert & Johnson, 2010), states that teacher well-being seems to be central to the notion of mature and effective PLCs, with wellbeing defined as ‘the combination of feeling good and functioning well’. For me, feeling good and a sense of functioning well, came about through my engagement with my supportive and collegiate peers who helped me to see that there was a dissonance between my deeply held values and the lived reality of my daily practice.

2.3.4 Identifying and Articulating a Research Question Thus, my research question began with a concern that there was something amiss in my practice, and that discovering it would help me understand the reasons why I feel compelled to work in the way I do. As my study evolved, I wanted to know the nature of the passion that drove me to seek to involve my students in dialogue as I encouraged them to search for meaning in their world and their lives; and to understand why I could not accept the status quo and simply let things be. I needed to know what it was about the education system that troubled me to an extent where I was willing to engage in a systematic research programme. Again, this required deep critical reflection.

2.3.5 The Benefits of Taking Control of One’s Practice Taking control of what I was doing, reflecting and critiquing my practice with others, acting on advice from critical friends, researching the literature, tweaking and modifying my practice, all began in deep reflection so as to clarify overtly the values that I held. Brookfield (2017) identifies seven benefits of critical reflection. They are

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that it helps us: take informed actions; develop a rationale for practice; survive the emotional rollercoaster of teaching; enliven our classrooms; remain engaged; model the democratic impulse; and increase trust (pp. 80–94). I have written extensively since completing my doctoral studies about how all of these benefits were realised in my practice (Roche, 2007, 2010, 2015). Brookfield acknowledges throughout his work that perhaps critical reflection is avoided because it is painful at times: it forces us to hunt our assumptions, particularly hegemonic assumptions where we unconsciously contribute to our own ‘dis-ease’. We may begin to think that we have no real agency to bring about a change in our practice. We have agency, but it takes a lot of critical reflection to recognise that, and then to begin the process of taking action to change. It can lead to transformation at a personal as well as a professional level. In my case, I was transformed from being a passive, placid accepter of others’ knowledge. I was a chatty person, but very reluctant to speak in public. I lacked confidence and conviction. Within a few short years of taking action and reflecting on my own practice, I was providing in-house in-service to colleagues, facilitating workshops for groups of teachers locally and nationally, presenting at conferences nationally and internationally, and authoring and co-authoring papers and books. I had found my professional voice and developed a sense of self-efficacy and self-confidence. I also felt in control of my professional development.

2.3.6 Teaching Better and Generating Knowledge of Practice Wilcox et al. (2004, p. 307) explain the self-study process as being vital to professional practice. ‘Self-study allows practitioners to engage in inquiry that contributes to their own capacity for expert and caring professional practice while also contributing to the growth of their profession’. Mohanty (1997) argues that an important part of knowing about the world involves knowing how to change it. Selfstudy action research offered me opportunities to develop the skills necessary for generating knowledge of practice in my own local context, in order ‘to change the world by teaching better’ (Lytle, 2008). Teaching better involves much more than professional tinkering (Huberman, 1989), or the mere honing of existing instructional practices, although, in my own circumstances, this was part of my initial enquiry (see Glenn et al., 2012). In Roche (2007) I claimed that ‘I also wanted to find ways of contributing to public debates about education, and teachers’ capacity for thinking critically about education, and teaching in ways that respect and honour children’s capacity to think for themselves. I wanted to try to improve the educational experiences of my students and help them to become more critical thinkers than I had been’. I developed my newfound professional voice: my work on developing children’s critical thinking has now been adopted by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment in Ireland to support teachers. The work undertaken by my colleagues and I collectively has led to commissioned research by the Teaching Council of Ireland and to the foundation of a National Network called ‘Network Educational Action Research Ireland’ (NEARI) (see www.eari.ie/neari).

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Day (2004, cited in Day et al., 2006a, p. 604) says that ‘a positive sense of identity with subject, relationships and roles is important to maintaining self-esteem or selfefficacy, commitment to and a passion for teaching’. We may at times feel that due to policy constraints and the demands of an often overloaded curriculum that we have very little autonomy around our teaching. This may or may not be the case. What we do have is autonomy over our own learning. I believe I have begun to achieve that. This is not smugness. I acknowledge that I am only at the tip of the iceberg of what is possible and knowable. But it is a start. And, paraphrasing Huppert and Johnson (2010), I ‘feel good’ and I believe I am ‘functioning well’.

2.4 Practitioner Enquiry to Enhance Practice and to Develop a Deeper Understanding Following on from Mary’s section above (2.3) which has explored ideas around selfstudy action research to enhance teacher autonomy, and teacher autonomy enhancing teacher well-being (Acton & Glasgow, 2015), Máirín now explores how we have developed our understandings of action research so that our learning holds lifeaffirming energy and so continues to have the possibility of enhancing well-being. We, authors, are practitioner-researchers engaging in self-study action research and Living Theory and therefore, we always work towards enhancing practice and gaining insight into it. We also embed these ideas in our explanation of our educational influences in our own learning, in the learning of others and in the learning of social formations in terms of life-affirming energy and values that carry hope for the flourishing of humanity, as outlined by Whitehead (2018). Older texts on self-study action research used to use the term ‘improving practice’ as opposed to ‘enhancing practice’ (see McNiff, Lomax & Whitehead, 1996). Some action researchers use the words interchangeably, as we authors did (see McDonagh et al., 2012). However, as we have gained a deeper understanding of the process of action research, we have found that the term ‘enhancing practice’ captures the essence of the process with more clarity. The fluid interpretation of our understanding of the terms ‘improving’ and ‘enhancing’ was brought to our attention at a NEARI-meet (meeting of the Network of Educational Action Research in Ireland) in 2017 when one of the participants inquired about the appropriateness of the term ‘improving practice’ and its hidden implication that the researcher has to initiate their research from the premise that the standard of their practice is poor. We authors have explored and debated this issue. Initiating research that expects you, as practitioner-researcher, to acknowledge that your work is somehow inadequate as a prerequisite of beginning the research project could have huge implications for the researcher’s well-being. We now acknowledge that the idea of having to ‘improve one’s practice’ can have hidden negative implications and can be demeaning and humiliating. It might, far from encouraging

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practitioners to engage with their professionalism, instead, lead to them questioning their sense of self-worth as educators. We now deliberately and overtly choose to use the term ‘enhancing practice’ over ‘improving practice’ whenever possible. We acknowledge that practitioners engage, generally, in a high standard of practice, of which they are proud—and rightly so— but that there is always an aspect of practice that can be enhanced and explored. This change of emphasis is an indication of our own growing insight into well-being in education. While acknowledging that it is not healthy to have to declare our work to be unprofessional or inadequate at any level, it is equally unhealthy for us to think that our work is flawless and needs no scrutiny. Like Greene we believe: To proceed unthinkingly is to be caught in the flux of things, to be ‘caught up’ in dailyness, in the sequences of tasks and routines. Of course we have to proceed that way a good deal of the time, but there should be moments when we deliberately try to draw meaning out of particular incidents and experiences. This requires a pause… (Greene, 1984, p. 55).

That taking ‘a pause’ and trying to make sense of our work is a key aspect of our professionalism. We suggest that all practitioners should adopt an ‘action researcherly disposition’ (see Sullivan et al., 2016) and think about their work in an action researcherly manner. By this, and as described above, we mean, embracing as a way of being: critical reflection on practice; clarifying values and seeing how they might be best lived out in one’s practice; looking for a ‘living contradiction’ (Whitehead, 1989); seeking to enhance practice; planning and taking action; generating a theory from one’s learning and so on (see more in Sullivan et al., 2016).

2.4.1 Enhancing Practice We, therefore, understand the term ‘enhancing practice’ as referring not only to an improvement in practice but also to the gaining of insight into and developing a new understanding of practice. We ask questions like ‘Why do we do what we do?’ as we develop new understandings of our practice, as outlined above. For many teachers, undertaking an action research project can also be about celebrating their own good practice. They, like all action researchers, seek not only to describe their innovative work but also to offer explanations for it in terms of why the work is good and what its purpose is. Whitehead and McNiff (2006) describe this as ‘theorising practice’.

2.4.2 Enhancing Well-Being Engaging in action research tends to be a positive experience for many. As outlined in Mary’s story above, we believe in the importance of teachers/researchers developing

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a sense of autonomy, of taking charge of one’s practice and one’s own learning that feeds and supports their sense of leading a satisfying professional life. We see how action research can enable teachers to see their work with ‘new eyes’ and renewed enthusiasm and to make a difference in the world. Action researchers tend to be optimistic (Brydon-Miller et al., 2003) and to believe in the potential for change, even in difficult circumstances. They tend to support one another, and according to Brydon-Miller et al. (2003), take joy in what they do. We, as authors, agree and have found engaging in self-study action research to be a life-enhancing process. We began as students of action research living theory and members of a group of critical friends, offering feedback and critique to one another as we grappled with the ideas underpinning our research. In the intervening 20 years, we have developed a deep and life-long friendship. We have dedicated over a decade of our lives to encouraging others to try action research living theory and be touched by it, such is our enthusiasm for it. We embrace its life-affirming energy and use our values as the foundations of our everyday work. One of the key elements of a self-study action research project is dialogue. While the initial stages of the project require calm reflection and critical thinking, the teacher/researcher is encouraged from the outset to develop a group of critical friends. These people need to be supportive of the researcher, to be able to question their ideas most stringently and to engage in dialogue with the teacher. Drawing on Bohm (2004) we see dialogue, not only in the clarification of ideas and personal learning, as being hugely influential in the learning of others and as a form of mutual respect. We recognise the importance of dialogue in the areas of creativity and healing/well-being (see Glenn et al., 2017). We acknowledge that engaging in research and reflection on one’s practice can cause a teacher to unearth and focus on painful thoughts and feelings too. The sharing of both positive and negative feelings around practice is part of the dialogical process and expressing them to a critical friend can be an empowering experience. We have said: ‘We may not have found a solution to our problems or an antidote to any hurt we may have experienced, but we found solace in the process of sharing our struggles with others who listened with compassion…’ (Glenn et al., 2017, p. 20). We recommend engaging in dialogue around our concerns, not only to illuminate our practice but also to ease stress, to a certain extent, at least.

2.4.3 Critical Reflection as an Essential Aspect of Self-Study Action Research One of the key aspects of self-study action research is engaging in reflection, specifically critical reflection. When we talk about reflection, we perceive reflection to mean taking a pause, as advised by Greene (1984) above, putting a quiet time aside every day and thinking calmly about the day’s work. We suggest that you not only think about your work but that you write down your reflections in a journal. We engage in reflection-in-practice and reflection-on-practice as outlined by Schon ¨ (1985) and jot

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aide-memoir notes during the school day to remind us of the key events of the day. It is important not only to write an account of events but to write our reflections on the events also. We also like to revisit these reflections at a later time, examine them critically and write down any new insights we might have on revisiting them (For more details about this process, check Sullivan et al., 2016). All of these activities are not only part of the reconnaissance phase of a self-study action research cycle, as we prepare to take action, but also form the basis for our everyday practice as action researchers and living theorists. We also advocate engaging in critical reflection (Brookfield, 2017) as outlined above. Brookfield says that critical reflection is ‘the sustained and intentional process of identifying and checking the accuracy and validity of our teaching assumptions’ (2017, p. 3). He suggests that we can scrutinise our teaching assumptions by using four sets of lenses to assist us. These are the lenses of our students’ eyes; colleagues’ perceptions; our personal experience as well as the lens of theory and research. Engaging in a critical manner with our practice, in the manner outlined by Brookfield (2017), Schon ¨ (1985) and others can help us to locate areas of our practice that show we are working well—or not. We draw on our values, as outlined above, and check to see if we are embracing them and enacting them in our practice—or not. We collate data to examine if and how we are living in the direction of our values and frequently, we celebrate our work and share our emergent theory with others. We tell the story of our learning and generate theory from it (see McDonagh et al., 2012).

2.4.4 Critical Reflection Challenging Well-Being We generally associate well-being with positive mental health and as an encompassing aspect of emotional (affect/feeling), psychological (positive functioning), social (relations with others in society), physical (physical health) and spiritual (sense of meaning and purpose in life) well-being (Barry & Friedli, 2008). Engaging in critical reflection assumes that you problematise and question all your assumptions—including those assumptions you might hold around well-being. If we are to undertake self-study action research with integrity, we must ask hard questions and be prepared for difficult answers as well as unpleasant side effects. We may discover things about ourselves (and others) that can become quite challenging to our equilibrium and our well-being. As Brookfield (2017) suggests, life can become quite complicated when you start seeing your practice through multiple lenses. He warns readers that in the process of engaging in critical reflection, it can be upsetting to see that you have been teaching in fairly uncritical manner; been blind to power dynamics; discover that some problems are actually unsolvable; and that you need to call people in power to task for their ideas and behaviours, among other discoveries. Being aware of the risks we take as action researchers who engage in critical reflection helps us ‘to negotiate them’, according to Brookfield (p. 226). He suggests that impostership (the sense that you are attempting to look as though you know more than you do), cultural suicide (unknowingly alienating colleagues by being

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overwhelmingly enthusiastic), lost innocence (letting go of the belief that teaching is a gentle calm profession and that rarely are there nice neat solutions to problems) and marginalisation (when becoming more of an activist leads into conflict with institutional norms) are among the biggest risks for teachers who engage in critical reflection. While many critically reflective practitioners never encounter these risks, it is important to be aware of them and of the difficulties that might arise in the process of undertaking action research. We have found that the support we receive and give to fellow action researchers, especially through dialogue, goes quite a long way in building our resilience against these, and other, difficulties but cannot, of course, make them disappear entirely.

2.5 The Significance of Participatory Enquiry and Action Research for Well-Being Caitriona considers the significance of the ideas discussed so far in this chapter and in particular how participatory enquiry and action research can influence teacher resilience, relational learning and educational leadership. The significance of these concepts is that they can be shown to contribute to well-being. She makes the case that teacher resilience can contribute to well-being at a personal level; that relational learning can contribute to well-being at a professional level, and that teacher empowerment towards educational leadership can contribute to well-being at a political level. Building on the ideas of Bernie, Mary and Máirín she offers examples from the literature and our various work settings.

2.5.1 Significance for Teacher Resilience Earlier in this chapter, we have mentioned resilience. In Sect. 2.2.4, Bernie, quoting Grant et al. (2009), recounted the potential of coaching to enhance resilience and lead to increased well-being. In Sect. 2.4.4., Máirín links resilience to the critically reflective stance of practitioners undertaking research. She tells how we have found that the support we receive and give to fellow action researchers, especially through dialogue, goes a long way in building resilience. There is a broad consensus among other authors that teacher resilience happens when a teacher adapts positively to an adverse situation. In this section of the chapter, we are reviewing the importance of participatory enquiry and action research in supporting teachers to adapt positively to adverse situations in which they find themselves, in particular, situations where their educational values are challenged. Internationally, the influence of participatory enquiry and action research on teacher resilience has been well documented. In South Africa, for example, teachers

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are being equipped with a sustainable capacity to conduct participatory action learning and action research (PALAR) to enhance their ability to identify and address contextual psychosocial challenges and to promote wellness (Setlhare et al., 2016). Briganti (2018) narrates how action research led her on a journey of personal and professional growth as a development worker engaged with gender inequalities in Ethiopia. The Ethiopian women influence her practice and shape her view of development, sustainability and gender, in ways that enhance her own well-being by developing a living theory which reconciles her values and the inequalities of the world in which she works. Resilience research is available in journals such as the Journal of Educational Action Research, Educational Journal of Living theories, Journal of Transformative Education and these contain many articles from across the world which link participatory enquiry and action research to well-being (Brendel & Cornett-Murtada, 2018; Dyke & Hutchison, 2017; Quillinan et al., 2018; Rawal, 2018; Schenkels & Jacobs, 2018; Thamsanqa Gumede, 2018; Williams, 2018). Both participatory enquiry and action research approaches have at their heart evaluation and self-appraisal. Clarà (2017) takes a bird’s eye view of teacher resilience, arguing how appraisals of teachers ‘could be a powerful tool for the development of the teacher workforce and improving teachers’ well-being and retention rates’ (p. 90). He (Clarà, 2017, p. 82) suggests that our thinking needs to be guided by those teachers who, despite ‘dissatisfaction and burnout due to difficult work conditions, including pupils’ behavioural problems, fast-paced, continuous changes in the education system and high accountability pressure (Skaalvik & Skaalvik, 2011; Struyven & Vanthournout, 2014)’, stay with commitment and emotional and psychological equilibrium and well-being (Johnson et al., 2014; Mansfield et al., 2016). Clarà’s (2017) study, which involved deep analyses of interviews, articulates how the processes of conducting a participatory enquiry and action research can contribute to resilience and contribute to the well-being of teacher-researchers. He explains this process in three phases. First, there is a descriptive level where teachers’ appraisals of their work are dominated by a core contradiction. As teachers take actions to address this, further contradictions emerge. He calls this second or intermediate phase a modal or rebalancing arrangement. In their appraisal of this phase, teachers try to make meaning out of what is happening, and consequently, their resilience is brought to the fore. This search for new meaning and understanding of their work generates a new appraisal by the teachers. This third, or restoration stage, is a deep level in a resilience process. Clarà (2017, p. 88) reports an example of this is how a teacher ‘transformed the meaning of her appraisal and regained her well-being, her psychological equilibrium and a sense of efficacy in her work’. There follows a personal example of the relationship between action research and resilience enhancement (McDonagh & Sullivan, 2017). Our sense of well-being came from recognising our capacity to be effective agents of change while we were supporting teachers conducting research in their practice. The core contradiction we experienced was related to the current increase in mandatory action research within many pre-teacher and professional development courses which have led to a focus on numerical assessment tools for practice actions (Efron & Ravid, 2013; Gov.UK, STA, 2018; Ireland, Department of Education and Skills, 2017). Working within

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this context of mandatory action research on practice there was a clash between our personal understanding of knowledge creation and that of knowledge creation as the establishment of a definitive truth or truths. We believe ‘in valuing teachers’ professional knowledge, whether content-knowledge, experiential knowledge or pedagogical knowledge and in inclusiveness and openness to the sharing of knowledge’ (McDonagh & Sullivan, 2017, p. 30). We attempted to rebalance this frustrating situation. In order to illustrate the development of changes in our practice, we drew on practical examples of how we worked, as course designers, facilitators and supervisors, with various cohorts of teacher-researchers. How the collaboration that we facilitated and supported enabled both ourselves and participants to create new professional knowledge is evident in the videos of our participants (see McDonagh & Sullivan, 2017). In the resilience restoration phase, we found ways to articulate and appreciate professional knowledge that went beyond curriculum knowledge and professional skills to embrace the professional integrity and the experiential knowledge of both ourselves and the educators with whom we worked. The dialogue that occurred within the research process challenged, clarified and made public, our tacit personal and professional knowledge. Our dialogue went ‘beyond what Shulman (1999) describes as the scaffolding of our personal learning, and is ‘a source of others’ learning, a form of mutual respect for each other’s knowledge and a source of healing and wellbeing’ (McDonagh & Sullivan, 2017, p. 38). Like Auger, Menzier-Toman, & Lydon (2017) and Schwarz (2018), our research journey has shown us that researcher resilience comes from investigating an accumulation of events as opposed to a single isolated challenge. Just as the teachers in Clarà’s (2017) project showed that continuous reflection and appraisal to make sense of their situation enhanced their well-being, we have found that our research approach has a crucial role in both researcher and teacher resilience processes. Our personal research example also makes the claim, broadly shared in the field, that social interactions support teacher resilience.

2.5.2 Significance for Relational Learning Well-being is underpinned by the social interactions which contribute to teacher and researcher resilience. Similarly, within the participatory enquiry and action research, such social interactions can also contribute to significant forms of relational learning. We explained this significance in our book Learning Communities in Educational Partnerships: action research as transformation: ‘Taking charge of your own practice, investigating it thoroughly and taking action towards improvement can generate a sense of motivation and positivity that is highly empowering’ (Glenn et al., 2017, p. 32). In 2.2, Bernie quotes Acton and Glasgow’s (2015, p. 5) view that it includes personal professional ‘fulfilment, purposefulness and happiness, constructed in a collaborative process with colleagues and students’. In 2.3, Mary goes on to explain how our ‘enhancing practice’ approach (McDonagh et al., 2020) involves researching

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one’s own practice in a collaborative process with colleagues and students and can ultimately lead to Acton and Glasgow’s (2015) understanding of well-being above. International research links relational learning to well-being. White (2017) offers some strong explanations of why relational learning is so significant. Drawing on empirical research in Zambia and India, she claims that relational well-being is grounded in a relational ontology that can challenge dominant ideologies of the self. This contrasts with much literature and government policies that promote well-being as a sense of personal happiness. We concur with White (2017, p. 133) on the importance of the ‘generative quality of relationality which is critical to societal change and engenders a socially inclusive political vision’. The involvement of multiple parties in the task of learning deconstructs the hierarchy within the traditional teaching relationship and opens space for more collaborative experiences. This change in relationships becomes a challenge for many schools and teachers, as Smyth (2015, pp. 3–4) points out: ‘There is also a large body of international research showing an association between the quality of relationships between teachers and students and a number of student outcomes, including socio-emotional wellbeing, engagement in schoolwork, feeling a sense of belonging in school, levels of disciplinary problems, and academic achievement’. We will now explain our experiences of relational learning and its importance for well-being. Our research suggests that participatory enquiry and action research processes allow for the involvement of multiple parties in the task of learning through research. The relational approaches of these research methodologies lend themselves to the active process of co-constructing knowledge not only in the classroom but outside in the world. Relational learning is complex and can include many forms of learning—spatial learning, episodic learning, emotional learning, habit learning and observational learning. We have found that teachers say that our approach to research in which they critique their practice and understanding of their practice supports them in challenging a neoliberal agenda towards education for emancipation. Below is an example of what that looked like. We wrote about researchers and teachers with whom we worked in ‘Learning Communities in Educational Partnerships’ (Glenn et al., 2017). They stated that they had not previously undertaken continuous professional learning programmes to deepen their understanding of their practice. And ‘now that they had—they were hooked’ (Glenn et al., 2017, p. 147). Our Network of Educational Action Research Ireland (NEARI) provided them with a democratic space, where, at its face-toface meetings, participants chose themes upon which they wished to have further discussion. Those themes indicate a broad range of deep professional learning about research and about practice. Some recent themes included values and purpose in education; navigating supervision across multiple perspectives; validity in educational action research; how might teachers investigate their practice (See www. eari.ie). The inputs at these sessions came from a wide variety of practitioners including newly qualified teachers, principals, postgraduates, doctoral students and postdoctoral practitioner-researchers. The inputs and critical discussions on the themes above continued both online and face to face and led participants to question ideas such as reproductive schooling

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for the maintenance of the status quo and conformity within a culture that rarely questions itself. Like Mooney Simmie and Moles’ (2011) description of productive mentoring, our NEARI members ‘have remained acutely conscious of the struggle to retain this conception of education as a human liberating force against the backdrop of a reductionist agenda sweeping the education world with its focus on outcomes and external modes of accountability’ (pp. 470–471). The significance of relational learning for both researchers and teachers is that the methodologies we discuss ensure that they have a ‘deep conceptual understanding of well-being and are confident in using the pedagogical approaches that are known to support and build students’ well-being. This is important because their personal understanding and values influence how they care for their own well-being and that of their students’ (NCCA, 2017, p. 29). Palmer (2007, p. 15) says that ‘we teach who we are’. A key significance for well-being of participatory enquiry and action research methodologies is that they enable the researcher/practitioner to understand who we are as we engage in relational learning.

2.5.3 Significance for Educational Leadership Those who engage in participatory enquiry and action research come to understand that education is a transformative journey. Their research projects set them up as leaders of learning within their own setting. The significance of leading learning is that it encourages them to take a leadership role in education, possibly as a department head, a leader in the professional development of others or as a school head. Earlier in this chapter, in 2.2 Bernie spoke of the premise that, ultimately, happy teachers create a happy school, leading to a positive teaching and learning environment. Mary’s personal illustration of how researching her own practice in a collaborative process with colleagues and students ultimately led to personal professional fulfilment, professional satisfaction and purposefulness (Acton & Glasgow, 2015). Her processes of taking action to change led to transformation at a personal as well as a professional level. So, as we have said, these methodologies lead to transformation and many encourage researchers to engage in leadership roles. The literature offers multiple perspectives on leadership models and types. They range from models of distributed (Hairon & Goh, 2015) to democratic leadership (Lumby, 2013) and from transformational (Avci, 2015) to transformative leadership (Van Oord, 2013). Personal leadership capabilities are gleaned from the sense of professional well-being that is generated when conducting the participatory enquiry and action research. In addition, those studying and theorising their practice through these methodologies gained a degree of confidence in thinking about and discussing teacher leadership (Struyve et al., 2014), student leadership (Fielding, 2015) and systemic types of leadership. They have engaged with theory in education. They understand the work of both teachers and leaders as intellectual work—an applied intellectual activity. For example, just as their classroom-based research projects

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have focused on building student capacities, they will understand teacher leadership as building leadership capacity among colleagues and other teachers. They are also living and upholding the importance of solid theoretical foundations as key to effecting real, sustainable change (Gunter, 2010). Participatory enquiry and action research offer practitioners a sense of well-being as they come to understand those theoretical foundations. The critical studies that they engage in provide them with the language and conceptual tools to confidently question their settings. Their questioning takes place alongside others and involves relational learning. Researchers’ and teachers’ journeys to address their questions can be disturbing and disrupting at times, but their resilience, as explained above, enables them to rebalance and restore their sense of well-being. Those conducting participatory enquiry and action research become what Gramsci (1971) calls organic intellectuals, who not just seek to understand what is known but will also seek to challenge and transform it. Finally, evidence of the greatest significance of participatory enquiry and action research for well-being is clear in what can be called emotional leadership. All leadership has emotional aspects. This includes constantly managing the leader’s own emotions as well as managing the emotions of others. In a role as school head, these others might include staff, pupils, parents and all stakeholders. Berkovich and Eyal (2015), in drawing together research into emotional leadership, offer four specific concepts. I believe that all of these are linked to the well-being possibilities in participatory enquiry and action research. First, leadership is about ‘the desire to make a difference’, but ‘leadership is equally about fear of failure, pain, exhaustion... and guilt associated with the ethical dilemmas that leaders confront on a daily basis’ (Blackmore, 2010, p. 642). I consider that the resilience developed through the methodologies described in this chapter will enhance would-be leaders. Second, leaders’ behaviours affect the emotions of the actors (e.g. teachers) who interact with those leaders (Leithwood et al., 2008). Relational learning, as explained earlier, can help would-be leaders, to experience ‘positive moods and display those moods to followers (Gooty et al., 2010, p. 991). They also say that ‘both emotions fully mediated the relationship of transformative leadership to follower performance’ (Gooty et al., 2010, p. 992). Relational learning experiences can lead to positive emotions which are linked to favourable leadership behaviours like transformational and supportive leadership. Third, leaders’ affective abilities are precursors of their emotions and behaviours and, as such, of desired work outcomes. Having conducted participatory enquiry and action research, would-be leaders will conduct themselves more adaptively and effectively. Fourth, educational leaders’ emotions may also be influenced by macro factors that in recent years have been causing educational administration work to become more conflicted, complex, and political (Schmidt, 2010). The confidence and critical analysis that teachers have used in participatory enquiry and action research allow them to examine and critique such neoliberal agendas.

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2.6 Conclusion: Hegemony and Well-Being It would be unfair to write this chapter on action research for well-being without reflecting critically about well-being itself and the assumptions that we make about its role in education. Engaging in critical reflection enables us to discover practices that are hegemonic. When we talk about ‘hegemony’ (Gramsci, 1971), we are drawing on the inherently paradoxical idea of people accepting and embracing activities and ideas that are harmful to them while perceiving that they are good for them. Brookfield (2017, p. 16) explains hegemony as ‘the process whereby ideas, structures and actions that benefit a small minority in power are viewed by the majority of people as wholly natural, preordained, and working for their own good’. He reminds us that people frequently take pride in hegemonic practices without realising that they exist or do damage. One example of this is the idea that teachers should give all of their time and energy, as well as hours after school, to their work is one that prevails in many schools. Contrary to beliefs held by many around teaching being a vocation, Brookfield (2017) claims that the concept that teachers strive to ideals such as perfect attendance, being the first into school and the last to leave, taking on extra chores, and so on are embedded in a hegemony few can see. Anyone outside the school system can tell that devoting huge chunks of time to work outside of work hours has to have negative implications for one’s health and well-being. Brookfield warns that ‘With teachers, hegemonic assumptions about what makes them good or what represents best practice serve the interests of groups that have little concern for teachers’ mental or physical health’ (2017, p.17). It is accepted that a culture of excellence, and expectations of excellence, permeates all aspects of teachers’ lives now, but we need to pause and wonder about the cost of such excellence to teachers’ health, to students’ health and to the health and well-being of parents and the wider community. The high rate of teacher attrition is well documented both in the media and academic research and is linked in many cases with curriculum-overload resulting in poor physical and mental health (Acton & Glasgow, 2015). Therefore, we must question if the current emphasis on well-being is coming from a sense of integrity and care from our governments or is it in fact a boxticking exercise to show that something is ‘being done’ about the high levels of poor physical and mental health that are now so common. There is much anecdotal evidence at an informal level around the sense of exhaustion teachers experience as a result of implementing intensive well-being programmes. We have to ask if some well-being programmes are nothing more than an effort to address well-being through statistics so as to meet expected rankings and competitive comparisons— both nationally and internationally. Couture (2018) is highly critical of the OECD Framework for Measuring Well-Being and Progress. He suggests that the application of global benchmarking to well-being is evidence of the globalising of education policy. Couture also implies that global benchmarking of well-being leads to the measuring of health-inequalities that locates students in a deficit model by implying and deducing that they lack the social qualities needed to succeed, and reporting

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gaps in wellness as a form of student incompetency. He suggests that such largescale metrics can risk student well-being and reminds us that schools cannot promote well-being for students unless the educators themselves are psychologically healthy. Couture claims that educators are under pressure to ‘keep pace with this measurement imperative’ (2018, p. 37) and the professional expectations that are thrust upon teachers are health-threatening. The link between well-being and academic outcomes is noted also by Slemp, Chin, Kern, Siokou, Loton, Oades, Vella-Brodrick, & Waters, (2017). Similarly, Penny (2016) echoes these sentiments and goes so far as to ask if the positive thinking that is embedded in the well-being movement can actually be bad for one’s health. Our own experiences within teacher education programmes would indicate that many teachers feel overwhelmed by the pressure and expectations to maintain well-being programmes for their students. However, in our discussions around well-being, we authors always promote and support ways of being that promote good physical, emotional, social, psychological and spiritual health and, as outlined earlier, we see a direct connection between selfstudy action research and well-being. As part of the integrity of our engagement with critical reflection, we know that we may unearth less palatable truths in the process—like those suggested above. As practitioner-researchers, we have to decide if, and how we can respond to these realisations and act upon them. We believe that it is important to develop a critical awareness of our work practices as Brookfield (2017) suggests, not only in terms of practical issues but also in terms of power and hegemony. When we discover hegemony in our classrooms, we learn how to push back ‘against this exploitation by changing structures and alerting others to its presence’ (ibid. p. 9). We believe that we become stronger, healthier practitioners when we: reflect on our work; think critically about it; are aware of the assumptions we make; uncover practices that are hegemonic and take appropriate, healthy actions to live our lives in harmony with our values and the essence of our being. A possible alternative response to hegemony, and to the top-down pressures on teachers and staff in schools, has been put forward in this chapter. We have engaged with professional empowerment through situated learning within a selfstudy action research approach. Mary and Máirín examined this at personal and professional levels. Caitriona focused on pedagogical and political levels by including the concept of research empowerment through relational learning, where research is not conducted in isolation but in conjunction with students and colleagues. We have suggested that teachers working together collaboratively and cooperatively can contribute to the dissipation of hegemonic power conflicts and, through a valuesbased approach to enhancing their practice, can achieve a comfortable and sustainable level of well-being.

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Owen, S. (2016). Professional learning communities: Building skills, reinvigorating the passion, and nurturing teacher wellbeing and ‘flourishing’ within significantly innovative schooling contexts. Educational Review, 68(4), 403–419 Palmer, P. J. (2007). The courage to teach: Exploring the inner landscape of a teacher’s life. (10th ed.). Jossey-Bass. Penny, L. (2016). ‘Life-Hacks of the Poor and Aimless’. The Baffler. Retrieved July, 2016–January 11, 2019, from https://thebaffler.com/war-of-nerves/laurie-penny-self-care. Quillinan, B., MacPhail, A., Dempsey, C., & McEvoy, E. (2018). Transformative teaching and learning through engaged practice: lecturers’ and students’ experiences in a university and underserved community partnership in Ireland. Journal of Transformative Education, 17(3), 228–250 Rawal, S. (2018). An interface: How do I overcome challenges to justify and communicate claims to my educational knowledge and the educational influence of my practice? Educational Journal of Living Theories, 11(2), 65–89 Roche, M. (2007). Towards a living theory of caring pedagogy: Interrogating my practice to nurture a critical, emancipatory and just community of enquiry, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Limerick. Retrieved January 11, 2019, from https://www.eari.ie/research-and-publications/maryroches-phd-thesis/. Roche, M. (2010). Critical Thinking and Book Talk: Using picturebooks to promote discussion and critical thinking in the classroom. Reading News (Conference Edition). Dublin. Reading Association of Ireland. Autumn 2010. Roche, M. (2015). Developing children’s critical thinking through picturebooks. Routledge. Schenkels, A., & Jacobs, G. (2018). Designing the plane while flying it: Concept co-construction in a collaborative action research project. Educational Action Research, 26(5), 697–715 Slemp, G. R., Chin, T. C., Kern, M. L., Siokou, C., Loton, D., Oades, L. G., Vella-Brodrick, D., & Waters, L. (2017). Positive education in Australia: Practice, measurement, and future directions. In E. Fryenberg, A. J. Martin, & R. J. Collie (Eds.), Social and emotional learning in Australia and the Asia Pacific. (pp. 101–122). Springer. Schön, D. A. (1995). Knowing-In-Action: The New Scholarship Requires a New Epistemology. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 27(6)27–34. https://doi.org/10.1080/00091383. 1995.10544673. Schmidt, M. J. (2010). Is there a place for emotions within leadership preparation programmes? Journal of Educational Administration, 48, 626–641 Schwarz, S. (2018). Resilience in psychology: A critical analysis of the concept. Theory & Psychology, 28(4), 528–541 Setlhare, R., Wood, L., & Meyer, L. (2016). Collaborated understandings of context-specific psychosocial challenges facing South African School learners: A participatory approach. Educational Research for Social Change; Port Elizabeth, 5(2), 18–34. Skaalvik, E. M., & Skaalvik, S. (2011). Teacher job satisfaction and motivation to leave the teaching profession: Relations with school context, feeling of belonging, and emotional exhaustion. Teaching and Teacher Education, 27, 1029–1038. Smyth, E. (2015). Learning in focus: Wellbeing and school experiences among 9–13-year-olds: Insights from the growing up in Ireland study, Ireland: ESRI the Economic and Social Research Institute/NCCA National Council for Curriculum and Assessment. Soini, T., Pyhältö, K., & Pietarinen, J. (2010). Pedagogical well-being: Reflecting learning and well-being in teachers’ work. Teachers and Teaching, 16(6), 735–751 Somekh, B. (2011). Localisation or globalisation? The dynamic variations of action research. In N. Mockler & J. Sachs (Eds.), Rethinking educational practice through reflexive inquiry, (pp. 31–48). London: Springer. Spilt, J., Koomen, H., & Thijs, J. (2011). Teacher wellbeing: The importance of teacher-student relationships. Educational Psychology Review, 23, 457–477 Steffi, B. E., Wolfe, M. E., Pasch, S. & Enz, B. J. (Eds.). (2000). Life cycle of the career teacher. Thousand Oaks CA: Corwin Press.

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Steffi, B. E. & Wolfe, M. P. (2001). A life cycle model for career teachers. Kappa Delta Pi Record, 38(1), 16–19. Stringer, E. (2014). Action research. (4th ed.). Sage. Struyve, C., Meredith, C. & Gielen, S. (2014). Who am I and where do I belong? The perception and evaluation of teacher leaders concerning teacher leadership practices and micropolitics in schools. Journal of Education Change, 15, 203–230. Struyven, K., & Vanthournout, G. (2014). Teachers’ exit decisions: An investigation into the reasons why newly qualified teachers fail to enter the teaching profession or why those who do enter do not continue teaching. Teaching & Teacher Education, 43, 37–45. Sullivan, B., Glenn, M., Roche, M., & McDonagh, C. (2016). Introduction to critical reflection and action for teacher researchers. Routledge. Teaching Council of Ireland. (2016a). Cosán Framework for Teachers’ Learning, Maynooth:Teaching Council. Teaching Council of Ireland. (2016b). The code of professional conduct for teachers, 2nd ed., Maynooth: Teaching Council. Thamsanqa Gumede, J. (2018). Reflections on the development of a black African male educator and gifts of doctoral thesis writing. Educational Journal of Living Theories, 11(1), 1–22. Retrieved January 11, 2019 from https://othmarstrombone.wordpress.com/2017/10/07/teachingif-you-arent-dead-yet-you-arent-doing-it-well-enough/. Tobin, K. (2017). Researching Mindfulness and Wellbeing. In M. Powietrzy´nska & K. Tobin (Eds.), Weaving complementary knowledge systems and mindfulness to educate a literate citizenry for sustainable and healthy lives. (pp. 1–18). Sense Publishers. Uitto, M. (2012). Behind every profession is a person: Students’ written memories of their own teacher-student relationships. Teaching and Teacher Education, 28, 293–301 Van Oord, L. (2013). Towards transformative leadership in education. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 16(4), 419–434 White, S. C. (2017). Relational wellbeing: Re-centring the politics of happiness, policy and the self. Policy & Politics, 45(2), 121–136 Whitehead, J. (1989). Creating a living educational theory from questions of the kind, ‘How do I improve my Practice?’ Cambridge Journal of Education 19(1), 137–153. https://www.actionres earch.net/writings/livtheory.html. Whitehead, J. (2000). How do I Improve My Practice? Creating and Legitimating an Epistemology of Practice, Reflective Practice, 1(1), 91–104 Whitehead, J. (2018). Living Theory research as a Way of Life. Bath: Brown Dog Books. Retrieved 31 January 2021 from https://ejolts.net/files/346.pdf. Whitehead, J., & McNiff, J. (2006). Action research: Living theory. Sage. Wilcox, S., Watson, J., & Patterson, M. (2004). Self-Study in Professional Practice. In J. J. Loughran, M. L. Hamilton, V. K. La Boskey, & T. Russell (Eds.), International handbook of self-study of teaching and teacher education practices. (Vol. 1, pp. 273–312). Kluwer Academic Publishers. Williams, L. (2018). Transformative sustainability education and empowerment practice on indigenous lands: part one. Journal of Transformative Education, 16(4), 344–364. Zeichner, K. (2015). How teacher education can contribute to social transformation and greater justice. keynote address, SCoTENS Conference, Teacher Education for Social Justice, Limerick: Strand Hotel. Retrieved October, 15–16.

Bernie Sullivan is a retired primary school principal in Ireland. She has been a committed practitioner researcher for many years, with a particular interest in social justice, inclusion and equity. Dr. Sullivan has co-authored four books on the theme of self-study action research, including Introduction to Critical Reflection and Action for Teacher Resrearchers (2016). Currently, she lectures on a M.Ed. programme and is a tutor on a Postgraduate Diploma in School Leadership. She is a reviewer for the online journal Educational Journal of Living Theories (EJOLTS), and is a co-founder of Network for Educational Action Research in Ireland (NEARI).

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Mary Roche lectured in teacher education, both primary and post-primary, and is now a tutor in the School of Education, University College Cork, Ireland. An education consultant and school adviser, Dr. Roche is a co-convenor of Network for Educational Action Research in Ireland (NEARI) and co-author of several books on action research. Mary’s ‘Critical Thinking and Book Talk’ (CT&BT) approach, developed during her many years of research while a primary teacher, has been adopted by the National Council Curriculum Assessment Ireland. (NCCA). Mary is author of Developing Children’s Critical Thinking through Picturebooks (Routledge 2015). Máirín Glenn has worked as a primary school teacher for most of her life. She also is a tutor on post-graduate programmes in teacher education in Ireland. Máirín is passionate about selfstudy action research. She is convinced of its transformational power, not only to enhance practice but also to promote social justice. Dr. Glenn has co-authored four books on the topic including Learning Communities in Educational Partnerships: Action Research as Transformation (2017). Máirín is a member of the Editorial Board of Educational Journal of Living Theories (EJOLTSs) and is a co-founder of the Network for Educational Action Research in Ireland (NEARI) group (see www.eari.ie). Caitriona McDonagh was a primary school teacher-researcher in Ireland who examined how her teaching might best enable those with special education needs to realise their potentials. She is a co-author of four books about critical reflection and action research, including Enhancing Practice through Action Research: A Teacher’s Guide to Professional Development (2020), 2nd ed. Currently Dr. McDonagh is an education consultant, a lecturer on a M.Ed. programme and a tutor on a Postgraduate Diploma in School Leadership. She is also a reviewer for the Educational Journal of Living Theories (EJOLTS) and a co-founder of the Network for Educational Action Research in Ireland (NEARI).

Chapter 3

The Care/Justice Relation in Teachers’ and Students’ Well-Being Maeve O’Brien

Abstract This chapter explores the relationship between two different frames for human flourishing and well-being in the context of education and pedagogy, broadly what might be called care relations on the one hand, and social justice approaches on the other. I argue that these approaches work powerfully in education when in close dialogue with each other, in their common purpose to challenge injustice and oppression, and to foster and prioritise human flourishing. However, the balancing process across these perspectives requires careful attention as we reconceptualise the relationship between the personal and the political, and challenge lingering traditional binaries and their moral frames. I argue that a hybrid relational approach that constitutes both care and justice perspectives can open space, particularly in teacher education, for embodied practices that go beyond teaching about care, justice and well-being, towards a more critical praxis that involves students’ own affective and critical engagement for well-being. This praxis is what I call pedagogy of ‘inreach and outreach’. The great challenge of this pedagogic approach lies in seeing teacher and student well-being as inherently relational, as open to human vulnerability, and for a need for compassionate love. Keywords Care · Social justice · Well-being · Embodied praxis

3.1 Introduction In this chapter, I explore the relationship between two different frames for human flourishing and well-being in the context of education and pedagogy, broadly what might be called care relations on the one hand, and social justice approaches on the other. These traditions and approaches may be understood in relationship or indeed in tension with each other, as between social and outward-focused justice perspectives, and what are considered more inward and personal caring approaches to well-being and development. While recognising that these orientations have evolved M. O’Brien (B) School of Human Development, Institute of Education, Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 T. R. N. Murphy and P. Mannix-McNamara (eds.), International Perspectives on Teacher Well-Being and Diversity, Understanding Teaching-Learning Practice, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-1699-0_3

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from different disciplines or within specific political frames of reference, following Gilligan (1981), I argue that they work powerfully as educational approaches and principles, when in close dialogue with each other, in their common mission to challenge injustice and oppression, and to foster and prioritise human flourishing. In other words, the chapter articulates the justice/care relationship as a movement across these perspectives through a pedagogy of ‘inreach and outreach’. This re-framing or dynamic model can, I suggest, help us explore and understand the relation between (in)equality, (in)justice in the social contexts of life and also care and concern for well/ill-being at the level of the self and of the other. In the context of COVID 19 which has emerged since I first wrote this chapter, the balance of concern for both the collective and for the personal is deeply challenging and relevant, and so I consider with seriousness at this time the relation and tension between the inner and outer, the self and the world (Freire, 1970) in the context of teachers’ and students’ work and experiences. To achieve a dialogue and synthesis across these different perspectives and traditions I am mining rich seams of feminist and critical scholarship to address the problem of how education can transform us at a deeply personal level, and make a difference to the world and to global injustice (Apple, 2011; Freire, 1970; Noddings, 2012; Zembylas, 2017). Because education is a developmental process that is deeply relational, I am concerned with approaches that take seriously the person of the teacher and their own well-being in order to support the well-being of young people they work with, and also the well-being/welfare of those others beyond their immediate sphere of action. However, the balancing process across these perspectives requires careful attention as we reconceptualise the relationship between the personal and the political, and challenge lingering traditional binaries and their moral frames. A new hybrid framework that can hold both these perspectives, despite their seeming tensions, will provide possibilities to open up new pedagogic spaces of love, care, justice and well-being across education. My interest in this problem is not just academic or recent, but one that goes back to my own biography as a teacher, and in terms of praxis, to my years as a beginning primary school teacher in Dublin’s inner-city during the heroin epidemic and economic recession of the 1980s, and subsequently as a home/school community liaison co-ordinator throughout the 90s. My subsequent move to the world of research and initial teacher education has only deepened my determination to understand and articulate more clearly the significance of the personal, and of embodied affect, to real education as human development, and to find creative ways to teach for equality and justice. The chapter is structured in four parts. In the first section, I briefly discuss some of my own work with colleagues as we endeavour to articulate an interdisciplinary perspective on human well-being in education that combines the social/welfarist concerns for flourishing with the more personal and subjective ways we feel and understand well-being (O’Brien & O’Shea, 2017). This lays the ground for the next section, where again, moving between the subjective and the social, I explore the care/justice debates that have already been well rehearsed. I include a summary and critique of more recent work on the role of love in revolutionary education

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(Lanas & Zembylas, 2015) and introduce the concept of critical contemplative pedagogy (Kaufman, 2017). I argue that a hybrid relational approach that constitutes both care and justice perspectives can open space, particularly in teacher education, for embodied practices that go beyond teaching about care, justice and wellbeing towards a more critical praxis that involves students’ own affective and critical engagement for well-being. This praxis is what I call pedagogy of ‘inreach and outreach’. The third section briefly describes the implementation of a pedagogy of relationship and care for well-being with final year teacher education students and the learning from that project over a 3-year period. The final section reflects on the arguments for a more embodied and reflective approach to an ethics of justice and a social justice curriculum, to go beyond what Freire has called mere ‘verbalism’ and to put the human embodied subject at the centre of justice education.

3.2 Well-Being and Education Today, Pressures and Challenges The challenge when speaking of well-being and education today lies in the problem of perspective and of explicitly articulating what kind of well-being we are talking about. As educators, there are often assumptions at work that we are all on the same page and agree on what constitutes well-being in some normative fashion. Writing with my colleague (O’Brien & O’Shea, 2018) in the context of SPHE (Social, Personal and Health Education), we argue that it is necessary to acknowledge the tensions and diverse approaches to well-being and how we then navigate these with our students so as to support their own well-being in their communities and society: It is because human well-being involves contested views of the human and of development, that it requires us as educators to navigate a well-being approach with our students that has meaning and relevance for them as individuals, but also within the collective and larger context of society of history and a globalised world. One positive way of confronting this challenge is through understanding different ways of, or methodologies for, studying human reality. (ibid, p. 6).

