Positive psychology to flourish professional well-being: A qualitative study of Indonesian English teachers’ perspective

Khumrotun Nadlifah; Slamet Setiawan; Ahmad Munir

doi:10.21070/jees.v8i1.1693

(1) * Khumrotun Nadlifah Universitas Negeri Surabaya
Indonesia
(2) Slamet Setiawan Univeristas Negeri Surabaya
Indonesia
(3) Ahmad Munir Univeristas Negeri Surabaya
Indonesia
(*) Corresponding Author

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21070/jees.v8i1.1693

Abstract

A qualitative study has been conducted to explore and encourage Indonesian EFL teachers’ professional well-being using positive psychology. It used thematic analysis approach to scrutinize participants’ well-being and their perception of PP toward their teaching practices during the covid 19 outbreak. By having 4 participants, CATI (Computer Assisted-telephone Interview) was administered to do a semi structured interview since the mobilization was still low during the pandemic. The analyses disclosed that the 5 pillar components of PP or known as PERMA, namely, positive and negative emotions, engagement, relationship, meaningfulness, and achievement were found in participants’ responses to flourish their professional well-being. The results highlight that some elements of PERMA such as accomplishments and meaningfulness are not obtained yet since the participants are still in the process of achieving their most significant goals in their teaching career. Nevertheless, the other three elements, namely, positive emotion, engagement and relationship depicted clearly that all of them are stronger predictors in fulfilling their professional well being. Moreover, the distinctive learning environment, years of teaching, institutional policies and participants’ L1 did not show significant differences on how participants nurture their professional well-being. Thus, it is underlined that an EFL teacher’s professional well-being is not only acknowledged as a personal and subjective occurrence, but it is also influenced by collective and social phenomena in the EFL teacher’s teaching environment. Implications and profound understandings were discussed in this study.

HIGHLIGHTS:

The analyses disclosed that the 5 pillar components of PP or known as PERMA, namely, positive and negative emotions, engagement, relationship, meaningfulness, and achievement were found in participants’ responses which flourish their professional well-being.
The distinctive learning environment, years of teaching, institutional policies and participants’ L1 did not show significant differences on how participants nurture their professional well-being.
Higher professional well-being of an educator can contribute to greater work performance by providing teachers with a sense of purpose, meaning, and fulfillment in their work.

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Author Biographies

Khumrotun Nadlifah, Universitas Negeri Surabaya

Khumrotun Nadlifah is a post-graduate student of Master Program in English languages education and literatures at Universitas Negeri Surabaya. Her research interests include teacher professional development and English teaching for young learners. She is currently teaching English for young learners at SDI Al Azhar 35 Surabaya.

Slamet Setiawan, Univeristas Negeri Surabaya

Slamet Setiawan is a Professor of Linguistics at the English Department, Faculty of Language and Arts, Universitas Negeri Surabaya, Indonesia. He completed his Bachelor of English Language Teaching at Universitas Negeri Surabaya; earned his M.A from The University of Auckland, New Zealand; and Ph.D. from The
University of Western Australia (both in Linguistics). Such an educational background made him interested in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics. His works can be traced in the following journals: Heliyon, Asian EFL Journal, Asian ESP Journal, GJAT: Global Journal of Al-Thafaqah, 3L: Language, Linguistics, Literature, and LLR: Language Related Research, IJELTR, Call-EJ, IJLS, Frontiers, SiELE, XLinguae, and other journals.

Ahmad Munir, Univeristas Negeri Surabaya

Ahmad Munir is an associate professor at Universitas Negeri Surabaya. He has obtained Master and PhD from Monash University in English language education. His research interests include English teacher education and classroom discourse. He is currently the coordinator of Master Program in English language education at Universitas Negeri Surabaya.

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