Sticky Objects and Positive Emotions: researching teacher well-being and resilience

Watch a recording of our webinar from 9 December 2020 about teacher wellbeing and resilience.

About the webinar

Teaching is an emotional business. Sadly, many of us are familiar with the stresses and anxieties of second language learning and teaching. In contrast, positive emotions and sources of enjoyment in teaching are less likely to be considered or researched. This webinar presents findings from research on EAP teachers’ positive emotions within their daily lives. Frameworks from Positive Psychology, Exploratory Practice, and ‘sticky objects’ (objects that attract and retain emotional resonances) were used in order to better understand the lived experiences of EAP teachers in two contexts (the UK and Saudi Arabia).

In the later part of the webinar we present some suggestions for ways in which teachers can support their own well-being, work with their institutions to become more ‘positive’ places of work, and consider how teacher education can more helpfully include a concern for the emotional aspects of teaching.

Date: 09 December 2020

Watch a recording of the webinar below

Watch the recording with subtitles

About the speakers

Siân Etherington works in the University of Salford, UK as an academic developer, having recently moved from her role as a lecturer in TESOL in the same institution. Her research interests are in the psychology of teaching and learning, and particularly the role of emotion within these activities.

Judith Hanks is Associate Professor at the School of Education, University of Leeds, UK. Her research interests lie in the areas of Exploratory Practice (a form of fully inclusive practitioner research), intercultural issues in SLA and EAP, teacher education and CPD. 

Read the research paper

Sticky objects and pathways to well-being and resilience: teacher understandings of and practices in positive psychology in their classrooms

 

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