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Identity, well-being and effectiveness: the emotional contexts of teaching

Christopher Day* and Alison Kington
School of Education, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK

(Received 27 October 2006; final version received 11 September 2007)
Taylor and Francis Ltd
RPCS_A_287943.sgm
This paper draws on findings from a four-year longitudinal research project, commissioned by
Pedagogy,
10.1080/14681360701877743
1468-1366
Original
Taylor
102008
16
christopher.day@nottingham.ac.uk
ChristopherDay
00000March
&Article
Francis
Culture
(print)/1747-5104
2008and Society(online)
the Department for Education and Skills (DfES), which investigated Variations in Teachers’
Work, Lives and Effectiveness (VITAE). Drawing on data gathered from 300 teachers
working in 100 primary and secondary schools in England, the research identified associations
between commitment and effectiveness (perceived and in terms of pupil attainment) and found
that there were more, and less, effective teachers in each of six professional life phases.
It found that teachers in each of these phases experienced a number of different scenarios that
challenged their abilities to sustain their commitment (i.e. remain resilient). This paper
discusses how these impact, positively and negatively, on teachers’ capacities for sustaining
their initial commitment and associations between identity, well-being and effectiveness.
It finds that teacher identities are neither intrinsically stable nor intrinsically fragmented, but
that they can be more, or less, stable and more or less fragmented at different times and in
different ways according to the influence of the interaction of a number of personal,
professional and situated factors. The extent to which teachers are able to and are supported in
managing the scenarios they experience will determine their sense of effectiveness.
Keywords: identity; effectiveness; emotions; well-being; commitment
Introduction
This paper discusses teachers’ identities in the context of a national mixed-methods research
project carried out between 2001 and 2006 with 300 teachers in 100 primary and secondary
schools in England. Previous research on teachers’ work and lives, though valuable, has tended
to be over a short period of time and limited to small-scale qualitative studies or large-scale
surveys. It has not, therefore, been able to provide a holistic view of the variations that are inev-
itable within teachers’ professional and personal lives over the course of their teaching career.
The VITAE study found significant associations between professional life phases,1 commitment,
resilience and effectiveness and teacher identity (Day et al. 2006a, 2006b).
Over the last 20 years, there have been a number of key educational policy changes aimed at
improving standards of school governance, teaching, learning and achievement that have had an
influence on the contexts in which teachers work. Starting in 1988 with the Education Reform
Act, successive governments have introduced a range of initiatives aimed at raising standards of
literacy, numeracy and overall student results. A national curriculum was introduced by the
Conservative government of the time, involving a structured national assessment at the end of
Key Stages, which were associated with both primary and secondary phases of schooling. The
assessment occurs when children reach the end of Key Stage 1 (7 years of age), 2 (11 years of
age), and 3 (14 years of age). In 1993, the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) was created
*Corresponding author. Email: christopher.day@nottingham.ac.uk
ISSN 1468-1366 print/ISSN 1747-5104 online

