During last decades there has been a growing interest in investigating teachers’ well-being. According to Dodge et al. (2012), wellbeing is defined as the state in which individuals have the necessary social, physical, and psychological capabilities they rely on to cope with a specific physical, social, and psychological challenge. Teachers’ wellbeing is considered to be inextricably linked to their educational effectiveness and the educational process as a whole. However, the meaning of wellbeing at work is often confused with occupational satisfaction and most of the research carried out focuses on this direction.

The purpose of this proposal is to study the primary education teachers’ perceptions regarding their wellbeing at work. Specifically, an attempt is made to study the teachers’ social and emotional wellbeing in their professional field. Social wellbeing refers to the supportive and collaborative teachers’ relationships within the context of the occupational environment. It also concerns the ability to express and manage concerns, personal perceptions, etc. parameters that affect 'school policy' or decision-making. For example, if teachers have created a bad relationship with their students or with their students’ parents, this condition will affect their social wellbeing negatively. Also, a bad or a good support from the school leadership will affect negatively or positively, respectively, the teachers’ social wellbeing.

Emotional wellbeing is defined as teachers' ability to manage their emotions. In fact, their efficiency is related to the successful management of their emotional reactions to both the behaviors of their students and other factors that are sources of stress. Difficulties in communication, lack of support, interpersonal relationships with colleagues, etc. are some examples of stress sources. In cases where teachers’ emotional wellbeing is reduced or non-existent, then they become distant and/or alienated from their teaching activities and lead to emotional exhaustion. Teachers’ emotional wellbeing is a priority for effective teaching, since there is no reason to study the students’ emotional health if teachers’ emotional wellbeing is not studied.

This proposal aims to study primary school teachers’ wellbeing, deploying the teachers’ perspectives. The results of the research are expected to elucidate the way primary school teachers' wellbeing is conceptualized and its effects on their work. Their wellbeing is not only their responsibility, but a collective responsibility that concerns all those involved in the workplace and is the key to the teachers’ progress and the school unit.

What do primary school teachers know about the concept and content of wellbeing at work? What level of wellbeing at work is considered ideal? What do primary school teachers know about social wellbeing? What do primary teachers know about emotional wellbeing? How social and emotional wellbeing relates to wellbeing at work? How is the primary school teachers’ wellbeing at work supported? With which suggestions do primary school teachers agree for improving wellbeing at work? Those are some of the questions that this research tries to answer.

The methodology of the present research was based on bibliographical and research data. Specifically, in the first part of the research, short bibliographic research was attempted. Through this bibliographic study, useful data were extracted for teachers’ wellbeing at work. However, it appears that the wellbeing of primary school teachers has not been sufficiently studied. The researchers then followed up with a quantitative survey, with a sample of 103 primary school teachers, all of whom were female. All of them worked on the island of Rhodes, during the academic year 2022-2023. The research data collection tool was a questionnaire of 25 questions, which was sent by e-mail and which they completed after they were informed of the purpose of the research and were assured of their anonymity. The first five questions were about the demographics data of the survey. The next five questions sought to elicit useful information about teachers' views for their wellbeing at work. The answers to these five questions were closed-ended, namely, the teachers had to answer the specific options that were given in the questionnaire. The next 15 questions were answered according to the Likert scale and more specifically, questions 10-14 concerned the teachers' views on social wellbeing, questions 15-19 their views on emotional well-being and questions 20-25 their views for the improvement suggestions presented to them in the questionnaire. Then, after all the questionnaires were collected, the researchers statistically processed the data. The use of a structured questionnaire with specific options for response and the use of a Likert scale allowed the researchers to enter the data they collected into the SPSS statistical program. In this way, quantitative data were extracted using different graphs for each question of the questionnaire. Specifically, after extracting the graphs for the demographic data of the survey and the teachers' opinions about their wellbeing at work, graphs were also extracted for the teachers' opinions regarding their social and emotional wellbeing in their work environment.

Within the educational environment there are several factors, such as gender, age, nationality, etc. which affect teachers' wellbeing levels. Supporting the primary education teachers’ social and emotional wellbeing is the key to enhance and sustain the pedagogical outcomes produced by teachers. The main purpose of this research was to explore teachers' own perceptions of their wellbeing at work, focusing mainly on their views on social and emotional wellbeing in their workplace. The results of the research are expected to highlight the importance of teachers' wellbeing, specifically their social and emotional wellbeing. Therefore, when primary school teachers are characterized by high levels of wellbeing, then the overall performance of school units will also improve, since they will experience positive emotions, develop healthy interpersonal relationships and improve themselves. The study of primary education teachers’ social and emotional wellbeing in their workplace will contribute to the cultivation of their personal and professional development. Mainly, it will enable the formulation of permanent solutions to begin a continuous search to establish ways to develop, improve and manage their overall wellbeing. In this way, all the necessary conditions will be created for changes and the implementation of innovations in the educational process.

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