Research Summary: Organisational conditions for educator wellbeing and sustainable teaching

Current approaches to educator wellbeing frequently prioritize individual coping mechanisms, resilience, and stress management, despite a broad understanding that wellbeing is a multifaceted construct influenced by personal experiences, workplace relationships, organizational structures, and wider systemic factors. This analysis highlights the need for systemic perspectives to foster more sustainable teaching environments, integrating insights from teacher wellbeing, emotional labour, workplace inclusion, psychological safety, and professional agency.

Why it matters

Addressing educator wellbeing through systemic and organizational lenses, rather than solely individual resilience, is critical for fostering sustainable teaching practices and ensuring the long-term health of educational institutions. This shift impacts talent retention, educational quality, and the overall stability of the workforce. It necessitates a re-evaluation of how work environments are designed and supported to promote professional longevity and effectiveness.

Key insights

• Educator wellbeing is a complex, multidimensional phenomenon influenced by individual, relational, organizational, and systemic factors.
• Current interventions predominantly focus on individual coping strategies, overlooking broader structural and support mechanisms.
• Sustainable teaching requires a shift towards systemic understandings of wellbeing, addressing how work is organized and supported.
• The research synthesizes scholarship on teacher wellbeing, emotional labour, workplace inclusion, psychological safety, and professional agency to develop propositions for systemic improvements.

Source

Frontiers in Education — https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feduc.2026.1966290