© 2008 Pedagogy, Culture & Society
DOI: 10.1080/14681360701877743
http://www.informaworld.com
8 C. Day and A. Kington
to monitor and evaluate the quality of teaching in all subject areas in schools through independent,
external, regular inspections. This led to the identification of some schools which, according to
the Ofsted inspection criteria, were ‘failing’. In other words, schools have become subject to
demands for more transparency and accountability. These have led to an increase in bureaucracy
such that teachers’ work has become more intensified and their roles more diverse (Osborn et al.
1996; Ball 1994). To this standards agenda was added a concern for social justice. This became
a major focus for the incoming Labour government, in 1997, especially in relation to inclusion of
students from disadvantaged backgrounds. However, this emphasis on equity in schooling was
adopted alongside previously implemented policies on national assessment, local management of
schools and published national results. In 1998/9, National Literacy and Numeracy strategies
were introduced in primary and secondary schools (Key Stages 1, 2 and 3) in order to raise student
achievement in these areas. Although positively received by the teaching profession in general,
one of the criticisms of this and the previous initiatives is that they have led to increased workload
pressures on teachers and have continued to focus on raising standards rather than giving consid-
eration to the changing conditions in which teachers work (Day et al. 2007).
Change affects not only teachers’ work, but also how teachers feel about their work. There is
an unavoidable interrelationship between cognitive and emotional identities, if only because the
overwhelming evidence is that teaching demands significant personal investment of these:
[T]he ways in which teachers form their professional identities are influenced both by how they feel
about themselves and how they feel about their students. This professional identity helps them to
position or situate themselves in relation to their students and to make appropriate and effective
adjustments in their practice and their beliefs about and engagement with students. (James-Wilson
2001, 29)
Several researchers (Nias 1989, 1996; Hargreaves 1994; Sumsion 2002) have noted that teacher
identities are constructed not only from technical and emotional aspects of teaching (i.e. class-
room management, subject knowledge and pupil test results) and their personal lives, but also ‘as
the result of an interaction between the personal experiences of teachers and the social, cultural,
and institutional environment in which they function on a daily basis’ (Sleegers and Kelchtermans
1999, 579).
Emotions play a key role in the construction of identity (Zembylas 2003). They are the neces-
sary link between the social structures in which teachers work and the ways they act:
[E]motion is a necessary link between social structures and social actor. The connection is never
mechanical because emotions are normally not compelling but inclining. But without the emotions
category, accounts of situated actions would be fragmentary and incomplete. Emotion is provoked
by circumstance and is experienced as transformation of dispositions to act. It is through the
subject’s active exchange with others that emotional experience is both stimulated in the actor and
orienting of their conduct. Emotion is directly implicated in the actor’s transformation of their
circumstances, as well as the circumstances’ transformation of the actor’s disposition to act.
(Barbalet 2002, 4)
Teachers (and their students) experience an array of sometimes contrasting emotions in the class-
room. In a review of empirical research, Sutton (2000) found that love (as a social relationship)
and care, surprise and joy, anger, sadness and fear, excitement and pleasure in students’ progress
and achievements are among the most commonly cited emotions. Thus it is not surprising that,
because of their emotional investments, teachers can experience vulnerabilities when control of
long-held principles and practices is challenged by policy changes or new expectations for stan-
dards, when their moral integrity is questioned, or when trust and respect from parents, the public
and their students is eroded (Kelchtermans 1996).
Instabilities, whether of a personal, professional or situated nature or a combination of these,
create stresses in the emotional fabric of identity. Teachers need to be resilient and to be supported
Pedagogy, Culture & Society 9
emotionally during these periods in order that these may be managed in ways that build or sustain
positive identities and existing effectiveness.2
Research, then, into teacher identities is important as a means of furthering understandings of
the job of teaching and what it means to be a teacher in different policy and personal contexts and
different times. It is also important to consider, in contexts of intensive and persistent changes in
expectations, working conditions and practices, that teachers’ emotional commitments to their
work may be affected due to the ways, and extent to which, reforms are received, adopted,
adapted and sustained (or not sustained). This may be further influenced by the extent to which
they challenge existing identities. In other words, existing identities may become what MacLure
(1993, 312) has described as ‘a continuing site of struggle’. The paper focuses upon the identifi-
cation of different life and work scenarios with which teachers are likely to engage in each phase
of their working lives. Importantly, building upon a previous hypothesis of relationships between
variations in teachers’ work and lives, their identities and effectiveness (Figure 1), it finds empir-
ical associations between teachers’ positive and negative sense of identity, the ways in which
these impact upon their sense of agency, well-being and job satisfaction, and their perceptions of
effectiveness.
Professional identity should not be confused with role. Identity is the way we make sense of
Figure 1. Relationships between variations and effectiveness.
ourselves to ourselves and the image of ourselves that we present to others. It is culturally
embedded. There is an unavoidable interrelationship, also, between the professional and the
personal. In much educational literature it is recognised that the broader social conditions in
which teachers live and work, the emotional contexts, and the personal and professional
elements of teachers’ lives, experiences, beliefs and practices are integral to one another, and that
there are often tensions between these which impact to a greater or lesser extent upon teachers’
sense of self or identity. Previous research has either suggested that identity is stable (Nias 1989),
affected by work contexts (Beijaard 1995) or fragmented (MacLure 1993). The research finds
that identities are neither intrinsically stable nor intrinsically fragmented, but that they can be
more or less stable depending upon the capacities of teachers to manage their identities within a
number of scenarios. It has been suggested in previous small-scale, short-term, snapshot studies
of teachers, usually experiencing extreme circumstances (for example, Troman and Woods