From our own experiences working across the disciplines of philosophy, psychology and sociology and in a field we call Human Development and as initial teacher educators, we have developed an approach to educating for and about wellbeing for teachers and students in second-level schools in Ireland (O’Brien & O’Shea, 2017). Building on our work as critical educators and with a strong commitment to equality and development, our approach to well-being has its roots in the work of Freire, feminist care theory (Gilligan, 1981; Noddings, 2003; 2013) and an ethic of concern and questions of moral orientation and identity (Taylor, 1994). In this interdisciplinary model, we acknowledge the complexity and slipperiness around

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the concept of well-being and the attendant challenges of translating teaching about well-being into being well.1 One of the greatest challenges in thinking about and teaching for well-being is that it cannot be understood as something fixed or approached in a neutral fashion; the values we hold most strongly and the ways we come to understand human flourishing affect our well-being understandings as educators and our well-being pedagogies. In grappling with the challenge of values we realise that we cannot universally teach for well-being. For example, the Human Development PSP (psychology, sociology and philosophy) approach (O’Brien & O’Shea, 2017) attempts to work with the problem of perspectives and values, and to triangulate on the concept as it draws from these disciplines and their particular understandings of what it means to be human, to develop and flourish. So for example, positive psychology powerfully shapes the field of subjective well-being (SWB) and it offers a particular view on this, sociological and equality/welfare approaches contribute to the conceptualisation of ‘welfare wellbeing’, and various philosophical ideas, particularly ideas of the ‘good life’ and the ‘life well lived’ help to critique and reflect on what being well means. By working at a meta-level and critique of each field /discipline and its various methodological approaches to the problem of well-being in particular contexts and more universally, we can find various pathways or spaces through the layered and complex terrain of well-being, while keeping open ‘the space of values’.2 This is a crucial matter for teachers as they work with children and families with diverse values that may be quite different from those values they hold themselves.

3.2.1 Advantages of a Multidisciplinary Approach to Well-Being and Ill-Being For educators, the advantage of working with a multi/interdisciplinary well-being approach is its capacity to deal with the significant issue of ill-being and our own inner challenges and struggles. In the PSP well-being approach, ill-being is not understood or positioned as the opposite of well-being, but as an inalienable aspect of life that has meaning, that reflects our human vulnerability and that plays its own part in our development and well-becoming. This is important because some of the most influential well-being models, especially those strongly influenced by positive psychology, may have a positivity bias which can place an overemphasis on positive behaviour, being positive and managing positive feelings to the detriment of authentic feeling and human experience. For teachers and students, this bias creates barriers to an individual’s development. Increasingly, within neo-liberal and highly individualised contexts, we are expected to be consistently happy and well, and moreover, seen to be solely responsible for being well and happy. This means that 1 See

also Cassidy (2018) “Wellbeing, Being Well or Well Becoming” in M. Thornburn ed. Wellbeing, Education and Contemporary Schooling. 2 See A. Sen’s capability Approach 1993.

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failing to be well, happy and successful is seen as our own failure, an idea which can further increase our alienation and devalue our own understandings and authentic experience. Being able to recognise, work through states of unhappiness and illbeing and to be able to articulate these types of challenges is essential to our full development as persons and also for the development of fair and just societies. However, displaying or drawing attention to a state of ill-being within educational institutions that are framed by neo-liberal values and practices can be a risky business. Social theorists have shed light on how our common anxieties in the developed West emanate not from only our individual psychology but are also located in our experiences of rapid change and uncertainty in the contexts of the economic, the political, and the social. Ulrich Beck has theorised the concept of ‘risk society’ (1992) and our mounting fear of the future and of catastrophe that we cannot control as individualised dislocated actors. Riskiness and attendant anxiety was also theorised by the late Bauman (2004) and his analysis of the divorce between politics and power in the context of fast capitalism and of the ubiquity of social media suggests a mounting fear that ‘no one is in control’ (which leads to not just anxiety but violence and reaction formation). Such fears and anxieties shape the globalised environment in which educators meet serious challenges as they seek to teach for well-being and social justice. Where fear and persistent uncertainty are the order of the day, classroom teachers have to confront the reality of this affective unsettling environment and find a language and praxis in which they can explore with their students the possibilities for meaning making and an authentic relationship to the world.

3.2.2 The Hollowing Out of Well-Being A further challenge for educators and not unrelated to the globalised world and the power of social media, is the hollowing out of well-being as something of depth or associated with a core self. In this political-cultural space where no one or any governing body is felt to be properly in control, it leaves a gap for other institutions, set of ideas, or individuals to occupy that space. Individuals who are well positioned to grasp this socio-political opportunity may seek to provide what are seemingly tangible solutions or strategies to fix what is wrong, to take care of our well-being, allay our fears and give us respite. This is a real risk for educators concerned with well-being as something of depth, as unique to persons and to particular contexts. It is of particular concern in environments where those suffering gross material inequalities and poverty are blamed and held responsible for their experiences of ill-being, where failure to be well is individualised as a person’s own failure to meet requirements and to be sufficiently resilient. In education, McAllister refers to the fixing and reduction of well-being as something particular and oversimplified as ‘pseudo-well-being’ (ibid, 2018), and he comments how testing and measurement can be easily employed in this reductive version of being well. He argues that increasingly educators are required to focus strongly on examination results as most significant to students’ well-being, because

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this will give them access to the labour market and economic success.3 As educators, we need to have our antennae tuned to identifying those pseudo-well-being policies and practices that mask the realities and challenges that are experienced by children, young people and educators as they seek meaning and strive to flourish. Even the implementation of a well-being curriculum in schools, while laudable, cannot fully solve well-being/welfare issues that young people may encounter in the broader society, e.g. a failed economy and high prospects of joblessness and challenges to find affordable accommodation. Mc Allister’s term ‘pseudo-well-being’ also enables us to discuss the relationship between schooling and performativity in the context of well-being education. He draws our attention to the recent role of the OECD in the promotion of wellbeing education and characterises this impetus as directly related to the promotion of marketable skills and the measurement of such skills and knowledge across students in OECD countries (OECD, 2011). He critiques the direction of well-being education saying: ‘Nussbaum points out, there is more to education than developing marketable skills in the same way that there is more to human well-being than GDP alone. How might teachers in schools support learners to be well then? It is my view that teachers will only help learners to ‘be well’ if both teachers and students are clear what sort of well-being they aspire to achieve’ (Mc Allister, 2018, p. 104). While job success and employment are recognised as important to our welfare, they are only one dimension of what promotes our well-being. Students and teachers when given the opportunity to reflect on their own well-being and what it means to them will articulate a broader and more humanly developed view of wellness. Thus, education for well-being requires a much richer palette than mere performativity or an overemphasis in that direction; one that facilitates unique personal capacity development (see Nussbaum & Sen, 1993a, b) and that takes seriously the matter of meaning making (Seligman, 2011; O’Brien & O’Shea, 2017). The reduction of wellbeing practices and approaches to one dimension (in this case to performance and marketability) only devalues what might be understood as something of significance or depth in terms of human well-being.4 There is no magic bullet or one view of what it is to be well and to live well and this challenge calls on educators to not only understand the debates on well-being but also to be able to understand themselves and their well-being values and orientation before they can work in an explicit way with students for their well-being.

3 The link between educational qualifications and labour market success has now been contested by

Brown, Lauder and Ashton (2010). O’Brien and O’Shea (2017) for a discussion of problems of terminology and devaluing of well-being.

4 See

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3.3 Inward and Outward, Care and Justice Education: Moving On In the previous section, I made some reference to the challenges faced by educators who seek to engage with a depth-perspective on well-being that can support the development of the person and their flourishing and a perspective that also considers the relationship between the person and their own meaning making, and the particular society in which they live. This tension between individual well-being and the well-being of a society or population has been well captured by the care/ justice debates in education over the last decades and particularly in feminist critiques of ‘malestream’ paradigms of development (Gilligan, 1995; Noddings, 1999; Tronto, 2010). In this section, I wish to elaborate the significance of these relational perspectives and the tensions between them as significant aspects of the well-being terrain. In revisiting the care and justice debates in relation to our moral development and well-being, I wish to provide a ‘third way’, a way through old dualisms of self/other and inward/outward that can powerfully shape understandings of well-being, and that can challenge the either /or of these perspectives. Some authors today are critical of what they see as an overemphasis on a justice and human rights perspective in relation to human flourishing.

3.3.1 The Relationship Between Care and Justice for Well-Being Adams (2015), suggests that taking a justice perspective at primary-level education can only facilitate a thin view of the individualistic self and of the performative neoliberal actor. Like McAllister, he claims that the justice paradigm has been hijacked by the rhetoric of raising standards and fairness, and that failure from this viewpoint is understood as a personal failure, a failure of our own responsibility. These old care and justice tensions can also be characterised and reframed to overcome this binarised ‘either or’ and hijacking through reframing our understandings of the human and of the self. Major strands of philosophical and feminist discourse acknowledge the self/other dialectic and speak to this relationship as fundamental to an ethic of care and love. In this vein, I am impressed by how beautifully Rowan Williams in his recent work Being Human (Williams, 2018) articulates the concept of the human as fundamentally relational and other oriented. He draws on Sennett’s (2012) idea of the ‘co-operative self’; a self that does not close the door on relationship and one that only comes into the fullness of being through the perspective of another, and in relation to other persons. Williams suggests that we cannot live in the world as fully human without this inalienable relationship. Even in terms of the way I

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see myself, I need that other to show me what I cannot see for myself.5 The relational self is foundational to being a person and Williams argues, I know I am a person because I am called, named and spoken to and loved into existence (ibid, p. 45). In this bridging of self/other and coming into a human being through relationship, I learn to care for myself and the other. The relationship with myself is initially experienced through my most intimate relations with those significant others I encounter.6 My well-being/flourishing and my capacity to love myself and another are forged in that relation that is deeply personal and foundational for my future well-being, what Cassidy (2018) calls ‘wellbecoming’ and indeed the well-becoming of the world.7

3.3.2 The Relational Self, Care Ethics and Well-Being This understanding of the self and the human as fundamentally and inalienably relational is crucial to the nature of the dialogue that can emerge in the disciplinary and curricular battles between psychological and welfarist approaches to well-being, and between human rights and more deeply personalist humanistic approaches (see Williams 2018 on the tensions between individualist as opposed to personalist understandings of being fully human). This third way, a dynamic relational conceptualisation of well-being and development allows space for my flourishing that is not at the expense of the other, and a flourishing and well-being that can only be realised through relationship. This dynamic and relational understanding of human beingness and of human flourishing can be seen in the seminal thinking of Noddings (2003, 2012, 2013; Katz, Noddings & Strike, 1999) and her writing on happiness, justice and education. Exploring the language and orientations of justice and care, Noddings critiques educational policies that have viewed equality as sameness, and care as only individually oriented. She captures some of these ongoing perspectival problems in relation to human flourishing and well-being in her essay in Justice and Caring (ibid, 1999). Here, she argues that care and justice as moral orientations can work, in a complementary fashion, and that in practice it would be difficult to dispose of one view, or to claim one had theoretical priority over the other. She suggests to educators ‘that justice untempered with care may actually introduce new inequities as it seeks to remove old ones’ (ibid:1). This is a critical principle for policy and educational projects that aim to create a more just educational system within a larger political and socio-economic system that structurally reproduces inequalities for particular 5 Williams

draws on Stein’s argument that I need the other to show me the parts of myself that are invisible to me in the physical body such as the back of my head but also to know my thoughts and realise my perspective. I need to be in relationship. Williams states: ‘I cannot know myself alone. I have to be spoken to…seen and engaged with’ (Stein 1989, The Problem of Empathy). 6 For a scholarly psycho social account of the development of ethical subjectivity see Wendy Hollway (2011) The Capacity to Care: The development of ethical subjectivity. Routledge. 7 See Cassidy (2018) Wellbeing, being well or well becoming on young students’ development of their own sense of wellbeing and sense of own subjectivity through philosophy.

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groups and people (O’Brien, 2018). It demands that educators take a critical view of their own approaches, not just from within their own equality standpoint, but from the perspective of collective and individual well-being and the possible ill-being outcomes of justice based policy. In a poignant example, Noddings (1999) famously critiques the US directive for the bussing of black students from segregated schools to white schools so as to create ‘integrated’ schools. She suggests the policy rested on an assumption that the black segregated schools were inherently unequal, and that racism could be eliminated through the moving of students from their own communities to schools at some distance away. This policy created other kinds of inequalities in terms of recognition and affect, and had little regard for the care of students and their communities while ticking the political boxes for integration and fairness. Moreover, as Noddings (ibid, pp. 14–15) also notes, this kind of thinking is endemic to liberal views of education where the emphasis is on finding solutions rather than radically changing the frame in which inequality is generated. We may presume to have learned from these earlier errors in equality/justice thinking and policy and despite the development of more sophisticated models of equality in terms of participation and outcome, we are still fighting and working against the grain of growing neo-liberalism and a context where it is a struggle for these more radically egalitarian and caring models and ideas to gain purchase let alone a firm foothold in policy.

3.3.3 Social Justice as Deeply Relational Often when teachers and educators involve themselves in matters of social justice they may turn to history and look to the work of great educators, risk-takers and revolutionaries such as Martin Luther King, Freire, Gandhi, Mandela for inspiration. However, context is everything and in practice these teachers may experience a tension on the one hand to articulate social justice education through a dominant citizenship/human rights lens, and on the other may feel drawn towards a perspective that is more concerned with the personal and issues around affect and intimate relationships. This tendency towards a dualistic framing of the public and the private, the personal and the political, and of viewing social justice as a phenomenon ‘out there’ was brilliantly analysed and critiqued in Freire’s work Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970). Freire was profoundly concerned with the role of education in humanisation and transformation and critiquing how the necrophilic banking model of education dehumanised and perpetuated ongoing cycles of oppression. But his fundamental tenet that we can only transform the world by transforming ourselves is a powerful reminder of the need to embrace pedagogies that create space for our own development and for criticality so as to understand our own complicity in the oppression of self and other. Freire called this ‘concientisation’, the process through which we name our world with others, and come to recognise through dialogue how as teachers we can oppress as opposed to liberate.

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This is incredibly challenging for the process of education, and for the pedagogical approaches, we adopt as teachers, because so much of what passes as good education today is premised on productivity and results within a given framing or curriculum. In particular, for teachers working in areas of social disadvantage, with marginalised groups and where there is poverty and oppression, this can be practically and philosophically problematic. Through social interventions and educational programmes that pertain to set right social evils so that the students can ‘catch up’ and benefit from their schooling, teachers themselves come under pressure to perform this magic to undo the perceived ills meted upon these populations while the structural and cultural contexts that have created the poverty, marginalisation and oppression remain unchallenged and intact. And yet we feel an imperative, a political and personal command to try and fix these situations that cannot be simply fixed.

3.3.4 Reflection and an Ethic of Care for Well-Being, Going Inside Teachers may perceive the contradiction between the rhetoric and reality of justice and well-being, and reflect upon the inequalities and oppressions experienced by their students and indeed themselves. Korthagen’s (2004) ‘Onion Model’ of teacher’s levels of reflection also shows the nature of this problem, the ill-being that can result from a dissonance between the environment in which we carry out our professional practice and our own sense of mission and identity. There is an interdisciplinary and developing discourse in education which attempts to explore and work through this contradiction between the inner and outer worlds of teachers, not from an individual psychological perspective, but through a synthesis of critical perspectives within a praxis of affective personal reflexivity. The critical/affective turn is evident across disciplinary boundaries and draws from critical political, post-colonial, psychological/analytical and feminist sociological discourses among others. A most recent development is an emerging hybrid approach that puts the critical and contemplative in dialogue (Kaufman, 2017). Kaufman’s critical contemplative model is well grounded in the legacy of Freirean criticality and embodied contemplative practice that owes much to meditative traditions and mindfulness. The aim of this pedagogy is to break down the dualism of self and the world, to promote the awareness of human interdependency and of the relationship between the personal and the political. Moreover, it encourages us to embrace impermanence, one of the key anxiety stimuli for ill-being discussed above. There is a great deal of interest in this approach and much that is interesting and helpful at the level of the individual. For my own view, on balance, it errs on the contemplative and so the political/critical can either become less significant or it can be neoliberalised/depoliticised in that fashion, i.e. if everything is illusory and impermanent then emancipatory issues become less urgent. Notwithstanding this, I believe that my own praxis as a teacher

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educator has been seeking and pursuing the type of hybridity that Kaufman has articulated and which I will discuss in the next section. One further example of the inner /outer and care/justice hybridised model can be seen developing over time in the work of Zembylas on critical/affective models of revolution in education and the wider society. He suggests in Critical and Strategic Pedagogies of Compassion (Zembylas, 2017) that there has been a turn across many very different disciplines towards an interest in ‘the emotional aspects of suffering and compassion’ (ibid, p. 173) in part due to current socio-political contexts and the plight of the dispossessed and refugees across many jurisdictions. However, Zembylas is critical of certain kinds of emotionality, what he calls pedagogies of pity and sentimentality. He illustrates how problematic this type of approach can be in higher education where the ‘feeling of pity’ rather than creating empathic action towards the sufferer can be paternalistic and passive, and ultimately reifying of the suffering other. Through pitying, the emotional distance between spectator and sufferer is maintained and thus preserves the status quo rather than creating transformative action. Moreover, in discussing Berlant’s work (2004), Zembylas rightly argues that empathic identification with sufferers of socio-economic violence and poverty does nothing to change structural conditions of injustice. To transform the world requires both recognition of our inalienable and universal vulnerability as humans, but also importantly, the capacity to identify the asymmetries in suffering, inequality and injustice. Recognition of these differences, these asymmetries, allows us to feel anger and motivation towards action for justice. Zembylas recognises that this type of pedagogy and experience is not new and is an ongoing aspect of the subversive work of teachers who through a critical pedagogy of compassion support the agency and the small scale actions of students towards altruism and solidarity (ibid, p. 183). Understanding the problems of injustice is only a step in the right direction to enacting compassion, identification and the practice of altruism. This is a strong reminder of Freire’s own work in which he names the challenges and necessity of love as the ethic that informs transformative pedagogy. He argues that we must engage with a range of emotions (including those powerful ones of love and anger) at the level of personal and deep subjectivity. For Freire and particularly in his later work, emotions are what move us and are not separable from our actions. Roberts (2003) contends that Freire strongly advocates for the significance of caring emotions for radical pedagogy, and of the need to overcome the dichotomising teaching as a purely rational activity distinct from emotional responsiveness and effective practices. In Pedagogy of Freedom (1998), Freire says: it is necessary to overcome the false separation between serious teaching and the expression of feeling…Affectivity is not necessarily an enemy of knowledge or the process of knowing (ibid, p. 125).

Speaking of the relation between the feeling subject and the desire to change oppressive structures, Heller (1994) in her essay on The Elementary Ethics of Everyday Life, suggests that care, (and care often taken as love) is the universal orientative principle of morals. She states that love is ‘the most elementary starting point that remains beyond explanation, the arche of morals’ (ibid, pp. 56–58). Taking responsibility through caring is the mark of the ethical human subject. She reminds

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us that the world can be what it ought to be—a paradise, if each one of us takes responsibility for caring for the other, although, of course, the content of that care will vary according to specific situations. I will discuss the ethic of care in relation to becoming teachers in the final section of the chapter.

3.4 A Pedagogical Praxis of Outreach/Inreach for Student–Teacher Well-Being Having considered a broad and sometimes diverse disciplinary literature on transformative processes and education for flourishing and well-being, I now turn to my own praxis. For the past three years I have taught and researched a final-year (fourth-year) primary teacher education elective called ‘Care, Well-being and Professional Praxis’. The module explores concepts and practices around care, self-care and teachers’ responsibilities and challenges with respect to care praxis and justice (O’Brien, 2011). Students do this explorative work in a weekly workshop/seminar in the context of an embodied and reflective pedagogy (and which has in this past year been self-evaluated as part of the pedagogical process). The numbers electing into the module are capped below 30 so that we can engage in an in-depth and reflective dialogue over a period of 12 weeks.8 The seminar is structured to provide stimuli for individual and group reflection through carefully selected seminal care and justice literature. In the past year, however, it has also included embodied meditative practice and breadth work which sets the stage and affective environment for critical reflective dialogue (see Kaufman, 2017). From students’ feedback and my own experience, I have learnt that the initial reflective/meditative moments are a vital element in creating a supportive and self-reflective environment in which students can work together. In the very long and crammed days of lectures and workshops, students may come into the session full of anxieties and overly stimulated, particularly as this is their final semester on campus (the following and last semester is all placement in schools which creates its own anxiety). The moments of embodied breathwork have enabled us to make space for ourselves, to touch base with our feelings, our physical condition and our sense of ourselves at that moment in time, what Rowan Williams has referred to as thinking with our bodies, (Williams, 2018). This aspect of the praxis is an attempt to reassert wholistic experience and to bring our whole selves as becoming teachers into the seminar space. Below is a typical comment was drawn from a student’s meta-reflection as to the purpose and value of the initial embodied meditative piece in reflection and meaning making in the consideration of teacher well-being: While this course (BEd) is generally very intensive and leaves little time for personal reflection, the Human Development seminars were a haven for peace of mind and genuine deliberation. Through the mindfulness approach at the beginning of each class, I was able to engage 8 However

due to an administrative error, in the second year of the module I worked with a group of 44 students which did present some additional challenges for me and for the students.

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with the course content and explore my own personal beliefs. This progression is clear to see through my reflections, which move away from reciting the information learnt to connecting it to the knowledge and experiences I already have.

Engaging in an embodied reflective inreach practice may not be familiar or comfortable initially for students in a university-based programme. Zembylas (2013) has commented upon the awkwardness and reluctance of teachers to put themselves in the picture in relation to their own identity in the context of critical and radical pedagogies of love and emotions. Kelchtermans (2011) suggests that teachers are not only emotionally vulnerable in a psychological sense but that the pedagogical relationship fundamental to teaching creates inalienable conditions of vulnerability because teachers can never fully control or know what will happen in relationship with these other human beings, their students. And feminist care theorists have repeatedly suggested that men have found it more challenging to express emotions and vulnerability because if they enter this personal space the very foundations of traditional masculinity become unsettled and shaky. In this second comment below by a male student, we see a student’s move from uncertainty and discomfort to his appreciation of the value of embodied practice and also how he still manages to critically question its place in a primary classroom and for children’s well-being: The final aspect of the course (the care, well-being seminar) which I have had to reassess my opinion of, is the practicality of meditation for children in schools. In the beginning of this course, (I thought) this guided breathing was ‘pointless’, ‘unrealistic’ and made me feel stupid for even trying to credent its place within the classroom. However, over the weeks I have noticed just how beneficial it could be as part of a set of teaching skills. What has really emphasised just how worthwhile this could be to me (my emphasis), is the effect that it had on us as a college class. It settled down a group of cortisol-level raised adults and it makes me wonder just what way it could aid carefree children.

In this chapter, I have argued that a pedagogy of inreach is a necessary element in outward-facing justice approaches to education, what we might call pedagogies of outreach. This relational tension and necessary balance between self-awareness and self-care on the one hand, and an awakening realisation of our responsibility for othercare is made thoughtfully in the statement of one BEd student who had struggled with personal responsibilities alongside managing her course work. She comments eloquently below on the tensions she observes between personal and professional responsibility, and her realisation that there is no right answer, no given or formula for well-being and care. She reflects on the complexity of a care and well-being praxis and how she is subject to the vulnerability of teaching as relationship, and moreover, how this reality of teaching as fundamentally relational always lies in tension with performative demands and an over-emphasis on extrinsic ends. There is no answer to the vulnerability that is intrinsic in teaching just as our (my) wellbeing is constantly being challenged. During this module I have come to see that teachers are the embodiment of the paradox that exists in teaching. In one sense we are expected to achieve learning outcomes and have children prepared for the next year in their education while dealing with a range of personalities and caring for their well-being, as well as our own. There is no agreement on what is best for students and what actions might achieve that purpose. As teachers it is our own responsibility to reflect and find ways to achieve the desired ends… and this is something I will endeavour to do throughout my career.

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3.5 Conclusion This chapter explored the relationship between care and justice as paradigms for wellbeing and development in educational contexts, and more particularly, the sensitive balance that teachers and student teachers try to find in praxis between inner reflection and outward action in a world that overly values the outer, rational, productive and visible. I suggest that the current trend towards hyper-individualisation creates a hollowing out of well-being for individual subjects and their subjective identities. The intense push to the outer and the social deprives human beings of inner space and a valuing of experiences of inner life. The consequence of this dynamic is not a more socially equal and just world but rather a more fully individualised and disconnected one where relationality in the sense of loving and caring are compromised. Teachers and educational practice are vulnerable to this productive paradigm of the human and of what passes as progress and development. Thus, the need for social justice approaches to education that include a valuing of reflective subjectivity and care are more pressing in the hyper individualised risk society where collective possibilities are under pressure and policy interventions may not hit the mark in a real manner. The misrecognition of personhood, the significance of ‘just’ being, of emotional life in all its messiness, of the contemplative and reflective as only instrumental to achievement and success, is as problematic to social justice ethics as it is to selfcare and personal well-being. My analysis of the discourse and samples of student teachers’ reflective work suggests a need for greater understanding and respect for the relationship between reflection and praxis and to identify and create the conditions under which it can flourish. Andreotti (2010) in her analysis of justice approaches to education and development for social change illustrates how so-called new discourses can hijack educational ideas and identities to the primary principle of twenty-firstcentury economic production rather than focus on the kinds of new subjectivities that can emerge and create a new more just order (and this can include an instrumentalised and output mode of well-being). She argues: In order to contribute to the maintenance or improvement of their country’s economic advantage, educators are called to adopt ‘twenty- first century’ subjectivities, pedagogies and epistemologies that are more malleable in the constant shifts and uncertainty of economies of service and scope, where the focus is on the production of new products, new markets, new identities and new patterns of consumption. (Andreotti 2010: p. 240)

My argument throughout has been that we cannot just abandon teachers’ and students’ subjectivities (deep subjectivities—Williams, 2018) to the new well-being discourses that avoid or are devoid of the political, and cannot sit in any obvious way with the acts of revolutionary love that Zembylas sees as necessary for social justice teaching and for authentic pedagogical identity. However, this awareness of the relationship and tension between the personal and the political in terms of individual and collective well-being does not translate into any simple programme of action or curriculum for educators. As educators, we have to work across these tensions and hold to both dimensions of human well-being, the individual depth perspective and the collective and political. Only through dialogue, reflection and

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self-awareness (concientisation) and an organic praxis founded on love for self and other can we hope to remake ourselves and the world. The great challenge of this task begins in seeing the teacher and student well-being as inherently relational and open to human vulnerability and a need for compassionate love.

References Adams, P. (2015). In defence of care: Gilligan’s relevance for primary education. Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 23(2), 281–300. Andreotti, V. (2010). Post colonial and post critical global citizenship education. In G. Elliott, C. Fouralli, & Issler (Eds), S. Education and social change: connecting local and global perspectives (pp. 233–245). London: Continuum. Apple, M. (2011). Paulo freire and the tasks of the critical educational scholar/activist. In O’Shea, & O’Brien (eds) Pedagogy and transformation in a post-critical climate: The return of Freirean thinking. London: Bloomsbury. Bauman, Z. (2004). Liquid modernity. London: Polity. Beck, U. (1992). Risk society: Toward a new modernity. London: Sage. Berlant, L. (2004). Compassion: The culture and politics of an emotion. New York: Routledge. Brown, P., Lauder, H. & Ashton, T. (2010). The global auction: the broken promises of education, jobs. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 32(2), 293–311. Cassidy, C. (2018). Wellbeing, being well or wellbecoming: Who or what is it for and how might we get there? In M Thornburn (Ed), Wellbeing, education and contemporary schooling. London: Routledge. Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York Continuum/Herder and Herder: Middlesex: Penguin. Freire P. (1998). Pedagogy of freedom: Ethics, democracy and civic courage. Rowman and Littlefield Publishers. Gilligan, C. (1995). Hearing the difference: theorizing connection. Hypatia, 10, 120–127. Gilligan, C. (1981). In a different voice psychological theory and women’s development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Heller, A. (1994). The elementary ethics of everyday life. In G. Robinson & J. Rundell (Eds.), Rethinking imagination: culture and creativity (pp. 49–64). London: Routledge. Hollway, W.(2011). The capacity to care: gender and ethical subjectivity. London: Routledge. Katz, M., Noddings, N., & Strike, K. (1999). Justice and caring: The search for common ground in education. Columbia Teachers’ College Press. Kaufman, P. (2017). Critical contemplative pedagogy. Radical Pedagogy, 14(1), 2–20. Kelchtermans, G. (2011). Professional responsibility: persistent commitment, professional vulnerability. In C Sugrue & T. Solbrekke (Eds.), New Horizons of praxis (pp. 113–126). London: Routledge. Korthagen, F. (2004). In search of the essence of a good teacher: Towards a more holistic approach in teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education, 20(2004), 77–97. Lanas, M., & Zembylas, M. (2015). Towards a transformational political concept of love in critical education. Studies in Philosophy and Education, 34(1), 31–44. Mc Allister, J. (2018). Teaching for wellbeing: On the importance of teaching for capabilities in schools. In M. Thornburn (Ed.), Wellbeing, education and contemporary schooling. Oxford: Routledge. Noddings, N. (1999). Care, justice and equity. In M. Katz, N. Noddings & K. Strike (Eds.), Justice and caring (pp. 7–20). Columbia, NY: Teachers College Press. Noddings, N. (2003). Happiness and education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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Noddings, N. (2012). The caring relation in teaching. Oxford Review of Education, 38(6), 771–781. https://doi.org/10.1080/03054985.2012.745047. Noddings, N. (2013). Caring: A relational approach to ethics and moral education. CA: University of California Press. Nussbaum, M., & Sen, A. (Eds.). (1993a). The quality of life. Oxford University Press. Nussbaum, M., & Sen, A. (1993b). The quality of life. Oxford: Clarendon Books. O’Brien, M. (2011). ‘Professional responsibility and an ethic of care: Teachers’ care as moral praxis. In C. Sugrue & T. Dyrdal Solbreke (Eds.), Professional responsibility: New horizons of Praxis. London: Routledge. O’Brien, M., & O’Shea, A. (2017). A human development (PSP) framework for orienting education and schools in the space of wellbeing. Dublin: NCCA. O’ Brien, M. & O’Shea, A. (2018). A Deeper well: Reclaiming wellbeing for teachers of SPHE. In M. Nohilly, B. Collins, A. M. Kavanagh, S. Keating, F. O’Mahony, C. O’Sullivan C (Eds.), Citizenship education 100 years on 3rd SPHE Network Conference MU, (7–14). O’Brien, M. (2018). Wellbeing/welfare, schooling and social justice: Caring relationships with students, parents and community. In M. Thornburn (Ed.), Wellbeing, education and contemporary schooling (pp. 153–168). London: Routledge. OECD. (2011). Compendium of wellbeing indicators. Paris: OECD. Roberts, P. (2003). Epistemology, ethics and education: Addressing dilemmas of difference in the work of Paulo Freire. Studies in Philosophy and Education, 22(2), 157–173. Sennett, Richard. (2012). Together: The Rituals, pleasures and politics of cooperation. London: Penguin Books. Seligman, M. (2011). Flourish: A new understanding of happiness and wellbeing. Sen, A. (1993). Capability and Well-being. In M. Nussbaum & A. Sen (Eds.), The quality of life (pp. 270–295). Oxford: Clarendon Books. Stein, E. (1989). The problem of empathy. Washington: Institute of Carmelite Studies. Taylor, C. (1994). Sources of the self: The making of modern identity. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press. Tronto, J. C. (2010). Creating caring institutions: politics, plurality, and purpose. Ethics and Social Welfare, 4(2), 158–171. https://doi.org/10.1080/17496535.2010.484259. Williams, R. (2018). Being human: Bodies, minds, persons. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. Zembylas, M. (2013). The “Crisis of Pity” and the radicalization of solidarity: toward critical pedagogies of compassion. Educational Studies, 49(6), 504–521. https://doi.org/10.1080/001 31946.2013.844148. Zembylas, M. (2017). In search of critical and strategic pedagogies of compassion: interrogating pity and sentimentality in higher education, (pp173–187). In P. Gibbs (Ed.), The pedagogy of compassion at the heart of higher education. Cham: Springer.

Maeve O’Brien was until recently Head of the new School of Human Development at the Institute of Education, Dublin City University, Ireland. Before working in teacher education and the Humanities, Maeve worked in Dublin’s inner city as a teacher and a home/school/community liaison co-ordinator. Professor O’Brien’s research interests are in the area of care, relationality and their significance for education and social justice. She has published a number of book chapters reports on the importance of caring relationality for student and teacher wellbeing. One of her current projects with Human Development colleagues focuses on the challenges for relational and social justice pedagogies in teacher education within the landscape of the PUCA.

Chapter 4

Teacher Well-Being and Linguistic Diversity: A Social Justice Perspective Karen Suzette Collett, Vuyokazi Nomlomo, Someka Ngece, Daniel Jansen, and Elmarie Mackier

Abstract In this chapter we navigate the journey of strengthening teacher well-being (TWB) within a linguistically diverse context between 2017 and 2019. We do this by engaging in a critical participatory action research intervention between staff at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) and a local public primary school (Ithemba Primary). Using a whole-school development approach to change and informed by a social justice perspective, we reflect on how the capacity for teacher well-being and multilingualism was enhanced. Our case study demonstrates how the use of collaborative action research using photovoice, within a professional learning community, holds the potential to enhance the holistic well-being of teachers by addressing the aspects of having, loving, being, and meaning (Collett, 2014) in the professional life of teachers. It highlights the achievements made by a South African public primary school located within a high poverty context for strengthened capacity. Strategies for school and teacher development, as well as a focus on translanguaging as a resource in the staffroom and classroom, are highlighted. Processes to build ownership and sustainability of the intervention are then described. The chapter concludes by drawing out lessons for schools in Europe and South Africa using a whole-school development and social justice approach to enhancing teacher well-being within a culturally and linguistically diverse context. Keywords Linguistic injustice · Social justice · Multilingualism · Participatory action research · Teacher well-being · Whole-school development

K. S. Collett (B) · V. Nomlomo · S. Ngece Faculty of Education, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa e-mail: [email protected] V. Nomlomo e-mail: [email protected] S. Ngece e-mail: [email protected] D. Jansen · E. Mackier Primary School, Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 T. R. N. Murphy and P. Mannix-McNamara (eds.), International Perspectives on Teacher Well-Being and Diversity, Understanding Teaching-Learning Practice, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-1699-0_4

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4.1 Introduction and Background Under apartheid the majority of the South African population had been excluded from enjoying quality and equal education. However, the post-1994 period and the transition to democracy held hope for greater freedom, respect for human rights and social and political reform. Changes in the South African political and policy landscape influenced learners’ access to schools that had previously been divided in terms of race and class (Alexander, 2005; Spreen & Vally, 2006). Democratic governance thus raised hopes for processes which would address the injustices of apartheid and the legacies of social and economic inequality and psychological trauma. Post-1994 educational reform was characterised by large-scale policy and systemic change. Teachers and schools experienced large-scale curriculum, governance and funding changes, as well as changes in the systems of support, provision and resources. Education, and specifically basic education, continues to be one of the national priorities driven by the South African government and endorsed in the National Development Plan Vision 2030 (The Presidency, 2014) as part of the country’s nation-building strategy. The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa explicitly recognises the linguistic diversity of the societies living in South Africa and states that they should be treated equally (Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996). Thus, by addressing the ills of apartheid, the post-1996 government sought to improve teachers’ and learners’ levels of language proficiency. The national education policies such as the Language in Education Policy (Department of Education, 1997), and the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) (Department of Basic Education, 2011), as well as the provincial Education Department’s Language Strategy (2015–2019) support inclusive teaching and learning. However, while multilingualism is regarded as a marker of social justice in linguistically diverse societies (UNESCO, 2010) since 1996, it has not been properly implemented in many South African classrooms (Prosper & Nomlomo, 2016). Since schools were required to address issues of inequality and diversity in relation to race, class and language diversity, teachers had to adapt to the multiple policy, school and district-level reforms. In many primary schools the language ability of staff members had to adapt to the rapid changes in the language and cultural diversity of learners (Collett, 2014). While many of these changes ushered in the prospect of a brighter future, they also increased teachers’ stress levels. McLennan and Thurlow (2004) found that all schools in South Africa, including the well-resourced, shared the same management challenges as a result of the new policies and legislation. South African teachers were found to have limited support and were also deemed to be at risk of serious mental health issues including, burn-out and stress (Schulze & Steyn, 2007; Oosthuizen & Van der Bijl, 2007). The stress level of school management and teachers were also found to be influenced by high rates of poverty and inequality (Collett, Sonn, Hofmeester, Somnath & Buchler, 2012; Collett, 2014; Van Zyl & Pietersen, 1999) and by the effects of the prevalence of HIV and AIDS in the school community (Theron, 2007, 2009).

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International and local research shows that teachers’ professional development and occupational well-being are crucial in attaining educational goals in the classroom and at the school community level (Gu & Day, 2007; Skaalvik & Skaalvik, 2011; Soini, Pyhältö, & Pietarinen, 2010). The relationship between a conducive psycho-social environment which promotes well-being and learner achievement is acknowledged by the World Health Organisation (WHO, 2002). Similar trends in the occupational well-being of teachers have been found in Britain and Europe (Day, Sammons, Stobart, Kington, & Gu, 2007; Salter-Jones, 2012; Skaalvik & Skaalvik, 2011; Soini et al., 2010) and in the United States (Holmes, 2009). Therefore, the teaching profession provides both challenges and opportunities for teachers’ wellbeing (Collett, 2014; Soini et al., 2010) and it is imperative to understand how teachers experience and perceive these challenges and opportunities (Collett, Chisulu, & Buchler, 2013; Collett, 2014; Graham, Powell, Thomas, & Anderson, 2017; Soini et al., 2010). It is also vital to understand the complex contextualised processes that support curricular implementation (Chisholm & Leyendecker, 2008). However, in a South African context, there is a lack of research, competence and experience with respect to teacher development and support related to engaging in multilingual and multicultural environments. Despite numerous policy changes and curricular reforms, the majority of South African public schools continue to have poor or mediocre academic results (Bloch, 2012; Hoadley, Christie, & Ward, 2009). Bantwini and Letseka (2016, p. 336) argue that ‘although nation-building mandates serve a noble purpose, teachers are the ones who pay the price if these mandates are to be rapidly implemented without giving teachers enough time to acquaint themselves with them and develop the same vision as that of the policy makers’. South African studies show that teachers’ stress has increased notably over the past few years and that the attrition rates for teachers have also increased significantly over the same period of time (Collett et al., 2013; Chisholm, Hoadley, Kivulu, Brookes, Prinsloo, Kgobe, et al., 2005: Oosthuizen & van der Bijl, 2007). It is against this backdrop, this chapter explores how a school located within a high poverty and diverse community strengthened its capacity through a wholeschool development approach and how it enhanced well-being and multilingualism. Informed by a participatory action research approach (PAR) and using the methodology of photovoice, we demonstrate how the issue of social justice was used as a basis to promote change. This chapter is guided by the following question: What factors support or constrain teacher well-being in a linguistically diverse school community? The chapter begins with a brief review of South African national and local policies and of the developmental imperatives which may lead to multilingualism and diversity. Next, a brief review of the literature related to well-being in schools and multilingualism is presented. The school context and the methodology used to support our research and development process are then provided, followed by a discussion of the means used to promote the well-being of teachers within a linguistically diverse school community. The chapter concludes by discussing some of the issues raised in this case study and identifies key strategies which may help to sustain the process of change.

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4.2 Literature Review Four key bodies of literature were drawn on to inform the research and development process: TWB, multilingualism, whole school development and social justice. A brief synopsis of the relevant literature reviewed is presented below.

4.2.1 Teacher Well-Being Dinham (2006, p. 186) argues that the term well-being ‘lacks definition, both as a concept and in practice’. Similarly, Graham, Powell, Thomas and Anderson (2017) argue that the term well-being is poorly defined and under-theorised. They assert that instead of providing the indicators of teacher well-being, research should shed light on its holistic, subjective and relational nature. They continue: This lack of knowledge, reflective of wider ambiguity around the meaning of well-being, represents a significant barrier to the development, implementation and evaluation of approaches that might improve quality of life at school (for both students and teachers) as well as broader educational outcomes (Graham et al., 2017, p. 440).

The concept of well-being and specifically TWB is defined in a range of ways in the literature. Seligman (2002) in Huppert and Baylis (2004, p. 1448) defines wellbeing as (1) ‘a sense of gratification’ and (2) ‘a sense of meaning that derives from doing one’s job in the service of something of wider significance than oneself’. Wellbeing, therefore, can be understood as an aspect of mental health that can fluctuate between a state of risk and one of resilience. Our research and development process in the target school drew on the holistic and eco-systemic definition of TWB by Collett (2014) which builds on the work of Allardt (1989) and Konu and Rimpelä (2002). This definition was informed by a grounded theory study drawing on teachers’ perspectives of well-being in a South African public primary school characterised by challenging socio-economic conditions. This definition reflects the multidimensional and fluctuating nature of the concept within a school community and its national context. The definition provided one of the analytical lenses used to discuss our findings in this chapter. Collett (2014) defines teacher occupational well-being as: A dynamic and holistic state of loving, being, having and meaning in a teacher’s personal and professional life, as a result of being part of a school community that has an influence on the physical, social and cultural environment, and working conditions in support of teaching and learning (Collett, 2014, p. 139).

The table below elaborates on the lived dimensions of TWB, drawing on a holistic perspective of teacher well-being. Factors supporting TWB in a South African school in challenging conditions were identified by Collett (2014) as collegial caring and supportive relationships, one’s state of being and health, environmental and working conditions including safety,

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and a sense of purpose and meaning in one’s work. Collett (2014) also found that the following actions and behaviour by the school’s principal enhanced teacher wellbeing: democratic leadership; an open-door policy; attention to both the personal and professional support needs of staff; a focus on curricular leadership; and the creation of the environmental and support conditions within which teachers could exercise their profession. Her findings are supported by a number of research studies which identify wellbeing as being influenced by elements such as the type of school and the school context in which the teacher is situated, job demands, socio-economic factors, safety, lack of social support, limited job resources, the changing nature of the job, complex social interactions, innovation overload, poor school climate and conditions, inadequate leadership, limited parental/guardian support, the extent of access to support services and the difficulties teachers have in balancing their work and home lives (Collett, 2014; Day et al., 2007; Dehaloo, 2011; Gu & Day, 2007; Littleford, 2007; Salter-Jones, 2012; Tsvara, 2013). A range of socio-economic challenges related to language and cultural diversity are also reported as some of the factors that impact on well-being and performance (Bantwini, 2010; Collett, 2014, Collett et al., 2012, Collett et al., 2013; Kemende, 2018). Low teacher morale has been related to a lack of teacher training to teach in diverse classrooms (Bantwini, 2010). This is especially the case in South African urban primary schools where the number of immigrant families and refugees has increased in recent years (Kemende, 2018; Collett et al., 2013). Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) have been found to support teacher morale and professionalism (DuFour, 2004; Battersby & Verdi, 2015). Dufour (2004) identified a PLC as having the following features: a learning focus; collaborative culture; shared vision and values; respect; collective inquiry into best practices; an action orientation; and a commitment to continuous improvement and results. Battersby and Verdi (2015, p. 28) found that being part of such a community supported teachers by minimising isolation and burnout as it provided teachers with the opportunity to ‘dispense advice, seek advice and guidance, and work through lesson planning’.

4.2.2 Teacher Well-Being and Multilingualism There is a dearth of current studies on the relationship between the well-being of teachers and multilingualism. Some scholars have identified language as a factor that impacts on TWB (Collett, 2014; Collett et al., 2013; Prosper & Nomlomo, 2016). A South African study by Prosper and Nomlomo (2016) identifies the following language factors as negatively influencing TWB: limited understanding of multilingual pedagogical approaches; teachers’ lack of competence in learners’ home languages; and the mismatch between the learners’ home languages and the language of learning and teaching (LOLT). The lack of multilingual teaching and learning resources were identified as contributing to teacher anxiety and stress (Collett et al.,

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2013, Prosper & Nomlomo, 2016; Nomlomo & Katiya, 2018). In addition, the breakdown in communication as a result of language barriers between teachers, learners, parents or guardians were identified as a further factor of stress (Collett, 2014). The research cited above shows that language barriers do impact both learner achievement and teaching performance, as well as on the ability of teachers to keep pace with South African curricular objectives. In our review of the literature, a shortage of both local and international studies related to TWB and multilingualism was identified. Consistent with the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (1996), the democratic Language-in-Education Policy recommends additive bi/multilingualism in education as a means of fostering equity, inclusion and social justice (UNESCO, 2010; Burcu, et al., 2014). Additionally, multilingual pedagogy (Haukås, 2015) is still a challenge in many schools in South Africa (Desai, 2016; Prosper & Nomlomo, 2016). As a result, epistemic injustice and deficiency in education associated with the mismatch between children’s home languages and the language of learning and teaching (LOLT) is reported in many schools (Desai, 2012; Molosiwa, 2005; Nomlomo & Vuzo, 2014). As indicated earlier, such a practice can be stressful to teachers who have to deliver their lessons in a language in which they and the majority of their learners are not proficient. It is, therefore, important to understand the relationship between teacher well-being, school development and multilingual educational approaches, in order to support a social justice approach in linguistically diverse classrooms and school communities. Based on a Finnish study on pedagogical well-being, Soini et al. (2010) argue that ‘Success in both the pedagogical goals and more generally social goals, seem to be fundamental preconditions for teacher’s experiencing pedagogical well-being’ (ibid 2010, p. 735). Their findings on teacher well-being in Finland, however, related to a predominantly monolingual or bilingual population and they note that teachers can become ‘…overwhelmed in situations where their didactic intentions and subject-specific expertise do not provide them with functional tools to cope with the contextual challenges’ (Soini et al., 2010, p. 738). As the notion of well-being and multilingual education affects all the stakeholders in the school community, as well as all aspects of organisational life, we found it appropriate to draw on a Whole School Development (WSD) approach to enhance teacher capacity for Having, Loving, Meaning and Being as set out in Table 4.1, above.

4.2.3 Whole School Development (WSD) A Whole School Development (WSD) approach to schools is defined by Donald, Lazarus and Lolwana (2010, p. 8) as: A comprehensive approach to developing effective schools, involving all stakeholders and all elements of the school as an organisation. WSD aims at ensuring that all aspects of school life both at a structural and cultural level are geared towards fostering effective teaching and learning.

