This research paper is stage 2 of a PhD study concerned with the design, implementation and evaluation of a systems informed model of positive education for developing Irish primary schools. The conceptual framework will be informed by data collected from multiple stakeholders involved in developing schools and includes the perspectives of principals, teachers, students and parents.

Wellbeing in school starts with the staff. They are in the front line of the work and it is hard for them to be genuinely motivated to promote emotional and social wellbeing of others if they feel uncared for and burnt out themselves (Weare 2015 as cited by NCCA 2017, p. 29). Despite this, Sharrocks (2014), noted that is a dearth of research which focuses upon teacher wellbeing.

Research by the Morgan and Nic Chraith (2015), noted that the vast majority of teachers took the view that teaching has become more stressful in the previous five years and over 93% of respondents thought that the work had become more demanding. Factors that contributed to this increase in stress included the greater need for documentation and school improvement plans, the demand on schools to solve problems of concern in society. This was considered an important influence in making teaching more challenging and stressful. As a result, catering for individual differences was also significant as was the number of children with behaviour difficulties in classrooms. Teacher wellbeing has subsequently suffered following the gloab pandemic with Burke and Dempsey (2021) noting that seven out of 10 of teachers reported feeling more stress and six out of 10 reported a decline in wellbeing during the first six months of the pandemic. 

As a result, the purpose of this study is to unravel the experience of wellbeing of teachers in developing schools (*a developing school in this study is a school that has been set up since 2013), using Actor Network Theory (ANT). ANT posits that ideas, practices and ‘facts’ are effects of heterogeneous webs of relations between actors, or ‘assemblages’, a notion similar to Deleuze’s ‘agencement’ (Law, 2008). ANT is used in this research to identify how practices, assemblages, and webs of relationships human and non-human things impact on the wellbeing of new school principals. Furthermore, ANT is used to identify ‘problematisations’ or challenges to teacher wellbeing in developing schools. 

Consequently, the key research questions of this research are:

• What does wellbeing mean to developing school teachers from the perspective of both school wellbeing and personal wellbeing?
• How do professional and personal relationships impact on teacher wellbeing in developing schools?
• What wellbeing structures or supports are available to teachers in developing schools. 
• What wellbeing practices are in operation in developing schools?
• What links exist  between wellbeing and the ingrained structures within the education system?
• What are the challenges  or concerns that teachers experience and the ‘things’ or actors that enable or hinder wellbeing?

A series of 4 focus group interviews, lasting approximately 45 minutes, were conducted in February 2022, with developing (new) school teachers (n=22) online via Microsoft Teams. Participating school teachers worked across a diverse range of communities in Ireland, and included Newly Qualified Teachers, (NQTs) and experienced teachers. Qualitative data from focus groups were transcribed and emergent themes were identified using ANT. In order to understand how social actions shape wellbeing, this research adopted a number of phases as a roadmap. The phases listed below (adapted from McBride, 2000) outline the precise research methodology applied in this study. • Identify the actors: Comprise of human or non-human actors which influence or become influenced by other actor’s policies and practices. • Investigate the actors: Understanding the character of the stakeholders through interviews with network representatives, accessing documentation, understanding their attitudes, interactions, interests, etc. • Identify actor interactions (‘Follow the Actors): Tracing interactions between stakeholders to explore the level of influence between stakeholders (e.g. trust and control). • Construct an actor network model: Construct an actor-network model to determine for example, the networks complexity, cohesion, strength, and influence. Examine irreversibility: Determine to what degree it is difficult to make a change, e.g. through understanding the culture and the nature of acceptance in the network. • Source of inhibitors and enablers: Determine who enables and inhibits actions to shape wellbeing and the network under investigation, e.g. wellbeing attitudes, resistance, or network infrastructure. • Tracing actions: Identify what activities led to the alignment of the actor network, for example, training. • Reporting on the actor-network: Report on the overall nature of the network and explain how social actions shapes wellbeing within the network. This process allowed for themes, or as Latour (2005) would refer to as problematisations to initially emerge from the data and in turn, for the theoretical concepts to shape the themes.

Our study highlighted a number of enablers and inhibitors to wellbeing for teachers in developing schools. Relationships were the largest enabler of wellbeing of those interviewed. Schools with formal mentoring for new teachers noted higher wellbeing outcomes. All respondents acknowledged how leadership in developing schools played a positive role in the development of a culture of wellbeing. Concern was noted by teachers interviewed for school leaders in developing schools for the lack of support afforded to them. The culture of developing schools was critical in the development of wellbeing. Respondents maintained that school culture had a higher impact on wellbeing than any individual or commercial wellbeing programmes. In terms of inhibitors, the physical environment was a key concern for teachers. Many developing schools are in temporary accommodation in substandard buildings which diminishes both a teachers sense of worth and sense of belonging in a school. Special Education Resources had a profound effect on the wellbeing of developing school teachers. There was also huge stress and occupational guilt associated with trying to meet the needs of children with complex educational needs that are not receiving specialist services like occupational therapy and speech and language therapy through the community system. In terms of tangible supports a number of recommendations have emerged. Formal mentoring/coaching as well as an introductory guidance document to support new teachers in developing schools was noted to be beneficial to wellbeing. Some teachers spoke of how clinical supervision was in place which also benefited staff wellbeing. All teachers interviewed agreed the role of teaching principal hindered wellbeing and needs to be overhauled. Likewise, developing schools should not be opened without the provision of adequate accommodation and adequate teaching allocations.

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