Figure 1. Relationships between variations and effectiveness.
2001; Stronach et al. 2002) that they lead lives of stability and instability at the same time.
However, in analysing teachers’ responses to different scenarios over a three-year period, it
became apparent that teachers themselves did not perceive this to be the case; and that, whilst
there were undoubtedly tensions caused by the relative dominance of one or more key dimen-
sions, many teachers were able to manage these and thus maintain stability within what from the
outside seemed to be, and were, unstable environments.3 Their ‘effectiveness-related’ identities
were, therefore, more or less fragmented at different times and in different ways according to the
influence of the interaction of a number of professional, situated and personal factors, and teach-
ers’ ability to manage these.
Research design
The data presented in this paper were generated via two in-depth interviews with a total of
295 primary and secondary teachers in each of three years of data collection (autumn 2002 to
summer 2005), as well as teacher-generated ‘effectiveness’ histories collected by means of a
‘critical incident’ workline. The primary school sample comprised 143 female teachers (90%)
and 16 male teachers (10%). They were fairly equally distributed between the four free school
meal groups of schools. Pupils’ free school meals (FSM) were used as indicators of the relative
advantage/disadvantage of school teaching and learning contexts.4 The highest proportion of
teachers (28%) was in the 8–15 professional life phase (that is, they had been teaching for
between 8 and 15 years), followed by 20% of teachers in both the 4–7 and 24–30 phases. The
secondary teacher sample comprised 86 female teachers (63%) and 50 male teachers (37%).
One third of these teachers were working in FSM 2 schools and only 17 per cent worked in
FSM 3 schools. Half of the secondary teachers in the sample were in the 4–7 (27%) or 8–15
(23%) professional life phases.
Individual profiles created for each teacher were used to identify relevant data regarding
teacher motivation, commitment, self-efficacy and well-being. These data, in addition to the vari-
ous professional, situated and personal factors reported by teachers as having a positive or nega-
tive influence on their effectiveness, were classified and placed into a data matrix (Miles and
Huberman 1994). At individual teacher level, this matrix qualitatively displayed personal and
school factors (i.e. professional life phase, gender, school phase, etc), as well as data and analysis
regarding dominant dimensions and scenarios. In addition, further judgements5 were made
regarding the level of resilience or vulnerability teachers were demonstrating within the scenar-
ios. This approach of a combined analysis on statistical and descriptive data allowed connections
and patterns to be identified and explored.
Once compiled, judgements were made for each teacher, based on the interview data, as to
which dimension or dimensions needed a greater amount of time and attention from the teacher
at a given time. The dimension(s) identified, based on the degree of dominance, was the primary
indicator for which scenario a teacher was experiencing. The research found that teachers expe-
rience a number of positive and negative life and work scenarios that interact and which poten-
tially may disturb the equilibrium of three key dimensions of identity – the professional, the
situated, and the personal – and thus impact upon the teachers’ resilience/vulnerability and their
ability to sustain commitment. Teacher interviews were also analysed and coded, at document
level, using NVivo.6 This allowed the identification of influences, dominant dimensions and
possible scenarios. This process allowed an inter-rating level to be established on the individual
teacher judgements,7 and also gave useful insights into how the development of the data matrix
could be improved so as not to lose focus of the ‘whole teacher’ in the need to reduce data into
positives and negatives. Once research judgements had been made, teachers were asked to place
themselves in a scenario as a means of teacher verification of researcher judgements.
Dimensions of identity
Our research suggests that identity itself is a composite consisting of interactions between
personal, professional and situational factors. Each composite identity is made up of sub- or
competing identities:
(1) Professional identity. The professional dimension reflects social and policy expectations
of what a good teacher is and the educational ideals of the teacher. It is open to the influ-
ence of long-term policy and social trends as to what constitutes a good teacher, class-
room practitioner, etc. It could have a number of competing and conflicting elements such
as local or national policy, continued professional development (CPD), workload, roles
and responsibilities, etc.
(2) Situated or socially located identity within a specified school, department or classroom.
The situated dimension is located in a specific school and context and is affected by local
conditions (i.e. pupil behaviour, level of disadvantage), leadership, support and feedback.
It is affected by pupils, support and feedback loops from teachers’ immediate working
context, and is connected to long-term identity.
(3) Personal identity. The personal dimension is located in life outside school and is linked
to family and social roles. This dimension of identity could involve various competing
elements such as being a father, son, partner, etc. Feedback comes from family and
friends, and they often become sources of tension as the individual’s sense of identity can
become out of step.
We found that teachers may experience tensions within and between these three dimensions at
any given time and that each dimension of identity is subject to a number of positive and negative
influences. The strength of teachers’ commitment, job satisfaction, well-being, self-efficacy and
vulnerability, agency and resilience, and perceptions of effectiveness will be affected but not
necessarily determined by these influences, for each of these may be mediated by teachers’ strong
sense of vocation/moral purpose/values and the interaction between these and their working envi-
ronment. Any one (or more) of these three dimensions of identity may, however, at a particular
time and/or in particular scenarios, become dominant, thus challenging the relative stability of
existing identities. Managing such new (or persisting) instabilities and tensions will require addi-
tional time and emotional energy from the teacher, and this may affect their sense of commitment,
job satisfaction, well-being, agency and effectiveness. Instability is not necessarily negative.
It can stimulate a reevaluation of current thinking and practices that may no longer be the most
effective in the work situation. For example, a teacher who moves schools or takes a new role will
inevitably experience a period of instability, as will a teacher who has to learn new knowledge
about teaching or adopt new teaching, monitoring and/or assessment strategies.
Scenarios that challenge identity