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Table 4.1 Dimensions of teacher well-being ASPECT

Teacher well-being Interconnected & Holistic State Fluctuating over time

Approaches to well-being

Environmental Contextual Material

Social Emotional

Psychological Professional

Emotional Psychological Physical Spiritual

Level of well-being

Contextual

Inter-personal

Personal Inter-personal Professional

Personal/subjective

State of well-being

Having

Loving

Meaning

Being

Dimensions

School community conditions

Social Relationships

Sense of purpose

State of health & happiness

Factors

Environmental conditions

Care & Support

Learner achievement

Health

Job demands

Colleagues

Acknowledgement

Happiness

Job resources

Management

Professional satisfaction

Balance personal and professional

We therefore used the key elements of organisational life (Davidoff, Lazarus & Moolla, 2014) that inform a whole school development process as a framework to understand the inter-connected and inter-related processes and procedures needed to build holistic capacity for TWB and multilingualism in the school. Theron and Donald (2011) highlight the importance of engaging with the building of resilience and well-being from eco-systemic and cultural levels that consider both macro and micro-level influences. The WSD eco-systemic framework helped school staff and UWC project partners to inform and shed light on existing processes of school development mandated by national and provincial-level policy, taking into consideration the language dynamics in many South African multilingual classrooms. An integrated WSD approach requires the leadership in schools to pay attention to the coherence between the internal cultural values of the school as promoted by the school’s vision and mission statement, on the one hand, and to the values and lived experiences of the school community and society, on the other. All elements of organisational life need to function coherently so as to provide an environment to support effective teaching and learning and to link school evaluation and future planning processes. Management’s approach to change may either be empowering and promote social justice principles (Fraser, 2009) or reinforce the status quo depending on management’s orientation and values and how it engages with policy and contextual imperatives. We argue that teachers and the school leadership are central to maintaining the classroom and school culture and environment which supports the

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learner and the parent/guardian community. This is particularly the case in environments where school and school community relationships are weak. Our focus was therefore on working with teachers and the school leadership. To this effect we availed of collaborative participatory action learning approach using photo voice (Chambers, 2007; Kemmis & McTaggart, 2005).

4.2.4 Social Justice and Social Justice Pedagogy Fraser (2008) identified both the affirmative and transformative approaches to addressing injustice. Affirmative approaches do not disturb the structures that perpetuate inequalities while transformative approaches address the underlying systems and causes of injustice and oppression. Ensuring that social justice pedagogy is promoted in schools would require what Zembylas and Bozalek (2017) refer to as an orientation that engages with notions of justice at the societal level and ‘nurtures relational values such as care, compassion, respect, and solidarity’ (Zembylas & Bozalek, 2017, p. 3). Moje (2007) argues that a socially just pedagogy may not be transformative as its focus is on assimilation into the dominant knowledge structures. She asserts that a socially just pedagogy would focus on the equitable opportunities to learn, on the access to learning resources and on providing opportunities so that social and economic success may ensue. She further argues (ibid., 2007) that a socially just pedagogy would not take a critical stance towards engaging with the curriculum as it does not deliberately challenge and question the content and pedagogy, neither does it promote the active participation of students in the process. Fraser’s (2008, 2009) three-dimensional framework provides a useful normative framework through which to engage with issues of TWB and multilingualism in disadvantaged communities. The three dimensions of social justice include the economic, cultural and political issues that enable people to interact socially and to participate as full partners, thus enabling what she terms ‘participatory parity’. Participatory parity could be constrained by economic structures which perpetuate the mistribution of resources or where there are disparities in wealth, income or access to resources and leisure time. Class, race or economic disparities can prevent people from interacting as equals. Secondly, on a cultural dimension, the social arrangements which influence respect and self-esteem could be constrained by certain cultural values or languages being valued over others, thus perpetuating unequal systems of recognition. Fraser (2009) identifies the third political dimension to include the notion of representation at a local and global level. The political voice people have (or do not have) to influence decisions that affect them relates to representation. In schools, representation would need to consider how the voices of teachers, parents and learners are affected by language policies and cultural practices. Bozalek and Boughey (2012, p. 690) assert that ‘the third dimension of social justice is more severe than either the economic or the cultural, in that one can be

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wrongly excluded from consideration for distribution, recognition and representation’. For social justice to occur, one must engage with the economic, cultural and political dimensions that enable participatory parity to prevail. Guided by TWB dimensions (Collett, 2014), a WSD orientation and Fraser’s social justice framework, this chapter explores the lived experiences of teachers at Ithemba Primary School (Pseudonym) in the Western Cape, South Africa. In the following section, we describe the school and the context in which it operates in order to situate the social setting in which the research and development processes were conducted.

4.3 School and Community Context Ithemba Primary School was established in 1966 and is situated in a community on the Cape Flats approximately 15 kilometres from the centre of Cape Town, in the Western Cape region of South Africa. In 2018, approximately 550 learners between Grade R and Grade 7 attended this school. Sixteen full-time staff members, a principal and deputy principal make up the teaching staff. Both a growth and decline in learner numbers has occurred as community demographics shifted due to political change and the dismantling of apartheid in 1994. The school community is characterised by major socio-economic challenges as a result of a history of the forced removal and segregation of people according to race and class under apartheid. The community surrounding the school has a history of high levels of poverty, unemployment, substance abuse, gangsterism and violence. However, it also has a strong history of political activism and social cohesion in resisting oppression and promoting community development. In the post-apartheid years with the opening up of group areas and opportunities for economic advancement, community demographics began to change. It shifted from a predominantly working-class People of Colour to a more diverse community including a number of Black African South Africans and immigrants from other countries in Africa. Over the years, the school has also experienced an increase in the number of learners from outside the province and country. For example, the number of learners from the Eastern Cape is growing as the province struggles economically. Thus many parents and families migrate to the Western Cape. In addition, there are a number of political and economic migrants from countries such as Zimbabwe, Congo and Malawi. Because of these factors, the demographics of learners and the parents/guardians have dramatically changed to represent a greater diversity of people from within South Africa as well as from other African countries. This necessitates the shift in language practices to accommodate this culturally and linguistically diverse community. Prior to 1994, the language of the school was Afrikaans, the mother tongue spoken in the community. By 1996, the language policy shifted to one where both streams of Afrikaans and English were offered in each grade. Then in 2001, the School Governing Body (SGB) resolved to offer only English as a medium of instruction

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for all grades in the schools. What is significant is that English is not spoken as the mother tongue in almost all of the learners’ homes and this impacts on the well-being of teachers and learners. Below we provide a description of the methodology we employed to investigate the factors that influenced TWB and multilingualism at Ithemba Primary School.

4.4 Research Methodology Our research which considers the change process with regards to TWB and multilingual education was based on a collaborative and participatory action learning research design (Chambers, 2007; Kemmis & McTaggart, 2005) and informed by the use of photovoice (Carlson, Engebretson, & Chamberlain, 2006). This approach was used as it builds collaborative ownership and understanding for change and improved action by participants (Rudolph et al., 2008; Whitehead, 2012). The approach was informed by Babbie and Mouton’s (2009, p. 645) definition of the practice of participatory action research: Participatory to the extreme, as it is based on the people’s role in setting the agendas, participation in the data gathering and analysis, and controlling the use of outcomes. PAR postulates participation to the extent of shared ownership of the research enterprise.

Collaboration between staff members at Ithemba Primary School and researchers of the Faculty of Education of UWC took place through twice-monthly systematic reflective inquiry over a two-year period starting in January 2017 and ending in December 2018. Participation included ongoing iterative cycles of reflection on action and reflection in action (Schon, ¨ 1987), planning to improve action and implementing strategies in a classroom, in a staffroom and at a whole-school level to enhance capacity for well-being and multilingualism. Knowledge production driving the innovation was negotiated by engaging in processes of collective enquiry informed by both experience in practice, engagement with key literature and exposure to demonstrations of promising practice in promoting teacher well-being and in multilingual teaching. Two ‘Key Teachers’ as well as two staff representatives from UWC were selected to mediate ongoing cycles of inquiry and learning. We used the photovoice approach which is well documented as a methodology that promotes the active agency and voice of participants in understanding community and personal experiences in promoting the taking of social action for change (Carlson et al., 2006). Photovoice was also employed to promote teacher understanding and agency toward the change process in Ithemba Primary School. By making use of their cell phones or cameras, teachers took pictures of artefacts or processes related to factors supporting or constraining well-being and multilingualism in their classrooms. In groups, teachers spoke about their photographs using the photovoice methodology. They described what the pictures represented, how they felt about what they saw and experienced,

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and whether and/or how the aspect supported their well-being. They then identified what action they felt needed to be taken to improve their well-being. The process of staff inquiry and dialogical engagement is in itself a social justice approach as it enables the voices and lived experiences of all staff members to be heard with a view to promoting strengthened action for change. The data generated from staff inquiry in a professional learning community (Battersby & Verdi, 2015; Carpenter, 2017) was used to inform the development of a ‘Dream Tree’ which identified the goals and actions that needed to be taken at a classroom and at a whole-school level to enhance capacity for well-being and multilingualism. UWC colleagues included a level of engagement with theory and policy related to TWB and multilingualism to deepen debate and involvement. The community of staff thus functioned at times as a community of praxis which could enhance critical and transformative thinking. Burke defines a community of praxis as ‘…the bringing together of critical reflection and action— is crucial in creating such transformative possibilities… to create more refined, sensitive and nuanced strategies for equity…’ (Burke, 2018, p. 16). Ongoing cycles of systematic research and reflection on action at a school and classroom level (primarily driven by the external facilitators with the involvement of the key teachers) generated deepened levels of individual and collective understanding and agency towards improving practice (Rudolph et al., 2008; Whitehead, 2012). This began with a baseline survey to teachers at the start of the intervention where a questionnaire was administered and focus group interviews were conducted. This was followed by collaborative interaction through sharing of photovoice and questionnaire data throughout the two-year process. A whole-school development lens proved useful as an analytical framework to help staff identify which aspects of the school were working well, and where greater intervention was needed to strengthen capacity for well-being and multilingualism. At the onset of the project the instability in the role of senior leadership was raised as a concern for the sustainability of intervention. The intervention process had a number of phases and steps within a broader community of inquiry and action learning process. These include: Introduction and orientation • Exploring factors supporting and constraining teacher well-being and multilingualism using photovoice. • Gathering baseline data using photovoice and other records. • Developing a common understanding of strengths and challenges. • Enquiry into practices through a Professional Learning Community (PLC) supported by photovoice data. Establishing a TWB Committee. Planning and building ownership for change • Identification by staff of ‘dreams’ to enhance teacher well-being. • Identification of specific strategies by novice teachers to enhance their well-being.

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• Teachers taking agency to make the needed changes putting one’s name to the change. • Staff sharing best practices. Building on current initiatives • Build links between current activities related to WSD and one’s ‘dreams’. • Look at the links between one’s dreams and plans for well-being and multilingualism. • Analysing one’s strengths and weaknesses using a whole-school framework. • Building school, staff-room and classroom strategies to share and strengthen practice. • Engaging in a collegial community of practice. • Reflecting on common action. • Reviewing roles and responsibilities. • Planning to strengthen collaboration and community engagement (Parents, NGO’s, Education Department, other schools). The study adhered to ethical principles of voluntary participation, anonymity and confidentiality. In the following section, we present the findings of the study that illustrate the factors that have positive and negative impacts on well-being and multilingualism. The findings emanate from triangulated data drawn from photovoice and from the collaborative and reflective practice with teachers through PAR at Ithemba Primary School. The analysis of data was done continually and collaboratively between the school and UWC participants within the ongoing participatory action research process.

4.5 Research Findings Consistent with our research question, the findings indicate factors which enhanced or constrained well-being in terms of teachers’ abilities for Having, Loving, Being and Meaning through the school development approach that has been described above.

4.5.1 Factors Positively Affecting TWB and Multilingualism When the intervention began in September 2016, teachers readily identified the personal, professional and school factors that helped their well-being and resilience within a linguistically and culturally diverse context. The primary resource on which the teachers drew was their own ability to take agency to look after their own levels of Being and Loving and Meaning. Their levels of Having related to the contextual

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and environmental conditions but the way the school functioned only provided them with few resources to cope with the demands of their jobs. At an organisational level, Having, lower levels of learner absenteeism improved well-being by helping teachers to meet curricular-based targets. At a classroom and pedagogical level, creating opportunities for learners to express themselves through engagement in multimodal learning activities, such as art, enabled learners to communicate and to express themselves in ways other than by just speaking and writing. This enhanced the learners’ enjoyment and promoted teacher and learner well-being and multilingualism. At a personal and school level, Having, effective behaviour management strategies which emphasised self-control and regulation and a calm approach to reinforcing behaviour management informed by a positive approach to behaviour management promoted well-being. This was particularly important as teachers recognised the strong relationship between learners’ poor behaviour and acting in contexts where learners could not express themselves or understand instructions properly because of language barriers. At a systemic level, Having, was supported through NGO’s providing learners with some level of additional reading and counselling support. This enhanced a support system for teachers and enabled them to cope better with their large classes and high levels of language barriers to learning. The national policy which introduced an African Language from the Foundation Phase in 2018 created opportunities for a greater level of Having a school culture and practice that supported multilingualism. This also enhanced a sense of professional Meaning. Policy change opened up the potential for the school to employ more black African teachers and thereby promoted staff equity and diversity and also supported the school’s language diversity resources. The appointment of two Foundation Phase isiXhosa-speaking teachers increased the multilingual resource base of the school for both learners and staff. These appointments were facilitated by the school’s need to implement the provincial Incremental Introduction of African Languages (IIAL) project which began at the start of 2018 in Grade one. At a professional level, well-being was enhanced through Meaning gained through a level of cooperative planning and personal planning, the professional support to colleagues and the sharing of teaching and learning resources and strategies related to multilingualism. Meaning at a personal and professional level was enhanced by teachers working together in a professional learning community to engage critically with the curriculum policy and practices to find creative ways to support learners. In addition, focused attention on building capacity for multilingualism and translanguaging practices enhanced the teachers’ own sense of professional meaning and coping. Meaning at an interpersonal level was enhanced by encouraging parents/guardians to use their home language to assist learners with their homework. Motivating parents/guardians to use their home language to help their children to read and write was promoted in the Foundation Phase.

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At the level of Loving, positive interpersonal interactions with learners were enhanced through translanguaging and by promoting the active engagement of learners in the learning process. This all helped enhance TWB. Loving was fostered by teachers enhancing communication between themselves and learners through modelling translanguaging, translation and code switching to support relations and meaningful learning. Code switching involves switching between languages for communication purposes while, translanguaging is a pedagogical tool that enhances learning in multilingual classrooms (Childs, 2016) and refers to the systematic and planned use of the home languages of the learners and the language of the classroom in order to enhance teaching and learning (Makalela, 2015). According to Velasco and García (2014) translanguaging is not about the usage of separate languages in education but is a flexible activity that bilinguals use when selecting appropriate features in their linguistic repertoire for meaningful communication (Velasco & García, 2014, p. 7). Mgijima and Makalela (2016) view translanguaging as an inferencing strategy that can be used to mediate classroom practices. It is a key comprehension technique that a learner uses to draw from home background in order to make sense of what is being taught. Ithemba Primary School teachers also encouraged ‘Learner Talk’ and provided learners with parallel language texts to build their understanding and language ability. At a personal level of Being, teachers experienced a sense of well-being by actively taking agency to look after their personal mental and physical health to cope with the demands of their jobs. This included the psychological dimensions of, ‘taking a deep breath’, or of coping with one step at a time and having a positive mindset. It also included the stimulation of positive emotions through laughing, positive affirmations and having quiet time. Personal activities to promote personal health focused on engaging in sporting activities such as running or going to the gym and looking after one’s personal health. Being was also enhanced by teachers expanding their own repertoire of pedagogical practices to promote multilingualism and active learner participation. Pedagogical strategies which enhanced teacher well-being included peer support through a ‘Buddy System’, encouraging peer interpretation and translation among learners, placing learners in language and cognitive ability groups, code-switching by the teachers to support understanding and translation between English and Afrikaans and between Afrikaans and isiXhosa. All these languages have official status in South Africa but English and Afrikaans are dominant due to the legacy of apartheid. The collaborative development of goals and activities related to a broader vision of enhancing teacher well-being and multilingualism in the school was evident in the development of a dream tree. This tree identified key goals and identified a period within which these goals would be reached. Teachers were encouraged to put their names to goals they were keen to champion in the future. This activity helped to build ownership and leadership for school development with a focus on TWB and multilingualism. Developing personal knowledge and skills for effective classroom management which included a focus of good lesson preparation and planning helped to enhance teacher agency at a classroom level.

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4.5.2 Factors Negatively Influencing TWB and Multilingualism At the start of the project teachers identified a number of factors which negatively affected their well-being in relation to English as a medium of instruction. TWB aspects of Having, Loving, Being and Meaning at a personal, inter-personal, organisational and systemic level in relation to teaching in a multilingual context negatively affected their ability to cope. Data from our surveys and interviews at the start of the project suggested that novice teachers were experiencing pedagogical challenges connected with teaching in a multilingual setting as captured in the following quote, ‘…lots of learners are not exposed to the language they are taught in.’ The organisational and systemic factors of Having had a direct and negative impact on the aspects of Meaning, Loving and Being in teachers’ professional lives. Limited levels of organisational leadership, as well as material and social and pedagogical support for teachers at a school and community level, placed a greater degree of responsibility on teachers and had an impact on their resourcefulness to cope and to support learners. Having: At a personal level, teachers identified marking and administrative workloads in large classes, as well as the high number of learners with barriers to learning in English as putting a great deal of stress on them. Teachers described many hours of ‘paperwork’, marking and corrections that were needed. Work responsibilities and marking often took place after working hours and cut into personal and family time, causing teachers added levels of stress. At an organisational level, teachers identified a number of factors which compromised their ability to cope and which increased their workload. A key factor in this regard was the instability in the school leadership and tensions on the SGB which had a deep effect on staff morale, support and future planning. This aspect refers to the role that management plays in the school including maintaining the running of the school, delivering the curriculum, and promoting the school’s innovation and change. During the initial two years of the project, school leadership instability was a key issue that negatively influenced teacher well-being. The school seemed to need measures to improve multilingualism and cultural diversity. The following comment by a staff member highlights leadership challenges. Our unstable management team … Currently all SMT positions are acting positions - the principal, deputy and one HOD post. It becomes very difficult when you have to make binding decisions. There is also the problem that you have among individual educators who feel they need to be afforded the opportunity to act because of the financial benefits, this creates strife among colleagues and confrontations which hinders any progress at school. The saddest of all is when educators use learners to fight their battles.

Apart from challenges at leadership level, staff mentioned SGB as functioning poorly. A teacher elaborated on these challenges:

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K. S. Collett et al. The biggest problem that we are facing in our school is the inability of these members to govern our school. Although they have been to numerous workshops, they are not able to function effectively. They tend to be more destructive than unifying the school community. It becomes very difficult because they do not ….. They play an important role in appointing educators and principal and, when they have to, they do not appoint the right people for the job and that destabilizes the school even more. They are easily influenced and do not make use of proper judgement.

A study by Tsvara (2013) on the relationship between the role of the school leader and teacher job satisfaction highlights the importance of organisational working conditions, recognition and interpersonal relations and discipline. Other factors which negatively affected the teacher’s level of Having included teaching large numbers of learners with language and other barriers to learning and class sizes of over 38 in the Foundation Phase (Grades R–3) and 40 in the Senior Phase (Grades 7–9). In classes where teachers had a large number of learners struggling with language barriers to learning, teachers needed to spend more time giving feedback, correcting and marking work. A teacher said that learners ‘get instructions wrong and need more support’. At an organisational level, there was very little additional support provided for learners who needed additional language or learning support. There were no intervention classes for Intermediate (Grades 4–6) and Senior phase learners. Therefore, teachers needed to take on this added responsibility to ensure learner success. The limited and prescriptive curriculum with little opportunities for learners’ holistic development and expression was also regarded as a problem. Structures and procedures for addressing learner discipline were ineffective and had a negative influence on teachers and learners. The inconsistency in teachers addressing discipline issues was identified as having a negative impact on learner discipline and this negatively influenced teacher well-being. A teacher expressed this frustration thus: It is also important for learners to experience a uniform approach at school so that they know what is expected of them when they enter every class at school. This must be in line with the school’s code of conduct, its vision and mission.

Having little technical support and financial resources to buy materials or repair classrooms and facilities were identified as having a negative effect on well-being and diversity. Classroom resources and learning material constraints included the absence of clean mats (carpets) for Foundation Phase teachers to work with learners in spaces away from their desks. In addition, teaching and learning materials, particularly multilingual resources, were not available to support learners. Having human resources in the school is a key element in building its capacity to function well. The lack of parental or guardian support was identified as one of the major factors that had a negative impact on the well-being of teachers and the development of the school. A teacher described this challenge as follows: It is difficult to get parents on board to work with us in order to work in harmony to educate their learners. Many of the parents in our area are unemployed and were children when they had their children. Sadly, some had children in order to get the monthly grant from the government. What makes it more difficult is that although they are not working it is difficult

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to get them to school when you need them. They seldom attend teacher parent meetings. The only time you see them at school is when they are not happy about something. Then they are very confrontational.

Teachers were also challenged with addressing cultural and language diversity in their classrooms. Challenges in addressing a high range of barriers to learning and resistance to cultural diversity were mentioned as negatively influencing teacher well-being. A teacher expressed this view: Learners from neighbouring countries and provinces bring another dimension to our school. They do not speak the language so the concept of multilingualism becomes part of teaching at our school.

The bullying of learners by other learners had a negative influence on the wellbeing of teachers and learners, particularly the bullying of immigrant learners who did not speak the dominant languages spoken in the school as their first or second language. A teacher said, ‘Many of these learners are bullied by learners at school or on their way home’. In short, there was no clear strategy to support teachers with addressing their well-being or with promoting capacity for multilingual teaching.

4.6 Discussion of Findings As indicated earlier, Ithemba Primary School is a multilingual school which is characterised by language diversity and poor literacy performance of its students. However, many parents select the school because the curriculum is taught through English. English is perceived as a language of mobility and future opportunity as it is an international language and one used in most higher education institutions in South Africa (Pluddemann, 2015). Scholars have noted the advantages of being multilingual (Benson, 2004; Mwinda & van der Walt, 2015) but without better teaching and learning strategies that meet the needs of the community, teachers and learners will continue to struggle (UNESCO, 2015). Having an understanding of different languages helps the teachers to develop the skills to express themselves and to mediate learning with confidence and effectiveness (Western Cape Education Department-Language Strategy, 2015– 2019). However, if there is no school-wide policy and strategy to promote translanguaging as an inclusive pedagogical strategy in linguistically diverse classrooms, it is unlikely that the learners will be afforded equal access to knowledge (Makalela, 2015; Ngcobo et al., 2016). The findings of our study illustrate that while Ithemba Primary School had a monolingual language policy, teachers made attempts to mediate learning by using Afrikaans which was the language of the majority of the learners and teachers at the school. They engaged in translanguaging practices but they were not free in this exercise as they found themselves confined to using English because of the monolingual language policy at the school. This attempt at translanguaging contributed to

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a limited extent in promoting TWB, as it helped to facilitate teaching and learning in a language with which some of the teachers felt more comfortable. Not having the disciplinary understanding of the approaches to multilingualism compromises the teachers’ practices (Prosper & Nomlomo, 2016). The literature suggests that pedagogical strategies are a key element in curriculum delivery (Podhajski, Mather, Nathan, & Sammons, 2009). Pedagogical strategies are a strong connection between subject knowledge and the skills to convey that knowledge. However, at the start of the intervention, the Ithemba school environment provided little support in this regard and this tended to compromise teachers’ self-esteem and confidence, thus producing a high level of anxiety and affecting TWB. From a social justice perspective, the use of English as the main language of learning and teaching (LOLT) at the school seemed to exclude most learners from participating as equal partners in the teaching-learning process. Although the school is currently attempting to use a ‘communicative approach’ to address some of the challenges of multilingualism, such as designing multilingual activities and greeting cards and promoting translanguaging during instructional practice, the dominant practice is still to use English as the medium of instruction and assessment. Therefore, English continues to be a barrier to learners who do not speak this language at home. Thus, the language of instruction (LOLT) issue impacts on the teachers’ and learners’ cultural and language identities as they have to negotiate new identities in the classroom (Kemende, 2018). Furthermore, it impacts negatively on the overall well-being of teachers and learners who are not English first or second language speakers. Given this point, it may be argued that English LOLT prevents learners’ full participation in the learning process, and teachers’ full participation in the teaching process, especially in a school like Ithemba Primary School, where the majority of teachers and learners are not English first- or second-language speakers. The LOLT in this school thus perpetuates inequality (Fraser, 2008). This could be associated not only with social and linguistic inequality, but also with epistemic injustice and deficiency which is associated with the mismatch between the children’s home languages and languages of teaching and learning in education (Kamwendo, 2017; Ntombela, 2017). It could also be understood in relation to language ideologies which reflect power relations that influence language use in schools (Makoe & McKinney, 2014). Working in such learning environments is likely to put a strain on TWB. Consistent with the WSD approach, these findings highlight the need to review school level language policy and curriculum strategy. Having stability in the current school leadership and legitimate representation on the Governing Body is key to the integration of well-being through a WSD approach and facilitating dialogue and understanding in the school community related to these matters. While the material and support conditions in the school may remain limited, some capacity for wellbeing has been built through the intervention focusing on building the aspect of Loving and Being in order to leverage the collective resources for change. Similarly, Collett (2014, p. 136) found that ‘Loving and Being enable teachers to access a level of Having and Meaning’. This highlights the importance of addressing the social, emotional, physical and psychological aspects of teachers lives in order to support their well-being.

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Through the intervention, the principal and management team in collaboration with the project partners created increased opportunities for staff to engage with how capacity for TWB and ML was being enhanced. The professional learning community at Ithemba displayed the six components identified by Dufour (2004) which strengthen its capacity to problem solve collectively and activate the energy for change. However, through the partnership with university colleagues, it also included the aspect of critical engagement with current research and policy. This is what Burke (2018) refers to as a community of praxis. Within these forums staff wellbeing and development were promoted as staff found a new language and concepts to engage critically with challenges in their school and classroom practice in relation to current research and policy. The partnership with UWC helped to facilitate a level of critical engagement. However, changes in leadership and the limited involvement of the new principal in project activities raised concerns about the extent to which the gains made in this intervention would be integrated and sustained in the school development process. The project partnership shows that strengthening the capacity for a learning and caring professional staff community, using participatory action learning and research focused on an integrated WSD approach, has the potential to promote TWB and linguistic diversity. Through the Erasmus + TWBD partnership and other collaborative national and international forums in face-to-face and online communities, further learning relating to promoting innovative strategies to enhance well-being could be fostered. Current legislation requires school leaders in South Africa to promote the development of professional learning communities in their schools (DoE, SASP, 2015) which indicates the potential of these practices to spread to other schools. However, the nature of enquiry and the norms for building collegial trust in these communities, as well as the languages used to facilitate enquiry, would need critical review, in order to promote a social justice agenda and school community well-being. Building professional learning communities of praxis with the parent/guardian community remains a challenge and a critical one to enhancing whole-school wellbeing (Kitching, Roos, & Ferreira, 2012). Beginning a dialogue in relation to the school’s current language policy with the parent/guardian community through the SGB would be an important starting point. Pluddemann (2015) stresses the importance of shifting the habitus in schools from a monolingual to a multilingual one and he acknowledges the key role that teachers and SGBs can make in language policy development. Promoting translanguaging within these collaborative inquiry processes would enable all voices to be heard, recognised and represented—a crucial step in promoting social justice and community well-being.

4.7 Conclusion This chapter has highlighted the achievements and challenges regarding teacher wellbeing and multilingualism in a school located within a high poverty context. While some of the findings are familiar with regard to challenges confronting teachers and

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learners in disadvantaged contexts in South Africa, they shed light on the teachers’ daily experiences that put their well-being at risk. Apart from the language of instruction issue that places many children at risk of educational failure, the findings also highlight a plethora of challenges that impact the teachers’ personal and professional lives in a manner that could have detrimental effects on the quality of teaching and learning outcomes. At a school organisational level, sustaining a focus on teacher well-being and multilingualism requires senior leadership and the School Governing Body to promote its integration into the vision and mission of the school and the school development planning. This would require sharing of knowledge and understanding of teacher well-being and multilingual education and the interrelationship between the two concepts in fostering effective teaching and learning. It is, therefore, crucial that an integrated whole-school development approach be employed to strengthen organisation, ownership and support to institutionalise TWB and multilingualism into the school policy, planning and discourse. In addition, this would require putting in place an ongoing system of inquiry, monitoring and communication and reporting in relation to the achievement of plans. Enhancing school collaborative communities of praxis (professional learning communities) both in face-to-face and online environments where translanguaging is modelled may provide platforms to build social cohesion and well-being. This case study holds lessons for schools in Europe, internationally and in South Africa on using a strengths-based and inclusive approach to enhance the well-being of the teachers within multilingual and diverse cultural contexts where issues of social justice require engagement. Thus, we recommend that future research should explore this relationship in a range of school contexts.

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Karen Suzette Collett is a senior lecturer in the Education Studies Department at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa. Dr. Collett has extensive experience and research in the areas of school and leadership development, teacher development and health promotion in schools. Her Ph.D. focused on the area of teacher well-being and leadership. She has served as a member of the Western Cape Education Council and Health Promoting Schools Forum. And is currently researching and supervising in the area of TWB and school leadership. Vuyokazi Nomlomo is the Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Teaching and Learning at the University of Zululand, she also served as the Dean of Education in the Faculty of Education at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa between 2017 and 2020. Professor Vuyokazi Nomlomo holds a Ph.D. in Language Education. She has a wide experience as a teacher educator and researcher in Language and Literacy studies, with a focus on multilingual practices in basic and higher education in South Africa. She has participated in a number of national and international projects that promote the status and use of African languages in education. Through her involvement in

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language education platforms and debates, she has established and maintained a coherent research agenda on language policy and practice, as well as literacy imperatives in education. Her research is informed by her epistemic stance on social justice and social constructivism in understanding language policy issues and the role of language in facilitating classroom discourse and students’ epistemological access to learning in linguistically diverse contexts. Someka Ngece is a lecturer in the Language Department at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa. She has a number of years of experience teaching in multilingual school and higher education environments and in teacher development. She has a particular interest in Early Literacy and translanguaging and is currently completing her Ph.D. in this area. Daniel Jansen has 30 years of experience as Head of Intermesiate and Senior (InterSen) Phase in South Africa. He also has experience of senior management, acting as a Deputy Principal and Principal. He is a representative on the TWBD EPlus project and is a prospective Master’s Student focusing on the well-being of novice teachers. Elmarie Mackier is an InterSen Teacher with 23 years experience in the primary school and 17 years as a teacher in the Foundation Phase in South Africa. She is also a school-community liaison worker and is currently a teacher representative on the TWBD EPlus project.

Chapter 5

Teacher Well-Being and Teacher Professional Development Sissel Tove Olsen, Aslaug Andreassen Becher, Sigurd Bergflødt, Aina Hammer, Nanna Paaske, Kirsten Palm, and Brit Steinsvik

Abstract This study focuses on factors influencing the well-being of teachers in a socially and linguistically diverse primary school in Oslo, Norway. The school’s teachers identified four main themes where they felt classroom interventions and support would be useful: (1) identity and cultural diversity; (2) linguistic diversity; (3) home–school collaboration; (4) adapted teaching. The contributing researchers in this study present findings from investigations into the various innovative classroom and school activities that were implemented as a response to these needs. The interventions were open-ended and responsive to contextual needs. They were based on action research methods and data were collected at varied intervals throughout a 2-year period. In this chapter, we argue that the strategies and activities adopted to support the teachers at this school in Oslo are building their well-being, both gradually and simultaneously, through the enhancement of practical skills related to teaching, intercultural communication and safeguarding health, at both individual

S. T. Olsen (B) · A. Andreassen Becher · S. Bergflødt · A. Hammer · N. Paaske · K. Palm · B. Steinsvik Faculty of Education and International Studies, Oslo Metropolitan University, Oslo, Norway e-mail: [email protected] A. Andreassen Becher e-mail: [email protected] S. Bergflødt e-mail: [email protected] A. Hammer e-mail: [email protected] N. Paaske e-mail: [email protected] K. Palm e-mail: [email protected] B. Steinsvik e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 T. R. N. Murphy and P. Mannix-McNamara (eds.), International Perspectives on Teacher Well-Being and Diversity, Understanding Teaching-Learning Practice, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-1699-0_5

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and collegial levels. We further argue that the culturally sensitive nature of the interventions in the school forms a sound basis for the adaptability of such interventions to other contexts both locally and internationally. Keywords Linguistic and social diversity · Adapted teaching · Home–school relations · Cross-cultural and cross-religious training

5.1 Introduction This chapter presents and examines Teacher Well-Being and Diversity (TWBD) project investigations that took place at the TWBD partner school in Oslo, 2017– 2018. The partner school is a primary school situated in a diverse neighbourhood in east central Oslo, with about 550 students and 80 employees and with 30 different languages spoken at the school. The investigations were initiated by the Oslo TWBD project group, consisting of researchers at Oslo Metropolitan University (OsloMet), formerly Oslo and Akershus University College (Hioa), and teachers at the partner school. The teachers expressed their needs at an early stage to develop a stronger collegial culture at the school in their approach to linguistic, cultural and social diversity among students and parents without subsuming the individual teacher. The question was raised as to how OsloMet project members might provide input on different research and theoretical perspectives to support this aim. The OsloMet researchers were to provide an independent perspective on the implementation of specific TWBD project activities. There was broad consensus among all the members of the Oslo project group to start on a small scale using basic project investigations in one class (Grade 1). The objective was to develop a toolbox containing various pedagogical tools with a focus on language learning and communication in a context where diversity is considered a resource and is utilised as such. The Oslo TWBD project group discussed in depth which TWBD themes could be relevant in a Norwegian context. Four main themes were identified: (1) identity and cultural diversity; (2) linguistic diversity; (3) home–school collaboration; and (4) adapted teaching. Based on these themes, a semi-structured questionnaire asking teachers about their needs related to diversity in the classroom was constructed. The survey, examining the teachers’ experiences within the four themes, was conducted at the school in the presence of all teaching staff, the school principal and the OsloMet members of the project group. The findings of the survey were presented at the second joint meeting, and the teachers then chose the themes they would work on. This provided a basis for a discussion among the teachers about various methods and tools they could test in the classroom. After testing their methods, with and without OsloMet staff as observers and advisors, meetings were held to provide an arena for joint reflection on their experiences.

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Main Focus

89 Associated Researcher

Teachers’ experiences with adapted education in

Teachers’ understanding of their adaptive teaching practices and the effect on teachers’ well-being as professionals.

Brit Steinsvik

How teachers in primary schools can promote and stimulate the use of all the different languages represented in the classroom.

Kirsten Palm

A didactical approach to Amin Maalouf’s (2001) understanding of identity and identity formation. Enabling students to reflect on experiences during their own childhood, and strengthening the well-being of both students and teachers through mutual understanding and genuine perception of the students’ situation. The importance of a school-parent relationship with regard to well-being so as to strengthen inclusion in both school and local community.

Aina Hammer

(Researcher 1)

a diverse urban primary school context in Norway Multilingualism as a resource in early primary

(Researcher 2)

school ‘The lifeline project’

School-parent relations in a multicultural context

(Researcher 3) and Nanna Paaske (Researcher 4) Aslaug Andreassen Becher (Researcher 5)

Fig. 5.1 Overview of the four investigations

Four investigations, one for each theme, were conducted during the project period, using a range of qualitative methods and employing components of action research. Figure 5.1 provides a descriptive overview of the investigations. This chapter presents the four investigations at the partner school, including an analysis and discussion of the teachers’ reflections on their experience of—and learning gained from—the various innovative school activities implemented in the light of theories related to the various topics that emerged during these meetings. We consider the four investigations separately, yet they develop from the same startingpoint and within the same Teacher Well-Being and Diversity project. In effect, they constitute individual cases or investigations within a broader casing, which together help to shed light on innovative classroom practices in the context of a linguistically diverse primary school in Oslo. The themes to be explored in the individual investigations informed the choice of research methods that were engaged with, which were broadly qualitative in nature. In addition, the research was informed throughout by a robust theoretical framework. The qualitative methodologies, which were tailored to the specificity of the phenomenon under investigation within the individual investigations, allowed for the complexities as well as the interconnections between the individual investigations to emerge. Researchers have pointed out that this is a characteristic of qualitative inquiry, in that it offers a holistic perspective on the phenomenon under scrutiny. Such an approach invites an understanding of the complex system involved that is more than the sum of its parts (Olsen, 2011).

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All four investigations presented in this chapter were guided by general codes of ethics of educational and social research. This meant that the principle of ‘do no harm’ to any of the participants in the investigations was followed. Access to the school was granted through the school leadership structures, who informed the teachers that their anonymity was secured, as well as their right to withdraw their consent to be involved in the research at any time. In order to better understand the findings of these investigations and their impact, the section below will provide a background by describing the status of multilingual and social diversity in schools in Norway. Norwegian classrooms have become more diverse due to immigration from both European and non-European countries. This introduction provides a brief account of the wider context of this diversity, including a short description of the situation in Norway with regard to linguistic diversity and minorities. We focus in particular on the language situation in the capital, Oslo, because of the distinctive ethnic composition of the student population and the fact that the project’s partner school is also located in Oslo. Current education policy reflects the linguistic and cultural diversity of Norway today in that students have a statutory right to adapted Norwegian language teaching and native language teaching. Norway has two official languages, Norwegian and Sami, with Norwegian as the majority language. Written Norwegian has two official standards, ‘bokmål’ and ‘nynorsk’. Sami is a Finno-Ugric language, currently spoken by around 20,000 people and is considered an endangered language (Språkrådet, 2017, p. 137). Official policy aims to bolster the position of the official languages as well as sign language and the recognised national minority languages: Kven, Romani and Romanes. With all the more recent minority languages spoken by immigrants, Norway has a rich diversity of languages. The largest of these groups are immigrants from Poland, the former Yugoslavia, Pakistan (native language Punjabi and Urdu), Vietnam, Iran (Persian) and Turkey (Turkish, Kurdish). There are also many Spanishspeaking immigrants, mainly from Latin America. Norway’s geographical proximity to Finland and Russia also has an impact, for example, some school students speak Finnish as their second language. An estimated 16,500 deaf and hearing-impaired people in Norway use sign language, making it one of the largest minority languages in Norway (www.språkrådet.no). The project’s partner school is responsible for Sami language teaching in Oslo. In addition, the school has three reception classes for newly arrived immigrants. The aim of the reception classes is to enable students to learn Norwegian quickly so that they can take part in regular classes. Reception teaching is differentiated to meet the needs of the individual student.

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5.1.1 Language Policy White paper No. 35 (2007–2008) on the government’s language policy (Kultur -og kirkedepartementet, [Ministry of Culture and Church Affairs], 2009) highlights the importance of including the perspective of linguistic diversity in a coherent language policy for Norway. Students in Norwegian schools learn both of the official Norwegian written languages, and in some cases Finnish or Sami. They also understand Danish and Swedish and start learning English at an early age. The use of dialects is widely accepted (Språkstatus, 2017, p.154). The right to a national language, the right to a native language and the right to a foreign language are highlighted in the white paper as three democratic language rights (Kultur -og kirkedepartemenetet [Ministry of Culture and Church Affairs], 2009, p. 82). Around 110 languages were represented in primary and lower secondary school in Norway in the school year 2017 (Statistics Norway, 2017). The language policy towards immigrants and refugees in Norway is regulated by Sect. 2.8 of the Education Act. This section states that students who are not sufficiently proficient in Norwegian to follow the ordinary curriculum are entitled to adapted language education in Norwegian as a second language. If necessary, the Education Act states, they can also receive bilingual subject teaching and/or mother tongue instruction. However, the Act is vague in its formulation, and students only have these rights until they are able to follow the ordinary curriculum. The consequences are that mother tongue instruction is rare, and bilingual instruction has been decreasing over the past decade. Still, second language teaching is increasing, due to the number of new immigrants and refugees. A total of 44,900 students with a minority background received adapted Norwegian language teaching in 2017/18, which is 7% of total student population (Utdanningsdirektoratet, 2017). Language policy is based on the view that children acquire knowledge most efficiently when they are taught in the language they know best (Official Norwegian Report (NOU), 2010). This requires competent and knowledgeable teaching staff at all levels, as pointed out by the 2010 expert group on minority language students. The expert group recognised that the language policy on linguistic diversity in schools offered both opportunities and challenges, but highlighted the importance of starting early to foster and monitor students’ language skills, from pre-school onwards. In addition to language skills, teachers need intercultural communicative competence, knowledge of social and cultural change processes, and knowledge of multilingualism and multicultural pedagogy. Alongside the focus on strengthening teaching and communication skills, they stressed the importance of ‘a change of attitude in the education system, and in society in general, so that multilingualism is seen as an asset for the individual and for Norway’s opportunities to succeed in a global labour market’ (NOU, 2010, p. 12, our translation). On the subject of the lack of competence in this field, researcher 1 discusses teachers’ experience of adapted teaching for minority language students. Many

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students do not receive the adapted education they are entitled to, and factors influencing teachers’ well-being include time pressure, as well as a weak knowledge base regarding adapted language teaching methods (see 5.2).

5.1.2 The Increase in Diversity and Its Impact on Teacher Well-Being The increase in diversity in the student population and their parents, in combination with a governing principle of equality and adapted education for all, places considerable demands on schools with regard to flexibility and adaptation of learning programmes Kunnskapsdepartementet, 2009). People have also become more aware of their rights, and demands on schools to justify and document their activities have increased (ibid.). Language policy and language teaching in Norway are founded on a resourcebased approach to linguistic and cultural diversity, reflected in policy documents for nurseries and primary/lower secondary schools. Diversity is to be visible and valued (NOU, 2010, p. 12). The ‘diversity-as-resource’ perspective influences how diversity is expected to be referred to and thought about and, one might argue, requires it to be met in certain ways. This does not mean, however, that the challenging aspects of a diverse and multilingual society are no longer present. In spite of the high level of linguistic diversity in Norway and the fact that diversity is generally regarded as an enrichment and a resource, researcher 2 stresses that ‘pressure to focus on monolingualism and strengthen Norwegian language learning is quite strong in Norwegian schools’ (see Sect. 5.3), possibly at the expense of minority and foreign languages. Researcher 2 aims to identify pedagogical strategies that can maximise the potential of a multilingual classroom in developing an inclusive approach to literacy development. She emphasises the benefits of developing teaching methods and examples of good practice that will lead teachers to make use of the linguistic diversity that exists in their classrooms as part of their practice. Teachers themselves report an increase in confidence in using tools and methods in their work when the purpose of those tools and how to use them has been clearly described. A large linguistically and culturally diverse group poses challenges for social inequality, with varying degrees of social inclusion and unequal access to linguistic and economic resources/capital (see also Chap. 3). The concept of social diversity includes the fact that one and the same classroom can contain students from both privileged and less privileged backgrounds and who have grown up under very different conditions. The report entitled ‘Oppvekstrapporten 2017: Økte forskjeller–gjør det noe?’ [Early Years Report 2017: Social disparities have increased - does it matter?], issued by the Directorate for Children, Youth and Family Affairs (Bufdir, 2017), addresses social inequality in our knowledge society. What characterises a less privileged

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upbringing and lower levels of education in a, generally speaking, rich society, requiring a high level of education, knowledge and skills? Education and the ability to complete a long period of education seems increasingly important. Expert knowledge, problem-solving abilities and the ability to cooperate and communicate with others are regarded as important skills for success in future adult life. In this context, the acquisition of language skills is paramount. Without such skills, there is a greater risk of being excluded from working life and feeling socially excluded. Even minor differences in the acquisition of language skills and knowledge seem to be amplified in the transition to adolescence and early adulthood (Frønes, 2017). According to the United Nations, poverty is ‘… a denial of choices and opportunities, a violation of human dignity’ (Gordon, 2005). In our skills-based society, poverty refers to the mismatch between the child’s social and personal resources and the requirements set by a skills-based society (Frønes, 2017). Children from homes of lower socio-economic status have fewer opportunities and drop out earlier than others. Marginalisation owing to the family’s poor financial position is an underlying characteristic linked to a higher risk of a difficult childhood and adolescence (Frønes, 2017). Researcher 3 and researcher 4 show in this Sect. (5.4) that school students using a tool such as the ‘Lifeline project’ develop the ability to collaborate and understand each other’s backgrounds and life situations. Based on Amin Maalouf’s concept of ‘othering’ (Maalouf, 2001), the project, developed by teachers at the partner school, enables students to reflect on experiences during their own childhood and adolescence and to feel pride in key elements of their complex affiliations and see them in a positive light. Teachers report that they get closer to the students through a genuine perception of the students’ situations and world-views. The change processes observed by the researchers seem to have empowered the children and therefore strengthened the well-being of the teachers and serve as examples of the interaction between individuals’ social and personal resources and the requirements set by the school. Collaboration, communication, inclusion and community are also key elements in researcher 5’s discussion on ‘The school–parent relationship in a multicultural context’ (5.5). She highlights the positive effects of establishing meeting places for children, parents and teachers and the importance of cooperation with parents and the participation of parents with regard to teacher well-being.

5.2 Teachers’ Experiences with Adapted Education in a Diverse Urban Primary School Context in Norway 5.2.1 Background This section presents a study of adapted education and teachers’ well-being in a diverse urban primary school context in Norway. The study has a focus on teachers’

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understanding of their adaptive teaching practices and how this can make an impact on the teachers’ well-being as professionals. As Norway is a social democratic welfare state, inclusion and equity are high on the agenda in Norwegian schools and society: ‘The Norwegian school system is inclusive; there must be room for all. Everyone is to be given the same opportunities to develop their abilities’ (Utdannings- og forskningsdepartementet, 2006, p. 3). The school system is based on the principle of one comprehensive school for all, which means that all students must have the same access to education. Each student also has the right to attend a local school in his or her neighbourhood. All students also have the right to receive adapted education. In line with these principles, the school shall have room for everybody, and teachers must therefore have an eye for each individual learner. The mode of teaching must not only be adapted to subject and content, but also to age and maturity, the individual learner and the mixed abilities of the entire class. The pedagogical design must be pliable enough to permit the teacher to meet the students’ differences in ability and rhythm of development with kindness and ease. Rules of conduct alone are not sufficient to transmit care and consideration. The teacher must make use of the variations in students’ aptitudes, the diversity in the classroom, and the heterogeneity of the school as resources for all-round development as well as the development of all (Education Act, 1998/2019, Sect. 1-3).

For decades, increased migration has increased the level of diversity in schools. Combined with stronger rights to adapted education and a targeted curriculum, this has made it more demanding for teachers to implement the curriculum and to meet the individual needs of the students. Research indicates that many students do not receive an adapted education in line with education policy (Haug, 2017a, 2017b). Multilingual students in particular have lower learning outcomes and are overrepresented in segregated special education (Pihl, 2010; Nordahl, 2007). This is worrying, especially since special education is also criticised for being ineffective, stigmatised and segregated (Nordahl & Hausstätter, 2009), which also puts more pressure on teachers to fulfil their mandate and improve teacher well-being in schools. The findings appear to indicate that the teachers’ perception of adapted learning in theory differs substantially from their experience of it in practice. They find that the curriculum concept is vague, unclear and abstract with inherent contradictions and dilemmas that are difficult to solve/work out in practice, as evidenced in previous research (see, for example, Haug, 2017a, 2017b).

