Leader Practice and Connection: Effects on Teacher Identity and Well-Being

Leader Practice and Connection: Effects on Teacher Identity and Well-Being

The role and profession of teacher is often one that is thankless and unrelenting; a daily list of lessons, behaviour management, reporting, differentiating, parent demands, standardised testing…and the list continues. School principals and their executive members should understand the need to support and encourage their teaching staff to ensure they feel valued and have the emotional intelligence to teach their classes well, giving their best selves to their students. This qualitative case study of Christian schools in Queensland, Australia, explores and examines the practices and connections made by principals and school executive staff to their teachers and the impact these practices and connections have on teacher identity and well-being. Using thematic analysis, the responses from interviews conducted with principals, executive staff and teachers has been examined and discussed, within the themes of belief, relationships, well-being, support and identity. The findings are wide-ranging, presenting how teachers feel about the efforts of their school leaders to connect, and how they feel about themselves. The recommendations provide guidance to schools (and to other ‘people professions’) on how to improve their workplaces and interpersonal relationships in order to best support and build a sustainable and emotionally-secure workplace.

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