Four scenarios were identified: dimensions in relative balance, one dominant dimension, two
dominant dimensions, and three conflicting dimensions. These were identified by the degree of
dominance that each of these dimensions exercised on aspects of teachers’ existing identities.
Teachers, once in a particular scenario, were able to be grouped into one of four identity ‘states’:
stable positive or negative and unstable positive or negative. The extent to which the scenarios
were managed depended in part upon the level of disturbance or fluctuation and in part upon the
combination of internal influences (e.g. strength of personal values) and external influences (e.g.
school leadership, teacher–pupil relationships, pupil behaviour, colleague support, home circum-
stances). We were able to plot variations between teachers and begin to identify ‘resilient’ and
‘vulnerable’ teachers based on their self-reported self-efficacy, motivation, job satisfaction and
Table 1. Number of teachers in each scenario.
Scenario Dimension Subgroups Total

Scenario 1 Dimensions in balance 102

Scenario 2 One dominant dimension Professional (n=46) Situated (n=57) Personal (n=28) 131
Scenario 3 Two dominant Professional + situated Professional + Situated + 44
dimensions (n=15) personal (n=16) personal (n=13)
Scenario 4 Three conflicting 18
dimensions
295
commitment, which in turn related to teachers’ values, experiences, school cultures and personal
lives.
Teacher identity scenarios: key characteristics and influences