5.2.2 Theoretical Context Inclusive and adapted education is a central feature of the Norwegian curriculum for compulsory education, underpinning its values and methods. According to the Education Act: Education shall be adapted to the abilities and aptitudes of the individual pupil…. [Education Act (Norway) (Sect. 1-3), 1998/2019]. Adapted education for inclusion is defined by four criteria:

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To expand the learning community: This means that all students should be members of a class or a group and be able to join the social life of the school together with other students. To increase participation: Real participation is more than being an observer. Real participation requires a contribution from a student that will benefit the learning community and that will enable him/her to enjoy the benefits of belonging to that same community. To increase democratisation: All voices should be heard. All students and parents/guardians should have the opportunity to express themselves and be heard. To increase the learning outcome: All students should have education/learning environments that benefit them socially as well as in terms of subject learning (Bachmann & Haug, 2006). Despite high ideological standards, adapted education is criticised as a diffuse, unclear and ambiguous curriculum concept that is difficult to understand and challenging to implement in practice (Haug, 2017a, 2017b; Nordahl & Hausstätter, 2009; Nordahl, 2018). Today, schools are transformative institutions that call for teachers with strong professional knowledge and awareness, combined with reflective thinking (OECD, 2010). The European Commission’s 2017 report on how to prepare teachers for diversity states that teachers must be effectively prepared to embrace the benefits of diversity for schools and students (EU, 2017). Hargreaves (2000) argues that when teachers face greater diversity and more complex teaching situations with intensified work demands, they are required to respond to the students’ diversity in all its aspects and to meet students’ individual needs on an equal basis. To do this, they must create their own professional knowledge base as an interplay between theoretical knowledge, experience-based knowledge and ethical values.

5.2.3 Methodology In this study, 32 teachers were interviewed via a digital survey questionnaire. In addition, in order to delve deeper into the findings, three first-grade teachers were interviewed using qualitative semi- structured interviews. First grade was chosen because ‘early intervention’ is an important principle in the school curriculum and the researcher was anxious to know more about the teachers’ thinking and experiences at this level. The main topic was teachers’ understanding/reflections and practice of adapted education in a diverse urban school context and how it affected the teachers’ well-being as professionals. Research Questions • What are your experiences with adapted education in a diverse classroom context?

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• How does the diversity among the students in your classroom affect the scope for adapted teaching and learning? • What experiences of success have you had in this work? • Which situations are extra challenging in this field? The questionnaire included the following: The main questions in the follow-up semi-open qualitative interviews included: • How do you understand the concept and principle of adapted education in the context of your mandate as a teacher? • What professional knowledge about adapted education do you think would support teacher well-being in a linguistically diverse learning context? • What are the teachers’ discourses about adapted teaching and learning and how does this affect their well-being? In order to analyse and explore the transcribed data, a thematic analysis by Braun and Clarke (2006) was used. According to them, this is a flexible method that can potentially provide a rich and detailed, yet complex account of data (Braun & Clarke, 2006). The data was categorised into different themes and subsequently analysed in light of theory about adapted education and professionalism. The recursive process of analysis involved several steps: (1) familiarisation with the data, (2) generating initial codes, (3) searching for themes, (4) reviewing themes, and (5) defining and naming themes. An adapted version of this process was implemented as part of this study. This helped in the identification, analysis and reporting of patterns and themes within the collected data and further also helped to form the basis of the emergent codes and categories (Kvale & Brinkmann, 2009, p. 202).

5.2.4 Results The results of the participating teachers’ understanding and experiences of adapted education in a diverse urban school context are presented under the following headings: Loyalty to the curriculum; Unclear and contradictory curriculum; Lack of knowledge about bilingual students’ learning needs; Individual approach. • Loyalty to the curriculum: The results show that the teachers feel a strong sense of loyalty towards the curriculum. They are positive about diversity and their mandate to provide adapted education. This is stated by the teachers as: diversity is great, I am positive about diversity and adapted education is important. However, some also express ambivalence: diversity is both enriching and demanding. • Unclear and contradictory curriculum: Some teachers express that adapted education is a vague, unclear and ambiguous concept. One of the challenges is presented as insufficient time to support students individually. • Lack of knowledge about diversity and multilingual students: Some teachers express that they lack knowledge about diversity and especially about multilingual students and subject learning. The teachers’ own perception of their success

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with adapted education varies widely: I succeed; I do not succeed; I sometimes succeed.

5.2.5 Discussion: Teachers Feel Pulled in Different Directions The results of the study indicate that there is a gap between the ideological expectations of adapted education in the curriculum and the teachers’ understanding and practice in diverse classrooms. This also affects the teachers’ professional well-being. On the one hand, the teachers embrace diversity and are very loyal to the curriculum’s intentions, but, on the other hand, they are ambivalent as to how it affects their professional well-being. Some teachers say that they succeed with adapted education in the classroom, others that they succeed occasionally, and some feel that they never succeed. These sentiments find expression in such comments: diversity is great and adapted education is important. Some say that diversity is both enriching and demanding or I do not succeed with adapted education. The latter comment may come from an understanding of adapted education as a strong individual right, which makes it challenging to meet all the students’ needs. Increased diversity in the classroom combined with a targeted curriculum and the demands of adapted education may put more pressure and demands on teachers to succeed in this field. It seems to be hard for the teachers to find a balance between how to challenge the students and at the same time help students succeed with their tasks. Some teachers say that they have too little knowledge of how to teach multilingual students, especially because they do not have sufficient knowledge about their learning needs. Diversity and great variation in students’ backgrounds, needs and abilities in the classroom, at the same time as all students having the right to belong and to learn and to be included in the same classroom, may be the reasons that some teachers say that we are always pulled in different directions.

5.3 Multilingualism as a Resource in Early Primary School 5.3.1 Background Ipsos (2015) found that one-third of school students in Norway reported using languages other than Norwegian in school and at home. In spite of this, the linguistic competences of bilingual students are not acknowledged and are used very little in schools. However, several recent studies highlight the benefits of bilingualism, such as cognitive advantages (Barac & Bialystok, 2012; De Angelis, 2011), positive effects on reading and the development of metalinguistic awareness (Bialystok, Luk, & Kvan, 2009; Laursen, 2013), a positive impact on learning in general (Stille &

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Cummins, 2013) and when learning other languages (De Angelis, 2011). Recently, there has also been an increase in interest in the concept of pedagogical translanguaging (García & Wei, 2014), where teachers encourage students to draw on all the languages they know in literacy and learning activities. Despite this research, teachers do not seem to promote multilingualism very actively. One reason for this may be that they are not familiar with this research. Another may be that pressure to focus on monolingualism and strengthen Norwegian language learning is quite strong in Norwegian schools. Finally, teachers do not have a methodology to use the languages used by students in their class as a resource in their teaching, and they lack examples of ‘good practice’ that could help them in their teaching. Nevertheless, teachers have the option and scope to change the monolingual classroom if they are given the tools to do so. Exploring a second-grade classroom (7-year old students). Since linguistic diversity was one of the main themes of the TWBD project, two of the participants, one teacher at the primary school and one researcher from the university, wanted to try out how one could promote and integrate all the different languages represented in the teaching and learning activities in a second-grade classroom. The activities took place in a class where almost 50% of the students speak languages other than Norwegian at home. In the class, 26 students speak or understand 12 different languages. They have a very varied linguistic background, with differing degrees of bilingualism, from being more or less fluent in a language other than Norwegian to understanding only a little of the language of one parent from another country. The aim of the project was twofold: firstly, to use multilingualism as a resource for students’ learning, and secondly, to explore in practice whether such activities could serve as a means to strengthen the teacher’s ability to handle the diversity in her class and thus improve her well-being.

5.3.2 Methodology 5.3.2.1

Action Research

The research was inspired by action research methods (Mills, 2003; Levin, 2017). The second-grade teacher volunteered to participate in the project focusing on language aspects. Different activities were planned, tried out, and evaluated jointly by the researcher and the teacher. The teacher had the main responsibility for implementing the activity, while the researcher’s responsibility was to document what happened and to find the relevant research and theory to support this way of teaching. The data are based on video tapes of lessons, participatory and non-participatory observation, students’ texts, and notes from discussions between the teacher and the researcher. Some of the students and parents were interviewed as well. After having been introduced to the project and their role in it, all the parents gave their written permission to let the students be videotaped and interviewed.

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The Activities

When the teacher started the project, one of the first things she wanted to explore was the variety of languages and competences among her students. As a part of this, the class made a ‘language corner’ in the classroom where the students themselves brought in the languages they knew and wanted to be associated with and made flags from their parents’ countries. Since English language learning is part of the curriculum in Norwegian primary schools from first grade, all students can be included in a bilingual context as all of them are able to speak some English in addition to Norwegian. There was also a selection of children’s books in many different languages in the classroom, and dual language books in Norwegian and another language. The teacher often made positive remarks about the different languages and highlighted the home language of the migrant children. In their daily routines, the class started every morning by saying ‘Good morning’ in all the languages, and very often, they sang the well-known song ‘Brother John’ in several of the languages represented in the class. The parents helped to write down the text in Latin letters for everybody to read. The teacher established the term ‘student language experts’, meaning that every student is an expert in his or her language. When a particular language was used, for example in a song, the relevant ‘expert’ stood up and acted as a language model, helping with pronunciation, explanations and so on. As part of the project, two other learning activities were tried out. The first one was a combined writing and oral activity: making a dual language story. The class created a story together in Norwegian. Then they took the story home to translate it into their selected language, and then told their story to their fellow students in that language. While the story was being told, the other students had to listen carefully and try to find out if there were words they could understand or other language aspects they noticed. The second activity was a multilingual dramatisation of the story of the Three Little Pigs. The students had different roles in the play—the pigs, the wolf, building materials (straw, wood and brick), and they repeated the different characters’ lines in several languages. Two students were storytellers, telling the story in English. The clss showed their play at a parents’ meeting and at an assembly with other schoolmates.

5.3.2.3

Language Portraits

After a year with different activities of this kind, we wanted to learn more about the students’ views on languages and multilingualism. After a short introduction, the students were given the task of creating their own language portraits using different colours.1 A language portrait is a way of visualising the languages a student knows, 1 An example of how to make language portraits can be found here: http://maledive.ecml.at/Studym aterials/Individual/Visualisinglanguagerepertoires/tabid/3611/language/en-GB/Default.aspx

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their level of competence in that language and anything the student specifically associates with that language. Afterwards, the students described their language portraits to each other and to the teacher.

5.3.3 Findings and Discussion 5.3.3.1

The Dual Language Story

When the students came back to school with the translated texts, they were quite proud, and most of them were happy to be the centre of everybody’s attention when telling the story. Still, it turned out to be quite difficult to tell the story in a language other than Norwegian, more difficult than the class teacher had expected. There were probably several reasons for this. The students were quite young, so it was an effort to remember a long story regardless of language, and since their reading abilities were not that developed, it was difficult for them to use the written text as support. Some of them obviously did not have the language level in their home language that the teacher had assumed. In spite of this, all of them volunteered to try to tell the story. The part of the activity that involved comparing words in different languages worked very well. The students found many words that are more or less the same in several languages, and they discussed and drew parallels to vocabulary and concepts in other languages. One could say that their metalinguistic awareness was stimulated (Bialystok et al. 2009; Laursen, 2013).

5.3.3.2

The Dramatisation

The little play based on the Three Little Pigs story was a success in that the students seemed to enjoy performing in front of different audiences and the play served to highlight the different language competences. However, it is difficult to say whether there was any other direct impact on students in this class or other classes after this activity.

5.3.3.3

The Language Portraits

The portraits revealed a large linguistic repertoire among the students, illustrating what one could call the diversity of multilingualism in a Norwegian mainstream context. Of course, some students’ parents were both from Norway and only Norwegian was spoken at home, and in other cases, both parents were from another country and spoke that country’s language at home. However, quite a few had parents who spoke two different languages, and these students used a variety of languages at home, with parents, with siblings and with friends in their spare time.

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The portraits illustrate the students’ perception of themselves as multilingual subjects (Laursen, 2013), familiar with different languages. All of them noted down the languages used by either one or both of their parents, and several had included a language that someone they loved or were friends with used, even if they knew very few words themselves. For example, one student reported that her grandmother spoke Swedish, another that her best friend could speak Spanish. One boy with a Norwegian/French background noted Somali as a language on his portrait. When asked about it, he said that his best friend spoke Somali and that was why he had used the brown colour since people from Somalia have brown skin. The same boy commented that he had drawn French in the stomach-area in his portrait because the French were such good cooks. A girl had divided her head into two parts representing her father as Spanish and her mother as Norwegian. She also explained how she could understand both Italian and French words because of their similarity to Spanish. The girl with the Swedish grandmother described how she had drawn the different colours representing the foreign languages only on her ears because she only could understand those languages. From the mouth, she said, I can only use Norwegian. Some students also added what languages they liked to hear, wanted to learn better or considered difficult. In addition, almost all of the students mentioned English as one of their languages. On their own initiative, some also suggested including different Norwegian dialects in their drawings.

5.3.3.4

Promoting Multilingualism

The language portraits, the language corner and the storytelling highlighted the multilingual identity of the students and can be seen as a kind of parallel to the work of Cummins and Early (2011) on identity texts in multilingual schools. Cummins and Early describe how French-speaking students in Canada made multimodal dual language books telling their own story in both English and their mother tongue. In this TWBD project, the students were younger and made shorter stories and drawings illustrating their language knowledge. The observations clearly show how many students were proud of their home language when they stood up in class to sing or to say something in another language as a ‘language expert’. This is not always the case when it comes to immigrant families because home languages other than Norwegian are often considered a hindrance to learning in Norwegian schools. In this case, the students’ eagerness and engagement was very visible. They volunteered to explain words or expressions and songs in the different languages. The students also showed a metalinguistic awareness in their explanations and comparisons of languages and dialects, and many of them expressed the desire to learn more languages in the future. However, since these are very young students, it is too early to predict whether this language interest will continue. The teacher reported that during the project the students seemed to develop a greater tolerance for language struggles and to accept that some classmates needed more help with Norwegian and maybe others with other languages. Pronunciation

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difficulties were also accepted, since everybody had trouble when they tried to sing or say words in another language. Some of the students started using languages other than Norwegian more than before. One student with a Spanish-speaking parent took up her Spanish and wanted to communicate more in Spanish than she used to—a fact that both parents appreciated.

5.3.3.5

The Role of the Parents

The students’ parents played an important role in the project. When the teacher introduced her plans at a parents’ meeting, saying that she needed their help to implement the project, the parents responded very positively. One of them said that this was the first time that anyone within the Norwegian school system had been interested in her language. All the parents helped with the translation of texts when necessary. Still, we cannot know if all the parents were positive, and there may be a risk that the monolingual Norwegian families think that this kind of project is only of help to the immigrant students. So, when conducting activities like this, it is important to point out that multilingualism is a resource for everybody in our society, a point that is actually mentioned specifically in the Norwegian school curriculum.

5.3.3.6

Teacher Well-Being

Asked about the impact on teacher well-being, the teacher said that she had learnt a lot from the multilingual situation that had emerged and that she felt more confident in meeting the needs of the bilingual students. School–home cooperation had been strengthened, and the teacher now feels more confident and secure when meeting the parents. She is more motivated to work in such a diverse setting and has developed her self-efficacy. She feels more at ease with the considerable linguistic diversity in the school. During the project, she developed some tools related to diversity, relationships, identity and the learning environment in the classroom. These tools are similar to what Chumack-Horbatch (2012) describes as linguistically appropriate practice. The activities the teacher is trying out in this primary school represent the first steps towards achieving the goal in the Norwegian school curriculum of multilingualism being perceived as a resource in school and society (Norwegian government, 2017). One can also hope that this positive attitude to multilingualism will in the long run lead students to translanguaging processes. However, such a language focus is certainly a work in progress that has to be continued to make it an integral part of the teaching and learning process. Otherwise, there is a risk that such practices (García & Wei, 2014) will end up as short, enjoyable events that only last as long as the project.

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5.4 ‘The Lifeline Project’ 5.4.1 Background One teacher from our Norwegian partner school, who we will refer to as ‘Selma’, is credited with initiating what we have labelled ‘The lifeline project’. In brief, the project is a particular methodology for engaging students, in which they are encouraged to draw their own lifeline, in which they highlight significant milestones in their life experiences. Selma drew her inspiration from a workshop which was delivered as part of the TWBD Erasmus + project in December 2016. Subsequent to the workshop, she also recruited one of her colleagues, referred to as ‘Daniel’ to trial ‘The lifeline project’ with his students. At the above mentioned workshop, there was a dialogue between teacher educators and participating in-service teachers about the importance of acknowledging and validating the variety of cultural and religious affiliations present in a multicultural classroom. The dialogue was enriched through consideration of research by Westerheim and Tolo (2014) which identified the challenges that could arise for teachers when insufficient attention is devoted to multiculturalism. It emerged, in the course of this conversation, that it could be helpful for ‘The lifeline project’ to adopt Maalouf’s (2001) understanding of identity formation. He states that a person’s identity comprises multiple affiliations and that this identity is constructed and reconstructed throughout life, which aligned with the learning intentions behind ‘The lifeline project’. In addition, some research has found ‘social interactions as being both the most rewarding and the most problematic part of a teacher’s everyday life’ (Soini, Pyhältö & Pietarinen, 2010, p 741). Aware of this double-sided effect of social interaction in the teacher–student relationship, we set out to explore whether ‘The lifeline project’, and the inherent visualising of the student’s personal life, have had an impact on the students’ and teachers’ well-being. Here the term well-being is understood as the ‘positive or negative learning experiences leading towards empowerment and engagement’ (Soini et al., 2010, p. 737). We proceed to the analysis through the following three research questions: (1) (2) (3)

What is the project’s content and approach? What are the teachers’ reflections on the significance of the project for the students’ well-being? What are the teachers’ reflections on the significance of the project for their own well-being (as teachers in diverse classes)?

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5.4.2 Methodology The research on ‘The lifeline project’ adopted a qualitative, empirical approach. Accordingly, the findings emerged from an interpretation of our own and the participants’ understanding of the data (Kvale & Brinkmann, 2009). The data were collected in the period from spring 2017 until autumn 2018. Both of the participating teachers, Selma and Daniel, engaged in a semi-structured interview following classes in which ‘The lifeline project’ had been conducted. The process involved notetaking during the interviews. Additionally, the participants were invited to offer hand-written responses to the following questions about the project: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)

Describe ‘The lifeline project’. Can you describe the working process? What responses did you get from the students – before, during and after the project? What is the significance of this project for the class environment and the students? What is the impact of the project for you as a teacher? How can the project be further developed or improved?

‘The lifeline project’ was conducted in two 7th grade (middle school) classes. At this stage, the students have reached the age of 12, and some might have turned 13. Both classes were culturally and religiously diverse, with about 40% of the children having a minority language as their mother tongue. In accordance with good practice for content analysis, the resulting data were initially coded (Gibbs, 2007) and subsequently further refined as part of the analytic process (Kerlinger, 1970).

5.4.3 Results and Analysis Describing the project. When asked to describe ‘The lifeline project’, we did not discover any significant differences between Selma’s and Daniel’s descriptions. They both highlighted the following features; modelling, the students’ homework and the working process at school. Selma and Daniel started the project using their own lives as models for ‘The lifeline project’. They each brought a photo from their childhood when they started school, at approximately 6 years old. The photo was then fixed to a poster and hung on the wall. Underneath the picture, they had drawn a timeline from the time they were born and up until the same age as the students. Several important changes in their life conditions were highlighted on the line: Place of birth, the year when their families had moved and where they had moved to, siblings, hobbies and the nurseries and schools they had attended.

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Thereafter, the students were asked to reflect on the wide range of factors important to their own identity formation (family, neighbourhood, their nationality, experiences, place of birth and so on). The next step was to choose the most significant factors, and then to replicate what their teachers had done. During the next class, the students showed photos of themselves to their classmates and fixed these to their own time line posters. Finishing the posters, they had to find several personal features describing themselves in a positive manner and then pick two of these. These features were written on their poster together with the photo and time line. The presentations were conducted in a re-arranged classroom. The chairs were put in a circle, and the students were asked to listen while each student presented their lifeline poster orally. After each presentation, the student’s classmates were encouraged to give feedback on the presentation.

5.4.4 Teachers’ Reflections on the Significance of the Project for the Students’ Well-Being Engagement and connections. The teachers stated that ‘The lifeline project’ gave the opportunity to examine the class atmosphere, the students’ loyalty and participation in the learning activity. Selma and Daniel emphasised the positive atmosphere as an important outcome of the project. The latter for example stated ‘my students embraced the opportunity to remember with their parents about the early years experiences they share’. Selma admitted that although her students were sceptical about bringing personal photos in the beginning, the majority of her students embraced the project. The opportunity to learn more about their own and their classmates’ childhood seems to be one of the major outcomes for the students. Daniel also stated: ‘I have learned so much more about myself’.

5.4.5 Teacher Reflections on the Significance of the Project for Their Own Well-Being When coding and categorising the data, it became evident that the data set contained some shared topics regarding the project’s impact on the teacher’s well-being. Our analysis resulted in the following three categories: discovering similarities, awareness and understanding and activating positive emotions and engagement.

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Discovering Similarities

Data analysis revealed both Selma and Daniel had high expectations for the potential of the project to positively impact on their students’ classroom experiences. Daniel explained during the interview that he wanted to share the challenges he faced when leaving middle school and entering upper secondary school. He wanted to show his students how hard it can be ‘passing through life transitions’. In other words, Daniel searched his own life experiences to encourage his young students to hold a mirror to their own lives. While the students were presenting their ‘lifeline’ projects, Selma mentioned that her intention was to highlight the similarities between the students. She stated, for example, that ‘several of the students had attended reception classes, or gone to school abroad. I recall this as one of those ‘golden moments’ when the students were surprised by the fact that they had such experiences in common’.

5.4.5.2

Awareness and Understanding

Both Selma and Daniel stated that the project had helped them to get to know their students better. They both experienced a renewed awareness and understanding of the students. This was evident in the following reflection by Selma: There was a girl who told the class how she missed her father, who only used to visit her once a year. It helped the class and me to understand how she could sometimes react if she felt left out. This was of great importance to our class environment. The students got to know each other, they listened to each other and they could share positive experiences as well as some sad experiences.

It was evident that this increased understanding had positively impacted on their interactions with the students. Daniel for example noted that he is kinder to the students when he learns what their childhood has been like. He stated that ‘the purpose of letting the students show pictures from their life before starting school is to get to know who they were earlier in life’.

5.4.5.3

Activating Positive Emotions

Both Selma and Daniel emphasised that the project activated positive emotions like love and care for the students. Daniel stated: ‘I got very emotional… touched… and it was nice for me that I felt more love for them. Not that I didn’t feel love for them already, but I felt…let’s say…extra love (…). I also feel that I get closer to every individual student’. Selma described the process associated with ‘The lifeline project’ as ‘heart-warming’, allowing her to get ‘to know these children’ and ‘to focus on their positive features’.

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5.4.6 Discussion ‘The lifeline project’, which involves the students in sharing their personal narratives and experiences, has the potential risk of exposing vulnerabilities. Daniel observed that some students referred to some of ‘The lifeline projects’ as ‘wow, how cute’. This invited Daniel to reflect if some students experience the method as intrusive, making it difficult for the teacher to recover the classroom as a safe space? It highlighted for him the challenges involved with introducing pedagogical activities such as ‘The lifeline project’ and of the high level of pedagogical skilfulness required to create that safe space for all involved. On the positive side, ‘The lifeline project’ appeared to give the students and their teachers the possibility of showing their complex affiliations. Daniel observed that he can better understand his students’ behaviour at school when he knows ‘more about what’s happening at home’. Additionally, the increased understanding also impacts on how the students relate to each other. In this connection, Daniel stated that it is harder for the students to bully each other when they ‘are aware of what [their fellow students] have been through during their childhood’. In this, ‘The lifeline project’ participants are reminded of Maalouf’s thesis (2001, p. 21) that ‘Thanks to all my affiliations, I have a certain relatedness to a wide range of people’. Focusing on similar experiences, cross-cultural and cross-religious, makes it possible for the students to recognise personal struggles as more than cultural or religious experiences. Listening to each other’s lifeline stories reveals universal transition challenges related to growing up, to moving house, to making and losing friends. In this way they get the opportunity to see their own experiences from an outsider’s perspective. This connects closely with core elements of intercultural competence (Barrett, 2013; Huber & Reynolds, 2014; Jackson, 2014) and, in our view, ‘The lifeline project’ contributed to developing the student’s reflexivity through dialogue and in the conduct of the targeted activities. Both of these empowering processes for the students—strengthening their intercultural competence and mirroring for them the fruitfulness of learning about particular affiliations—seem to strengthen the teachers’ well-being. Selma evidenced this in the following reflection: ‘I felt that the mood of the class was different after this project, suddenly the whole class was a ‘friendship’, I trusted 100% in the class and we had fewer conflicts than before. Everyone was ‘seen’, nobody was better than anyone else. This was a project where no one was evaluated, I think that was also super positive! (…). I found I had renewed focus on the students’ good qualities. I got to know them so well through this project’.

5.4.7 Conclusion ‘Offering emotional support for the students was a key element of pedagogical wellbeing in teacher–student and also teacher–parent contexts’, concludes Soini et al.

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(2010, p. 744), and ‘The lifeline project’ revealed some similar findings: Knowledge and recognition of similar cross-religious, and cross-cultural experiences compiled in the classroom creates space for understanding and closeness between students and teachers. Not only does this seem to strengthen social interaction between the learners, but also the emotional involvement of the teacher in their students seems to be strengthened.

5.5 Home–School Relationships in a TWBD Context In this section, the focus is the school–parent relationship as it relates to teacher well-being. The intention is to illustrate how cooperation with and the participation of parents can strengthen and encourage teachers in approaching linguistic, cultural and social diversity in their work. The data relating to home–school cooperation is based on a small-scale study involving a digital questionnaire that was completed by most of the teachers in the school.

5.5.1 Background The background for the study and the questions posed were informed by theory in the field of multicultural and multilingual education, as well as social, pedagogical and political theory. The writings of Axel Honneth and Gert Biesta were found to be especially helpful. Both of these thinkers can be said to discuss the issues that are at stake for the individual to ‘come into the world’, to exist and participate in constructing a democratic society.

5.5.2 Methodology The study on parental involvement with education was informed by a multidimensional qualitative approach (Yin, 2009). The research literature indicates that combining observations and interviews with more structured approaches, such as questionnaires, can offer research insights into complex issues (Johannessen, Kristoffersen, & Tufte, 2016; Yin, 2009). The research instrument that we drew our data from can be characterised as a semi-structured digital interview. A link that secured anonymity was sent to the teachers’ e-mail. The questions were open-ended, asking for the teachers’ experiences surrounding successful activities, as well as challenges. There were four educational sections with three open questions in each section. These were about cultural and religious diversity, linguistic diversity, adjusted and inclusive education and home–school cooperation. A total of 12 questions were posed.

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Care was taken to provide the optimum conditions for the participants during the completion of the questionnaires. In a meeting with all the teachers, the digital questionnaire was introduced and time was given to complete it, individually and anonymously. Anonymity was secured by a link that could not be traced to the respondent. Thirty-four teachers completed the questionnaire. The study on parental involvement formed part of the wider TWBD study, for which the school principal had already given approval. The participating teachers with whom we engaged about home–school relationships were already familiar with the action research-oriented research processes (see Sects. 5.5.3 and 5.5.4 below).

5.5.3 Findings and Discussion The home–school relationship and its implication for teacher well-being is an issue that is often considered critical in education, especially in multicultural environments (Becher, 2006; Nordahl, 2007; Vandenbroek, 1999). The concept of ‘belonging’ can be related to the struggle for ‘recognition’, drawing on Honneth (2008), and ‘subjectification’, drawing on Biesta (2006, 2009, 2014). These concepts relate to society and democratic participation, in the form of micro-processes between students in classrooms and parents in the local community, as well as macro-processes in a national context. Accordingly, and with reference to well-being as ‘a sense of meaning that derives from doing one’s job in the service of something of wider significance than oneself’ (see Olsen & Collett, 2012), closer cooperation with parents seems to be relevant in promoting well-being among teachers. The initial questions on home–school relations were related to the fact that the teachers worked at a school with cultural, religious and linguistic diversity. Specifically, participating teachers were invited to consider how they attempted to strengthen their students’ sense of belonging and connectedness with the school and which strategies had been successful. Additionally, they were invited to reflect on the challenging situations they could find themselves in their efforts to forge this sense of connectedness.

5.5.3.1

Successful Experiences and Ways of Working with Parents’ and Students’ Sense of Belonging and Connectedness with the School

Several teachers emphasised the importance of a communication style that is welcoming and invites parents to talk. Parents must feel that their contributions are of interest and will be listened to. Such communication can be both informal and formal, by e-mail, by text or oral in everyday life, ‘when you meet parents in the morning or elsewhere on your way to school, in school, or on your way home from school’. In addition, humour is a good component, as having a laugh together makes contact easier.

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One of the respondents contends that the content of the communication should mostly be positive, especially when talking about other students and parents, ‘you talk in positive terms about all parents and students…’ Good communication should be characterised by signs of inclusion and understanding. This makes it easier to talk about things that are more challenging, for example, a student’s negative behaviour. Some respondents assert that open, inviting and positive communication can lead to better relationships between parents as well. An inclusive and positive atmosphere is created through communication that makes students and parents feel safe, free to contribute and thus become more friendly and comfortable with each other. ‘I want to practise basic human understanding’, says one of the respondents. The creation of good relationships is linked to interest in and respect for parents’ backgrounds, languages and traditions. Openness to the use of parents’ and students’ knowledge and experiences that involve an interest in games, stories/history and activities that occur in the home. According to one of the respondents: ‘We speak positively about having many languages and that we are lucky that our school has the opportunity to get to know traditions and practices from many countries’. This stimulates a sort of global awareness and competence. At the same time, respondents hold that it is important to be aware of life going on ‘here and now’ in our local community, in Oslo. They want to acknowledge the traditions and experiences of their parents’ home country, but this should not be a main focus in the cooperation and contact with parents and students. Stories and experiences from around the world are shared while the teachers simultaneously pay attention to the students’ free time and activities in the local community. Here, ‘inclusion’ is a key word mentioned by several of the respondents. Inclusion is an important issue locally and nationally. It operates at nursery, in the neighbourhood, in school or in after-school activities. The evidence suggests that participation in local activities has the potential to nurture friendships and promote understanding across cultural and linguistic boarders.

5.5.3.2

Updating and Informing Parents

Some respondents explained that they had positive experiences with home–school relations when they systematically updated and informed the parents. One respondent said ‘[I] Explain what we are working on, update and inform the parents’. This shows the importance of regular information explaining current and future class work. On school visits, we observed students’ project work decorating the walls. Parents are invited to come and have a look. This can create a sense of pride and belonging, to the class and to the school, for both parents and students. Individual focus on one student can also be part of the regular information. Highlighting ‘Today’s student’ every week is a way of showing interest in that particular student, her/his background, interests and experiences. Teachers report that individual concrete and positive feedback on a child’s work is appreciated by the child’s parents.

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Common Meeting Places—School Events

Examples of successful cooperation with parents cited by teachers include: ‘Breakfast at school’, ‘singing on the stairs of the local church’ and ‘a festival in the park near the school’. Such common meeting places are concrete, social events in which parents can engage and that strengthen parents’ relationship with the teachers, the school and each other. Teachers report that, as these common meeting events are organised by the school leadership, it is easier to build relationships with parents ‘outside school’ while still being ‘part of school’.

5.5.3.4

Challenges in Developing Cooperation with Parents and Students to Promote a Sense of Belonging and Connectedness with the School

A minority of teachers report that they were ‘not successful’ in developing parental cooperation. Two particular issues emerged from the data as especially challenging. Firstly, a lack of skills in the Norwegian language can present difficulties, especially in relation to conversing with parents about homework. In addition, the ability to make yourself clearly understood is important in matters such as behaviour or academic performance. When the basis for creating a mutual understanding is linguistically fragile, this can lead to complications. The second issue was lack of participation and visible interest in common events (mentioned above). Further, it was mentioned that a small minority of parents did not show any interest in their children’s life in school, whether academic or social achievements. Clearly, it is essential to be aware of the rights of bilingual students to bilingual teaching under Sect. 2.8 of the Education Act. Also of relevance is the fact that parents’ involvement in students’ academic homework is not recommended (Nordahl, 2007). Methods and content change over the course of time and parents cannot be expected to be familiar with all the academic developments in school. The most important contribution from parents regarding homework is a positive attitude, organising a structure of time and space for doing it and showing general interest in the work that the student does at school and at home (Nordahl, 2007). The daily and systematic work of building professional skills that enable students to experience success are valuable for students and parents. In addition, community and a sense of belonging and connectedness are created through collaboration on creating common events. An experienced teacher and researcher once expressed this as follows: ‘if the parents feel good, the student/child will also feel good’ (Becher, 2006, p. 45). We think that the reciprocity implied here is essential. The students’ feelings of being acknowledged and accepted influenced the parents and vice versa. In analysing the findings of the teachers’ work with parents, the researcher drew on concepts from Honneth and Biesta. Honneth’s (2008) extensive work on the struggle for recognition was especially pertinent. He explains why recognition and the key concepts related to it are crucial for democracy. He synthesises a wide range of perspectives—sociological, psychological and philosophical—into a model of

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social identity and social conflict. Love, rights and solidarity are prerequisites for development towards balanced self-esteem and a feeling of self-worth. Conversely, social exclusion, denial and violation of rights will tend to lead to poor self-esteem and feelings of not belonging (not being ‘in touch’ with your community). Democracy, Honneth (2008) contends, depends on persons with self-esteem, with the strength to come forward with critical reflections and the courage to speak out. Honneth in his later works (Strand, 2019; Honneth, 2019) strengthens the inter-subjectivity and the emotional bases of recognition. Social communication presupposes emotional connection (Strand, 2019; Honneth, 2019). He finds empirical evidence for this in studies of autistic children, which show that the being/presence of the other does not capture the child’s interest unless the child is emotionally engaged (Strand, 2019). This we consider to be in line with Biesta’s philosophical perspectives on present educational policies. Biesta argues that education functions within three domains of educational purposes (Biesta, 2014, p. 4). These domains are qualification, socialisation and subjectification. Qualifications are about skills and knowledge. Socialisation is about ‘initiating children and young people into existing traditions, cultures, ways of doing and ways of being’ (ibid., p. 4). Subjectification is about being or becoming a human subject, where Biesta refers to qualities such as autonomy, criticality, empathy and compassion (ibid., p 4). Subjectification, Biesta (2006, 2014) explains further, is about the uniqueness of every single human being. To fulfil this uniqueness we depend on others to ‘catch us up’ and to respond to our initiatives. He explains that this happens within small moments and events, continuously. In practical terms, this happens every day in classrooms. Students take the chance to share their thinking, to try out a phrase in a new language, to get in touch with the teacher to share a ‘secret’. If the teachers do not have the conditions or the competence to meet subjects ‘coming into the world’ in these ways, the individuals will probably stop trying and in the worst case withdraw from ‘the world’. In Biesta’s thinking it is an existential ‘call’ to catch up and respond to the subject taking the step ‘into the world’. However, traditions, cultures, structures in schools, individual competition, accountability and the preoccupation with basic skills can prevent teachers from being able to meet students in these small moments. Biesta holds that the regimes of accountability in present European education provide an unbalanced education regarding the three domains. The excessive emphasis on qualifications and the insufficient attention to subjectification is one of his concerns. If education is characterised principally by profiling, testing, strict discipline or authoritarian methods, it will be very difficult to develop the autonomous and democratic subject (Biesta 2014). Thereby, according to Biesta, you undermine democracy as well as ethics and the general purpose of education. Biesta (2014) gives a warning that ‘regimes of learning’, including profiling, are a threat to the processes that are vital for the subject and for society. While Honneth’s (2008, 2019) concerns are not directly connected to the field of education, his broader concerns regarding emotional apathy towards other human beings and withdrawal of a sense of commitment to societal institutions do have significance for the issues being discussed here regarding home–school relationships in a TWBD context. If individuals experience

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violation, for example, the opposite of recognition, they might turn to violence themselves or become apathetic and withdraw from institutional and societal participation. And, the issue of recognition becomes all the more significant for persons when their lives take unanticipated twists and turns, when new foundations need to be established in new circumstances. Immigrant parents and students are in such vulnerable situations and processes and are dependent on being met and recognised in ways that make social participation possible.

5.5.4 Conclusion We learned from the results of this small-scale study that when teachers create a communicative environment that is inviting and where parents feel that they are being heard, parents feel welcome. This is achieved in small moments of talks and emotional ‘touch’, in moments of joy when parents are proud to see their children’s work in school and in common meeting places where the whole population of students, parents and teachers meet around a joint event. This can be interpreted as both recognition and subjectification in the sense outlined above. The successful experiences with school–parent cooperation seem to be most positive when teachers, students and parents actively participate and work together to achieve social relations that are acknowledging, respectful and fruitful. We would think of this as a contribution to students’ education of the self (‘Bildung’) in a broad sense (Løvlie, 2003, 2009). Honneth (2008, 2019) and Biesta (2006, 2009, 2014) also seem to make this argument. With reference to well-being as ‘a sense of meaning that derives from doing one’s job in the service of something of wider significance than oneself’ (Olsen & Collett, 2012, p.3), we find that teachers who work successfully with school–parent cooperation fulfil an important part of the general purpose of education, namely, that of furthering inclusion into society and developing a sustainable democracy.

5.6 Chapter Summary and Conclusion This chapter has presented four investigations—one for each of the themes identified by the teachers at the project partner primary school in Oslo, Norway. The investigations were conducted using an action research oriented approach to identify the themes as well as in developing and implementing activities to address those themes in the classroom. The themes studied were linguistic diversity, adapted teaching, identity and cultural diversity and finally the study on teacher–parent collaboration. The investigations took place in close cooperation between the teachers at the school and the teacher educators at Oslo Metropolitan University (OsloMet). The school is located in the inner city of the capital city of Norway, Oslo, and is characterised by high levels of linguistic and social diversity.

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In summary, the main findings of the investigations revealed enhanced well-being for the participating teachers through strengthened pedagogical and intercultural competence in managing linguistic and social diversity in the classroom. Participating teachers revealed enhanced confidence, motivation, health awareness, teaching skills and intercultural communication skills. In the course of the project period, an increasing number of teachers used some or all of the approaches, tools and methods developed as part of it, adapting them to their own students and their parents. This had the effect of expanding the individual teacher’s ability to take agency to improve her/his capacity to manage diversity in the classroom. In some cases, teachers who had tested various tools, methods and approaches helped their colleagues to use and adapt these for their specific students. The factors influencing the teachers’ challenges in everyday life in the school are inter-linked and mutually reinforcing. This illustrates the complexity involved and that there is no easy way to navigate change processes enhancing the well-being of teachers and students. Dalin (1998) inquires under what conditions teachers could become effective agents of change. In an effort to address this question, he refers to a number of researchers, one of them being Fullan (1993), whose findings to a large extent support the approach adopted by the TWBD project at the school. According to Dalin (1998), Fullan (1993) found that teachers use new ideas and methods in their teaching when they find the content of the in-service training relevant and specific. Other key factors are that the transfer of knowledge happens on an interpersonal basis, there is sufficient personal follow-up in the implementation phase and when the school has a positive attitude to school development (Olsen, 2011). Each study in this chapter finds much support in other research and theories relevant to the particular theme examined and analysed. We will, however, argue that the results of the TWBD project processes of change that have taken place in the school move beyond solely confirming the work of others. The findings of the investigations presented could enrich literature addressing intercultural competence, teachers’ well-being and resilience in a diverse and complex context. The themes studied demonstrate innovative concrete ways for teachers to utilise linguistic and social diversity in the classroom as a resource actively involving teacher educators, their peers, students and parents/guardians. This does not mean, however, as pointed out in the studies of linguistic diversity and adapted teaching, that the challenging aspects linked to the pressure to promote a strong monolingual and targeted curriculum are forgotten. Another area where the findings of the four investigations could enrich the literature addressing the needs of teachers in the complex diverse classroom relates to the necessity to assess and adapt activities to strengthen teachers’ capacity in the particular school. To prepare and support teachers adequately to implement the TWBD interventions, the issue of cultural sensitivity emerged as a crucial factor to consider. How teachers in a school look at the children might constitute one expression of the school culture. How teachers perceive the children, whether they see the individual child or whether they possess any prejudiced attitudes based on their perceptions about culture, race, ethnicity, class and gender are crucial factors that emerged in all

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four investigations and were particularly apparent in the investigations of adapted teaching and ‘The lifeline project’. The role of the school’s principal does not form part of the investigations in this chapter but the need for a supportive leadership role must not be underestimated. Based on the challenges experienced in terms of including all the school’s teachers in the project, we would argue that school leadership plays a decisive role in achieving the support of all the teachers, as well as from parents and other educational stakeholders in the wider community. The role of the principal seems pivotal in overcoming potential obstacles to innovative pedagogical change aimed at creating a cross-cultural, cross-religious, friendly and inclusive school environment benefiting the well-being of teachers and students.

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Løvlie, L. (2009). Dannelse og profesjon. In Kunnskap og dannelse foran et nytt århundre. Innstilling fra Dannelsesutvalget for høyere utdanning (pp. 28–38). University of Oslo, University of Bergen, University College of Bodø. Maalouf, A. (2001). In the name of identity: Violence and the need to belong. New York, NY: Arcade. Mills, G. E. (2003). Action research-A guide for the teacher researcher. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall. Nordahl, T. (2007). Hjem og skole: Hvordan skape et bedre samarbeid. [Home and school: How to improve cooperation]. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget. Nordahl, T. & Hausstätter, R. S. (2009). Spesialundervisningens forutsetninger, innsatser og resultater: situasjonen for elever med særskilte behov for opplæring i grunnskolen under Kunnskapsløftet. Norwegian Open Research Archives (NORA) ID: ISBN: 978-82-7671-749-5. Nordahl, T. (2017). Forståelse av læringsutbyttet til elever som mottar spesialundervisning. In P. Haug (Ed.), Spesialundervisningen. Innhald og funksjon (pp. 350–367). Oslo: Samlaget. Nordahl, T. (Ed.). (2018). Inkluderende fellesskap for barn og unge. Ekspertgruppen for barn og unge med behov for særskilt tilrettelegging. Oslo: Fagbokforlaget. Norwegian government (2017). Overordnet del–verdier og prinsipper for grunnopplæringen. https://www.regjeringen.no/contentassets/37f2f7e1850046a0a3f676fd45851384/overordnet-del —verdier-og-prinsipper-for-grunnopplaringen.pdf NOU 2010:7 (2010). Mangfold og mestring. Flerspråklige barn, unge og voksne i opplæringssystemet, Oslo: Ministry of Education and Research. OECD. (2010). Educating teachers for diversity. Meeting the challenge. https://www.oecd.org/edu/ ceri/educatingteachersfordiversitymeetingthechallenge.htm Olsen, S. T. (2011). Turning a blind eye to HIV/AIDS? Support provision to schools in a context of HIV/AIDS, poverty and gender inequality. Saarbrücken: Lambeth Academic Publishing. Olsen, S. T. & Collett, K. (2012). Teacher well-being: a successful approach in promoting quality education? A case study from South Africa. Paris International Congress of Humanities and Social Sciences Research, July 2012. Pihl, J. (2010). Etnisk mangfold. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget. Soini, T., Pyhältö, K., & Pietarinen, J. (2010). Pedagogical well being: Reflecting learning and well being in teachers’ work. Teachers and Teaching, 16(6), 735–751. https://doi.org/10.1080/ 13540602.2010.517690. Språkstatus (2017). Språkstatus 2017 - Språkpolitisk tilstandsrapport frå Språkrådet [Norwegian language council]. https://www.sprakradet.no/globalassets/vi-og-vart/publikasjoner/sprakstatus/ sprakstatus-2017.pdf Statistics Norway. (2017). https://www.ssb.no/en/befolkning/artikler-og-publikasjoner/this-is-nor way-2017. Accessed 18 April 2020. Stille, S., & Cummins, J. (2013). Foundations for learning: Engaging plurilingual students’ linguistic repertoires in the elementary classroom. TESOL Quarterly, 47(3), 630–638. Strand, T. (2019). Tingliggjøring som anerkjennelsesglemsel–en introduksjon. Tingliggjøring og Anerkjennelse. Et nytt blikk på et gammelt begrep. Cappelens upopulære skrifter (pp. 7–31). Oslo: Cappelen Damm Akademisk. Utdanningsdirektoratet (2017). Statistikk om grunnskolen 2017-18. https://www.udir.no/Analyseav-GSI–tall/ Utdannings- og forskningsdepartementet (2006). [Ministry of education and research], KUNNSKAPSLØFTET– reformen i grunnskole og videregående opplæring. https://www. regjeringen.no/globalassets/upload/kilde/ufd/prm/2005/0081/ddd/pdfv/256458-kunnskap_bok maal_low.pdf Vandenbroeck, M. (1999). The view of the Yeti. The Hague: Bernard van Leer Foundation. Westerheim, K., & Tolo, A. (Eds.). (2014). Kompetanse for mangfold. Om skolens utfordringer i det flerkulturelle Norge. Oslo, Norway: Fagbokforlaget Vigmostad & Bjørke. Yin, R. K. (2009). Case study research: Design and methods (4th Ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

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Sissel Tove Olsen is a former associate professor in Social Sciences at Oslo Metropolitan University in Norway. She has wide experience of managing student/teacher experiences on international exchange programmes as well as the Erasmus+ project Teacher Well-being and Diversity. Her key research interest involves intercultural competence, teacher well-being and resilience. Aslaug Andreassen Becher is Associate Professor of Education, Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway. Teaching, research and development in early childhood and primary education have been the focus of her academic activity since 1994. Her main areas for research and publication are related to multicultural issues, including indigenous perspectives in early childhood institutions and teacher education. Her perspectives are emerging from critical and postcolonial theories; however, body phenomenologies and actor-network theories are also informing some of her writings. Sigurd Bergflødt is a lecturer in Sociology in the Department of Early Childhood Education at Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway. A graduate of the University of Oslo, his research and fields of interest include attachment theory and psychological perspectives in early childhood education as well as food, French gastronomy and consumer research. Aina Hammer is an educational photographer, teacher and historian of religions. She currently holds a position as assistant professor in the division for Religious Education at the department for Primary and Secondary teacher education, at OsloMet, Norway. She is also a Ph.D. candidate in “Educational Sciences for Teacher Education”. Hammer is teaching in the field of intercultural competence and religious studies. She has published articles on topics such as criticism of religion, religious education, and religious minorities and bridge building in schools, and she has written a middle school textbook in KRLE (Christianity, religion, worldviews and ethics). She is also a contributor to the learning resource “Dembra” (Democratic Preparedness for Racism and AntiSemitism) for Schools and Teacher Education. Nanna Paaske is Head of Studies at the Department for Primary and Lower Secondary Teacher Education at OsloMet, Norway. Formerly an assistant professor in the section for Social studies with History in the academic portfolio. Paaske has been teaching the field of intercultural competence and critical narrative analysis. She has recentlypublished a teacher’s handbook on the Lesson Study method for school development. She is a member of the Educational Policy Advisors Network of Council of Europe and holds a place on the board of the European Wergeland Center. Kirsten Palm is a professor at Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway, at the Department of Primary and Secondary Education. She teaches Norwegian and Norwegian as a second language in primary school teacher education and in- service training. Palm has conducted different research projects in the field of Norwegian as a second language, education for linguistic minorities in Norwegian schools, assessment and mother tongue education. Brit Steinsvik is an assistant professor at Oslo Metropolitan University, Faculty of Teacher Education and International Studies, Norway. She is a lecturer in pedagogics. Her fields of interest and research are diversity, equity and normality, adapted and inclusive education, multicultural and multilingual education. She has published articles about diversity and adapted education, multilingual teacher education students and intercultural education

Chapter 6

Teacher-Social Educator Well-Being and Home-School Collaboration Maj Borggaard Hansen, Oliver Balck Jensen, Janni Michelsen, Karoline Søgaard, and Katja Sørensen Vilien

Abstract This chapter is concerned with educator well-being in a Danish context. Educator well-being is a transmutation of the concept of teacher well-being applied to a Danish school context where teachers and social educators, each with their specific professionalism, collaborate on students’ well-being and learning. The chapter illustrates how teachers and social educators from Nord School together with researchers from University College City (UC) planned and carried out an interdisciplinary development project aimed at surveying and developing educator well-being in a Danish school context characterized by great diversity in the student body. The project was prepared with partial inspiration from participatory research (PR), which aims at empowering the participants in the surveyed context, rather than the researchers (Cornwall and Jewkes, Social Science and Medicine 41:1667–1676, 1995). The aim of the project became an exploration of how teachers and social educators can collaborate on well-being in the classroom through a home-school collaboration project in a class of diverse students with the aim of improving their educators’ well-being. Keywords Teacher well-being · Educator well-being · Diversity · Home-school collaboration · Læringsglemsel

M. B. Hansen (B) Department of Social Education, University College Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark e-mail: [email protected] O. B. Jensen · J. Michelsen Primary School, Bagswaerd, Denmark K. Søgaard · K. S. Vilien Department of Teacher Education, University College Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark e-mail: [email protected] K. S. Vilien e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 T. R. N. Murphy and P. Mannix-McNamara (eds.), International Perspectives on Teacher Well-Being and Diversity, Understanding Teaching-Learning Practice, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-1699-0_6

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6.1 Introduction In Denmark, social educators and teachers collaborate on children’s learning, development, and education, including well-being in schools. Social educators used to be primarily employed outside schools, engaging children in leisure activities after school hours, but, in 2014, a new school reform was enacted in Denmark. It entailed a broader job description for social educators who were now expected to carry out a number of tasks in schools in collaboration with the teachers. Today, social educators have a variety of tasks in the school context. These can vary widely from school to school (Tofteng & Madsen, 2017). Examples of tasks include remedial teaching of content also taught by teachers, social support teaching or support for individual children. Interdisciplinary collaboration is, in execution and practice, defined by several professions meeting to clarify an issue from the different angles of the specific competences, roles and perspectives brought to the table by each professional (Villumsen, 2016). When this exchange works, additional knowledge is created, which expands the perspectives and awareness of the issue in the participating professions. It could, for instance, be collaboration on the children’s well-being. When professionals have to collaborate on children’s learning and well-being, it is important that they themselves are at ease. Several studies indicate a connection between the well-being of the professionals and that of the children (Hattie, 2009; Roffey, 2012; Roorda, Koomen, Spilt, & Oort, 2011). To untangle the issue and elucidate what is necessary for children and adults to thrive, a perspective of basic psychological needs may be helpful. Deci and Ryan (2000) describe these needs as the experience of competence, autonomy, and relatedness. According to them, these basic needs must be met in order for people to thrive. Psychological needs and a professional environment which support the achievement of the professional’s goals may explain and refine educator well-being. In the present project the focus is on the well-being of the professionals, but as an educator well-being is closely connected to the feeling that one’s work has meaning and purpose outside oneself, the well-being of the students is also a central aspect of the project. The chapter begins with a portrayal of the project participants. There follows a description of the project itself, including the theoretical framework, the methodology, and the chosen intervention. The latter involved a description of the process that led us to formulating the research question which this project attempted to respond to, namely, ‘How can teachers and social educators collaborate on wellbeing in the class through home-school collaboration in a diverse classroom with the aim of enhancing their educator well-being?’. Subsequently, the collected data is presented, which included observational data from interviews with a teacher and a social educator, respectively, both of whom participated in the intervention. Finally, we reflected on the findings of the action learning project and present a conclusion and potential options for further action.

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6.2 Project Participants and School Profile Professionals from Nord School (Pseudonym) and researchers from UC participated in the project. Nord School is situated approximately twelve kilometers from Copenhagen. The school has an international profile. Of the 370 students, approximately 60% come from minority backgrounds and speak several languages on a daily basis. The school team included Jonas Toft, who had been a teacher for 2 years and Louise Hasle, who had completed her training as a social educator 6 years prior. Both of them carried out interventions in a class at the school as part of the project. Additionally, Kirsten Petersen, a kindergarten teacher has been a social educator for 32 years and has worked at the school for 26 years. Kirsten functioned as a sounding board in the project. Sascha Schmidt, a teacher, also participated in the first phase of the project and compiled the initial cases together with Jonas. Sascha however subsequently left the project as a result of a job change. The participants from the school are referred to in the article as the ‘school team’. The three project researchers participated in the project from the beginning, along with Jonas. The researchers included Maibrit Olsen, an associate lecturer in social education at UC. Ida Sørensen and Emilie Arnold, associate lecturers in teacher education at the same institution. UC is situated in central Copenhagen and offers professional bachelor’s degree programs in teaching, social education, and health. It also conducts applied research in subjects relating to the welfare sector. UC hosts the largest social education department and teacher education department in Denmark with 9500 students combined. The participants from UC will be referred to in the article as the ‘UC team’.

6.3 Teacher Well-Being, Educator Well-Being, and Pedagogical Well-Being—Theoretical Framework In short, teacher well-being (TWB) refers to how teachers thrive in an institutional framework. A review of research in the area reveals that the well-being of the professionals directly influences the quality of their work and thus the well-being of the professionals is important for the future education of children and young people (McCallum, Price, Graham, & Morrison, 2017). The well-being of the professionals may be influenced by a number of factors, both positively and negatively. Some of the factors are within the control of the professionals, others are outside (ibid.). One of the factors within the professionals’ sphere of influence, which may affect their well-being, is the children’s well-being. Furthermore, the professionals in a school context are the most important factor contributing to the students’ success, satisfaction, and performance. An Australian study concludes that a school’s social capital affects the well-being of both staff and students (Roffey, 2012). The study shows that a focus on the well-being of the teachers’ as well as on the children’s wellbeing forms the basis of good learning environments. The well-being of children

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and adults is, in other words, interdependent. For this reason, the project focuses on the connection between the children’s and the professionals’ well-being in the pedagogical endeavor. In the Danish project we have worked with the concept of educator well-being. Educator well-being is our rephrasing of the concept internationally known as teacher well-being. The term educator well-being aims to linguistically include, in particular, the social educators who, as described earlier, are integral to the school context. Apart from teaching academic content social educators in the Danish school context also perform tasks beyond what is usually expected of a pre-school teacher, for instance, work with social well-being among students in the middle and older grades. In international contexts the Danish pædagog will be perceived as a social educator. To further highlight how educator well-being may be defined, we draw on Collett and Olsen’s (2012) definition of teacher well-being (TWB), as well as Soini et al. (2010) definition of pedagogical well-being. According to the former, TWB may be described as: ‘[…] (1)’a sense of gratification’ and (2)’a sense of meaning that derives from doing one’s job in the service of something of wider significance than oneself’, as well as (3) ‘being in an environment that supports and enables these personal and professional goals to be fulfilled.’ (Collett & Olsen, 2012).

With the concept of TWB the focus is directed at that which helps teachers and social educators handle everyday issues and dilemmas: which knowledge do they need to be able to carry out their work? What is important in their working environment? When do they feel that they are making a difference? When do they experience having reached a set goal? What is important for their teamwork being successful? Pedagogical well-being as described by Soini et al. (2010, p. 737) incorporates well-being for both children and adults in pedagogical contexts. They define it as a: sense of autonomy, relatedness, competence, and belonging or a lack of these elements generated for teachers and pupils in the everyday interactions of school are here referred to as pedagogical well-being.

So, pedagogical well-being is concerned with the teachers’, social educators’, and children’s experiences of autonomy, relatedness, competence, and belonging in pedagogical contexts. Working with these psychological needs is thus relevant when we want to examine well-being in more depth. Soini et al. (2010) also describe other factors which affect the well-being of the professionals, e.g., capacity for influence, school management, political reforms, and a heavy task load. With the concept of pedagogical well-being, the focus is on the pedagogical aspect framed by what happens when the children are involved. This leads us to the definition that we have adapted as part of our engagement with the TWBD project. Accordingly, we defined ‘educator well-being’ as: Educator well-being is about the experience among children and adults of autonomy, relatedness, competence, and belonging in pedagogical contexts. Educator well-being is linked to a feeling of meaningfulness and making a difference in relation to something of greater importance than oneself. Educator well-being is closely connected to the quality of the work done by professionals in pedagogical contexts.

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From this theoretical basis we have explored pedagogical well-being for teachers and social educators at Nord School. It involved children’s development in fourth grade, as well as parent-teacher co-operation. In the next part of the chapter, we review the course of the project chronologically, while looking in more detail at specific examples that illuminate theoretical concepts and data collection methods in more detail.

6.4 A Description of the Development Project 6.4.1 Project Initiation: From Dialogue Meeting to Action Learning We launched the project with a dialogue meeting between the school team and the UC team. The purpose of the meeting was to ascertain which areas it would make sense for the project to focus on. The process that was engaged with mirrored an action research approach to democratization and participation. It sought to create change through enacting it (Husted & Tofteng, 2012; Husted, 2017). A collaborative approach to inquiry is of great importance to us, therefore we are drawn to participatory research approaches, where the agents in a given context contribute to the definition of what is being explored and the measures that can be taken as a response (Cornwall & Jewkes, 1995). Starting from the aims of the project and the interests of the school team, we jointly agreed to focus on three areas which affect the well-being of the class and thus also that of the school team: home-school collaboration, a multilingual pedagogy and the collaboration between teacher and social educator. As a starting point for action, the UC team devised questions designed to inspire reflection on the selected focus areas. These reflections indicated a tendency among the school team to view existing practice as problematic and to some extent see families as lacking rather than having resources. The following excerpts from cases, interviews, and reflection notes illustrate the teachers’ experience of challenges in relation to the focus areas.

6.4.2 Home-School Collaboration According to the Danish primary education act, primary education must ‘[…] in co-operation with parents give students knowledge and skills that: prepare them for further education and instigates a desire to learn more […] and promotes the versatile development of the individual student’, (Ministry of Children and Education, 2019). This means that there is a mutual obligation to co-operate for the student’s learning

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and development. When this co-operation is not working, teachers and social educators cannot meet the demands placed on them. This experience is problematic and frustrating, as is evident from the examples below. In the first example, the problematic aspect of the home-school collaboration is a lack of regular contact with the home which, according to the teachers, is due to a language barrier. The teachers perceive the mother’s lack of Danish language skills as problematic because it means, among other things, that all contact has to go through another teacher. In the student’s home only Urdu is spoken. The student’s mother speaks very little Danish and understands very little as well. It is therefore extremely difficult to maintain regular contact with the home, as her understanding of Danish is not adequate for a telephone conversation. Contact with the home has therefore gone through one of the school’s DSL (Danish as a second language) teachers (Excerpt from reflections, 2017).

Another example shows that in some of the teachers’ experiences some parents are not aware of how they are expected to contribute to the school context. In the following example, the teachers realize that the mother wants to contribute to the school, but exhibits it in a way that is at odds with what the school desires or expects: The mother does not participate in parents’ meetings or social events in the class. On the other hand she does from time to time present the teachers with homemade food or cook for the whole school alongside the other Pakistani mothers at café events. She shows that she wants to contribute, but maybe she has trouble understanding what she must/may contribute (Excerpt from reflections, 2017).

The mother is perceived as willing to contribute but unaware of the school culture and therefore she has difficulties in participating adequately. Even though the cooperation with the family is not problematic as such, the teachers feel that it affects their well-being. In the next excerpt, the teachers explain how they experience success in their home-school collaboration: As a teacher it is extremely gratifying to feel that the home is supportive, where you can feel that they work hard on any issues there might be, social as well as academic. It is a positive experience when the home-school collaboration is working. This goes for the tasks that the school assigns to the home, but indeed also the feedback that comes from the home. It gives a good balance to the co-operation (Excerpt from reflections, 2017).

It is evident here that the teachers are experiencing success in the home-school collaboration. Their sense of professionalism is supported when they find that the home works on academic and social issues. This means that it is important for the teachers to have a sense of dialogue and diligence in the home in relation to school tasks. It also means that when the teachers do not see this dialogue and diligence in relation to school tasks, it is an unsatisfactory experience. So, in addition to it being prescribed by law, it is important for the teachers to enter into dialogue with the parents and know that they have understood the expectations from the school.

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6.4.3 Collaboration Between Teachers and Social Educators Next, we present reflections on collaboration between teachers and social educators at Nord School. It is important to note that the social educator, who joined the project at a later stage and who participated in the subsequent intervention and interview, had not been assigned to the project at this point. Therefore, any comments on teamwork made in this section refer to general experiences in the school and not to working together with the social educator, Louise. As mentioned previously, teachers and social educators in Danish public primary schools must collaborate in an effort to meet the learning needs of the children. This collaboration is not always entirely problem-free, as teachers and social educators sometimes differ to some extent in their approach to learning, development, and education. Broadly speaking, the teachers tend to focus on well-defined learning goals, whereas the social educators are more concerned with social goals: It means that we as teachers are obliged to deliver visible learning with discernible learning targets. It can occasionally give rise to problems in relation to the social education (…) From a teacher perspective it can be a problem if the only target is to have a nice time (Excerpt from reflections, 2017).

Here the teachers reflect on the lack of cohesion between the tasks that teachers are legally obliged to fulfill and the social educator’s responsibilities. It is not unusual in a Danish school context for interdisciplinary collaboration to be perceived as difficult (Tofteng & Madsen, 2017). This is supported further by the following excerpt: It can give rise to complications and discussions, as we speak from different perspectives and premises. The social educator and the teacher have different approaches to the student, and this can be an advantage if they complement each other, but it can also be frustrating if they are incompatible and it is impossible to come to an agreement on how to collaborate on a student or a plan of action (Excerpt from reflections, 2017).

At this point in the project the interdisciplinary collaboration was new and not yet systematized or organized at Nord School. As we shall see later in the project, this subsequently changed.

6.4.4 Multilingual Pedagogy The third focus of the project was to explore a multilingual pedagogy at the school, which in this context means incorporating a pluralistic approach to languages. In such an approach the aim is to reinforce the students’ linguistic awareness and to express appreciation of different languages. This could involve emphasizing languages that are represented in the classroom, in the local community and in the wider society (Candelier et al., 2010). It is the appreciative aspect of the pluralist approach that is especially focused on in this project. Nord School has a long tradition for working with several languages, for instance, by teaching Danish as a second language and

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working with transitions, for example, from kindergarten to school, in the form of a digital ‘backpack’, where the children’s own stories are in focus. In spite of this, however, they sometimes notice that some of the multilingual children do not demonstrate nuanced understandings. In the following example the school team ruminates over a multilingual girl whom they perceive to be very quiet. It is our impression that she receives very little stimulation in the home and we worry whether the family know how to stimulate a child of normal intelligence. We think that her academic difficulties may be due to lack of experience. There are too many things, events, experiences, and concepts of which she has no knowledge that are necessary for understanding many of the contexts that she finds herself in (Excerpt from reflections, 2017).

This example illustrates that it is a cause of concern for the school team when children do not have the expected experience and when the parents do not instill in them any pre-understanding of school subjects. The school team expresses apprehension and frustration over the lack of support from individual homes. Based on this concern, the selected approach for the interventions takes the resources of the home as its starting point, whether in the form of wider experience or linguistic practice. Through the project intervention, we accordingly attempted to further promote the school’s appreciative approach to the linguistic practices of the students across the different languages from the hypothesis that it would strengthen well-being and co-operation between school and home. At a later juncture, we will meet the student again in an intervention where she exhibits a different linguistic practice to the one outlined above.

6.4.5 Additional Well-Being Factors In addition to challenges outlined above involving home-school collaboration, collaboration with social educators, and the children’s (lack of) linguistic experience and well-being, the teachers also stated that bureaucratic delays affected their professional well-being. The slow administrative processes controlled by the local authorities impacts the well-being of children and teachers negatively. It is frustrating when things that are out of our hands affect our options for carrying out our duties satisfactorily (Excerpt from reflections, 2017).

And, effective management and collegial support are also perceived as having an impact on well-being: It is absolutely essential for us to have good colleagues to consult and a school management that we can trust and who trusts us to fulfil the tasks we have been assigned to the best of our ability. It is important that the management takes care of us and has a realistic image of our everyday reality and work environment. Sincere recognition and appreciation from management and colleagues are an important factor in achieving TWB (Excerpt from reflections, 2017).

While the school team did acknowledge that more support from management and greater collegiality would improve their well-being, due to time constraints, the

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project team were unable to pursue these aspects in the depth required at this juncture in the project. The school team repeatedly reverted to the theme of social well-being in the class, and it is self-evidently an intersection concept for the three focus areas: home-school collaboration, multilingual pedagogy, and collaboration between teachers and social educators. During the early phase of the project, social well-being in the class was characterized by conflicts in the form of categorization and stigmatization. Below is an excerpt from a case which was compiled following the first dialogue meeting: In the class there are children from both an ethnically Danish background and from minority backgrounds. The children in the class speak very harshly to each other. They will say things like ‘you are fat’, ‘you are skinny’, ‘you are not a true Dane’, ‘you are not a true Muslim’, ‘you are a butter chicken’ and ‘you are a potato’. When they play soccer during recess, they play Danes against Muslims (case compiled on the basis of dialogue with the team, 2017).

Because the students expended so much energy at school trying to work out which communities they belonged to, it affected their well-being. The communities were defined using social categories such as gender, ethnicity, nationality, and religion. The school team was very preoccupied by the conflicts among the children and this affected their well-being too.

6.5 Planning Interventions: From Deficiency Perspective to Resource Perspective As stated previously, the school team tended to focus on the negative aspects of collaboration between teacher and social educator, of home-school collaboration, which included the problem of lack of Danish language skills among some parents, as well as the challenges regarding social well-being in the class. Hence, it was necessary to ‘turn things upside down’ to find new avenues for potential action. For this project, we were determined to adopt a radical approach. We decided to adopt a resource approach which embraced a more appreciative and equality-oriented pedagogical approach for children and parents, and which also involved interdisciplinary collaboration. When you take a resource-oriented approach, the perspective changes, from the person being the problem to the person having the problem. This shift in orientation also invited a shift to a more positive solutions-based approach for the professionals involved. The processes involved also developed a sense of empowerment for the participating teachers. They were encouraged to view linguistic and cultural background as a resource rather than a barrier (Horst & Tireli, 2015). We adopted this approach for our work with the children, parents and our own collaboration as teachers and social educators. We took inspiration from a resource approach to co-operation with the parents of students as outlined by Nordahl (2008). He suggests abandoning the distinction between resourceful and disadvantaged homes. He thinks that a functioning

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home-school collaboration should be based on an exploration of how resources in all families may be harnessed to support children’s learning and schooling. And, for him, a resource-orientated approach for home-school collaboration is closely tied to the concept of empowerment, believing that ‘an empowering practice entails that teachers as representatives of public authority interact with parents in a way that nurtures the parents’ belief in their own abilities and possibilities to raise their children and support them in their schooling’ (Nordahl, 2008, p. 32).

6.5.1 Methods for the Development of Practice—Action Learning As described in the previous section, the initial phase of the project was shaped by the concerns of the teachers as well as a focus on their professional well-being. This invited reflections about how to develop pedagogical practice, with the dual aim of improving practice as well as enhancing well-being in the school team. We, therefore, decided to work with action learning (AL), a method of systematizing development work in order to learn from it. Plauborg, Bayer, and Andersen (2007) suggest that AL can be divided into five systematic phases. The five phases that they recommend include (see Fig. 6.1) According to Plauborg et al. (2007), action learning may be defined as: […] an action [is] a (real/actual) experiment implemented in order to learn from and refine/enhance/improve practice surrounding a particular set of problems. […] In other words, the action represents a new action, something not previously attempted in this manner, or an action where the effect has not been in conscious focus before, but which is now made the object of focused observation and reflection (Plauborg et al., 2007).

This definition framed how we went about working with action learning in this project. Our focus was on learning from and improving practice and we carried out interventions not previously attempted in this context. 1. Identify and state problem 2. Carry out action 3. Observe action 4. Didactic conversation 5. Process experience (Plauborg, Bayer, & Andersen, 2007)

Fig. 6.1 Action learning phases

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6.5.2 Methods of Data Collection: Observation and ‘SnapLogs’ We used different qualitative methods for data collection in the project. The school team used ‘SnapLogs’ to preserve images of and reflect on their own practice (Bramming, Hansen, & Olesen, 2009). These logs focused on three areas: well-being for adults and children, resources in the homes and educator well-being. Researchers from UC conducted classroom observations, which focused on how the actions were conducted. The logs, together with the observations, were instrumental in designing the interview guide. The participants used ‘SnapLogs’ to stay focused, to help visualize their immediate impressions of the action, and to capture them into writing. The task was defined as set out below (see Fig. 6.2), where the first two questions tended to be more generic in nature, while the final one related directly to the project focus. The content of the third question was variable depending on the focus of the inquiry and thus addressed (1) well-being for children and adults, (2) educator well-being, or (3) resources of home, as appropriate. In the ‘SnapLog’ example below the social educator describes how the method affected her practice: But sometimes you look for the negative. But then when you consciously search for the positive, you get a chance to reflect on your day. I mean, there were really some times when I thought “That was awesome! I mean, it was really fun … It was this, that or the other’ or “Wow, that was … The children were. It went really well. The flow was just there.

And the teacher describes his experience: Yes, I think as soon as you get used to it (taking snapshots in class), when it gets under your skin and you remember it. Then it is a really good tool. It is just … In the beginning it was always, “Aw, I should have taken a picture of that,’ and I didn’t realize until I got home.

Take a snapshot with your cell phone that shows when you experience well-being in your work. Then paste the image into a document and (briefly) answer the following three questions: 1 What is in the picture? 2 Why did you take the picture? 3 What does the picture have to do with educator well-being?

Fig. 6.2 ‘SnapLog’ Questions

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It is evident from the above descriptions that the school team believes that the ‘SnapLog’ method invites them to reflect on their classroom practice. It is evident in this instance that the method supported a recall and preservation of a certain experience in practice that can be difficult to get a grip on. As one teacher puts it, the method in itself helps to remind you to preserve situations worth remembering, even if you do not always remember to take the picture. The school team sent their ‘SnapLogs’ to the UC team, who analyzed them with the aim of identifying themes that, together with themes found in the observational data, could form the basis for a semi-structured interview between the school team and the research team. Didactic reflections were carried out by the school team. We will get back to the patterns revealed in the material, but first we will review the phases of the action learning process associated with this project (see Fig. 6.1).

6.6 Presentation of the Five Phases of the Action Learning Process 6.6.1 Problem Statement From the start of the project, it was evident that there were challenges in the areas of home-school collaboration, multilingual pedagogy and collaboration between teacher and social educator. Additionally, there were concerns regarding the wellbeing of both children and adults. The school team was keen to conduct innovative research in order to arrive at more informed knowledge of their practice. Also, it was anticipated that they would arrive at a more discriminating understanding of their own well-being in the context of professional practice. In order to progress their activities, they drew up a provisional problem statement which made sense to them in relation to the challenges that they faced: How can teachers and social educators collaborate on well-being in the class through homeschool collaboration in a diverse classroom with the aim of enhancing educator well-being?

The school team decided that the resultant action responding to the statement would involve opening the school doors to the parents and inviting them into the classroom. It was anticipated that this would positively impact on co-operation with parents and that this in turn would result in an improvement in well-being for both teachers and social educators, as well as students. Furthermore, there was an underlying assumption that such action would foster more respect, understanding, and appreciation for the different cultural backgrounds represented in the school and that this in turn would have a positive impact on well-being in the classroom. Additionally, it was anticipated that it would lead to enhanced co-operation between the school and the parents and among the parents themselves.

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6.6.2 Description of Action The action that was undertaken involved inviting the students to interview their parents about the latters’ childhood and schooling. These interviews, which were video recorded, were conducted in their own homes using a tablet. As previously noted, the principal intention behind this activity was to open up the classroom environment to the parents of the students by recognizing and celebrating their stories. Prior to conducting the interviews, the students worked in collaboration with the teacher and social educator to draft the questions. As part of the interview, the parents were invited to identify their country of origin, as well as to provide some background information about where they came from. Additional questions invited the parents to provide information about what they aspired to be in their formative years. In the event that the parents did not speak Danish, the interview would be conducted in the home language. In such instances, as part of the whole-class presentations, the students involved were invited to translate the interviews into Danish. Additionally, in order to build the relationship with the parents of the students involved in the project, they were invited to visit the classroom to inform the students about their school years. The written part of a ‘SnapLog’ below illustrates the process of presenting the videos in class (see Fig. 6.3) The accompanying photo (not included) depicts the students watching an interview with one of the fathers. They are all looking at the screen and paying attention to the video. This evidence points to the power of the video interviews to pave the way for new insights about community and solidarity in the class.

6.6.3 Didactic Reflection/Semi-structured Interview As set out above, the UC team, comprising of Arnold, Olsen, and Sørensen, analyzed the ‘SnapLogs’ from the school team with the aim of finding relevant themes that might form the basis for a semi-structured interview. The previously defined focus areas for the school team ‘SnapLogs’ were identified as (1) well-being for children and adults, (2) resources in the home, and (3) educator well-being. Analyses and reflections from the school team’s own didactic conversations were also incorporated as part of the semi-structured interview. Below is an outline of the perspectives that emerged most prominently from the analysis of the reflections. Three additional focus areas emerged from the analysis: Collaborating on children’s well-being and development; Views on culture and identity; and, also, an Exploration of meaningful informal learning environments.

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Diversity 1. What is in the picture? We see a father of one of the students talk about his life. The whole class listens and ask many good questions. 2. Why did you take the picture? Every time we have watched interviews it has become apparent that we have more in common than you might immediately think. It could be after-school interests, favourite foods, jobs, etc. 3. What does the picture have to do with resources in the home? The students think it is fun and interesting to hear about everybody’s family. It makes all of them think a lot. Where they see that they may not be as different from each other as they have previously thought. As a teacher it is also nice to hear a little bit about what kind of people the parents are, where they come from and what they do. You feel that you get to know them better and there is something satisfying in that. A process like this clearly shows that everybody has something to offer and that everybody has a story worth hearing (Snap Log, 2017).

Fig. 6.3 Example of written-up ‘SnapLog’

6.6.4 Collaborating on Children’s Well-Being and Development In the following excerpt from the focus group interview the teacher talks about the connection between well-being for children and adults, respectively: Well, for me it is the case that when there is well-being in the class, if the students I have in my care thrive, I experience more well-being as well because … I, in a classroom full of conflict, where people speak to one another, where people have no wish to co-operate or what have you … Then it is more demanding, then it is just more demanding to have to go in and do your stuff (…) (…) So when we talk about taking it to the children’s level and their well-being I simply feel that that is SO important for when I go to work (Excerpt from interview, 2018).

Here the teacher expresses the interconnection between his well-being and that of his students. It is also evident that his well-being is negatively impacted when the class environment is characterized by conflict. In the example below, the social educator outlines the benefits of two professionals, in this instance teacher and social educator, being able to work together in the classroom for the benefit of the children’s well-being:

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Well, you can focus on the core assignment, right? Teaching the children something instead of … There has been a couple of times where both of us have been there. Then one can take action and address a conflict. That kind of thing redirects focus and maybe when there’s two of you, it’s okay, but if you’re alone, well, then it saps all focus. And, like, when you have to … In any event it’s my experience, that there is less conflict about differences between people, more along the lines of “You cheated in the game,’ there is no getting around that with children. But when we’re talking about … well, there’s just more focus on simply getting in there and starting teaching. Yes (Excerpt from interview, 2018).

It is evident that working together for the well-being of the children enables both professionals to carry out their core responsibilities more effectively. Additionally, there is the added benefit of the mutual on-going learning from each other, which further enhances their effectiveness as professional educators. In the following quote, the teacher explains how his engagement with the action project has impacted on his practice. He evidently is aware about what is optimally required in order to maximize the students’ potential for learning, namely, the absence of strife in their home contexts: Yes, exactly, because as a teacher I think it makes you really happy to see things succeed, when you see that these children are actually learning something and you can see, wow, we’re getting somewhere. But when there’s conflict and it fills their minds, well, then they’re not learning, then they don’t get anywhere. Then you don’t succeed and then you get really frustrated. At the children’s level, I am sure that’s the problem. As regards diversity we have worked on engaging the parents in the class and there is … The children think it is really exciting and they have tons of questions and stuff. But we also have another agenda in relation to improving co-operation with the parents, that they will feel more along of the lines of “Oh, that’s not so bad.’ (Excerpt from interview, 2018).

It is also evident that it is important for TWB to see clear signs in the children that the professional goals have been achieved. Here the teacher describes it as the children ‘getting somewhere’, meaning that they develop and gain new academic insights. It gives the teacher joy and is an example of how the job can be meaningful in relation to something larger than oneself. In the following quote, the teacher describes the experience of being a new teacher, an un-tried professional, and co-operating with parents on the children’s development, learning, and thus strengthening home-school collaboration. It is evident that the teacher’s participation in the project has enhanced both confidence and capacity for co-operating with parents in the best interests of the children: I just think I’m more, I feel more certain of myself with them, I mean, I remember right after graduation I thought that having to go into a parent-teacher conference would be the worst, because then I would just sit there, 25 years old, recently graduated, no children of my own and who was I to tell them anything about their third child? And about how they were supposed to act? So, I feel that having gotten to know them just a little better through all those interviews has made an enormous difference. You feel that you have somehow gotten a little closer to them, and I have worked here a few years now, and that has also brought me a bit closer to them. But I just think it has made a real difference getting to know them a little better, where they are coming from, who they are as people and so on. So, for me personally it has been a little easier to reach out to them knowing a bit more about who they really are (Excerpt from interview, 2018).

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The above extract also evidences that more informed understanding about the children’s home contexts and enhanced relations with parents helps to promote teacher well-being and overall capacity as an educator. The teacher experiences relationships with the children’s homes that impart meaning and purpose beyond the teacher himself.

6.6.5 Views of Culture and Identity Both the teacher and the social educator emphasize culture and identity as something positive, both in ‘SnapLogs’ and interviews. They observed that through their involvement in the action learning project activity, the children become more aware of what they have in common rather than focus on differences. In the following written part of a ‘SnapLog’ (see Fig. 6.4) from the social educator, we observe the association between the teacher’s focus on cultural diversity and the children’s enhanced understanding of intercultural competence. The net result is the promotion of well-being for both children and adults (Jensen, 2005). The accompanying photo (not included) depicts the students sitting in a circle around a screen, which shows one of the interviews, while actively engaging in dialogue with the teacher. It is clear that the social educator focuses on similarities rather than differences. Recognition of what the parents talk about in the video is perceived as a route to finding similarities. A focus on the equality perspective is conducive to understanding and respect between the children. According to the social educator, the children experience a connection, which influences their well-being and ultimately also the well-being of the adults. 1. What is in the picture? Diversity (well-being) in the class after watching a student’s interview with her mother. They raise their hands to tell about similarities between themselves/their lives and the parent from the interview.

2. Why did you take the picture? Because I think it is important that the children get to experience how many similarities they share– regardless of cultural background. And the more interviews, the more similarities they notice, like for instance how many of their parents delivered newspapers as their first job.

3. What does the picture have to do with well-being for children and adults? That the children learn more about each other and see that although they come from different cultural backgrounds, they have similarities – and often more similarities than differences. The aim was that students would attain understanding and respect for each other through mutual understanding (Snap-log, 2017).

Fig. 6.4 Culture & Identity ‘SnapLog’

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The manner in which classroom prejudices can be dissipated through the children’s involvement in the action learning project is evident in the following excerpt from the social educator: Well, it’s like that aspect of those boundaries or prejudices. It gives rise to some … Ah, but they have some idea of what it means to come from Somalia or be typically Danish or whatever. But yeah, they disappear a little bit, because they’ve been sitting with their hands raised. And funnily enough everyone can raise their hand in agreement with statements like “I like spicy food,’ or “I know what biryani [Pakistani dish] is’ or whatever they’ve said, right? And this is something that white-skinned William knows just as well as Amir from Pakistan (Excerpt from interview, 2018).

The action learning initiative between UC and its partner school invited the construction of a classroom that was characterized by a more nuanced and complex understanding of culture (Jensen, 2005). Accordingly, culture is appreciated as something you ‘do’ together rather than something you ‘have’. Also, through the project, there is an opportunity for more dynamic co-operation between the school team and students and parents. Below, for example, the teacher makes reference to Naila, one of the quieter children who could often be over-looked in a typical classroom: Yes, and just those interviews that they did at home on their iPads … I have experienced some of the students, who speak in a low voice and aren’t very engaged. Naila, among others. When we heard Naila’s interview, she was practically shouting at home … I mean, she is in a completely different arena with her mother there and it makes a total change from the way I see her here (Excerpt from interview 2018).

It is apparent that the teacher sees the pupil in a different light, she is no longer just a quiet and non-involved learner but a girl who ‘shouts’ and has a voice.

6.6.6 Meaningful Informal Learning The project demonstrated for both the teacher and the social educator how they could craft meaningful informal learning environments with the children which offered an alternative to more didactic traditional approaches to teaching. The teacher describes it as follows: Well, for me it’s been very different, like when I teach them math, it’s completely structured. Always PowerPoints and assignments, and that’s how math is, there is this one way of calculating it, so that’s what we do. So, it’s very structured and in math class we always start with blackboard teaching, there are always some math problems to solve before they are allowed to work on their own. So, it’s very much bam, bam, this is how we do it. And I have always planned the content of the day’s lesson in detail. And then in a project like this it’s completely free, you have no idea what will be said in the interview, you have no idea where it will take you, what kinds of questions they’ll ask, and what we will ultimately end up talking about. So, it’s very loose talking, although of course still not with everybody talking at once. But it can be about all kinds of subjects. No topic is more important than any other. Oh, so we’ll be looking at and discussing caviar and smørrebrød? Well, then let’s do that! And next time we might discuss a heavy topic like dictatorship. So, it is very loose (Excerpt from interview, 2018).

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In this excerpt, the teacher emphasizes that when the video interviews were presented in class they were engaging with a more informal learning environment, in which it was difficult to pin-point precisely what the end-point would be. The learning environment facilitated the unfolding of a conversation with the children which respected and honored their voices. The teacher did not have an agenda to be followed from beginning to end. All participants, including the teacher, the social educator and the children were invited to actively participate in creating and shaping the learning environment. It is evident that this less constrained learning environment allowed the teacher to follow the students’ lead more readily. In the following quote the teacher expands on the liberating aspect of not working toward a tangible goal: Well, what I have given the most thought to is maybe this, that in this project there hasn’t really been anything quantifiable, a goal to be met. There is no test we need to set or whatever. Nothing we HAVE to do. The direction of it has been very free, and I have given that a great deal of thought, because it has somehow been very liberating (Excerpt from interview, 2018).

The teacher describes what may be termed ‘læringsglemsel’ (Tanggaard, 2018). ‘Læringsglemsel’ describes how students can be in the process of learning without being conscious of themselves and of the learning objectives. Tanggaard introduces it as a counter-point to the prevailing approach to schooling in Denmark which is tends to be characterized by explicit learning goals and accountability. In her view, ‘læringsglemsel’ offers an orientation to learning which is not so much focused on goal-orientation and meta-cognition. Instead, it allows for the potentiality of the spontaneous and unplanned for human learning processes (Tanggaard, 2018). In the above excerpt, the learning intention is not fixated on a tangible learning outcome as such. Although the teacher may not be able to specify precisely what the children have leant, he is in no doubt that important learning has occurred. Yes! There has been tons of learning in it. I mean with all those conversations. So, you can’t say there hasn’t been any. But I must say it’s been great to take a break from the whole deal of having to do this, that or the other. We must, we must, we must … Yeah (Excerpt from interview, 2018).

Below, the social educator offers another perspective on the children from their involvement in the project. In particular, she draws attention to their increased curiosity and interest: SE: They are actually a really curious class. I mean in a positive way. They are very interested in what inspires them. Some more than others. But there are some children that are really interested in what goes on around them. Or what you say –’What’s that? Why is that? How so?’ That’s really cool (Excerpt from interview, 2018).

This curiosity of the children in the informal learning environment seems important to both teacher and social educator and the teacher, in particular, feels that it is ‘liberating’ to be at work in that environment. There is a higher degree of ‘autonomy’ in this learning environment for both children and adults. There is a marked contrast between the experience of the children who participated in the more informal learning environment of the action learning activity and the assessment of the initiating cases at the outset of the project. With the latter, it was

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noted that the lack of stimulation and pre-understanding in some students in the context of the diverse student body was a problem. However, the accented curiosity and interest in the students who participated in the project invited the following questions: Can the more informal learning environment help to resolve some of the problems indicated in the initial case work? Might the sense of empowerment in the school team, combined with the increased curiosity and motivation from the children, resulting from the more informal learning context, help to nurture and develop the mutuality of understanding which is a prerequisite for diverse learning environments? This work could be further bolstered by utilizing all the resources in a given home, which has been exemplified through the action learning project. The excerpts referred to above indicated that the experiences that resulted from the action learning activity also positively impacted on everyday teaching. It is clear that the project has opened up new lines for action.

6.6.7 Linguistic Development in the Informal Learning Environment The evidence points to fruitful possibilities in an informal learning environment regarding childrens’ linguistic development. They may exhibit a propensity to talk more readily in a learning environment which is focused more on community and well-being, rather than explicit learning goals. The spontaneity that is possible in such environments can encourage the children to contribute at a level at which they are comfortable. Furthermore, such a learning environment might feel like a safer place to take linguistic risks, especially when feeling that bit insecure about how to express yourself verbally. Through participant observation at Nord School, some features of such a learning environment at work began to emerge. The children were observed elaborating spontaneously, even when the teacher sometimes asked closed questions. In addition to the children responding spontaneously, the teacher was also observed responding in a similar way. It was evident that everyone was encouraged and welcome to contribute to the conversation. The learning situation was unrestrained from specific academic demands as there were no right or wrong answers as such. This increased the propensity for an expanded and enriched learning environment, characterized by mutual wonder, curiosity, and interest. This informal learning environment is highly dialogical in nature (Dawes & Warwick, 2018) and consequently conducive to the students’ thinking and language. The teacher cannot plan which academic conversations will emerge, but both the teacher and the social educator see a connection between these conversations and increased curiosity and motivation in the children. The researchers also observed an expansion of vocabulary-work across languages, as well as active and dialogic participation in expanding conversations from the children, which resulted from the more informal learning environment. The social educator notes ‘a sense of meaning’

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to the children’s understanding that is developed through conversation. It is characterized by a sense of wonder that reaches far into the future for the children and has ‘a significance beyond oneself’: Personally, I think it’s great when children are curious. Because it means that they are in some way thinking about the assignment and not just sitting there receiving. But that they are actually, when you say something, turning it over inside – and then they say,’Hey, what was that? And what does it mean? And why?’ I think that’s great. Sometimes it goes overboard and they get a bit too curious and you take off too far down a tangent. But it’s great that their basic attitude is curiosity, because they need that. I mean, our society is not built around what you know and how good you are at reading a book, but how good you are at finding the answers you need. Like, they really need to seek knowledge all the time to keep up. So, it’s a really good basic attitude in many of the children, because it will be useful to them, and we need to support them in that. That they can and must do it, because otherwise I think that they will end up lacking certain skills going forward (Excerpt from interview, 2018).

Here the social educator focuses on an educational perspective where curiosity is deemed an important value. The children should not just be empty vessels receiving knowledge but also be curious about the world around them and ask critical questions. This curiosity should be promoted as it is deemed important in relation to flourishing in the modern information society. This curiosity was clearly apparent in the participant observations carried out by the UC team. Examples of topics for conversation and discussion were: What does a hamburger have to do with a city in Germany? What is a chip? A kite is drage [dragon] in Danish! Do girls play ice hockey? What is dictatorship? We experienced that some students were very preoccupied with school topics such as World War II and The Berlin Wall. In relation to the curiosity of the students the opportunity for expanded vocabulary work also arose. Words and concepts in Punjabi, Urdu, German and English were compared. Words were tried out and repeated. The meaning of words was explained and negotiated. In the semi-structured interview the teacher gives examples of how everyday words and pre-academic words become essential for participating in the structured math lesson, and how these types of words are brought into play and acquired in the informal learning environment: They just need to say one word, those parents, and well, they don’t know what that is … and bam, there you are. We have been talking about smørrebrød1 and take a word like smørrebrød. I think 90% thought it was buttered bread, because it is smørrebrød and they have just thought butter and bread. Not many of them knew what smørrebrød is in our minds (int. p. 7). Hopefully, when we talk about all of this, we see pictures of things they don’t know and that may help promote better pre-understanding. So, they also develop their language. I might just as easily have prepared a math assignment around smørrebrød, but there’s no way we can tackle an assignment about smørrebrød, when they have no idea what smørrebrød is, because then that will be the focus of their interest (int. p. 8).

From the aforementioned, it is evident that the informal learning environment, coupled with the active participation of the parents seems to hold a great deal 1 Danish

open-faced sandwiches on rye bread. ‘Smør’ means butter, ‘brød’ means ‘bread’.

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of potential for the pedagogical well-being of the school team and consequently also for the development, learning, well-being, and intercultural competences of the students. It is also evident that the more informal learning environment which was part of this project’s action learning activity was characterized by a high degree of autonomy, relatedness, and meaning. From the teacher’s and social educator’s reflections on this learning environment, it is clear that it is conducive to the children’s linguistic development of Danish, their second language. And, relatedly, the more ‘liberating’ informal learning environment had a positive impact on the children’s pre-understanding of school work, which had been identified as a cause for concern at the initiating phase of this action learning project.

6.6.8 Processing Experiences The final phase of the action learning project is processing the experiences of the school team. Here the school team considers what they have learnt about their own practice and what they will take with them for practical application in their work as educators going forward. The teachers reflect on how the support of the parents has impacted on their wellbeing. It is evident that the teachers’ sense of satisfaction in their work is enhanced with effective home-school collaboration. With this action learning project, feedback from parents on assignments was welcomed. The project has affirmed the potential of drawing on the diverse and varied reservoirs of learning available in the homes of the children. The fruits of this were observed in the context of the informal learning environment that was part of this project, involving collaboration between the teacher, social educator, the children and the parents. When reflecting on the experience of engaging with that environment, the school team highlights the qualities in home-school collaboration that became apparent in the course of the intervention: We have experienced that many of our multilingual students have felt seen and heard by the rest of the class, who incidentally have shown a great deal of interest in each other’s diversity. (…) We now have a handle on a good parent-teacher relationship and in consequence the dialogue between school and home is significantly improved. It is our perception that the parents, throughout the project, have experienced that their knowledge and stories are useful in the children’s lessons. (…) All our multilingual families are now ready to show up in class and contribute with their important stories and narratives (Excerpt from summative reflections, 2019).

It has been an eye-opener in the project how an informal learning environment centered on the parents’ resources can contribute to well-being and development. The school team puts it like this: In relation to well-being it has been uplifting and exciting that a parent’s story can give rise to so many questions about, for instance, World War II. A person entering the class without us having had a chance to prepare in advance for what they were going to say meant that the rest of the lesson was often taken up with a lot of questions from the students, which started

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a dynamic discussion based on the students’ feeling of wonder. It has been good to see the curiosity of the students and their desire to learn about a topic that can be related to their parents (Excerpt from summative reflection, 2019).

As a result of their engagement with the project, the 4th Grade teachers have committed to bring about changes in their classroom practices. There are also plans to disseminate the project methodology more widely across the whole school. Regarding actual teaching, learning has been acquired from engagement with the project as to what constitutes a meaningful learning environment: We give them (the students) more autonomy than before, in certain periods they can choose assignments, topics and partners freely. We see more motivated, responsible and diligent student s (Excerpt from summative reflection, 2019).

With regard to home-school collaboration, the school team is more attuned to the resources that can be available from the parents and of the benefits of collaborating with the parents and the children as part of the learning process: We have seen that the engagement of the students is the key to the presence, interest, and active participation of the parents in the students’ school lives. (…) We plan to focus more on inviting the parents to the school and using them as worthwhile partners rather than only reaching out to them when we are dissatisfied with something (Excerpt from summative reflections, 2019).

Finally, regarding whole-school development, the school team is in the process of developing strategies and joint proposals to disseminate learning from the project across the school. Initially, this will involve presentations to both teachers and social educators about how best to engage with parents across grades 0, 4, and 7. One possible suggestion could involve engaging with the parents to incorporate their diverse stories as part of the history curriculum across the school.

6.7 Conclusion This project was concerned with the development of educator well-being through participatory research and action learning in a diverse 4th Grade classroom. Together, the school and research teams, wanted to explore how home-school collaboration on well-being in a diverse 4th grade classroom could enhance educator well-being for the participating teacher and social educator. As the project developed, a focus on the collaboration between teacher and social educator, parents and school team, as well as well-being for children and adults emerged. The positive disposition of the children regarding their engagement with the project was acknowledged by both the teacher and social educator as enhancing the success of the project. During the project, it became apparent that in the instance of the case project being presented here, there was an intimate connection between the children’s well-being and that of the educators. The efforts of the school team to enhance class wellbeing had positive spin-offs for their own well-being. Through the school team’s

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collaboration on the ‘SnapLogs’, it helped to also focus on the team’s well-being and experience of contributing something meaningful and worthwhile in a school context. The intimate connection between the children’s well-being and that of the educators was also evident from the involvement of the home in the learning environment, which in turn contributed to the well-being of the children. In particular, this project highlighted the potential of the joint creation of a meaningful informal learning environment involving the home. This learning environment was characterized by ‘læringsglemsel’ (Tanggaard, 2018), as outlined above, and enhanced both educator well-being as well as student well-being. The intercultural competence, understood as the ability to respect, understand and interact with people who have different cultural affiliations from oneself (Huber & Reynolds, 2014) for both educators and students, was also enhanced. Based on discussions and project interventions, it is possible to make connections between the experiences with home-school collaboration and feelings of competence, meaningfulness, and educator well-being in the school team. This learning environment also exhibited potentials for linguistic and academic development, as well as for student motivation, curiosity, wonder, and engagement, all qualities of the professional endeavor that were emphasized by the school team as prerequisites for the successful and meaningful execution of their work and thus their educator well-being. This aspect is evident in both the initial cases and in the didactic conversations with the school team, together with their summative reflections. The potential of the informal learning environment has particular resonance in the Danish context, because there has been such a strong focus on and demand for goal-oriented learning there in recent years, a tendency which has been contested by both researchers and politicians. Project interventions that focus on educator well-being may help to improve classroom practice. It has become apparent to the project team that to focus on the wellbeing of the professionals in the school is of paramount significance for the overall educational endeavor, including the well-being of the children.