Teachers were grouped into one of the four scenarios on the basis of the degree of dominance of
a particular influence (or combination of influences). Table 1 shows the number of teachers in
each of the four scenario groups. Analyses of the key features of teachers’ professional life
phases, school context, perceived effectiveness, motivation, commitment and self-efficacy
revealed dominant patterns that characterised each scenario. Each scenario comprised teachers
who were resilient (i.e. were sustaining their commitment) and those who were vulnerable (i.e.
were either sustaining their commitment despite the scenario, or failing to sustain it).
For the purposes of this paper, only the dominant features in each scenario are summarised.
Key excerpts from teacher cameos, including a combination of data from the teacher question-
naire, teacher interviews, and ‘worklines’, are used to illustrate key aspects of each scenario
group, highlighting patterns between various characteristics.
Scenario 1
Figure 2 shows an identity that is stable, with the three dimensions being held in balance. Thus,
although there would be mild fluctuations within and between these from time to time, no action
would need to be taken unless stability is negative, for example if professional complacency were
resulting in continuing ineffectiveness.
Identity becomes unstable when one or more dimension is disturbed by internal or external
Figure 2. Scenario 1: dimensions in relative balance
events (such as personal crises, policy changes, pupil changes, school changes). Then additional
effort would need to be made by the individual in order to manage the imbalance, if possible
restore the balance, or construct a new sense of identity.
Thirty-five per cent (n=102) of all teachers were in this scenario. Primary school teachers
made up over half of this group (58%). The largest proportion of teachers were from FSM 1 and
FSM 2 schools (62%) and the smallest (38%) from FSM 3 and FSM 4 schools.
One of the main characteristic of this group of teachers was their high level of motivation and
commitment, as illustrated by the following quotations:
I feel that I’m more committed and motivated than ever now that I have more time to spend on my
work. Before, I had to split my time between work and children. (Brenda)
I love working with children now as much as I did when I first started teaching. I can’t imagine doing
anything else. (Martin)
Teachers experiencing Scenario 1 were also more likely to be positive about their well-being and
work-life balance, as Anna’s story illustrates:
Structure

Personal
Structure Professional Situated Structure
Structure
Figure 2. Scenario 1: dimensions in relative balance.
Anna’s story: Positive well-being and work–life balance

Anna was in her 20s and a Year 9 maths teacher. She had taught for four years, all in the same
school – an urban moderate socioeconomic status (FSM 2) 11–16 mixed comprehensive school
of 750 pupils. She was originally attracted to teaching because she thought it was ‘a valuable
career’ (teacher interview). According to the OFSTED report (2002), this is ‘an excellent
school, in which very good teaching and first-rate leadership and management enable pupils
to make very good progress’.
Anna’s husband had recently become a qualified teacher. She thought that this enabled him to
fully understand what she experienced at work – ‘it really helps when I’ve had a hard day’
(teacher interview). This had a major impact on her sense of well-being and work–life balance
because, together, they developed a routine, separating work and home time, in order for them
to have time together and not be working every night of the week once they left school. Anna
reported that they both kept certain nights and weekends free of work and this had helped her
to improve her organisation both at school and in her personal life.
Teachers in this scenario were identified as either a) likely to remain in teaching, or b) at risk
of leaving the teaching profession because the stability they were experiencing was negative.
In common with 86% (n=91) of teachers in this scenario, Anna demonstrated a strong sense of
well-being and agency and so, emotionally, was not at risk of leaving her post. Moreover, she
envisaged herself teaching for many more years. However, 21 (21% of 102) teachers experi-
encing Scenario 1 were emotionally vulnerable and at risk. These teachers were less likely
than their resilient colleagues to be positive regarding their well-being and the balance they
Table 2. Key features of Scenario 1.
Scenario 1 Positive Negative

Professional ● Promotion ● Policy changes

● Continued professional development ● Workload
Situated ● Supportive leadership ● Pupil behaviour (lack of respect)