References Bramming, P., Hansen, B. G., & Olesen, K. G. (2009). SnapLog: en performativ forskningsteknologi eller hvad grævlingelorten fortæller om lærertrivsel Tidsskrift for arbejdsliv, 9(4), 24–37. Candelier, M., Camilleri-Grima, A., Castellotti, V., de Pietro, J.-F., Lörincz, I., Meissner, F., Schröder-Sura, A., & Noguerol, A. (2010). Framework of reference for pluralistic approaches to languages and cultures. Strasbourg: Council of Europe and Graz: ECML. Collett, K. S., & Olsen, S. T. (2012). Teacher Well-Being – a successful approach to promoting quality education? – A case study from South Africa. Published in proceedings of the 4th Paris International Congress of Humanities and Social Sciences Research. Paris, July 2012. Cornwall, A., & Jewkes, R. (1995). What is participatory research? Social Science and Medicine, 41(12), 1667–1676. Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation. Social Development and Well-Being. American Psychologist, 55(1), 68–78.

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Hattie, J. (2009). Making learning visible: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. London: Routledge. Horst, C., & Tireli, Ü. (2015). Ressourcebegrebet i en interkulturel pædagogisk sammenhæng (95– 214). In T. Ritchie (Ed.), Ressourcer i teori og praksis: en brugsbog for pædagoger. Billesøe og Baltzer: Værløse. Huber, J., & Reynolds, C. (Eds.). (2014). Developing intercultural competence through education., Council of Europe Pestalozzi Series, no. 3 Strasbourg: Council of Europe. Husted, M. (2017). Aktionsforskning (338–363). In S. Glasdam, G. Hansen, & S. Pjengaard (Eds.), Bachelorprojekter inden for det pædagogiske område. København: Hans Reitzels Forlag. Husted, M., & Tofteng, D. (2012). Aktionsforskning (359-89). In: S. Juul and K. P. Pedersen (Eds.), Samfundsvidenskabernes videnskabsteori – en indføring. København: Hans Reitzels Forlag. Jensen I. (2005). Grundbog i kulturforståelse. Roskilde Universitetsforlag. McCallum, F., Price, D., Graham, A., & Morrison, A. (2017). Teacher wellbeing: a review of the literature. AU: Association of Independent Schools of NSW. Ministry of Children and Education. Børne- og undervisningsministeriet. (2019). Bekendtgørelse af lov om folkeskolen. Nordahl T. (2008). Hjem og skole. Hvordan skaber man et bedre samarbejde? København: Hans Reitzels Forlag. Plauborg, H., Bayer, M., & Andersen, J. W. (2007). Aktionslæring – en grundbog. Hans Reitzels Forlag. Roffey, S. (2012). Pupil wellbeing—teacher wellbeing: Two sides of the same coin? Educational and Child Psychology, 29(4), 8. Roorda, D. L., Koomen, H. M. Y., Spilt, J. L., & Oort, F. J. (2011). The influence of affective teacher-student relationships on students’ school engagement and achievement: A meta-analytic approach. Review of Educational Research, 81(4), 493–529. Soini, T., et al. (2010). Pedagogical well-being: reflecting learning and well-being in teachers’ work. Teachers and Teaching, 16(6), 735–751. Tanggaard, L. (2018). Læringsglemsel. Aarhus: Klim. Tofteng, D., & Madsen, L. (2017). Pædagogen i skolen – status og udsyn. Professionshøjskolen UC. Villumsen, A. M. A. (2016). Tværprofessionelt samarbejde: viden, begreb og praksis. In J. H. Lund (Ed.), Tværprofessionelt samarbejde om udsatte børn: En studiebog (pp. 17–38). Aarhus: Turbine Forlaget. Warwick, P., & Dawes, L. (2018): Dialogic Teaching and Learning. Viden om literacy, 23, 4–12. Link: https://www.videnomlaesning.dk/media/2418/23_paul-warwick_lyn-dawes.pdf.

Maj Borggaard Hansen is a lecturer in Social Education at University College Copenhagen, Denmark. Maj teaches within the field of pedagogy, school and leisure and interdisciplinary collaboration. Maj is involved in research projects about children’s well-being which incorporates school and social educators. Maj has recently published an article about how social educators are conflictedbetween school and leisure pedagogies. Oliver Balck Jensen is a teacher of Maths, Science, PE and French in Denmark, having graduated in the summer of 2015. He is involved in a significant municipal project, which aims to encourage the well-being and learning of pupils with special needs. Janni Michelsen is a K-grade class teacher of mathematics and creative/musical subjects in Denmark. She is also a trained school/home counselor, and has a special focus on the school/home partnership at the transition from kindergarten to school and at the beginning of a child’s schooling.

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Karoline Søgaard is a lecturer at University College Copenhagen, Denmark, at the department of teacher education. She holds an MA in English from the University of Copenhagen. Her special interests and areas of expertise are teaching foreign languages to young learners and developing children’s intercultural competence through the use of authentic children’s literature. She has several publications in this field. Katja Sørensen Vilien is a lecturer in the Department of Teacher Education at University College Copenhagen, Denmark. Katja teaches within the field of language pedagogy and literature, and has recently published a handbook for teachers on teaching academic literacy. Katja is the editor of the Danish journal Viden om literacy, published by The Danish National Knowledge Center for Reading, and she works as a consultant in the department for further education of teachers and social educators at Københavns Professionshøjskole.

Chapter 7

Teacher Well-Being in an Inclusive Secondary School Timothy R. N. Murphy, Patricia Mannix-McNamara, Gerard Slattery, Mary Masterson, Mary O’Sullivan, and John Corry

Abstract In the development of this chapter, the authors paid particular attention to what is referred to in the literature as ‘teacher pedagogical well-being’ (TPWB) (Soini et al., Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 16:735–751, 2010). It is constructed ‘in the core processes of teachers’ work that is, carrying out and developing teaching–learning process, including, for example, planning classroom activities, interacting with pupils, making evaluations, and choosing and developing instructional tools’ (2010, p. 737). The chapter authors comprised of academics from the University of Limerick together with teachers from the site school involved in the research. The latter was a disadvantaged second-level school in an urban environment in the mid-west region of Ireland. The research was conducted in two phases. In phase one, a focus group was conducted with a convenience sample of teachers to explore their views and perceptions on TPWB. A principal finding which emerged was the conviction that opportunities for the teachers to engage in safe dialogic spaces about their pedagogic work as classroom practitioners were very beneficial towards both supporting and nurturing their experiences of teacher pedagogical well-being. This finding informed the second phase of the research. A focus group was conducted with two existing groups of teachers who met regularly at the school, one for literacy T. R. N. Murphy (B) · P. Mannix-McNamara · G. Slattery · M. Masterson · M. O’Sullivan · J. Corry University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland e-mail: [email protected] P. Mannix-McNamara e-mail: [email protected] G. Slattery e-mail: [email protected] M. Masterson e-mail: [email protected] M. O’Sullivan e-mail: [email protected] J. Corry e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 T. R. N. Murphy and P. Mannix-McNamara (eds.), International Perspectives on Teacher Well-Being and Diversity, Understanding Teaching-Learning Practice, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-1699-0_7

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and one for numeracy. It was intended that this phase of the research would identify characteristics to maximise the potential of Teacher Learning Communities (TLCs) to enhance and nurture TPWB. Keywords DEIS · Focus group · Teacher communication · Teacher learning community · Teacher pedagogical well-being

7.1 Introduction The various contributors to this edited book have drawn attention to the pivotal importance of teacher well-being (TWB) for the work of teachers in socially and linguistically diverse teaching contexts. Similar to other contributors, the authors of this chapter, four academics from the University of Limerick School of Education (ULSoE) and two teachers from a partner school, Éire Community College (Éire), are very aware of the multi-faceted and complex nature of TWB. They have considered its emotional aspects (Longaretti & Toe, 2017; Yoo & Carter, 2017), as well as the impact of the increasing culture of performativity on TWB (Acton & Glasgow, 2015). The authors are also cognisant of the symbiotic relationship that exists between teachers’ well-being and that of their students (McCallum, Price, Graham, & Morrison, 2017; McCallum & Price, 2010; Spilt, Koomen, & Thijs, 2011). Additionally, from their engagement with the existing research on TWB, the authors acknowledge the positive impact that the presence of Teacher Learner Communities (TLCs) in schools can have on TWB (Owen, 2016; Owen, 2014; Soini, Pyhältö, & Pietarinen, 2010). The latter point had particular importance as it was also a significant finding that emerged from their research in Éire, a co-educational urban post-primary school located in the midwest region of Ireland. Its intake of students reflects the diversity of the surrounding community. Through a rigorous student-centred curriculum, its teachers encourage every child to work to his or her maximum potential. Special attention is given to students with diverse academic, social and emotional needs. Aware of the complex and multi-faceted nature of TWB, the authors choose to pay particular attention to what is referred to in the literature as ‘teacher pedagogical well-being’ (TPWB) (Soini et al., 2010). This focus on TPWB aligned with the primary focus of the Erasmus + Teacher Well-being and Diversity (TWBD) project as outlined in Chap. 1. In particular, the chapter authors drew on existing research on TPWB by Soini et al. (2010, p. 737), who described it as being constructed ‘in the core processes of teachers’ work that is, carrying out and developing teaching– learning process, including, for example, planning classroom activities, interacting with pupils, making evaluations, and choosing and developing instructional tools’. From that research, the chapter authors devised a TPWB rubric (see Fig. 7.1) to progress the TWBD partnership between ULSoE and Éire Community College with a view to exploring the school’s experience of and engagement with TPWB.

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Fig. 7.1 Teacher pedagogical well-being rubric adapted from Soini, Pyhältö, and Pietarinen (2010)

7.2 Existing Research on Teacher Well-Being (TWB) 7.2.1 TWB and Emotional Literacy Teacher well-being is recognised as a multi-faceted and complex area of inquiry. Yoo and Carter (2017) recognise the pivotal role of emotionality. They argue that emotions are ‘an insightful lens into how teachers experience their work’ (2017, p. 40). When teachers’ emotional needs are addressed, they discovered that there is a corresponding positive impact on their overall sense of well-being, together with enhanced quality of teaching outcomes. Similar finding has been noted also by other researchers (Longaretti & Toe, 2017; Yoo & Carter, 2017).

7.2.2 TWB and Neo-liberal Context Current educational contexts, which are dominated by neoliberal ideologies that favour and privilege individual competition, accountability, and performativity, can impact on a teacher’s sense of well-being (Acton & Glasgow, 2015). Yoo & Carter (2017, p. 49) argue that the current climate of teacher and student performativity primarily identifies learning with standardised test scores. This was found to have a negative impact on how teachers relate to their students. McCallum and Price (2010) found that this can result in increased teacher attrition. They contend that

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these findings demonstrate the pivotal importance of ‘having a well-being strategy in place that clearly identifies inhibiting and enabling strategies’ (ibid, 2010, p. 19).

7.2.3 TWB and Teacher and Student Interactions Some writers contend that there is a symbiotic relationship between teachers’ wellbeing and their students’ well-being (Acton & Glasgow, 2015; McCallum & Price, 2010). Spilt et al. (2011), for example, recognised the correlation between teachers’ positive sense of well-being and increased work satisfaction and productivity, which, in turn, contributed to their positive influence on their students’ well-being and academic achievement. Teacher well-being initiatives at a whole-school level can result in similar types of outcomes. McCallum et al. (2017) found that benefits include teachers feeling a greater sense of value, increased job satisfaction, less recorded sick days and an overall improvement in student achievement.

7.2.4 TWB and Professional Learning Communities Other studies also identified a correlation between teacher well-being and the presence of professional learning communities (PLCs) in schools. Soini et al. (2010, p. 737), for example, found that ‘the teacher community provides not only emotional support but a collaborative professional community that takes shared responsibility for pupils’ learning and growth as well as development of the whole school community’. Owen (2016) describes such communities as small groups of teachers who come together as a team to help each other to improve student learning. She suggests that they were effective because members worked together regularly over an extended time frame, with teachers experimenting and supporting each other in skill-building and using new pedagogies (Owen, 2014). Other researchers have also elaborated on the characteristics of effective PLCs. Building trust among teachers has been identified as important, as has finding ways for teachers to discover common goals and shared values to work towards. Using action research and inquiries as the main approach to solving problems and developing improvements in school has also been found to be characteristic of effective PLCs.

7.3 Teacher Pedagogical Well-Being (TPWB) Although the authors were aware of the importance of the areas identified above for their impact on teacher well-being (TWB), in the development of this chapter, they choose to pay particular attention to what is referred to in the literature as ‘teacher pedagogical well-being’ (TPWB) (Soini et al., 2010). The authors designed and

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developed a TPWB rubric which was adapted from the Soini et al. study (2010) (see Fig. 7.1). It provided a theoretical scaffolding to consider Éire Community College’s experience of and engagement with TPWB. The manner in which it was deployed is further elaborated on in the methodology section. In order to better understand the correlation between TPWB and its main components (see Fig. 7.1), the authors conducted a purposeful literature review. The related findings are outlined in the following sections: TPWB and planning classroom activities; TPWB and interacting with pupils; TPWB and making evaluations; TPWB and choosing and developing instructional tools.

7.3.1 TPWB and Planning Classroom Activities Acton and Glasgow (2015) noticed that developing new and transformative pedagogical tools contributed to feelings of professional competence. This can act as a conduit for TPWB. Liu (2015) drew attention to the tendency of emphasising the acquisition of pedagogical content knowledge at the expense of other forms of teacher knowledge, such as those derived from life experiences, both inside and outside the classroom. This had direct implications for the planning of classroom activities. In order to counteract this tendency, she underscored the importance of teachers being aware of their teaching contexts so as to be better able to connect classroom activities with the lifeworld of their students. This can lead to better student engagement and motivation for learning (Liu, 2015). With the increasing prevalence of standardised teaching and learning processes, there is an increased propensity for teachers to engage in pedagogical processes that are removed from the lifeworld of the students. This propensity can have a particular impact on teachers who work in disadvantaged schools, such as the school which was the focus of this chapter. In these schools, teachers strive to find the optimum alignment between meeting the needs of their students in the context of an increasingly more competitive education environment. Finding this balance is a prerequisite for TPWB.

7.3.2 TPWB and Interacting with Pupils A number of studies have established a correlation between how teachers relate to their students and their overall sense of professionalism and effectiveness as educators, referred to in this chapter as TPWB (McCallum & Price, 2010; Roffey, 2012; Split et al., 2011). Split et al. (2011, p 457) established that ‘teachers have a basic need for relatedness with the students in their class’. When such needs have been met, McCallum and Price (2010) contend that teachers have a greater appreciation of the value of their work.

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7.3.3 TPWB and Making Evaluations Teachers often find themselves conflicted when it comes to the assessment of their students. The increasing prevalence of a culture of performativity in schools can leave teachers torn between the need to cultivate successful test-takers and the desire to inspire critical and creative thinkers (Kuh, 2016). Teachers expressed frustration at the ways in which high-stakes testing inhibited them from teaching meaningfully. Yoo and Carter (2017) identified teacher disenchantment with the increasing preoccupation with student outcomes from standardised tests. They noted that this was particularly evident for those teachers who perceived the aims and purposes of education as extending beyond those that were solely focused on mastery of content. How teachers responded to these pressures and constraints on their professional roles as educators can impact on their overall sense of TPWB.

7.3.4 TPWB and Choosing and Developing Instructional Tools Yoo & Carter (2017) noted that focusing merely on content, strategies and outcomes can have the effect of disengaging teachers, particularly those who are driven by a broader sense of the purpose and meaning of education. Similarly, Owen (2016) highlighted the significance of a shared vision, where educational practices are focused around meaningful approaches to education that allow a wider conception of learning as a whole classroom priority. Soini et al. (2010) contended that teacher reflection was a major conduit for such approaches. The reflection, both individually and with colleagues, can encourage innovation in and experimentation with teaching methods. In their view, creating new professional knowledge with students and colleagues was at the heart of meaningful teacher learning. This can foster pedagogical practices for deep learning as well as well-being in schools.

7.4 Methodology The research objective was to explore the perceptions of teachers on their experiences of TPWB. Furthermore, in this particular project, TWBD had a particular focus on teacher well-being in the context of ethnically and socially diverse classroom teaching contexts. The second-level school, Éire, which was the focus of this chapter, was an urban, multi-denominational, co-educational, second-level school located in the midwest region of Ireland. It had a diverse cohort of students which was reflective of its diverse surrounding community. The chapter authors who comprised four academics from ULSoE and two teachers from Éire engaged a convenience sample of teachers from the school with a view

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to accessing their perceptions of and experiences with TPWB. They adopted a case study methodology. The findings that are reported here resulted from the participation of Éire teachers in two focus groups FG1 and FG2 (see Figs. 7.2 and 7.3). It was recognised that the focus group approach would allow for more interaction between the participants than is normally possible in a one-to-one interview (see Basit, 2010; Cohen, Manion, & Morrison, 2003). This was deemed important in the context of participants’ perceptions of their pedagogical well-being. The focus groups adopted a qualitative grounded theory approach. This invited the theory to emerge in a naturalistic sense from the data, ‘instead of the data collection being dictated by the theory’ (Basit, 2010, p. 188). Such an approach was congruent with the exploratory nature of the research. The five teachers who participated in FG1 (see Fig. 7.2) were recruited by Jane, one of the two teachers from the community college. Participants were provided with information sheets about the project, as well as consent forms. They were also advised that the data from the focus group would be anonymized and that all safeguards would be adhered to in order to protect the confidentiality of the participants. Teachers were made aware that they could withdraw from the research at any time and that any existing data pertaining to them would be removed. In case any participants may have felt obliged to take part because Jane was a professional colleague, this ethical procedure was intended to obviate this.

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Although the number of years teaching had not been established as an exclusion criterion for participation in the focus group, it proved beneficial that most of the teachers from the convenience sample had considerable teaching experience. Combined, the five teachers who participated in FG1 had, collectively, in excess of 90 years teaching experience. Michael (FG1 T2) had transitioned into teaching as a mature student. Although he had only 6 months teaching experience at the school, his insights on TPWB were testimony to his experiences and maturity. In the exploratory discussion, the participants were invited to discuss the resources and supports that were available to them at the school for harnessing and sustaining TPWB. Additionally, they were invited to collectively consider the barriers that were encountered at Éire which could impact on TPWB. The Éire Project Team of four academics from ULSoE and two teachers constituted a partnership that spanned the university and school levels. In order to mitigate the potential for ‘differential power’ hierarchies between ‘outside’ researchers from ULSoE and the ‘insider’ researchers from Éire, the former adopted the recommendations that the ‘outsiders’ negotiate ‘the boundaries and parameters of the study with the participants, involving them as co-researchers without expecting them to undertake substantial amounts of additional work’ (Noffke & Somekh, 2007, p. 90). The incorporation of the second Focus Group (FG 2) as part of the research undertaken at Éire developed naturalistically from the conduct of the research. One of the principal findings that emerged from an analysis of the data from FG1 prompted the Éire Project Team to highlight the importance of TLCs for the promotion of TPWB. This led the team to engage in a purposeful TLC literature search, with particular reference to the TPWB rubric (see Fig. 7.1). The Team also inquired if there were similar communities at Éire that could offer additional insights into the possible links between TLCs and TPWB. It emerged that there were existing teacher teams at the school for literacy and numeracy. The teachers who participated in them were invited to engage in a focus group discussion to explore the potential link between the presence of TLCs and the constructed experience of TPWB, with particular reference to the TPWB rubric as outlined in Fig. 7.1. Three teachers and one librarian participated in FG2 (Literacy) (see Fig. 7.3). The findings have been incorporated as part of the discussion section below.

7.5 Teachers’ Understanding of Teacher Pedagogical Well-Being The initiating exploratory FG1 discussion question invited the participating teachers to consider what comes to mind when they think about well-being, and more specifically ‘teacher pedagogical well-being’ (TPWB). Their responses reflected the various components of TPWB as outlined by Soini et al. (2010) (see Fig. 7.1). Caroline, a senior teacher at the school, commented that for her well-being is about ‘the art of teaching, the science of teaching and the methods we use’. This resonates with all

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five aspects of TPWB as outlined by Soini et al. (2010). And, her follow-up comment that well-being was about ‘tailoring the content of the lesson that you have to do that day to suit the needs of the students in front of you’ had resonances with the ‘interacting with pupils’ aspect of TPWB. Additionally, the implications of such tailoring for planning classroom activities were underscored by Liu (2015) above, especially in terms of being better able to connect classroom activities with the lifeworld of students, which in turn can lead to enhanced student engagement and motivation for learning. The correlation between the experience of TPWB and having engaged and motivated students was highlighted by another participating teacher. Michael contended that ‘if the teacher feels confident in their ability and supported in their ability to teach, supported in their teaching practice and the student also feels supported, nurtured and confident in the school’ that this is ‘the ultimate’ which would invite the students to ‘stretch themselves and achieve as much as they can’. This comment was reflective of the finding of Split et al. (2011) above of the basic need for relatedness that teachers have with their students. The degree of such relatedness can impact the extent to which teachers valued and appreciated their work (see McCallum & Price, 2010).

7.5.1 Challenges to Teacher Pedagogical Well-Being From their responses regarding challenges, it was evident that the school’s context, as described in the introduction, had an influence on how the teachers’ experienced TPWB. Jennifer, a senior language teacher, spoke about ‘forces coming into your classroom every single day’. Caroline illustrated the extent of those forces, stating that 80 per cent of the families represented in the school were in some form of crisis. Soini et al. (2010, p. 738) acknowledged that lack of teachers’ awareness regarding the significance of school context can ‘generate tension within the interaction of teachers and pupils’ and thus affect their experienced pedagogical well-being. With reference to the ‘interactions with pupils’ aspect of TPWB, Jennifer exclaimed that ‘you won’t survive a class if you’re sensitive ….. you need to build up a wall of resilience very, very fast’. Such resilience allows teachers to cope with ‘setbacks’. Michael commented that ‘it happens all the time, every single class. Every single class. So, you can either let that eat you alive, if you feel that, if you’re a sensitive person. Or you can say: No, I’m tougher than that and move on’. In this regard, Soini et al. (2010, p. 738) observed that the ways in which the teacher solves the problematic situation with her colleagues, pupils or their parents ‘are likely to affect not only the end result of the situation, but also the feedback the teacher receives of themselves as a professional and hence one’s self-image as a teacher’. Jennifer also spoke about how she interacted with her students, about how she chooses and develops her instructional tools and about how she plans her classroom activities (see Fig. 7.1). She reflected that ‘you can’t give it all every day. You have to hold something back for your own well-being also’. She recalled a comment from a lecturer during her pre-service training: ‘You will end up loathing the job you love

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now because you’re going to burn out ‘cos you’re giving, doing too much, in one class’. Caroline referred to how teaching had changed from the time when she started out on her teaching career. Initially, the transmission mode was very much in vogue, ‘you stand up and you depart the knowledge and they take it in’. Now, however, it is very different, ‘you’re talking about peer working, student engagement, visualisation’. Embedding such methodologies into the act of teaching was, in her view, an important aspect of the teacher’s ‘way of coping’ at Éire. These comments aligned with the research that was referenced by Soini et al. (2010) which evidenced the interrelatedness between a teacher’s adopted instructional practices and his experience of ‘self-efficacy, emotional involvement, motivational structure, and work engagement’ (ibid., p. 736). Soini et al. (2010) also identified ‘making evaluations’ as an essential ingredient of TPWB. The context of Éire did impact on how the participating teachers engaged with this aspect. For example, Stephanie remarked that it was important to ‘acknowledge the smallest bit of achievement’ in an effort to counteract the ‘distrust of schools’ compounded by a ‘distrust of authority, a history of failure’ which is experienced by a significant proportion of the students who attend Éire. Jennifer, who earlier mentioned that ‘you can’t give it all every day’ spoke about how she felt frustrated when she initially commenced working at the school. It was recommended to her at the time that perhaps she needed to re-evaluate her ‘idea of success’ as a teacher. The literature on teacher well-being highlighted the extent to which the prevalence of the performativity culture in schools can impact on how teachers relate to their students (Yoo & Carter, 2017). And, in light of the recognised correlation between how teachers relate to their students and their overall sense of professionalism and effectiveness as pedagogues (McCallum & Price, 2010; Roffey, 2012; Split et al., 2011), it was not surprising that Jennifer felt the need to re-calibrate her understanding of what constitutes ‘success’.

7.5.2 Available Supports for Teacher Pedagogical Well-Being Regarding the supports that were available to them at Éire which might lessen the impact of the challenges outlined above it was evident from their responses that the teachers drew extensively on the ‘interactions with colleagues’ aspect of TPWB (see Fig. 7.1). Soini et al. (2010, p. 746) also drew attention to the impact of ‘the teacher community’ for pedagogical well-being. In particular, their findings highlighted the significance of teacher communities for inculcating ‘emotional support’ and ‘positive atmosphere’. And, they also indicated that ‘emotional support’ acted as a ‘functional buffer’ against the negative and burdensome experiences with pupils. However, there was a variance in the degree of significance attached to the importance of ‘peer interactions with colleagues’ for the participating teachers at Éire as compared with the findings reported by Soini et al. (2010). The teachers at Éire

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emphasised the importance of safe spaces for teachers to discuss and explore pedagogical issues. They considered them integral to the development of teacher pedagogical well-being. While Soini et al. (2010, p. 747) did regard similar type of activities to be important, they also reported that their results ‘seem to say that teachers do not typically perceive themselves as active collaborative learners within the teacher community’. This, they surmised, could be a consequence of a lack of skills related to ‘relational aspects of professional agency, such as offering and receiving peer feedback’ (ibid., p. 747). At Éire, however, Michael, the newly arrived teacher, stated that he relied heavily on ‘informal advice’. It provided him with a ‘context’ for students who misbehaved in his class. He intimated that the natural inclination was to wonder: ‘Is it me? Is it my teaching techniques that are off here? Is there something wrong?’ Such thoughts, however, were assuaged with opportunities to ‘hop it off’ colleagues who often respond: ‘Oh no, they’ve been like this all morning’. He mentioned that from his own teaching experience he had accrued insight and know-how about how best to handle certain students. He also acknowledged, however, that there were other ‘kids’ in the school that he ‘can’t handle and other people can handle’. Access to ‘informal advice’ for how best to connect with the latter provided him with the confidence that ‘whatever happens you can handle it’. Having such confidence was considered vitally important, especially in the context of the project school, which as Caroline pointed out was a DEIS school in one of the most disadvantaged parts of the city, ‘where a lot of our catchment is from regeneration’. She believed that if you did not feel confident, if you did not feel supported, you would ‘not function as a functioning teacher’. Jennifer agreed emphatically on the potential benefits of ‘informal advice’. She believed that you ‘can’t beat that’. She further contended that: ‘You’ve got to take the opportunities to go into the staff room and build relationships with your colleagues, not isolate yourself in your room, not miss breaks’. She considered such relations ‘invaluable’ as it afforded opportunities to ‘get things off your chest’. She described this as ‘letting it out, just saying it, having a rant’. The value of this was clearly evident in her contention that if she did not do that she would ‘go home a mad person every day’. This was mirrored in Michael’s view that the more ‘informal structure’ of advice allowed a ‘more confident teacher’ a conduit for venting the pent-up frustrations that occurred with his peers such as ‘I’ve had an absolute nightmare in the last class, just a nightmare’. Michael made an important point regarding the ‘informal advice’ that can be available. He stated that ‘it takes a confident teacher to say I can’t cope with the situation’. There was a concern, however, in his view, ‘that only confident teachers are going to do that and it’s a vicious circle for less confident teachers to do that’. He felt that the less confident teachers are more inclined to ‘bottle it up, clam it up, do damage to themselves’. He therefore recommended a ‘more formalised structure’ to exist alongside the more informal one, in order to make sure that ‘a channel of communication’ existed for those teachers as well. Stephanie, who acted as one of the school Guidance Counsellors, also extolled the value of the more formalised structures of support for teachers. She stated that as part

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of her professional training as a guidance counsellor, it was incumbent upon them to complete a specified number of sessions focused on herself. She recommended that a similar process for NQTs (Newly Qualified Teachers) could be very beneficial. Caroline believed that such support for teachers should extend beyond the early years of commencing teaching. She contended that ‘we need that at all stages of our teaching. At all stages we have days when we need to be supported’. As part of this discussion, Michael highlighted the importance of making such support for teachers mandatory, which he felt would avoid ‘stigmatisation’. In that connection, it was recognised that management should have a role in providing more formalised structures of support. The need for such structures of support for teachers was highlighted by Stephanie. She contended that the recent introduction of the new Junior Cycle reforms, which, in her own words, had introduced ‘a whole new pedagogical approach and teachers are scared’. Accordingly, Jennifer believed that opportunities for teachers to interact with each other ‘need to be built into the job’. This point was affirmed by Caroline who stated that the opportunities for such exchanges ‘should be built into our timetabling. It should be built into our contract. It should be built into our week and into our lives as teachers. On a yearly basis, we should have so many days where we can touch base’. Recently, in the Republic of Ireland, a new national framework for teachers’ learning known as Cosán (Teaching Council, 2016) was introduced. It seeks to foster teacher learning through increased and sustained teacher professional collaboration. This new policy acknowledges teachers as lifelong learners and links continuing professional development to the ability of teachers to collaborate and learn with and from each other within the school context. The belief is that teachers who engage in quality learning in TLCs can better support their students’ learning. The different dimensions of teachers’ learning are acknowledged and there is a recognition that learning can be collaborative.

7.6 Teacher Learning Communities and Teacher Pedagogical Well-Being A core finding that emerged from the analysis of the focus groups was their unanimous conviction that opportunities for them to engage in safe dialogic spaces about their pedagogic work as classroom practitioners was very beneficial towards both supporting and nurturing their experiences of TPWB, individually and collectively. Michael, for example, noted that: We have an informal structure: we touched on that already. A more confident teacher would say: “I’ve had an absolute [night]mare in the last class, just a nightmare” and they bounce it off their colleagues. But the more sensitive ones will bottle it up, clam it up, do damage to themselves (agreement) so there needs to be a more formalised structure of support for me. I don’t know, enforce it. I don’t understand it. Just make sure there’s a channel of communication for those people as well.

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Previously, it was mentioned that this research was informed by the understanding of TPWB, which Soini et al. (2010) identified as involving interactions with pupils, as well as pedagogical activities such as planning activities and making evaluations. Each of these aspects of TPWB has been expanded on above.

7.6.1 Teacher Learning Communities and Planning Classroom Activities TLCs have been recognised as highly effective in supporting teachers’ learning (DuFour, 2004). In more recent times, there is increasing recognition of the importance of teachers’ learning as a source for change and renewal within schools (McArdle & Norman, 2010; Teaching Council, 2016). TLCs are seen as being pivotal for the promotion of such learning. They can encourage ‘critical collaborative professional enquiry’ (Drew, Priestley, & Michael, 2016) into teachers’ classroom practices. This involves a triad of ‘dialogic processes, taking action and engaging in reflection’ (ibid. 2016, p. 5), which encourage the teachers to become active and engaged collaborators into the teaching and learning process. Henry, a senior language teacher, commented that as a result of his participation in the FOLAN Literacy TLC at Éire, he was compelled in a way to look at his own practice and ‘to incorporate what you see from other people and to try to improve all the time’. Similarly, Jennifer stated that through her participation in the TLC she has observed how different methodologies are put into use. This encouraged her to vary the methodologies that she uses in her teaching. As teachers, she believed that ‘it’s very important that we’re learning all the time and not staying stagnant’. Lofthouse and Thomas (2017) reported that teacher learning communities can give rise to a spirit of joint endeavour and co-ownership. Similarly, Drew et al. (2016) drew attention to the impact that TLCs can have on teachers’ classroom practices. Their participation in them was variously referred to as ‘refreshing’, allowing ‘a bit more freedom’ and allowing practitioners to be ‘creative and innovative’. TLCs can assist teachers in building new skills and capacities and changing their beliefs about classroom practice (Owen, 2016). The previous comments from the TLC Literacy participants attested to the empowering potential of TLCs, especially with regard to teacher classroom practices. Similarly, June evidenced the creative and innovative teaching practices that emerged from her participation in the TLC, stating that she was ‘constantly developing more resources, amending resources to meet the needs of students in front of you or to meet the needs of the new curriculum, whatever. It’s constantly developing all the time’. In a manner similar to Drew et al. (2016), McArdle and Norman (2010, p. 211) recognised the potential of TLCs to invite teachers ‘to join together to make sense of practice by reflecting critically together on shared action for change designed to enhance practice’. It is helpful to bear in mind that for their potential in terms of

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teachers’ classroom practices, however, it is not necessary for them to be overly formalised or structured. Retallick and Butt (2004), for example, acknowledged that less formal collaborations between teachers can result in learning opportunities for teachers. They recognised ‘informal discussions’ as a place ‘where you could project ideas and get some sort of feedback on them’ (ibid, 2004, p. 89). The resonances between the value of PLCs in the literature and the views emerging from the focus groups are strong. Both Michael and Jennifer explicitly spoke about how their effectiveness as teachers had been positively enhanced through their access to ‘informal advice’. Michael, for example, stated that such access provided him with the confidence that ‘whatever happens you can handle it’.

7.6.2 Teacher Learning Communities and Interacting with Pupils Drew et al. (2016) observed that teacher interactions with pupils were enhanced when the teachers were collaborating in TLCs. They reported that collaboration of this nature ‘opened up new ways of working in school with the potential of enhanced practice and outcomes for children’ (ibid. 2016, p. 7). These ways of working invited planning that was much more child centred and responsive to their needs. This in turn led to learners who were more interested and excited and motived to learn. The teacher’s role changes from being that of the archetypal expert disseminating information to that of being a coach, a co-learner and a learning facilitator (OECD, 2013). In such environments, students are encouraged to be self-directed learners, working collaboratively together. The teachers who participated in the FOLAN Literacy TLC focus group (see Fig. 7.3) also commented on the impact that their participation in it had on their interactions with the students. June stated that ‘the constant collaboration on the methodologies is putting one thing foremost all the time. And that is the learning experience. And I think if the student is happy with the learning experience, that’s going to have a positive pedagogical impact on me as a teacher. I would think anyway’. Jennifer drew attention to the varied learning experiences that the students were exposed to. She pointed out that ‘they’re getting loads of different learning experiences. They’re going from station to station and that it’s varied. The kids all comment at the end that the time flew: it goes really fast’. Owen (2016) examined three innovative schools which evidenced the benefits of TLCs for teacher–teacher and teacher–student interactions. With such learning environments, different skills sets are required on the part of the teacher such as skilful questioning and the provision of quality feedback to promote student learning. She reported that teachers were observing each other in classrooms and were working together within TLC scheduled planning and assessment meetings. The TLCs were characterised as being genuinely learner centred and valuing creativity and innovation (Owen, 2016).

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The learner focused aspect of the FOLAN Literacy TLC at Éire was also evident in the following comment from June: ‘it’s about putting the student at the core of the learning experience and I think everything that we’ve discussed here now is endeavouring to do that’.

7.6.3 Teacher Learning Communities and Making Evaluations Hardy and Ronnerman (2011) found that collaborative and participatory teacher learning action enquiries had the capacity to foster the conditions where teachers could flourish as they engaged in democratic, bottom-up journeys of discovery. This invited experimentation, the sharing of experience and the co-evaluation of classroom practice. Such conditions offered an alternative to challenge the restrictive and widely accepted approaches that do not fit or meet the needs of the school communities in which they worked. Lofthouse and Thomas (2017, p. 48) noted that such collaborative spaces offered a ‘safe forum in which practice could be developed through professional challenge’. They also elaborated on the impact that teachers’ co-evaluative practices, which emerged from their participation in TLCs, can have on their teaching and learning. The participating teachers in their study, for example, arrived at understandings such as ‘it wasn’t my lesson, it was our lesson and having feedback was easier because it was our lesson and we were critiquing the lesson not the teachers’ (ibid., 2017, p. 46). They evidenced a cyclical process of action research enquiries and ongoing evaluation into their classroom practices which was intended to benefit the TLC participants and their ongoing development as education practitioners (ibid., 2017, p. 50).

7.7 Conclusion There were noticeable similarities between the findings of Soini et al. (2010) on teachers’ experiences of ‘teacher pedagogical well-being’ and the findings reported in this chapter. For example, the collaborative project between ULSoE and Éire identified the importance of interactions with pupils as a significant context for the construction of a teacher’s sense of TPWB. Their research identified ‘versatility with teaching practices’ and ‘clarity around what is expected of you’ as examples of what can be involved with such interactions. Soini et al. (2010) also found interactions with pupils to be very important. They believed that ‘both empowering and stressful events described by the teachers related to socially challenging pedagogical situations with pupils’ (ibid., p. 741). Such interactions with pupils constituted for them ‘the core of teachers’ pedagogical well-being (ibid., p. 746).

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Both Soini et al. (2010) and the chapter authors also recognised interactions with peers as being very important for TPWB. Michael, one of the participants in the Éire study, contended that such interactions ‘provided him with a “context” for students who misbehaved in his class’. Henry commented that such disclosures with your colleagues can have the effect of shedding light on the situations, which can also result in the identification of possible resolutions. In their study also, Soini et al. (2010, p. 742) found that the teacher professional learning community ‘was more often perceived as a resource for positive work drive than as a cause for burden and stress’. A point of divergence between the Soini et al. (2010) study and the Éire study concerned the emphasis that was placed on the factors which they identified as impacting on a teacher’s experience of TPWB. The former assigned primary significance to interactions with pupils. While they did acknowledge the potential role of ‘professional peer interaction’ in its construction as well, their findings suggested that teachers ‘do not generally consider themselves to be active professional agents in constructing pedagogical well-being in the context of the teacher community’ (2010, p. 747). In Éire Community College, however, it was the opportunities for interactions with colleagues that the participating teachers placed greatest emphasis on when it came to their constructed experiences of TPWB. Michael, the newly arrived teacher, noted that teachers ‘were not innately endowed with resources and capacities to naturalistically engage with these dialogic spaces’. The capacity he was referring to was ‘the ability to communicate issues’. Similarly, Soini et al. (2010, p. 747) found that the results of their study ‘seem to say that teachers do not typically perceive themselves as active collaborative learners within the teacher community. This may be caused by a lack of skills related to relational aspects of professional agency, such as offering and receiving peer feedback’. Given the close coupling that was established between the existence of TLCs in schools and teachers’ constructed experiences TPWB in the present study, the authors would contend that it is vitally important to develop strategies that will nurture these communication capacities for both pre-service and practising teachers. In this way, teachers may be better able to engage more pro-actively with TLCs and thereby increase the likelihood of experiencing TPWB in their work as teachers.

References Acton, R., & Glasgow, P. (2015). Teacher well-being in neoliberal contexts: A review of the literature. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 40(8), 6. https://doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2015v4 0n8.6. Basit, T. (2010). Conducting research in educational contexts. London: Continuum InternationPublishing Group. Cohen, L., Manion, L., & Morrison, K. (2003). Research methods in education (5th ed.). London: RoutledgeFalmer. Drew, V., Priestley, M., & Michael, M. K. (2016). Curriculum development through critical collaborative professional enquiry. Journal of Professional Capital and Community, 1(1), 92–106.

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DuFour, R. (2004). Schools as Learning communities. What is a professional learning community. Educational Leadership, 61(8), 6–1. Hardy, I., & Ronnerman, K. (2011). The value of continuing professional development: Current dilemmas, future directions and the case for action research. Cambridge journal of education, 41(4), 461–472. https://doi.org/10.1080/0305764X.2011.625004. Kuh, L. P. (2016). Teachers talking about teaching and school: collaboration and reflective practice via Critical Friends Groups. Teachers and Teaching, 22(3), 293–314. https://doi.org/10.1080/135 40602.2015.1058589. Liu, L. B. (2015). Teacher educator international professional development as Ren. In Teacher Educator International Professional Development as Ren (pp. 81–99). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. Lofthouse, R., & Thomas, T. (2017). Concerning collaboration: teachers’ perspectives on working in partnerships to develop teaching practices. Professional Development in Education, 43(1), 36–56. https://doi.org/10.1080/19415257.2015.1053570. Longaretti, L., & Toe, D. (2017). School Leaders’ perspectives on educating teachers to work in vulnerable communities: New insights from the coal face. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 42(4), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2017v42n4.2. Mc Ardle, K., & Norman, C. (2010). Taking teachers’ continuous professional development (CPD) beyond reflection: Adding shared sense-making and collaborative engagement for professional renewal. Studies in Continuing Education, 32(3), 201–215. https://doi.org/10.1080/0158037X. 2010.517994. McCallum, F., Price, D., Graham, A., & Morrison, A. (2017). Teacher wellbeing: a review of the literature. AU: Association of Independent Schools of NSW. McCallum, F., & Price, D. (2010). Well teachers, well students. The Journal of Student Wellbeing, 4(1), 19–34. https://doi.org/10.21913/JSW.v4i1.599. Noffke, S., & Somekh, B. (2007). Action Research. In B. Somekh & C. Lewin (Eds.), Research methods in the social sciences (pp. 89–96). London: Sage Publications. OECD. (2013). Innovative learning environments. Paris: OECD Publishing. Owen, S. (2016). Professional learning communities: Building skills, reinvigorating the passion, and nurturing teacher well-being and “flourishing” within significantly innovative schooling contexts. Educational Review, 68(4), 403–419. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131911.2015.1119101. Owen, S. (2014). Teacher professional learning communities: Going beyond contrived collegiality toward challenging debate and collegial learning and professional growth. Australian Journal of Adult Learning, 54(2), 54. Retallick, J., & Butt, R. (2004). Professional well-being and learning: a study of teacher peerrelationships. Journal of Educational Enquiry, 5(1), 85–99. Roffey, S. (2012). Pupil wellbeing—teacher wellbeing: Two sides of the same coin? Educational and Child Psychology, 29(4), 8. Soini, T., Pyhältö, K., & Pietarinen, J. (2010). Pedagogical well-being: reflecting learning and wellbeing in teachers’ work. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 16(6), 735–751. https:// doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2010.517690. Spilt, J. L., Koomen, H. M., & Thijs, J. T. (2011). Teacher wellbeing: The importance of teacher– student relationships. Educational Psychology Review, 23(4), 457–477. https://doi.org/10.1007/ s10648-011-9170. The Teaching Council. (2016). Cosán: Framework for teachers’ learning. Maynooth, Ireland: The Teaching Council. Yoo, J., & Carter, D. (2017). Teacher emotion and learning as praxis: professional development that matters. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 42(3), 38–52. https://doi.org/10.1080/135 40602.2010.517690.

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Timothy R. N. Murphy is a Lecturer in Educational Research and Policy at the School of Education, University of Limerick. He is a Graduate of Teachers College, Columbia University, New York and has researched and worked in a number of educational contexts, including England, the USA and Ireland. He has published widely in the field of education, on topics ranging from education policy and reform, to disadvantage in education, as well as on teacher pedagogical well-being. The latter led to his participation in a three-year Erasmus+ EU project on Teacher Well-being and Diversity which provided the inspiration for this book. Patricia Mannix-McNamara is head of the School of Education at the University of Limerick in Ireland. Her experience spans school leadership, systems leadership, organizational culture and climate, workplace wellbeing in education and organizational behaviours and she is widely published in these fields. She serves as an advisor to national bodies and has championed school health promotion for two decades. She is the joint chair of the National Behaviour in Organisations Research Group (BORG) with her colleague Dr. Margaret Hodgins in the National University of Ireland Galway. Her motivation in this text is to place wellbeing, for both teachers and students, at the heart of teaching culture. Gerard Slattery is a Lecturer in Education (Business), Course Director of the PME Business programme, Deputy Head of the School of Education in the School of Education at the University of Limerick, Ireland. He undertook doctoral studies at Dublin City University and has a Masters in Business Studies from the University of Limerick and a Masters in Philosophy from Dublin City University. His research interests are entrepreneurial education; teacher education systems and student learning and assessment. Mary Masterson is a lecturer in Education at the University of Limerick, Ireland. She is a crosscultural educator, educational researcher and teacher educator. She is a Leargás ambassador for the national eTwinning programme in Ireland, an initiative that fosters international school partnerships. She obtained her Ph.D. (magna cum lauda) from the University of Kassel, Germany. Her research study explored the potential for developing cultural awareness in foreign language teaching. She is the Course Director for the Professional Master of Education (Languages) programme, a postgraduate teacher education programme. Dr. Masterson’s research focuses on teacher well-being, linguistic & cultural diversity, interactive technologies, and curriculum. Mary O’Sullivan is a secondary school Guidance Counsellor in Ireland. She graduated from University College Cork with a BA and the Higher Diploma in Education. Her interests are School Planning and Development, Educational Disadvantage, Inclusion and Teacher and Student Well-being. John Corry is a secondary school teacher in Ireland. He completed his initial teacher training as a teacher of English and History at University College Dublin in 2001. He completed a graduate diploma in Special Education Needs at Mary Immaculate College in 2007. He previously worked for 9 years as a behaviour support worker. He is currently working as a year head with responsibility for 6th year students.

Chapter 8

Teacher Well-Being in Diverse School and Preschool Contexts Carol O’Sullivan, Sandra Ryan, and Lisha O’Sullivan

Abstract Well-being is a familiar and possibly over-used term in current discourse. Yet, despite the frequency of its use, it is difficult to pin down in terms of definition. Thomas (2009, p. 11 in Dodge, Daly, Huyton and Sanders 2012) argues that well-being is ‘intangible, difficult to define and even harder to measure’. This chapter interrogates the concept of well-being with a view to outlining its breadth and complexity. Application of the term in schools is then explored with a particular focus on how teachers internalise the definition for themselves. Using research undertaken with a group of teachers working in a multicultural and multilingual preschool and primary school, the chapter outlines the extent to which the participants reflect on their own well-being in their personal and professional lives and the structures (or lack thereof) in place to support their needs in this complex and often challenging context. Qualitative research by means of focus groups was undertaken with the entire staff of the school. Data were analysed with a view to identifying facilitators of, and challenges to, teacher well-being. Findings indicate that the teachers tend to overlook the importance of their own well-being in order to address the concerns and needs of the children in their care. Keywords Teacher well-being · Definition · Application · Multicultural · Multilingual · Support

C. O’Sullivan (B) · S. Ryan · L. O’Sullivan Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, Ireland e-mail: [email protected] S. Ryan e-mail: [email protected] L. O’Sullivan e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 T. R. N. Murphy and P. Mannix-McNamara (eds.), International Perspectives on Teacher Well-Being and Diversity, Understanding Teaching-Learning Practice, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-1699-0_8

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8.1 Introduction Well-being is a familiar term in current discourse and is now gaining increased recognition as a determinant of country performance by the OECD as demonstrated in the How’s Life report which focuses on 11 dimensions of human well-being (OECD, 2013). Lézé (2017, citing Bok 2010) observes that research on well-being aims at developing a ‘politics of happiness’ and identifies the quality of education as an important element in the process. Yet, the concept is in danger of becoming overused and possibly losing meaning. The meaning of the term tends to be subjective and localised rather than objective and generalised. Hence, definition is somewhat obscure and intangible. Indeed, the confusion is borne out even by the very spelling of the term. Some writers use the hyphen in the term and others do not. For the purposes of this chapter, to ensure consistency, the hyphenated version will be used apart from direct quotes and document titles. Ereaut and Whiting (2008) acknowledge the ambiguity around the definition, usage and function of the term. Deaton and Stone (2016) outline the difficulties in measuring well-being through standard questionnaires and highlight the impact of context. Watson, Emery and Bayliss (2012) comment on the constantly evolving set of definitions associated with the concept. Dodge et al. (2012) argue that many explorations of well-being tend to focus on dimensions rather than definition. Many definitions view the concept in terms of the positive interaction of the individual with others and with their community (see, for example, Bornstein, Davidson, Keyes, & Moore, 2003; Lerner, Dowling, & Anderson, 2003). This chapter commences with a focus on teacher well-being, highlighting the importance of social capital within school communities and the consequent need to support the well-being of key stakeholders in the community, including teachers. The role of the school in providing this support is outlined, with reference being made to multicultural and multilingual schools and the impact of disadvantage, as this is the specific context in which this research was undertaken. The research project is then outlined, with the data being used to illustrate what impacts teacher well-being in this context. Implications of the research are discussed and the chapter concludes with a call for more focus and debate on the concept of teacher well-being, particularly in schools with diverse populations.

8.2 Teacher Well-Being The focus of this chapter adds further complexity to the task of definition as it explores the concept of teacher well-being, a concept that tends to be absent from many discussions, even when the discussion relates to well-being in schools. In the Irish context, the Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE) curriculum for primary schools highlights the importance of implementation in the context of a positive school climate and atmosphere. Strategies for developing this climate are presented, though a focus on the teacher is not explicit (National Council for Curriculum and

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Assessment (NCCA), 1999). The Early Childhood Curriculum Framework Aistear (NCCA, 2009) incorporates well-being as one of its four key themes. Yet, again, a specific focus on the teacher is absent. However, the Síolta document (CECDE, 2006) which is a quality and self-evaluation framework designed to be used in conjunction with Aistear acknowledges the need to support practitioners and highlights the value of mentoring as a means of support. The value and impact of mentoring is evident in the research outlined below. The publication, Well-being in Primary Schools (DoH/DES/HSE, 2015), acknowledges the vital role of schools in promoting the well-being of children. It also acknowledges that the needs and well-being of staff are of paramount importance. However, apart from some recommendations for support, the concept is not really explored in the document. It can be observed that, more recently, the policy discourse has expanded to include a more specific focus on teacher well-being. For example, the Junior Cycle Wellbeing Guidelines for Schools (NCCA, 2017) explores teacher well-being in more detail, acknowledging that it is shaped by individual, relational and contextual factors. This expanded detail is also evident in the Wellbeing Policy Statement and Framework for Practice (DES, 2019), wherein a review of the current range of well-being supports available to school staff is named among the high-level actions. The Framework for Teachers’ Learning, Cosán, (Teaching Council, 2016) acknowledges that teacher well-being is vital if they are to support students. However, the document takes a broad view of what constitutes well-being and highlights many dimensions of the term thus bearing out the contention of Dodge et al. (2012) as outlined above. In the context of cultural and linguistic diversity, the Guidelines on Intercultural Education in the Primary School (NCCA, 2005) and the Intercultural Education Strategy, 2010–2015 (DES/OMI, 2010), provide information and support for teachers. The former document provides support in terms of planning for intercultural education. It also outlines a variety of methodologies which can be used in this context. One of the key aims of the latter document is to ensure that ‘all education providers are assisted with ensuring that inclusion and integration within an intercultural learning environment becomes the norm’ (DES/OMI, 2010, p. iv). Acknowledgement of teacher well-being may well be implicit in these documents; however, this chapter contends that more explicit recognition is needed. Research supports the contention that a specific focus on teacher well-being in policy discourse has been relatively slow to materialise. Rhodes, Nevill and Allan (2004) highlight the critical role of school leaders in creating conditions which will enhance teachers’ professional lives. Retallick and Butt (2004) demonstrate the importance of a positive climate for teachers as well as pupils. The key benefits to teachers are collegial support; recognition; respect and trust; mutual caring; and social cohesiveness. A positive climate for teachers facilitates workplace learning and teacher development through peer education rather than formal CPD (ibid). Yet, a decade later, Sharrocks (2014) queries whether teacher well-being is valued by policymakers and, indeed, teachers themselves, given the limited amount of studies on this particular issue. Sharrocks also demonstrates the importance of placing teacher well-being in an environmental or systemic context rather than placing undue focus

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on individuals. Caulfield (2017) observes that while pupil well-being is gaining increasing recognition at policy level, the focus on the teacher follows slowly. Hence, even at this juncture, teacher well-being cannot be assumed. It needs to be prominent in the discourse of school well-being as teacher and child well-being are reciprocal concepts. If a teacher has a good sense of well-being, this will impact positively on the child and vice versa. The Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO) highlights the interdependency of teacher and pupil well-being and observes that improving the classroom experience for one has a positive impact on the other (INTO, 2012). A similar point is made by Paterson and Grantham (2016). Roffey (2012) observes that student performance impacts on teachers’ sense of efficacy and their well-being. She highlights the importance of social capital within teaching communities and also across communities, such as teaching staff and parents. This renders communities more inclusive and this in turn promotes safety and well-being for all stakeholders within a school.

8.3 Social Support, Social Capital and Positive Working Relationships Helliwell and Putnam (2004) refer to the impact of physical, human and social capital on society and highlight the impact of the latter on overall well-being. They explain the concept very simply: social networks have value and benefit communities. Roffey (2012) places the observations of Helliwell and Putnam in the school context by acknowledging the wide range of physical capital, human capital and social capital in school communities. She references three key dimensions to teacher well-being as identified in a UK study by Briner and Dewberry (2007). These key dimensions are feeling valued and cared for, feeling overloaded and job stimulation and enjoyment. These dimensions emerged in the study which features in this chapter. The role of the principal was highlighted in the promotion of these dimensions. Sharrocks (2014) also acknowledges the importance of social support in promoting teacher well-being, their awareness of accomplishments, feelings of acceptance and other positive emotions. It is important to bear in mind that although teaching has been identified as a stressful profession, not all teachers require support in managing their well-being (ibid). This chapter presents research undertaken in a preschool and primary school wherein the participants are highly motivated and committed to their chosen profession. Given the complexity of the concept of well-being and the fact that many factors which impact on well-being are beyond the control of schools (Rhodes et al. 2004), the focus of this study is on what can be achieved within the school to support and promote teacher well-being. The staff in both schools represented in this study acknowledged the importance of non-contact time to support their work with participants identifying a need for more time for planning and preparation along with more time for staff interaction, in general, as a means of enhancing their own sense of well-being.

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8.4 How Schools Can Achieve Teacher Well-Being Soini, Pyhalto and Pietarinen (2010) observe that teachers’ occupational well-being is closely intertwined with the success of their pedagogical task and this in turn is linked to the ability of the teacher and teacher community to develop and revise their pedagogical actions. This is also indicative of the importance of non-contact time in order to reflect on pedagogy and revise as needed. However, to focus solely on pedagogy during non-contact time would be to limit the focus on the teachers’ own individual needs. Soini et al highlight the kinds of situations which either empower or challenge teachers’ work. These extend beyond reflection on pedagogical actions and encompass the social, psychological, cultural and physical environment of the school. The creation of professional learning communities (PLCs) has been recognised as being highly effective in supporting teachers, with teacher well-being a central feature (Retallick & Butt, 2004; Webb, Vulliamy, Sarja, Hämäläinen, & Poikonen, 2009; Owen, 2016). Webb et al. (2009) observe that the definition of a PLC can vary with some definitions focusing on school reform, improvement and effectiveness and others placing more specific emphasis on teacher well-being. Ng and Tan (2009, cited by McArdle & Coutts, 2010) argue that communities of practice should move from sense making that is too technical and narrow to a more empowering focus for teachers. Soini et al. (2010) observe that well-being perceived by a school community is often generated as an unintended by-product of pedagogical processes and school practices. The focus of this chapter is to foreground teacher well-being rather than viewing the latter as an ancillary or implicit benefit. Sharrocks (2014) presents the results of a project which focused explicitly upon improving the well-being of school staff. Citing other research, she observes that the availability, accessibility and appropriateness of social support have been found to promote feelings of well-being, awareness of one’s accomplishments, feelings of acceptance and other positive feelings. An active intervention with staff, entitled ‘Chill and Chat’, was implemented with a group of teachers. Among the features of this intervention is that it was delivered in a private space away from school activities (i.e. not the staff room). This was seen to facilitate chat beyond school business and as being more likely to discuss well-being issues. It also, unsurprisingly, was seen to reduce stress. The importance of not pathologising the concept was also highlighted, thus the sessions were for all staff not just those experiencing stress. This demonstrates the health promotion focus of the intervention. The research of Sharrocks demonstrates the need to provide specific teacher-focused interventions instead of assuming that teacher well-being will automatically occur as part of the everyday interactions in the school. Understandably such an intervention will require commitment, planning, resourcing and leadership. The impact of contextual factors on teacher well-being resonated throughout this research project. Ireland today is very different from Ireland one generation ago. In less than 20 years, Ireland went from being a relatively homogenous society to a diverse, multicultural one. The number of Irish residents born outside Ireland now accounts for 17.3% of the total population (CSO, 2016). While the vast majority

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of our population (91%) was Catholic a generation ago, this decreased to 78.3% in 2016 with a corresponding increase in the population of non-Catholics and those with no religion (ibid). Currently, 612,018 residents in Ireland speak a language other than Irish or English at home, with Polish, Lithuanian, Romanian and Portuguese among the most spoken (ibid). However, teachers in Ireland remain a mainly homogenous group, rendering the challenges of meeting the language and cultural needs of different groups more acute (Keane & Heinz, 2015). The interaction in a multicultural and multilingual setting emerged as a significant variable in this research, highlighting the need for critical reflection on this issue. Jasinskaja-Lahti, Liebkind, Jaakkola and Reuter (2006) outline the impact of host social support in buffering perceived discrimination on the well-being of immigrant groups. This resonates with this chapter as the participant teachers often find themselves providing the host social support. Mediating and negotiating complex and sometimes challenging situations featured as part of the concerns of the participants. While well-being in multicultural school contexts has been the subject of research (see, for example, Martinez & Dukes, 1997; Cala & Soriano, 2017; Dimitropoulo & Leontopoulou, 2017; et al.), it is difficult to locate research which focuses specifically on teacher well-being in these contexts. Hence, the relevance of this research. Coping with disadvantage is another variable which needs acknowledgement when considering teacher well-being. Sampson (2003) demonstrates the links between fair/poor health and poverty. Thus, teachers working in disadvantaged areas are endeavouring to provide particular support to those impacted by poverty and disadvantage. This is further compounded when the school population becomes increasingly diverse through immigration. While the share of immigrant children has increased across Europe in recent years, the increase is not evenly distributed across schools as immigrant groups tend to be concentrated in less affluent neighbourhoods (Brunello & De Paola, 2017). Therefore, for teachers working in disadvantaged areas, the likelihood of negative impact on their own well-being is higher than that of their peers working in non-disadvantaged areas. Irish educational policy has long recognised the need for additional supports to poorer communities with provisions in place since the 1960s. In the 1980s, The Disadvantaged Areas Scheme gave rise to the designation of schools for additional resources, mainly funding. A range of other initiatives, e.g. those aimed at reducing class size, targeting early school leaving and involving parents, were introduced on an ad hoc basis in the 25 years that followed. These interventions were rationalised with the introduction of the Delivering Equality of Opportunity in School (DEIS) Action Plan in 2005 and revised in 2017. The DEIS initiative is designed to ensure that the most disadvantaged schools (designated as DEIS schools) benefit from a comprehensive package of supports, e.g. reduced pupil–teacher ratio, literacy and numeracy programmes, school meals, parent involvement programmes, planning supports, while ensuring that other disadvantaged schools continue to get support in line with the level of disadvantage among their pupils. Evaluations of the DEIS scheme have found high levels of school engagement with the programme implementation and a big focus on planning (Weir & Denner, 2013; Kavanagh, Weir, & Morgan, 2017; Kavanagh & Weir, 2018). Improved pupil outcomes in reading and mathematics achievement

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as well as improved school attendance and increased educational aspirations have also been documented (Weir & Archer, 2011; Kavanagh, Weir, & Morgan, 2017). However, despite these improved outcomes, the gap between DEIS and non-DEIS schools remains (DES, 2017a). It should be acknowledged that Goal 3.5, No. 41 of the 2017 DEIS plan recognises the importance of providing a safe and supportive environment for staff members and observes that it is crucial that staff members are supported in maintaining their personal health and well-being (DES, 2017b). However, similar to other policy documents, this observation is not developed. This chapter acknowledges the impact of disadvantage as a compounding factor on teacher well-being in a multicultural and multilingual context.

8.5 The Research Project The overall research question asked the participants to outline their understanding of the concept of well-being as relevant to their own lives as teachers. Embedded questions related to challenges to, and supports for, teacher well-being. The research data relates to work undertaken in a preschool and primary school in Ireland. The schools were selected because of their location in an area of high socio-economic disadvantage where many different cultures and languages are represented. Over 50% of the children do not speak English as a first language. Some children are attending school for the first time, not having participated in education in their country of origin. The staff are highly motivated and committed to providing an optimum educational experience for each child and meeting their needs. The demographic profile of the chosen school aligns very well with the contention of Brunello and De Paulo, above, in that it is located in an area of socio-economic disadvantage with a very high population of immigrant children. This school is a designated DEIS school (see description above) due to its location and population. It is one of the most culturally diverse schools in Ireland with over 20 different nationalities represented among the children enrolled. The majority (68%) require English as an Additional Language (EAL) support at some stage of their time in the school and 51% need ongoing language support. It was considered important to include early childhood educators in this study as their sense of well-being is crucial to the development of children at their most formative stage. Hope (2015) endorses this premise and calls for a strong commitment to the physical and mental well-being of early childhood educators to ensure that children have role models to set the foundation for a healthy life. While Hope writes in the Australian context, her premise is universal. Flores and Elbaum (2018) in a review of literature on well-being among early childhood educators highlight the key factors that affect the well-being of this cohort. These are work environment, relationships in the workplace, job satisfaction and overall psychological and emotional health. It can be observed that these factors are very similar to the factors outlined above and indeed such factors emerged in the current research. It could also be argued that

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in the multicultural/multilingual context, early childhood educators may experience more intense challenges as children have not yet interacted with others outside of their own cultural and linguistic setting, consequently requiring more support with social skills and interaction with their classmates.

8.5.1 Methodological Approach The methodological approach adopted in the project was qualitative. The initial aim of the project was to explore teachers’ beliefs and experiences from a teacher well-being perspective. The focus group interview was chosen as the most relevant methodology as it (the focus group) is acknowledged to lead to insights that might not otherwise have come to light through individual interviewing (Denscombe, 2003). Fontana and Frey (1994) observe that group interviews have many advantages over individual interviews. These include being inexpensive; cumulative and elaborative; data rich; flexible and stimulating to respondents. Focus group methodology was considered best suited to the aims of this particular study given that the teachers in the partner school and preschool were a relatively homogenous group (Mukherji & Albon, 2010). In bringing together participants with shared experiences, focus group methodology also encouraged the co-construction of knowledge (Taber, 1993). Approaches such as evidence-based practice (Wesley & Buysee, 2006), activity theory (Edwards, 2007) and communities of practice (Wenger, 1998), all espouse the potential of this type of a collaborative approach to impact more profoundly on practice than approaches which are imposed externally (Edwards, 2007).

8.5.1.1

Participants

The participants in the study were teachers in the preschool and in the primary school partnering Mary Immaculate College (MIC) in the Erasmus + Teacher Wellbeing and Diversity Project. The three teachers representing the school on the project introduced the project to school staff and invited teachers to participate in the research. All staff agreed to take part in the project. A total of 27 primary school teachers and 5 preschool teachers participated in the research. All participants are Irish, 29 female and 3 male, with experience varying between 1 and 15 years. The organisation of the focus groups is outlined in the next section.

8.5.1.2

Data Collection

Initially, the framework of Soini et al. (2010) was used to identify salient topics in relation to teacher well-being in the context of diversity. Based on this research, school staff were invited to participate in initial exploratory sessions with the aim of

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discussing teacher well-being in general, supports for teacher well-being and challenges to teacher well-being. These sessions were facilitated by the three school staff representatives on the project. Staff were divided into three groups of 8–10 participants with Group 1 discussing well-being in general, Group 2 discussing supports to well-being and Group 3 discussing challenges to well-being. Data from these staff discussions formed the basis for the focus group interviews which aimed to further explore individual and contextual factors impacting on teacher well-being. The questions used in the focus group interview schedule were developed from framework of Soini et al. and the feedback from these initial sessions. The final schedule consisted of 10 questions structured around the following four overarching themes which emerged from the exploratory sessions: 1. 2. 3. 4.

Confidence in knowledge and ability to teach. Feeling appreciated and valued. Challenges to teacher well-being. Individual and collective action to support well-being.

The schedule was used as a guide and allowed flexibility to explore perspectives and experiences which were pertinent for the participants. Members of the MIC project team facilitated focus group interviews (four in total) with the primary school and preschool teachers. Each focus group interview lasted about 1 hour. Three focus groups took place in the primary school with 8–10 participants in each group, and one focus group took place in the preschool with five participants.

8.5.1.3

Data Analysis and Interpretation

The data collected were analysed with a view to determining facilitators of, and challenges to, teacher well-being. The three members of the MIC team familiarised themselves with the data and explored possible interpretations of the transcriptions. Following the identification of key themes, data were analysed using thematic content analysis approach (Braun & Clarke, 2006; Flick, 2014). Subsequent analysis and interpretation developed links with the limited existing research on teacher wellbeing.

8.5.1.4

Validity and Reliability

In the present project, collaborating with teachers who work daily in an authentic classroom context enhanced the reliability of the data and conclusions drawn. Moreover, the iterative process of literature review, analysis and shared interpretation among the project team, served to ensure further that findings and conclusions were a reliable representation of participating teachers’ beliefs and experiences (Mukherji & Albon, 2010). The validity of interpretations was tested through employing followup questions during the focus groups themselves and through having a team of researchers rather than a single researcher responsible for the analysis of the data

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(Taber, 1993). While a degree of flexibility was necessary for exploring what was pertinent to participants and for testing interpretations, the same interview schedule with the same sequencing of questions was used during each focus group which ensured that the data collected from each group was comparable (Cannell, Miller, & Oksenberg, 1981). The use of qualitative descriptions from the data to illustrate the key themes emerging served to further validate findings. The researchers were also cognisant of the limitations of ‘self as instrument’ in both data collection and analysis when undertaking qualitative research (McCracken, 1988, p.19). While it is impossible to eliminate researcher bias completely, the limitations of the researcher as the data collection instrument were reduced through ongoing monitoring of personal assumptions and beliefs, in order to determine their impact on both the collection and analysis of data (McCracken, 1988; Merthens, 2005; Rubin & Rubin, 2005).

8.5.1.5

Ethics

The project team maintained high ethical standards at all stages in the research process from instrument development to data collection and analysis, to reporting and dissemination of findings (British Educational Research Association (BERA), 2011). Ethical approval for this research was secured from Mary Immaculate College Research Ethics Committee (MIREC). As it is so important in collaborative research, the intentions of the project were made explicit from the outset so that teachers and researchers could reach a mutual understanding. (Anderson, Page, Coltman, & Whitebread, 2004). All participating teachers were made aware that their participation in the research was voluntary and that they had the right to withdraw at any point without consequence. Informed consent was secured through extensive dialogue with participants and written documentation around what the project was about, what their participation would entail and how the data would be used (BERA, 2011). Each participating teacher then signed an individual consent form.

8.6 Presentation of Findings It was interesting to observe that the findings from the teachers did not yield many explicit references to the need for a specific focus on Teacher Well-being in schools. The following observation made a tentative reference to this need: I think that we are so focused on the children’s self-esteem and the children’s well-being and as adults we have the same needs really as a child you know. To make somebody feel good…

The scarcity of specific references to the need for acknowledgement of teacher well-being will be discussed later. In this section, the findings from the focus groups are presented using the four overarching themes which defined the interview schedule.

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8.6.1 Confidence in Knowledge and Ability to Teach The key facilitators in supporting teachers’ confidence were explored in detail through the focus groups.

8.6.1.1

Staff Collaboration and Mentoring

Staff found that the school system of mentoring for new teachers was very effective. This links with the empowering factors for teacher professional well-being as identified by Soini et al. (2010). Through this system teachers have the opportunity to shadow and observe other teachers in their daily teaching or observe them modelling lessons within a particular intervention initiative. This is followed up by peer observation and feedback. This was viewed as a significant means of increasing confidence and knowledge. Another approach that is considered helpful is collaborative planning through which class teachers and support teachers share ideas, resources and practice, ask questions and affirm each other. Teachers emphasised that time for such collaboration is very important to them. The significance of creating professional learning communities within the school becomes evident. Benefits and appreciation of such communities are evident in the comments below: a massive difference and it [peer mentoring] can really increase your confidence in your ability to go in then and do a lesson in front of the class… you have the opportunity to teach…and they would give you feedback… it’s just like a collaborative family …

It is evident that the empowering aspect of the professional learning community as identified by Ng and Tan (2009) above is foregrounded in the school. Intercollegial relationships (see Retallick & Butt, 2004 above) are also very evident in the school. Teachers noted that the attitude of staff in the school and their supportiveness is a significant factor in that they are approachable, willing to help, non-judgemental and professional in their approach. everyone is so approachable also … if you do have a query about something, you don’t feel stressed it’s more about problem-solving than judgement…

8.6.1.2

Professional Development

Initial teacher education and continuing professional development (CPD) were also identified as being empowering for the teachers. Since this is a DEIS school, there are several literacy and numeracy initiatives with associated training. Also, courses provided by the Special Education Support Service (SESS) in Ireland and in Education Centres were identified as helpful.

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…CPD would be quite important in terms of my knowledge and ability to teach I was away for a while and I came back and I found that CPD was really helpful. It gave me a lot of confidence in things that had changed and developments…

The role of the principal in identifying CPD was highlighted. ‘[Principal] is very good. She identifies different courses that are coming along…’ This aligns with the observations of Rhodes et al. (2004) cited above who highlight the role of school leaders in this regard. Webb et al. (2009) observe that a leader’s role is emphasised in an action culture that promotes teachers’ enthusiasm. Such a culture was evident in the project school.

8.6.1.3

Feeling Appreciated and Valued

In the initial feedback sessions, teachers repeatedly mentioned that feeling appreciated and valued was important to them so the focus group sessions followed up on this to find out more details. Specific feedback was sought about teacher–pupil interactions, teacher–parent interactions and the school community context.

8.6.1.4

Teacher–Pupil Interactions

Teachers valued positive and friendly interactions with children such as a nice greeting, a smile or a comment such as ‘teacher I am happy to see you’. Children were generally perceived to be well mannered and well behaved and teachers were glad when the children enjoyed the work they were doing and experienced success in their learning: Success! You know if they’re struggling with something and the next thing they can do it, so I suppose you get a boost from that as well. When they are successful on a task, it’s a great feeling and they can succeed with what they do. Positive feedback from the children themselves, as well as parents, is important.

It was noted that children of different country or racial backgrounds all mix together in the school and during free time and that there does not appear to be any segregation among them. Teachers felt that the children are generally accepting of difference and diversity: …I think that because there is so much diversity in the school and so many nationalities and they see it from the minute they come in, in junior infants and it’s the whole way up the school, so they generally, I think they are quite accepting.

Teachers were also conscious of the importance of supporting aspects of children’s social and emotional development and one teacher identified that the after-school club provided a social context for a child who lived in an apartment where there were no children of his own age.

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Teacher–Parent Interactions

Teachers welcome hearing from parents that their child is happy in school and that the parents are happy with the school. This can involve a simple thank you (verbal or written) from parents: I remember last year I had a child and her father was so appreciative of the school…he could not praise the school in general enough and that is lovely to hear because I feel that sometimes you really do a lot of extra work because we have such diversity in the school…

In this instance, the respondent’s sense of well-being is enhanced by the active acknowledgement from the parent. This links with Sharrocks’s (2014) comments on awareness of accomplishments. However, it was observed that in the multicultural and multilingual context of the school, some parents who might like to approach teachers and compliment them directly may not have the language to do so. Along with language, parents’ own lack of confidence or lack of knowledge and experience of the school system can be a barrier to communication. Some teachers noted better relationships with parents once they had met each other at parent– teacher meetings. One teacher felt that the Maths Recovery and Reading Recovery programmes gave parents the opportunity to observe a lesson and to receive feedback about their child and to get involved in homework and felt that this was effective in terms of parents’ understanding of their child’s school work. Some teachers noted that the presence of the preschool within the school complex was of benefit in that parents were familiar with the setting, the school uniform, the shared school yard and so on. There is a practice in the school of keeping children in the same groups when they begin in junior infants so that parents already know each other and it was felt that this helps to build a community within that year group of parents. This bears out the observations of Helliwell and Putnam (2004) in relation to social capital as outlined above.

8.6.1.6

School Community Context

It became very evident in the research that there is very strong social support in the school and that the sharing of positive feedback from the principal, parents or children enhanced the well-being of staff. This is embodied in a general practice of checking in with colleagues and kind gestures. It was felt that there is an openness among staff to discuss challenges and seek or offer advice with the sharing of ideas, resources, knowledge and experiences and a general willingness to help each other. there is a sense in the school that you can be open, talk to people and that you can approach people. …it is really nice if people pass me by and say ‘how was your day?’ or ‘how did it go?’ It is lovely and I think that this school is very like that anyway, you know, just checking in with people…

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Teachers identified a collaborative management style in the school with a sense that all opinions and contributions are valued and taken into consideration by school leadership and teachers welcomed that: [Principal or acting principal] saying ‘You are doing a great job and we appreciate it’ … It is nice to hear that even though you don’t need to hear it as a professional, it is nice sometimes to know that all the extra work you put in is noticed and appreciated. if they [parents] write a note, it’s lovely when they actually go to the trouble of writing a note or a card. If a child comes in and she is happy and she is smiling …

Again, the research of Sharrocks (2014) cited above in relation to the importance of acknowledging accomplishments of staff becomes very relevant.

8.6.2 Challenges to Teacher Well-Being A number of challenges to teacher well-being (TWB) were noted in the initial feedback sessions and the focus groups sought further information about some of those, in particular, those relating to language and social diversity.

8.6.2.1

Lack of Content Knowledge Relating to Speech and Language Development

Lack of specific content knowledge relating to speech and language development was identified as one area of need. There has been a large increase in the numbers of children for whom English is an additional language (EAL) but there are also larger numbers of children (both assessed as such and unassessed) who require speech and language input for which teachers do not feel skilled to deliver: I’m thinking of speech and language as probably an area that none of us feel very confident about…I suppose we don’t really have the content knowledge, it’s not something we’ve had much training in…

Training in the Little Voices programme1 was identified as a possible solution. Training in school-based coaching was also identified as a possibility and it was felt that it would be an advantage to have a group of teachers who had formal training to coach others. Participation in a Limerick-based literacy initiative was also considered helpful particularly in relation to dissemination of good practice and the sharing of ideas. 1 Little

Voices (established in Limerick in 2013) is an early years’ oral language development project for children experiencing social disadvantage. A speech and language therapist develops a collaborative and universal approach to learning through work with children, parents and teachers. The focus is on providing practical tips and ideas on how to help develop children’s speech, language and communication skills.

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Children’s Tardiness and Absenteeism

Another significant challenge for teaching and learning was the issue of children being absent from school on a regular basis or for considerable periods of time (e.g. from April to October because they returned to their country of origin for that period). Teachers feel an additional level of stress due to the high rate of absenteeism related to the context of the school: …maybe absenteeism sometimes can affect – I don’t know about your knowledge and ability to teach but if you have several children…who are absent days here and there and you are trying to, you know, get that child to catch up and you’re just being pulled on so many, you know, levels to bring her up to speed ….

A variety of initiatives are in place to encourage attendance and after-school activities such as music, dancing, soccer, art and a homework club and there is also an awards system for good and improved attendance and punctuality. The Home School Community Liaison Coordinator works closely with the Educational Welfare Officer on more serious cases of absenteeism and, as part of her role in visiting homes, she presents a friendly face of the school and is encouraging of parents. Also, several children arrive from other countries at different times during the year and it is challenging to accommodate their learning needs within the overall class group, or even to determine their levels of proficiency in English. In response to this, the school has developed a checklist of issues to be addressed. Teachers also felt that the variety of assessments used give them ‘a better picture’ of individual children’s learning and ability.

8.6.2.3

Increased Diversity of Children’s Cultural, Ethnic and Language Backgrounds

The increase in cultural, ethnic and language diversity is a very complex and challenging issue for teachers on a number of levels. The issue of language poses a huge challenge for children’s learning as well as for communication between teachers and pupils and with their families. While there is some provision for language learning (EAL) for up to 2 years, this is not sufficient for older children who join the school. Teachers make a big effort to welcome children and present a positive context for them but they feel very stressed that they cannot do more to include children who have no English and this is more difficult for children in senior classes. This results in significant feelings of guilt which impacts upon well-being: You can feel guilty about it you know. Guilt about a child in a senior class with no English and they can’t do any of the tasks sufficiently, so guilty that you don’t have more time to spend with them…you feel like you are ignoring them.

For cultural and religious reasons, some children are forbidden to receive a present and many cannot participate in religious services or the learning of religion or take part in school sports or singing and dancing for the school concert. An example was

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given of a girl in a senior class who had never been to school before and who was forbidden to participate in PE, music or religion class or to play with others during break. This was causing the child to have difficulties trying to fit in and make friends, thus becoming isolated from the other children: One girl in particular last year was really struggling with it and couldn’t express it at home and I didn’t understand as she couldn’t say it to me either, and she was really having a tough time and I didn’t have any guidance on that. I didn’t know where to go with it so I found that really stressful.

The additional demands and expectations placed on the teachers become evident here. This results in additional stress, particularly in view of the fact that teachers simply do not have sufficient support to cope with these dilemmas.

8.6.2.4

Difficulties in Communicating with Parents

The issue of communicating with parents for whom English is not their first language is fraught with difficulty. Both language and cultural differences were identified here. For example, teachers were aware that they might be approaching parents in a way that is unacceptable in their culture, e.g. by shaking hands, and they felt uncomfortable about this. Different perceptions in relation to the value of play and subjects such as art is an issue particularly at preschool level: It is slowly changing but a lot of parents do not understand why it is so important to play They are starting to see that it’s not all about the academics, it is not all about ABC’s, it’s about learning to socialise…

The school makes every attempt to translate written notes and communications and they can sometimes request a parent to edit these before sending it out to all parents. At one point there were children of 29 different nationalities and there is no availability of interpreters so parents must sometimes resort to bringing along a person they know or a child’s older sibling to interpret for them. This raises serious issues for communicating accurately as well as the challenge of confidentiality. Teachers feel very stressed, in particular, when they have to communicate their concerns about a specific learning difficulty or possible need for diagnostic testing for a child as they are mindful that this is a difficult and sensitive issue for children and their parents and one about which clarity of communication is paramount. There are some conditions that you would be worried about…that people from some countries that come here have never heard of…some diagnoses they don’t know about… It’s a sensitive issue, sometimes a parent doesn’t have very good English, how to relay that message properly, you know…so I find that kind of stressful…

Here again feelings of inadequacy on the part of the teacher impact negatively on their well-being. The impact on well-being seems to be articulated in terms of increased stress levels rather than specific use of ‘well-being’ as a measure. Misinterpretations of messages on the part of parents also contribute to feelings of inadequacy.

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It was observed that sometimes parents get upset and refuse to give permission for an intervention because they misinterpret the message as meaning that there is something wrong with their child: …that’s when you really need someone with translation skills because I had that issue myself last week, I was trying to explain that there wasn’t a learning difficulty but we thought they might need some help with speech and language and that she’s very capable but he just heard straight away’ there’s something wrong with my child’ and that was it. So I was kind of left then with ‘how do I tackle that?’

Teachers noted that parents who are unfamiliar with the education system, either because they did not attend school themselves or because they are from another country, tend to be very nervous when meeting the teacher or may not attend the meeting at all. Teachers are aware that children feel bad when their parents do not attend. Some mothers also stress that their husbands must be the person to make any decision about the child and it can be difficult to get a signature or permission for certain things if the father is unavailable. The problem that some parents, due to their culture, were not committed to the education of their daughters was also raised.

8.6.2.5

Supervision

There is a practical need for additional supervision of children when some are participating in activities such as the school Nativity play (children are brought to the church), sacramental preparation or even swimming and other sports. Teachers must prepare additional work for children who do not participate in these activities and an increasing number of teachers are required for supervision. This adds to their workload. Supervision of the school yard on Fridays is made more challenging because many children are being collected early on Friday for religious observance and teachers have a concern that they need to know the parents who are taking children out of school.

8.6.2.6

Physical Environment of School

Teachers point out the positive aspects of the school such as interactive whiteboards, new notice boards and that it is painted regularly and available space is used to maximum effectiveness. However, due to increased enrolments the school no longer has the space for a library or a cookery room and some of the classrooms have been divided into two resource rooms. Further difficulties arise from the physical infrastructure of the building. The location of toilet facilities for younger children and the location of classrooms on different floors of the building mean children cannot move between them independently. Many classrooms are small and do not have access to a sink. There are also concerns about safety in the school yard as it leads directly onto a main road and

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teachers must be vigilant in supervising children in these circumstances. There are also difficulties with flooding in areas of the yard at the back of the school. At preschool level, observations were made about the confined space for both the children and the parents. The teachers spoke about the complexities of applying for the Early Years grant for schools and the need to have worked with an architect before applying. Studies of stress in the work environment tend to overlook the impact of the physical environment (Vischer, 2007), yet there were frequent references to the physical infrastructure of the school by the participants in this research.

8.7 Individual and Collective Action to Support Well-Being The focus group interviews also followed up on actions that teachers mentioned as supporting their well-being at a group as well as an individual level.

8.7.1 Individual Level Teachers were asked to describe things they do for themselves on any given day to increase their own sense of well-being and they noted that going for a walk or a run either in the morning or evening was helpful. Listening to the radio on the way home, meeting friends for coffee after school or cooking an extra healthy meal helps some teachers to unwind from the day. Having breakfast with a few colleagues in the staff room in the morning was also a positive experience. Teachers noted the importance of identifying the stress of the day, for example, if they found out something upsetting about a child or family, but also the importance of putting that stress aside. It was sometimes helpful to discuss a specific issue in confidence with a colleague who may have had a similar experience. Teachers noted that they are sometimes at a loss to know how to support a child through a difficult situation and the input of colleagues is necessary. Some teachers found that writing ideas down or journaling was helpful and others found that meditation or guided meditation was worthwhile. Hearing from other teachers in similar school contexts was also deemed important since the context of teaching in a DEIS school gives rise to specific challenges and concerns for teachers.

8.7.2 Collective Level Teachers agreed that there is a very positive staff ethos in the school—‘we all share a collective good feeling about the place’—and that this is important to them. There is a strong sense of commitment to the school among staff. The issue of a social

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committee to organise social events or outings for staff was raised and teachers agreed that social get-togethers such as the cinema, theatre, bowling and a staff dinner at Christmas help to increase morale. Laine, Saaranen, Ryhanen and Tossavainen (2017) identify the involvement of the principal in related activities as a key developmental goal in occupational well-being. The principal in the project school supported the development of a well-being committee and the staff agreed that this was key to the success and focus of the project. It is also a very good example of distributed leadership which focuses on the interactions between people and their situations (Spillane, 2005). Broader issues such as the Department of Education and Skills’ administrative requirements were considered as something that could be streamlined for teachers to reduce stress. One teacher suggested that it would be useful to have some input on ‘Helping Communication Skills’ or ‘Conflict Management’ to help address possible issues that might arise. Teachers noted that they had not considered the issue of their own well-being prior to this research project as they are always focused on the well-being of the children. It was felt that the process of the focus group discussion was beneficial as a space to think about and discuss the issues: to hear that our other colleagues have the same concerns as we do…It’s nice to be able to see that we are all in the same boat, that we all have the same challenges and you are not on your own with it really.

Knowing that there are things that can be done to address teacher well-being was also considered beneficial.

8.8 Discussion of Findings The outline of the data above demonstrates that teaching in a multicultural and multilingual context brings the teachers much satisfaction as well as some challenges. It is also evident that the well-being of the sample is very much embedded in their interaction with the children in their care. While the school is undoubtedly an example of a professional learning community, the staff do not always have the time to focus specifically on themselves, highlighting the need for more non-contact time for reflection and interaction with peers. There was little direct reference to actively pursuing well-being issues outside of the classroom. It is unclear as to why this was the case. It could have been that the questions needed to be more targeted. However, a more likely explanation may be related to Sharrocks’s (2014) observation that reluctance to focus on their own well-being may stem from a fear of discussing such issues and also a sense of guilt due to perceived self-indulgence when the role of the teacher is to focus on the needs of the children in their care. However, Sharrocks goes on to emphasise the link between staff well-being and positive job outcomes. The researchers in the current study recognise the fact that sometimes to maintain a focus on the class/school, i.e. a focus on pedagogical well-being, rather than presenting

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a more subjective focus is viewed as a safer response option. However, it is the contention of this chapter that a holistic approach to teacher well-being needs to extend beyond a solely pedagogical perspective. The data show that teachers in this school have a significant additional workload in order to meet the many and varied needs of their pupil population. Briner and Dewberry (2007) identify feeling overloaded as a significant variable in defining levels of teacher well-being. While teaching in a multicultural and multilingual context is increasingly the norm for many teachers in Ireland, there is insufficient recognition of the additional demands on teachers. Also, the demographic profile of teachers has remained static despite the major demographic changes in schools (Heinz and Keane 2018). It should be noted that this mismatch is not confined to Irish schools. As far back as 1996, Applebome (cited by Ovando & Combs, 2018) noted that the first challenge in the preparation of twenty-first-century teachers is to address the ‘growing mismatch between the background of teachers and the students they will be teaching’. Ovando and Combs go on to highlight that this mismatch is ongoing. While the problems relating to this dichotomy in relation to student wellbeing are addressed in research, further studies are required in relation to the impact on teacher well-being. The importance of providing additional supports in speech and language provision for teachers in multicultural and multilingual contexts emerged very strongly in this study. This is an ongoing concern for the teachers and while participation in the Little Voices project provided some support, the teachers worry about being unable to communicate with some of the children in their care, along with the parents of the children. The Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) highlights language difficulties among parents to be a greater barrier to settling into primary school than the child’s own language difficulties (Smyth et al. 2009). Although the teachers cope very well with the limitations imposed by the physical infrastructure of the school, it is evident that improvements in this dimension would enhance their well-being. Many of the participants referred to the lack of facilities within classrooms and the overall lack of space. The layout of the school is problematic, particularly for the infant classes and the location and design of the school yard also adds to the stress levels of the teachers. Vischer (2007) observes that references to the ‘work environment’ tend to focus more on the social environment and social interaction of workers, yet the physical environment also merits attention in terms of workplace well-being. While issues such as greater allocation of time for preparation, workload, physical infrastructure and CPD are often difficult to resolve at local level, it emerged again and again in the interviews that ‘the small things’ were really significant. For example, in relation to acknowledging the successes and accomplishments of the staff, one of the teachers highlighted the importance of remembering to pass on compliments about colleagues. Another teacher highlighted the importance of a staff noticeboard. The role of the principal in acknowledging accomplishments emerged as key. Lagrossen and Lagrossen (2012) comment on the importance of visible leadership and accessibility in the promotion of staff well-being. This was evident in

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the school. The above examples indicate that it is possible to increase emphasis on teacher well-being through very small changes which are resource neutral.

8.9 Implications of the Research While the findings of a small-scale research study such as this cannot be generalised, many of the issues raised will resonate in similar school contexts and, indeed, in schools in general. As such the value of this research extends beyond the participant school. The lacunae in relation to specific reference to teacher well-being in policy discourse and in research have been highlighted. Teacher well-being, resourcefulness and capacity cannot be assumed. The study demonstrates the many positive and fulfilling aspects of teaching in a multicultural and multilingual context and the creativity and resourcefulness of the teachers. It also highlights the complexities and added (often unacknowledged) workloads of the teachers involved. This research indicates that teacher well-being requires explicit acknowledgement in national and local policy discourse along with the requisite resourcing to support teacher wellbeing initiatives. It also indicates that discussion of specific teacher well-being issues needs to be facilitated with encouragement and support provided to teachers to articulate specific concerns and challenges. While it may be an easier option to confine the discussion to pedagogical well-being, a more expansive debate is required. This has implications for all schools and not only schools with diverse populations.

8.10 Conclusion This chapter has highlighted the complexity and, at times, nebulosity of the concept of well-being, the difficulties in reaching a general definition and the relative invisibility of the concept of teacher well-being. It has focused on teacher well-being in a very specific context, that of a multilingual and multicultural school. While teaching in such a context brings many rewards, it also brings added demands and stresses upon teachers. The responses of the teachers were articulated mainly in relation to interactions with the children with the well-being of the children being foregrounded. This focus may have been due to the questions posed or to a reluctance on the part of the participants to focus specifically on their own needs. The value of effective leadership and of peer support emerged as very strong features of the research. The visibility of the leader was evident as was their ability and willingness to delegate roles in terms of leading well-being in the school. This was key to the success of the project. The mentoring system in the school could be shared with other schools as an example of effective use of social capital, in the form of professional learning communities. Continuing Professional Development was acknowledged as a key support for the teachers; however, some programmes and courses are expensive and

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outside of current resources. Support in relation to language difficulties with children and parents was also viewed as key; however, such support is not available and teachers have to find their own local solutions in relation to communication and to cultural differences. Additional consideration needs to be given to these issues at policy level. The physical infrastructure of the school gives rise to concern; however, the teachers demonstrate considerable resourcefulness in coping with the limitations of the current building. The social environment of the school is very positive and this is a significant support for teacher well-being. The research provided significant learning for the researchers and has identified the need for more recognition, discussion and debate on teacher well-being in schools of diverse populations and socio-economic disadvantage, and indeed, all schools, at local and national levels.

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Carol O’Sullivan is Course Leader of the M.Ed in Leadership of Wellbeing in Education in Mary Immaculate College (MIC), Limerick, Ireland. She lectures in Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE) and is a founder member of the SPHE Network in Ireland. Her research interests include: Implementation of the SPHE Curriculum; Health Promotion in the college environment; Well-being policy in Education; Teacher Well-being; and Innovation in Teaching. Sandra Ryan is a lecturer in education (sociology and educational disadvantage) in Mary Immaculate College (MIC), Limerick, Ireland. She is also Chair of the Transforming Education through Dialogue (TED) project at MIC that works through strategic partnerships to improve children’s educational outcomes. She designed and coordinates a specialism in DEIS (educational disadvantage) for third and fourth year B.Ed. students. Dr. Ryan’s research interests include educational partnership development, parent engagement in education and teacher education for parent engagement; teacher well-being and diversity; educational evaluation and case study research; and equality in education (social class and ethnicity). Lisha O’Sullivan is Head of Department of Reflective Pedagogy and Early Childhood Studies at Mary Immaculate College (MIC), Limerick, Ireland. Lisha is Course Leader for the Bachelor of Arts in Early Childhood Care and Education (BAECCE) and she lectures across the BA ECCE and BEd Programme in the faculty. A qualified Play Therapist, Dr. O’Sullivan has extensive experience in the area of early childhood education and her research interests include early years curriculum and pedagogy, the role of play in development and inclusive education.

Chapter 9

International Perspectives on Teacher Well-Being and Diversity: Portals into Innovative Classroom Practice Timothy R. N. Murphy and Patricia Mannix-McNamara

Abstract International Perspectives on Teacher Well-being and Diversity: Portals into Innovative Classroom Practice offers a suite of practical methods and research approaches to promote educator well-being in responding respectfully, ethically, and in a strength-based way to growing student diversity. Several themes emerged throughout the book, including the potential of teacher collaboration, the impact of the neo-liberal turn in education, the need for culturally responsive pedagogies, the importance of dialogue with parents, the critical factor of school leadership, and the inter-connection between teacher well-being and pupil well-being. Each of the themes identified above are obvious topics for further research, and the chapter concludes with a consideration of such opportunities.

9.1 Introduction Teachers’ work, while being a richly rewarding endeavour, faces increasing complexity (Hardy, Rönnerman, & Beach, 2019; Hardy, 2013). Challenges arising from ethnically and socially diverse classrooms are particularly significant. The combined research studies in this book shine fresh light on such contexts. The authors, from Denmark, Norway, Ireland and South Africa, not only identify challenges but, in a Freirean style, offer practical responses. Their accounts of action research projects, undertaken within the framework of the Erasmus + European project on teacher well-being in socially and ethnically diverse classroom teaching environments, also provide insights into some key themes that are relevant to teacher well-being generally.

T. R. N. Murphy (B) · P. Mannix-McNamara School of Education, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland e-mail: [email protected] P. Mannix-McNamara e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 T. R. N. Murphy and P. Mannix-McNamara (eds.), International Perspectives on Teacher Well-Being and Diversity, Understanding Teaching-Learning Practice, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-1699-0_9

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9.2 The Potential of Teacher Collaboration A persistent theme to emerge from this study is the value of teamwork, of teacher collaboration, of conversations with colleagues. What Hargreaves and O’Connor call ‘collaborative professionalism’ is very evident throughout International Perspectives on Teacher Well-being and Diversity: Portals into Innovative Classroom Practice. Their description of collaborative professionalism as ‘about how teachers and other educators transform teaching and learning together to work with all students to develop fulfilling lives of meaning, purpose, and success’ (Hargreaves & O’Connor, 2018, p. 4) is noticeably relevant. The value of peer support, professional conversations and honest sharing of successes and challenges for teacher well-being is seen clearly, for example, in the work of O’Sullivan and her colleagues (Chap. 8). Their perspectives through the lens of an Irish primary school resonate with the complementary Danish, Norwegian and South African contributions. There are also strong echoes with existing research (e.g. Soini, Pyhältö, & Pietarinen, 2010; Owen, 2016, 2014). Furthermore, work of Soini et al. 2010 on ‘teacher pedagogical well-being’ provided Murphy and his TWBD project team with a back-drop for interpreting their findings on the importance of teacher learning communities (TLCs) for teacher well-being in the context of a disadvantaged second-level school (Chap. 7). Overall, the studies challenge traditional practices and beliefs about individual teacher autonomy, highlighting how, in the face of newly emerging classrooms contexts, teacher well-being is best addressed when the individual professional is seen as part of a team, supporting and being supported by colleagues.

9.3 The Neo-Liberal Turn in Education While the evidence in this book for the potential of TLCs for teacher well-being in socially and ethnically diverse classroom learning environments is robust, globally such collaboration remains the exception rather than the norm (Lortie, 1975; Hargreaves & Fullan, 2012; Hargreaves & O’Connor, 2018). Lundström’s (2015) observations appear relevant for many education systems across the world when he notes that the adoption of neo-liberal policies and New Public Management (NPM) in the ‘global education policy space’ (Lingard & Rawolle, 2011, p. 490), have affected and continue to affect teachers’ work, teachers’ working conditions and the construction of the teaching profession (2015, p. 73).

The negative impact of this neo-liberal trend in education on teachers’ well-being also emerges as a strand with the combined studies in this book. This is highlighted, for example, in Chap. 3 where O’Brien draws attention to the care/justice dimensions of teachers’ and students’ well-being. She contends that hyper-individualisation creates a hollowing out of well-being for individuals’ identities. Furthermore, she

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contends that the intense push to the outer and the social deprives human beings of inner space and a valuing of experiences of inner life. The consequence of this dynamic, she argues, is not a more socially equal and just world but rather a more fully individualised and disconnected one where relationality in the sense of loving and caring is compromised. Furthermore, Sullivan and her colleagues (Chap. 2), writing from a practitioner enquiry and action research perspective, assert that the current prevalence of a measurement culture (Couture, 2018) in schools can have a deleterious effect on well-being; many teachers feel overwhelmed by the pressure and expectations to maintain well-being programmes for their students. However, despite the evident ‘limit-situations’ (Freire 1995, p. 83) that the encroachment of neo-liberalism into the educational sphere can place on the autonomy of teachers in the classroom (see Golden, 2018), possibilities and opportunities to enact more democratic-leaning spaces persist (see, for example, Evers & Kneyber, 2016). The importance of teachers critically reflecting on their work, of unearthing hegemonic practices, and of witnessing lives in harmony with espoused values should not be underestimated. Similarly, the need for social justice approaches to education is also evident. This should include a valuing of reflective subjectivity and care, which, as O’Brien states, are more pressing in the hyper-individualised risk society where collective possibilities are under pressure and policy interventions may not hit the mark in any real manner.

9.4 The Need for Culturally Responsive Pedagogies Not surprisingly, a third theme to emerge from the collective studies is the need to acknowledge and value the ethnically and socially diverse contexts in which teachers work. The research studies here resound with recognitions of these realities. Regarding such realities, a recent OECD study elevated the task of developing culturally responsive pedagogies to a ‘professional imperative’ for teachers (ForghaniArani, Cerna, & Bannon, 2019). A further study found that when such pedagogies are absent it can have a negative impact on learners’ motivation, overall well-being and development, which in turn can have a negative impact on teachers’ well-being (European Union, 2017). It also underscored the significance of this ‘professional imperative’ where it acknowledged that by the middle of the twenty-first century, it is estimated that 20-40% of Europe’s population could have an immigrant background (European Union, 2017). In order to be able to effectively respond to the increasing multiculturalism, it is recognised that teachers with developed communication attributes are well placed to harness ‘the cultural and linguistic capitals’ of learners with a diverse background, to enhance the competences and creativity of all learners and to promote cohesion in schools (Meinhoef, 2013). In the current studies, Multicultural Learning Environments emerge as pivotal resources for the enhancement of teaching and learning (see Chaps. 4, 5, 6 and 8).

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The evidence from the South Africa contributors (Chap. 4), for example, foregrounds the practical challenges for teachers developing culturally responsive pedagogies in multilingual contexts where the language of instruction differs from the primary language of the learners. Similar evidence was reported by Becher and her colleagues from Norway (Chap. 4) where their site school was also characterised by high levels of linguistic and social diversity. The teachers in that school identified the challenges around adapted teaching in linguistically diverse classrooms, of developing culturally responsive pedagogies, as having a direct impact on their sense of well-being. When multilingualism is engaged effectively, the evidence from the Norwegian project team suggests that it can have a positive impact on teacher and pupil well-being. The pupils exhibited an increased tolerance for struggles with language learning and a greater appreciation for the diversity of languages in the classroom. And, for the participating teachers there was evidence of enhanced motivation and confidence towards working in linguistically and socially diverse classroom learning environments. Thus, identifying culturally and pedagogically appropriate responses can be challenging but also offers new learning opportunities for all. As various chapters in this book demonstrate, seeing ethnic, linguistic and social diversity in a classroom as a potential positive rather than an inevitable negative is a crucial mindset.

9.5 The Importance of Dialogue with Parents While educational policy rhetoric frequently draws attention to parents’ role as partners in the schooling process, practice often conspires to generate tokenistic participation or, worse, parental alienation. The latter can be particularly true when it comes to parents whose familiarity with the dominant language of the schools and its teachers is limited. A fourth theme in this book is that, notwithstanding considerable challenges, meaningful engagement with parents can result in making significant contributions to teacher and to pupil well-being. As O’Sullivan and her project team observe (Chap. 8), significant barriers to teacher–parent communication can persist in the context of a socially and ethnically diverse primary school in Ireland. Parents’ limited language skills, compounded by lack of confidence and lack of familiarity with the education system, can result in a reluctance to avail of opportunities to meet with their child’s teacher. As witnessed in the Norwegian project school (Chap. 5), these challenges can be compounded when the parents are immigrants. Their findings reveal that an inviting communicative environment, where the parents are actively listened to, can encourage parents to become more involved with the school. Evidence from the experience of the Danish project team at Nord school (Chap. 6) resonates with these findings. There the Danish contributors recount how an Action Learning initiative involving pupils interviewing their parents about their childhood and schooling lead to parents being invited into the school to address the class. One outcome was that the pupils became more aware

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of what they have in common as opposed to their differences. In addition, in this project, the teachers reflected on how the support of the parents impacted positively on their well-being.

9.6 The Critical Factor of School Leadership Deepening stakeholders’ commitment to the schooling process in the context of growing ethnic and social diversity as well as to the well-being of teachers so often depends on the quality of leadership (Lagrossen & Lagrossen, 2012). The experience in the school in Norway in this study (Chap. 5) highlights this. The authors contend that, based on the challenge of involving all the school’s teachers in the project, school leadership plays a decisive role. This extends to winning the support of parents and other educational stakeholders in the wider community. Its principal emerged as pivotal in overcoming potential obstacles to innovative pedagogical change aimed at creating a cross-cultural, cross-religious, friendly and inclusive school environments. Their findings are similar to findings from Barr and Saltmarsh (2014), who stated that it all comes down to school leadership and that parents are more likely to be engaged with schools where the principal is perceived as welcoming and supportive of their involvement, and less likely to be engaged where the principal is perceived as inaccessible, dismissive or disinterested in supporting their involvement. Similarly, the South African contributors (Chap. 4) recognise that supportive leadership must not be underestimated in order to best navigate change processes to enhance the well-being of teachers and pupils. They evidenced that an integrated WSD approach requires the leadership in schools to pay attention to the coherence between the internal cultural values of the school as promoted in the school’s vision and mission, on the one hand, and the values and lived experiences of the school community and society on the other. The role of supportive leadership also emerged as significant for the teachers who taught at a disadvantaged primary school in a multicultural and multilingual context in Ireland (Chap. 8). The visibility of its principal in support of the school’s initiatives to promote wellbeing was identified as being integral to their success. This finding was similar to that of Lagrossen and Lagrossen (2012) who recognised the importance of visible leadership and accessibility in the promotion of staff well-being. While issues such as greater allocation of time for preparation, workload, physical infrastructure and CPD are often difficult to resolve at local level, the teachers at this primary school evidenced that ‘the small things’ were really significant. For example, in relation to acknowledging the successes and accomplishments of the staff, one of the teachers highlighted the importance of remembering to pass on compliments about colleagues. Laine, Saaranen, Ryhanen and Tossavainen (2017) identify the involvement of the principal in related activities as a key developmental goal in occupational well-being.

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9.7 Teacher Well-Being and Student Well-Being Are Inter-connected The well-being of teachers should not be seen in isolation from that of their students, and visa-versa (Acton & Glasgow, 2015; McCallum & Price, 2010). The evidence in the current collection of studies reinforces this insight. In the Danish context, Hansen et al. (Chap. 6) found that the overall educational objectives of the school could be greatly enhanced if sufficient attention was focused on the well-being of the school professionals. There, this involves both classroom teachers and social educators. Their Teacher Well-being and Diversity (TWBD) project case study, which had a focus in a diverse fourth-grade classroom, also noted the intimate connection that exists between the pupils’ well-being and that of the educators. A particular finding was the value of teachers gaining insights into the pupils’ home environments; building such insights into the learning process contributed to the overall success of the learning endeavour and thereby impacted positively on the educators’ wellbeing. Additionally, their findings echo the work of Tanggaard (2018) on the value of informal learning.

9.8 Further Research Opportunities Each of the themes identified above are obvious topics for further research. As indicated, the impact of cultures of performativity and accountability appears to add significant stress to teachers’ lives. Research into how policies, especially at school level, nurture or erode teachers’ well-being, would be timely. Research into further examples of culturally appropriate pedagogical responses to increased social and linguistic diversity is perhaps one of the most obvious next steps arising from the book. Somewhat related, further investigation as to how schools engage with parents, especially those whose preferred language is different from the dominant one used in the school setting is desirable, even urgent. As the focus of the work is on teacher well-being in four different countries, changing understandings of teacher identities is not only a persistent theme but one ripe for further research. To what extent is working in challenging contexts of social and ethnic diversity regarded as central or peripheral to teachers’ emerging identities? How, for example, is the increasing prevalence of diverse classrooms reflected in initial teacher-education programmes? How responsive are national systems of teacher support to those working in classrooms with significant levels of social, ethnic and linguistic diversity? How does working in disadvantaged contexts shape and re-shape teachers’ identities and self-understandings? All these questions could benefit by being informed through further research. Identity questions are also interwoven with issues related to teachers’ morale. The studies in the current collection, for example, point to the power of collegiality and practical collaboration in maintaining positive attitudes among teachers and in building their resilience. We think the evidence in this book for professional

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conversations among teachers working in the same school, for sharing of practice and for developing professional learning communities is one of its most encouraging features. Interrogating the critical factors that enable such positive developments in a school deserves further research. Some of the studies here, for example, indicate that some teachers may need to develop their communication capacities to engage in professional dialogue. On top of this, research into the well-being of teachers who work in challenging classrooms also needs to examine teacher burnout, professional frustration, disappointment and alienation. While the evidence should encourage schools to listen more attentively to parents, the case for greater attention to ‘student voice’ is also underlined. Again, further research into these practices would be timely and desirable. Longitudinal studies, charting young people’s journeys through linguistically and ethnically diverse classrooms, could be especially illuminating. Much can be learned from listening to the voices of those who have had to navigate their way through such challenging environments. Such learning would be invaluable for teachers and policymakers. Recent years have seen a growing awareness of the pervasiveness of bullying across schools irrespective of their socio-economic profiles. Teasing out the uglier strands of racism and other prejudices within such bullying, and how teachers might effectively respond, also needs to be researched. As identified in some of the studies in the present book, leadership has a vital role to play in cultivating culturally appropriate and sensitive pedagogical responses to diverse classrooms. Not only are the indicators pointing to the value of integrating such insights into CPD for practising school leaders, additional research might illustrate further examples of how leadership attitudes and practice can empower, or disempower, teachers. Finally, the studies in the book offer testimony to the possibilities of seeing teachers as researchers into their own work. As Sullivan and her colleagues demonstrate in Chap. 2, self-study action research can enhance teachers’ practice, promote professional dialogue, strengthen resilience, deepen critical reflection, is significant for school leadership and can contribute to overall well-being. As Stephen Kemmis remarked, when commenting on the insights of Laurence Stenhouse: …he recognised that large scale educational research and development did not necessarily bring improvements in local educational practice, and that it would require teacher research – local research by teachers into their own practices – to achieve lasting improvements in the quality of education. (quoted in Elliott & Norris, 2012, p. 3)

The authors who contributed to this volume are testimony to the possibility of collaborative practice for bringing ‘as-ifs into being’ (Greene, 1995), the imagined possibilities for what can be, notwithstanding the real limits and constraints on educational systems across the world today (see, for example, Hennessy & MannixMcNamara, 2013; Murphy, 2008; Edling & Mooney Simmie, 2020). In the words of Greene, such collaborative spaces can ‘offer opportunities for perspective, for perceiving alternative ways of transcending and of being in the world, for refusing the automatism that overwhelms choice’ (Greene, 1995, p. 142). Thereby realising

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the potentiality and prospect for teacher well-being in the context of the increasing ethnic and social diversity of our classrooms.

References Acton, R., & Glasgow, P. (2015). Teacher well-being in neoliberal contexts: a review of the literature. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 40(8), 6. https://doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2015v40n8.6. Barr, J., & Saltmarch, S. (2014). “It all comes down to the leadership”: The role of the school principal in fostering parent-school engagement. Educational Management dministration & Leadership, 42(4), 491–505. Couture, J. C. (2018) Ranking up on student wellness: A global challenge to the teaching profession, ATA Magazine, Spring 2018. Edling, S., & Mooney Simmie, G. (2020). Democracy and teacher education: Dilemmas, challenges and possibilities. New York: Routledge. Elliott, J., & Norris, N. (Eds.). (2012). Curriculum, pedagogy and educational research: The work of Lawrence Stenhouse. London: Routledge. European Union. (2017). Preparing teachers for diversity: The role of initial teacher Education Final Report. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union. https://doi.org/ 10.2766/637002. Evers, J., & Kneyber, R. (2016). Flip the system: Changing education from the ground up. New York: Routledge. Forghani-Arani, N., Cerna, L., & Bannon, M. (2019). The lives of teachers in diverse classrooms: OECD education Working Paper No. 198. Paris: OECD. Freire, P. (1970, 1995). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Continuum. Golden, N. A. (2018). Narrating neoliberalism: Alternative education teachers’ conceptions of their changing roles. Teaching Education, 29(1), 1–16. Greene, M. (1995). Releasing the imagination: Essays on education, the arts, and social change. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Hardy, I., Rönnerman, K., & Beach, D. (2019). Teachers’ work in complex times: The ‘fast policy’ of Swedish school reform. Oxford Review of Education, 45(3), 350–366. https://doi.org/10.1080/ 03054985.2018.1546684. Hardy, I. (2013). Competing pressures in practice: Teachers’ pedagogies and work under complex policy conditions. International Journal of Pedagogies and Learning, 8(3), 206–218. Hargreaves, A., & Fullan, M. (2012). Professional capital: Transforming teaching in every school. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Hargreaves, A., & O’Connor, M. (2018). Collaborative professionalism: When teaching together means learning from all. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin. Hennessy, J., & Mannix McNamara, P. (2013). At the altar of educational efficiency: Performativity and the role of the teacher. English Teaching: Practice and Critique, 12(1), 6–22. Laine, S., Saaranen, T., Ryhanen, E., & Tossavainen, K. (2017). Occupational wellbeing and leadership in a school community. Health Education, 117(1), 24–38. Lagrossen, Y., & Lagrossen, S. (2012). Organisational learning for school quality and health. International Journal of Educational Management, 26(7), 664–677. Lingard, B., & Rawolle, S. (2011). New scalar politics: implications for education policy. Comparative Education: An International Journal of Comparative Studies, 47(4), 489–502. https://doi. org/10.1080/03050068.2011.555941. Lortie, D. C. (1975). Schoolteacher: A sociological study. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Lundström, U. (2015). Teacher autonomy in the era of New Public Management. Nordic Journal of Studies in Educational Policy, 2015(2), 73–85.

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McCallum, F., & Price, D. (2010). Well teachers, well students. The Journal of Student Wellbeing, 4(1), 19–34. https://doi.org/10.21913/JSW.v4i1.599. Meinhoef, U. H. (2013). Cultural diversity in Europe: A story of mutual benefit, EUI RSCAS, 2013/71, Global Governance Programme-67, Cultural Pluralism. Retrieved from Cadmus, European University Institute Research Repository, http://hdl.handle.net/1814/28120 Murphy, T. (2008). Democratic schooling practices in the Republic of Ireland: The gap between the rhetoric and the reality. Irish Educational Studies, 27(1), 29–39. OECD. (2019). How education systems respond to cultural diversity in schools: New measures in TALIS 2018. Teaching in Focus, No. 25. Paris: OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/1ba a285c-en. Owen, S. (2016). Professional learning communities: Building skills, reinvigorating the passion, and nurturing teacher well-being and “flourishing” within significantly innovative schooling contexts. Educational Review, 68(4), 403–419. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131911.2015.1119101. Owen, S. (2014). Teacher professional learning communities: Going beyond contrived collegiality toward challenging debate and collegial learning and professional growth. Australian Journal of Adult Learning, 54(2), 54. Soini, T., Pyhältö, K., & Pietarinen, J. (2010). Pedagogical well-being: Reflecting learning and wellbeing in teachers’ work. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 16(6), 735–751. https:// doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2010.517690. Tanggaard, L. (2018). Læringsglemsel. Aarhus: Klim.

Timothy R. N. Murphy Dr. Timothy Murphy is a Lecturer in Educational Research and Policy at the School of Education, University of Limerick. He is a Graduate of Teachers College, Columbia University, New York and has researched and worked in a number of educational contexts, including England, the USA and Ireland. He has published widely in the field of education, on topics ranging from education policy and reform, to disadvantage in education, as well as on teacher pedagogical well-being. The latter led to his participation in a three-year Erasmus+ EU project on Teacher Well-being and Diversity which provided the inspiration for this book. Patricia Mannix-McNamara is head of the School of Education at the University of Limerick in Ireland. Her experience spans school leadership, systems leadership, organizational culture and climate, workplace wellbeing in education and organizational behaviours and she is widely published in these fields. She serves as an advisor to national bodies and has championed school health promotion for two decades. She is the joint chair of the National Behaviour in Organisations Research Group (BORG) with her colleague Dr. Margaret Hodgins in the National University of Ireland Galway. Her motivation in this text is to place wellbeing, for both teachers and students, at the heart of teaching culture.

Author Index

A Acton, R., 15, 21, 26, 32–34, 36, 146–149, 194 Adams, P., 51 Albon, D., 170, 171 Allan, J., 165 Andersen, J. W., 128 Anderson, H., 63, 64, 172 Anderson, P., 164 Andreassen Becher, Aslaug, 87 Andreotti, V., 58 Applebome, P., 182 Apple, M., 46 Archer, P., 169 Ashton, T., 50 Auger, E., 32 Avci, A., 34

B Bachmann, K., 95 Ball, S. J., 15 Banks, J., 23 Bannon, M., 3, 6, 191 Barac, R., 97 Barrett, M., 107 Barr, J., 193 Barry, M. M., 29 Basit, T., 151 Bauman, Z., 49 Bayer, M., 128 Beach, D., 189 Becher, A. B., 8, 109, 111 Beck, U., 49 Beltman, S., 31 Bergflødt, Sigurd, 8, 87

Berkovich, I., 35 Bialystok, E., 97, 100 Biesta, G., 108, 109, 111–113 Blackmore, J., 35 Bohm, D., 28 Bok, D., 164 Bornstein, M., 164 Boushel, M., 164 Bramming, P., 129 Braun, V., 96, 171 Brendel, W., 31 Briner, R., 166, 182 Brinkmann, S., 96, 104 Broadley, T., 31 Brookfield, S., 14, 23, 24, 29, 36, 37 Brown, P., 50 Brunello, G., 2, 168, 169 Brydon-Miller, M. D., 28 Buchler, M., 62, 63 Burton, G., 19 Butt, R., 158, 165, 167, 173 Buysse, V., 170 Byrne, D., 5

C Cala, V., 168 Cannell, C. F., 172 Carr, W., 17 Carter, D., 146, 147, 150, 154 Cassidy, C., 52 Caulfield, A., 166 Cerna, L., 3, 6, 191 Chin, T. C., 37 Chisulu, V., 63 Clandinin, D. J., 16

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200 Clarà, M., 31, 32 Clarke, V., 96, 171 Clark, M. C., 22 Cochran-Smith, M., 18 Cohen, L., 151 Collett, K., 6, 7, 61–65, 69, 78, 109, 113, 122 Collett, Karen Suzette, 61 Collington, V., 23 Coltman, P., 172 Combs, M., 182 Connelly, S., 35 Conway, P. F., 23 Coolahan, J., 23 Cornett-Murtada, V., 31 Cornwall, A., 119, 123 Corry, John, 9, 145 Coutts, N., 167 Couture, J. C., 36, 191 Cummins, J., 98, 101 Curtayne, L., 19 D Daly, A., 163 Darmody, M., 5 Davidson, L., 164 Dawes, L., 137 Day, C., 16, 21, 22, 26, 63, 65 De Angelis, G., 97, 98 Deaton, A., 164 Deci, E. L., 120 Dempsey, C., 31 Denner, S., 168 Denscombe, M., 170 De Paola, M., 168 Department of Education and Skills, Ireland, 7, 31, 181 Devine, M., 19 Dewberry, C., 166, 182 Donnelly, P., 23 Dowling, E., 164 Drew, V., 157, 158 DuFour, R., 65, 157 Dukes, R., 168 Dyke, A., 31 E Early, M., 101 Edling, S., 195 Edwards, S., 170 Efron, S. E., 31 Elbaum, S., 169 Emery, C., 164

Author Index Ereaut, G., 164 Evers, J., 191

F Fessler, R., 20 Fielding, M., 34 Flick, U., 171 Flores, R., 169 Fontana, A., 170 Fook, J., 23 Forghani-Arani, N., 3, 6, 191 Freire, P., 46, 47, 53, 55, 191 Frey, J., 170 Friedli, L., 29 Frønes, I., 93 Fullan, M., 19, 114, 190

G Gandhi, M., 53 García, O., 74, 98, 102 Gibbs, G., 104 Gielen, S., 34 Gilleece, L., 168 Gilligan, C., 46, 47, 51 Glasgow, P., 15, 21, 26, 32–34, 36, 146–149, 194 Glenn, Máirín., 6, 13, 14, 16, 17, 20, 21, 23, 25, 28, 32, 33 Goh, J. W. P., 34 Golden, N. A., 191 Gooty, J., 35 Gramsci, A., 35, 36 Grant, A. L., 19, 30 Grantham, R., 166 Greene, M., 14, 27, 28, 195 Griffith, J., 35 Gunter, H., 35 Gupta, A., 35 Gu, Q., 16, 63, 65

H Haggerty, L., 18 Hairon, S., 34 Hall, K., 23 Hämäläinen, S., 167 Hammer, Aina, 8, 87 Hansen, Maj Borggaard, 8, 119, 194 Hardy, I., 159, 189 Hargreaves, A., 19, 95, 190 Hattie, J., 120 Haug, P., 94, 95

Author Index Heinz, M., 168, 182 Heller, A., 55 Helliwell, J. F., 166, 175 Hennessy, J., 195 Hofmeester, V., 62 Holmes, E., 63 Honneth, A., 108, 109, 111–113 Hopkins, D., 18, 35 Horst, C., 127 Houssemand, C., 19 Huber, J., 2, 16, 20, 107, 141 Huberman, M. A., 20, 25 Huppert, F., 24, 26, 64 Huyton, J., 163

J Jaakkola, M., 168 Jacobs, G., 31 Jansen, Daniel, 7, 61 Jasinskaja-Lahti, I., 168 Jensen, I., 134, 135 Jensen, Oliver Balck, 8, 119 Jewkes, R., 119, 123 Johannessen, A., 108 Johnson, B., 31 Johnson, D., 24, 26

K Katz, M., 52 Kaufman, P., 47, 54–56 Kavanagh, L., 168 Kemmis, S., 17, 68, 70, 195 Kerlinger, F. N., 104 Kern, M. L., 37 King, M. L., 53 Kington, A., 16, 22, 63 Kneyber, R., 191 Koomen, H. M., 3, 16, 120, 146 Korthagen, F., 54 Kristoffersen, L., 108 Kvale, S., 96, 104 Kwan, E., 97, 100

L Lagrossen, S., 182, 193 Lagrossen, Y., 182, 193 Laine, S., 181, 193 Lanas, M., 46 Larrivee, B., 23 Lauder, H., 50 Laursen, H., 97, 100, 101

201 Leontopoulou, S., 168 Lerner, R., 164 Levin, M., 98 Lewin, K., 152 Lézé, S., 164 Liebkind, K., 168 Lipman, M., 24 Liu, L. B., 149, 153 Lofthouse, R., 157, 159 Loton, D., 37 Luk, G., 97, 100 Lumby, J., 34 Lundström, U., 190 Lydon, J. E., 32 Lytle, S. L., 18, 25

M Maalouf, A., 93, 103, 107 Mackier, Elmarie, 7, 61 MacPhail, A., 31 Madsen, L., 120, 125 Mandela, N., 53 Manion, L., 151 Mannix-McNamara, Patricia, 1, 9, 145, 189, 195 Mansfield, C., 31 Martinez, R., 168 Masterson, Mary, 9, 145 McAllister, J., 49–51 McArdle, K., 157, 167 McCallum, F., 121, 146–149, 153, 154, 194 McCracken, G., 172 McDonagh, Caitriona, 6, 13, 14, 16, 17, 21, 26, 29, 31, 32 McEvoy, E., 31 McGinnity, F., 5 McInnes, K., 164 McLennan, L., 62 McNiff, J., 17, 26, 27 Meinhof, U. H., 4, 191 Melrose, M., 23 Menzier-Toman, D., 32 Meredith, C., 34 Merthens, D. M., 172 Meyer, L., 31 Meyers, R., 19 Michelsen, Janni, 8, 119, 120 Miller, P. V., 172 Mills, G. E., 98 Mohanty, S., 25 Moles, J., 19, 34 Mooney-Simme, G., 19, 34, 195

202

Author Index

Moore, K., 164 Morgan, M., 168, 169 Morrison, K., 121, 146, 151 Mujtaba, T., 16 Mukherji, D., 170, 171 Murphy, Timothy R. N., 1, 9, 23, 145, 189, 190, 195

Pietersen, C., 62 Plauborg, H., 128 Poikonen, P., 167 Price, D., 121, 146–149, 153, 154, 194 Priestley, M., 157 Putnam, R. D., 166, 175 Pyhalto, K., 167

N National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA), 25, 34, 165 Nevill, A., 165 Ngece, Someka, 7, 61 Ng, P., 167, 173 Nhat Hanh, T., 19 Nias, J., 22 Noddings, N., 18, 46, 47, 51–53 Noffke, S., 152 Nomlomo, Vuyokazi, 7, 61, 62, 65, 66, 78 Nordahl, T., 94, 95, 109, 111, 127, 128 Norman, C., 157 Nussbaum, M., 50

Q Quillinan, B., 31

O Oades, L. G., 37 O’Brien, Maeve, 6, 9, 45–48, 50, 53, 56, 190, 191 O’Connor, K. E., 16, 190 O’Connor, M. T., 190 O’Flaherty, A., 169 O’Shea, A., 46–48, 50 Oksenberg, L., 172 Olsen, Sissel Tove, 8, 87, 89, 109, 113, 114, 122, 131 Oosthuizen, P., 62, 63 O’Sullivan, C., 6, 9, 163 O’Sullivan, Lisha, 6, 9, 163 O’Sullivan, Mary, 9, 145 Ovando, C., 182 Owen, S., 24, 146, 148, 150, 157, 158, 167, 190

P Paaske, Nanna, 8, 87 Page, C., 172 Palmer, P. J., 20, 21, 34 Palm, Kirsten, 7, 87 Paterson, A., 166 Penny, L., 37 Pietarinen, J., 3, 9, 15, 63, 103, 122, 145– 147, 150, 167, 190

R Rath, A., 23 Ravid, D., 31 Rawal, S., 31 Retallick, J., 158, 165, 167, 173 Reuter, A., 168 Reynolds, C., 107, 141 Rhodes, C., 165, 166, 174 Roberts, P., 55 Roche, Mary, 6, 13, 14, 16, 17, 21, 23, 25 Roffey, S., 120, 121, 149, 154, 166 Ronnerman, K., 159 Roorda, D. L., 120 Ross, F., 23 Rubin, H. J., 172 Rubin, I. S., 172 Ruch, G., 23 Ryan, Sandra, 6, 9, 163 Ryan, R. M., 120 Ryhanen, E., 181, 193

S Saaranen, T., 181, 193 Salter-Jones, E. C., 63, 65 Saltmarsh, S., 193 Sammons, P., 16, 22, 63, 78 Sampson, R., 168 Sanders, L., 163 Sarja, A., 167 Schenkels, A., 31 Schmidt, M. J., 35 Schön, D., 14 Schwarz, S., 32 Seligman, M., 50, 64 Sen, A., 50 Sennett, R., 51 Sharrocks, L., 165–167, 175, 176, 181 Siokou, C., 37 Skaalvik, E. M., 31, 63 Skaalvik, S., 31, 63

Author Index Slattery, Gerard, 9, 145 Slemp, G. R., 37 Smees, R., 16 Smyth, E., 5, 23, 33, 182 Søgaard, Karoline, 8, 119 Soini, T., 2–4, 9, 15, 63, 66, 103, 107, 122, 145–150, 152–155, 157, 159, 160, 167, 170, 171, 173, 190 Somekh, B., 15, 152 Somnath, R., 62 Sonn, B., 62 Soriano, E., 168 Spillane, J., 181 Spilt, J. L., 16, 120, 146, 148 Steffi, B. E., 20 Stein, E., 52 Steinsvik, Brit, 8, 87 Stobart, G., 16, 22, 63 Stone, A., 164 Strike, K., 52 Stringer, E., 16, 17 Struyve, C., 34 Sullivan, Bernie, 6, 13, 14, 16, 17, 21, 31, 32

T Taber, K. S., 170, 171 Tanggaard, L., 136, 141, 194 Taylor, C., 47 Teaching Council, 16, 18, 25, 156, 157, 165 Thamsanqa, G. J., 31 Theron, L. C., 62, 67 Thijs, J. T., 16, 146 Thomas, J., 163 Thomas, T., 63, 64, 157, 159 Thornburn, M., 48 Thurlow, M., 62 Tireli, Ü., 127 Tobin, K., 17 Tofteng, D., 120, 123, 125 Tossavainen, K., 181, 193 Tronto, J.C., 51 Tufte, P. A., 108

203 U Uitto, M., 16

V Van der Bijl, H., 62, 63 Van Oord, L., 34 Van Zyl, E., 62 Vella-Brodrick, D., 37 Vilien, Katja Sørensen, 8, 119 Villumsen, A. M. A., 120 Vischer, J., 180, 182 Vulliamy, G., 167

W Warwick, P., 137 Waters, L., 37 Watson, D., 164 Watson, J., 25 Weatherby-Fell, B., 31 Webb, R., 167, 174 Wei, L., 98, 102 Weir, S., 168, 169 Wenger, E.C., 170 Wesley, P.W., 170 West, L., 23 Whitebread, D., 172 Whitehead, J., 17, 18, 24, 26, 27, 70, 71 White, S.C., 33 Whiting, R., 164 Wilcox, S., 25 Williams, R., 31, 51, 52, 56, 58 Wolfe, M.P., 20 Wood, L., 31

Y Yoo, J., 146, 147, 150, 154

Z Zembylas, M., 46, 55, 57, 58, 68

Subject Index

A Ability to teach, 153, 171, 173, 174, 177 Action research, 7, 8, 16–18, 25–28, 30–33, 36, 61, 63, 70, 72, 87, 89, 98, 109, 113, 123, 148, 159, 189, 191 Activity school, 8, 87, 89, 110, 167, 177 Adapted teaching, 8, 87, 88, 91, 96, 113–115, 192 Administrative processes, 126 Altruism, 55 Apartheid, 62, 69, 74 Application, 9, 36, 139, 163 Attendance monitoring, 15

B Barriers to well-being, 13 Bayliss, P., 164 British Educational Research Association (BERA), 172

C Care, 7, 9, 18, 24, 34, 36, 45–47, 49, 51–58, 67, 68, 106, 109, 126, 132, 163, 181, 182, 190, 191 Care relations, 45 Centre for Early Childhood Development and Education (CECDE), 165 Challenges to teacher well-being, 171, 176 Chumack-Horbatch, R., 102 Coaching, 19, 30, 176 Collaboration, 8, 16, 20, 32, 70, 72, 79, 93, 111, 113, 120, 123, 125, 127, 131, 139–141, 156, 158, 173, 190, 194

Collective, 8, 17, 46, 47, 53, 58, 65, 70, 71, 78, 171, 180, 191 Collegiality, 20, 23, 126, 194 Communication, 4, 5, 8, 19, 20, 66, 74, 80, 87, 88, 91, 93, 109, 110, 112, 114, 155, 156, 160, 175, 177, 178, 181, 184, 191, 192, 195 Community, 5, 7, 9, 14, 16, 23, 32, 33, 36, 46, 47, 53, 62–72, 75–80, 93, 95, 109– 112, 115, 125, 127, 131, 137, 146, 148–152, 154–156, 158–160, 164, 166–168, 170, 173–175, 177, 193 Concientisation, 53, 59 Confidence in knowledge, 171, 173 Conflict, 30, 37, 107, 112, 127, 132, 133, 181 Connectedness, 8, 18, 109, 111 Context, 1–3, 5–9, 14, 15, 17, 20, 21, 23, 25, 32, 45–50, 53–58, 61, 63–65, 69, 72, 73, 75, 79, 80, 88–90, 93–96, 99, 100, 107–109, 112, 114, 119–126, 128, 130, 133, 134, 137, 139, 141, 146, 147, 149–151, 153–156, 159, 160, 163–166, 168–171, 174, 175, 177, 180–183, 189–194, 196 Continuing professional development, 156, 173, 183 Cooperation, 20, 93, 102, 108–111, 113, 123 Co-operative self, 51 Critical reflection, 13, 14, 17, 22–25, 27–30, 36, 37, 71, 112, 168, 195 Cross-cultural training, 107, 108, 115, 193 Cross-religious training, 107, 108, 115, 193 Cultural background, 127, 130 Culture and identity, 131, 134 Culture of performativity, 146, 150 Curriculum planning, 73, 146, 162, 165

© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 T. R. N. Murphy and P. Mannix-McNamara (eds.), International Perspectives on Teacher Well-Being and Diversity, Understanding Teaching-Learning Practice, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-1699-0

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206 D Danish, 4, 5, 8, 91, 119, 122–125, 127, 131, 135, 138, 139, 141, 190, 192, 194 Deficiency perspective, 127 Definition, 9, 64, 70, 122, 123, 128, 163, 164, 167, 183 Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (DEIS), 7, 9, 155, 168, 169, 173, 180 ‘Deliverology’, 3 Democratic governance, 62 Democratic professionalism, 65 Democratization, 123 Department of health, 165 Dialogue, 14, 16, 19, 20, 22–24, 28, 30, 32, 45, 46, 52–54, 56, 58, 78, 79, 103, 107, 123, 124, 127, 134, 139, 172, 192, 195 Digital backpack, 126 Disadvantage, 2, 3, 6, 54, 164, 168, 169, 184 Distrust, 154 Diversity, 1–6, 8, 9, 14, 18, 20, 61–63, 65, 69, 73, 75–77, 88–90, 92, 94–98, 100, 108, 114, 119, 133, 134, 139, 146, 170, 174, 175, 177, 189, 190, 192, 194 Dominant language, 77, 192 Dublin’s inner-city, 46

Subject Index G Grounded theory, 64, 151

H Health Service Executive (HSE), 165 Hegemony, 13, 36, 37 Hollway, W., 52 Home–school collaboration, 8, 87, 88, 119, 120, 123, 124, 126–128, 130, 133, 139–141 Home–school relations, 109, 110 Human development (PSP) approach, 48 Human flourishing, 7, 45, 46, 48, 51, 52 Human rights, 51–53

E Early childhood education, 169, 170 Educational reform, 62 Educator well-being, 8, 119–122, 129–131, 140, 141 Éire Community College, 151, 160 Embodied praxis, 45, 47, 54, 56, 57 Emancipation, 33 Emotional needs, 146, 147 English, 69, 74, 75, 77, 78, 91, 99, 101, 138, 168, 169, 176–178 Enhancing practice, 17, 21, 26, 27, 32 Equality, 18, 19, 46–48, 52, 53, 92, 127, 134 Ethics, 47, 51, 52, 54–56, 58, 90, 112, 172 European Commission, viii, 4, 95

I Identity and cultural diversity, 87, 88, 113 Immigrants, 2, 4, 6, 192 Immigration, 90, 168 Impermanence, 54 Individual, 8, 15, 18, 19, 21, 47–49, 51, 53, 54, 56, 58, 71, 75, 87–91, 93–97, 106, 108, 110, 112, 114, 120, 123, 126, 147, 164–167, 170–172, 177, 180, 190 Individualism, 15 Inequality, 7, 31, 36, 49, 52–55, 62, 68, 78, 92 Informal advice, 155, 158 Informal learning environments, 8, 131, 135–139, 141 ‘Inreach and outreach’, 45–47 Instructional tools, 3, 145, 146, 149, 150, 153 Interaction with pupils, 153, 157–160 Interdependency, 54, 166 Interdisciplinary collaboration, 120, 125, 127 Interdisciplinary perspective, 46 Ipsos, 97 Irish, 4, 6, 9, 15, 23, 24, 164, 167, 168, 170, 182, 190 Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO), 166

F Feeling appreciated/valued, 171, 174 Feminism, 46, 47, 51, 54, 57 Focus group, 9, 71, 132, 145, 151, 152, 156, 158, 163, 170–174, 176, 180, 181

K Keyes, C., 164 Kultur- og kirkedepartementet [The Ministry of Culture and Church Affairs in Norway], 91

Subject Index L Læringsglemsel, 5, 136, 141 Language learning, 5, 88, 92, 98, 99, 177, 192 Language proficiency, 62 Learning community, 20, 95, 151, 157–159, 173 Learning outcomes, 57, 80, 94, 95, 136 Learning resources, 65, 68, 73 Lifeline project, 93, 103–108, 115 Limerick, 2, 9, 24, 145, 146, 176 Limit-situations, 191 Linguistic and social diversity, 113, 114, 192 Linguistic development, 137, 139 Linguistic diversity, 61, 62, 79, 87, 88, 90– 92, 98, 102, 108, 109, 113, 114, 165, 194 Linguistic injustice, 62, 78 Literacy, 15, 77, 92, 98, 145, 147, 152, 157–159, 168, 173, 176 Little Voices, 176, 182 Living theory, 26, 28, 31

M ‘Malestream’ paradigms of development, 51 Masculinity, 57 Mental health issues, 62 Mentoring, 19, 34, 165, 173, 183 Metalinguistic awareness, 97, 100, 101 Migrant children, 99 Migration, 94 Minority languages, 90, 91, 104 Multicultural, 2, 4–6, 9, 63, 91, 93, 103, 108, 109, 163, 164, 167–170, 175, 181–183, 191, 193 Multilingualism, 2, 6, 7, 61–66, 68, 70–75, 77–80, 91, 97–102, 192

N National flags, 99 Neoliberal ideologies, 15, 147 Network Educational Action Research Ireland (NEARI), 16, 25, 26, 33, 34 Norwegian government, 102 NOU, 91, 92 Numeracy, 15, 146, 152, 168, 173

O OECD, 3, 4, 36, 50, 95, 158, 164, 191 Onion model (Korthagen), 54

207 OsloMetropolitan University (OsloMet), 2, 7, 88, 113 “Othering”, 93

P Parents, 5, 8, 35, 36, 66, 68, 69, 72, 73, 76, 77, 79, 88, 92, 93, 95, 98–102, 105, 108–111, 113–115, 123, 124, 126– 128, 130, 131, 133–135, 138–140, 153, 166, 168, 174–180, 182, 184, 192–195 Participation, 9, 19, 53, 68, 70, 72, 74, 78, 93, 95, 105, 108–111, 113, 123, 133, 137, 138, 140, 151, 152, 157–159, 172, 176, 182, 192 Participatory enquiry and action research, 30–35 Pedagogies, 4, 8, 24, 45–48, 53–58, 66, 68, 91, 123, 125, 127, 130, 148, 167, 191, 192 Peer support, 74, 183, 190 Personal and professional, 9, 14, 16, 21, 31, 32, 37, 57, 64, 65, 67, 73, 80, 122, 163 Physical infrastructure of the school, 180, 182, 184 Planning, 3, 17, 27, 65, 67, 70–75, 80, 127, 145, 146, 149, 153, 157, 158, 165–168, 173 Polish, 168 Portuguese, 168 Poverty, 6, 7, 49, 54, 55, 61–63, 69, 79, 93, 168 Praxis, 7, 45–47, 49, 54, 56–59, 71, 79, 80 Preschool teachers, 122, 170, 171 Principals, 4, 33, 65, 69, 75, 76, 79, 88, 109, 115, 131, 145, 152, 166, 174–176, 181, 182, 193 Professional development, 4, 6, 13, 14, 16, 19, 22, 23, 25, 31, 34, 63, 87, 173 Professional identity, 21, 22 Professional learning community, 22, 24, 61, 65, 71, 73, 79, 80, 148, 160, 167, 173, 181, 183, 195 ‘Pseudo-wellbeing’, 49, 50 Psychological needs, 120, 122

R Race, 62, 68, 69, 114 Reflection, 4, 8, 17, 19, 20, 22–24, 28, 29, 32, 54, 56–58, 70, 71, 88, 89, 95, 103,

208 105–107, 123–126, 128, 130, 131, 139–141, 150, 157, 167, 181 Relationships, 7, 18, 19, 26, 31, 33, 35, 45– 47, 49–54, 57, 58, 63–68, 73, 76, 80, 93, 102, 108–112, 131, 134, 139, 146, 148, 155, 166, 169, 173, 175 Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE), 15 Religion, 127, 168, 177, 178 Remedial teaching, 120 Resilience, 14, 19, 30–32, 35, 64, 67, 72, 114, 153, 194, 195 Resource perspective, 127 Resources, 4, 5, 7, 61, 62, 65, 67, 68, 72, 73, 76, 78, 88, 92–94, 97, 98, 102, 114, 123, 126–129, 131, 137, 139, 140, 152, 157, 160, 168, 173, 175, 179, 183, 184, 191 Risk society, 49, 58, 191 Romanian, 168

S School building, 8, 47, 76, 87 School climate, 65, 164 School culture, 19, 67, 73, 114, 124 School leaders, 2, 76, 79, 165, 174, 195 School–parent relations, 108 School team, 121, 123, 126–131, 135, 137, 139–141 Self-efficacy, 21, 22, 25, 26, 102, 154 Self-study action research, 2, 6, 14, 16–18, 23, 26, 28, 29, 37, 195 Snap logs, 129–132, 134, 141 Social diversity, 2, 3, 88, 90, 92, 108, 176, 193, 196 Social educators, 8, 119–127, 129–132, 134–140, 194 Social justice, 2, 7, 15, 18, 45, 47, 49, 53, 58, 61–64, 66–69, 71, 78–80, 191 Social learning, 14, 26, 32, 33, 125, 135–137, 165 Social media, 49 Social Personal and Health Education (SPHE), 47, 164 Solidarity, 16, 55, 68, 112, 131 South Africa, 2, 6, 7, 30, 61, 62, 66, 69, 74, 77, 79, 80, 189, 192 Staff collaboration, 173 Standardised testing, 15 ‘Student language experts’, 99 Student agency, 55, 114 Student motivation, 141

Subject Index Students’ well-being, 34, 49, 103, 105, 119, 148, 190 Student voice, 195 Support, 6, 8, 9, 15, 16, 19, 20, 25, 28, 30, 32–34, 37, 46, 47, 50, 51, 55, 62–67, 73–78, 80, 87, 88, 96, 98, 100, 107, 114, 115, 120, 122, 126, 128, 139, 148, 152, 154–156, 163–171, 173, 175, 178, 180, 182–184, 193, 194 T Tailored teaching, 89 Teacher attrition, 36, 147 Teacher burnout, 195 Teacher collaboration, 9, 190 Teacher communication, 19, 74, 177, 191, 192, 195 Teacher confidence, 34, 35, 92, 114, 133, 158 Teacher disenchantment, 150 Teacher diversity, 1–6 Teacher education, 23, 37, 45–47, 56, 121 Teacher expectations, 6, 36, 37, 178 Teacher learning community, 9, 146, 151, 152, 156–160, 190 Teacher pedagogical well-being, 2, 3, 9, 145–148, 151–155, 159, 190 Teacher professionalism, 3 Teacher quality, 33 Teacher reflexivity, 54 Teachers as technicians, 21 Teacher self-efficacy, 3 Teacher stress, 3 Teacher–student relationships, 103 Teacher well-being, 1–9, 14, 15, 19, 21, 24, 26, 56, 61, 63–67, 70, 71, 74–77, 79, 80, 87–89, 92–94, 96, 102, 108, 109, 119, 121, 122, 134, 145–148, 150, 154, 163–172, 176, 181–184, 189, 190, 194, 196 Teacher well-being definition, 1–4, 7–9, 14, 15, 21, 26, 56, 61, 63–66, 70, 71, 74– 77, 79, 80, 88, 89, 93, 94, 96, 102, 109, 118, 121, 122, 146–148, 162, 163–171, 176, 181–184, 189–191, 194 Three Little Pigs, 99, 100 Translanguaging, 7, 61, 73, 74, 77–80, 98, 102 Transmission mode of teaching, 154 U University College, Copenhagen, 2, 7, 8, 88

Subject Index University of Limerick School of Education, 2, 9, 24, 145, 146 Urdu, 90, 124, 138

V Values, 14, 15, 17, 18, 21, 24, 26–31, 33, 34, 37, 48–50, 56–58, 65, 67, 68, 94, 95, 138, 148, 149, 155, 158, 165, 166, 178, 183, 190, 191, 193–195

209 W Wellbecoming, 52 Well-being, 1, 5–9, 13–20, 22, 24, 26–37, 46–54, 56–59, 61, 63–67, 70–80, 87, 92–98, 102, 103, 105, 107, 109, 113– 115, 119–124, 126–134, 137, 139– 141, 147, 148, 150–154, 156, 159, 160, 163–173, 175, 177, 178, 180– 183, 190–195 Whole school development, 7, 64, 66, 67 World Health Organisation, 63