● Supportive colleagues ● Unsupportive leadership from senior
management team
● Teamwork ● Inadequate discipline procedures
● Pupil relationships ● Personal/family illness
Personal ● Family/friend support ● No family support

● Few home commitments
● Life events
managed to achieve between the pressures of work and home life, tensions between teacher
and manager roles, reduced social life, and difficulties in managing teacher, mother and wife
roles.
Scenario 2
This scenario comprised teachers where one of the three dimensions of identity dominates,
distorting one or both of the other dimensions. It was likely that, in this situation, fluctuations
Structure
One dimension of identity
dominates, distorting others; e.g.,
situated. Fluctuations may be
managed in the short term,
depending upon internal and
external factors (e.g. self-efficacy,
support from home/colleagues)
Personal
Structure Professional Situated Structure
Structure
Figure 3. Scenario 2: one dominant dimension.

Professional ● Promotion/additional role ● Increased workload

● Departmental/school support ● External policies (assessment/marking)
● Motivated colleagues/pupils ● Pupil behaviour (lack of respect)
Situated ● Teamwork ● Lack of parental support
● Pupil behaviour ● Poor in-school communication
Personal ● Life events (relationships/health) ● Live events (illness/relationships)
could be managed in the short term, depending upon the level of teachers’ motivation, commit-
ment, self-efficacy, support from colleagues, and leadership.
There were a number of professional, situated and personal influences reported which
distorted the two remaining dimensions and needed managing in the short term (Table 3). Forty-
four per cent (n=74) of all primary teachers, and 40% (n=57) of all secondary teachers were in
this group. Nearly half (48%) of teachers in this group had been teaching for 4–15 years and were
in the 4–7 (identity and efficacy in the classroom) and 8–15 (managing changes in their role and
identity) professional life phases. Over one third of teachers (35%, n=46) experiencing this
scenario taught in FSM 2 schools, whilst nearly one quarter (23%, n=31) of teachers taught in
FSM 4 schools.
Although this was a fairly stable scenario, there were a number of teachers who were either
Figure 3. Scenario 2: one dominant dimension.
a) emotionally resilient but had a weak sense of agency (45%; n=38), or b) emotionally vulnerable
but demonstrated a strong sense of agency (24%; n=11). These teachers were subjugating one or
more dimension to accommodate the needs of the other(s), accepting (the imbalance) or tolerating
(the imbalance to the system caused by new circumstances).
Although 52% (n=68) of the teachers in this group were more likely to be negative regarding
their well-being and management of work-life tensions, as in Scenario 1, teachers in Scenario 2
tended to be highly motivated, as Carmelle’s story demonstrates.
Carmelle’s story: Highly motivated (dominant situated dimension)

Carmelle was 51 years old and had been teaching for 29 years. In addition to being a Year
2 teacher in a village school, Carmelle was also the coordinator for maths, assessment and Key
Stage One. There were nearly 250 pupils on roll, drawn from a wide range of backgrounds.
An average proportion of pupils were eligible for free school meals (FSM2). She was origi-
nally attracted to teaching because of the opportunity to work with children and to help to
make a difference in their lives.
Carmelle reported that the former head teacher of the school had not been supportive and the
way he spoke to the staff had been ‘dreadful’ (teacher interview). Carmelle had not been
happy with the amount of pressure the previous head teacher had put onto her and, as a result,
her level of motivation had started to decrease (situated). However, the school had recently
gained a new head teacher, which Carmelle saw as a positive influence on her work. She said
that this had allowed her to reintroduce play into the KS1 curriculum and she felt that the new,
positive interaction with the leadership was very important to her. Carmelle reported that, as a
result of this change in the working context, staff had started to work more collaboratively and
relationships between members of staff had become more supportive, restoring her high level
of motivation for her work.
Two dimensions of identity

dominate, distorting others; e.g.,
personal and situated. Fluctuations
Structure may be managed in the short term,

depending upon internal and
external factors (e.g. self-efficacy,
support from home/colleagues)
Personal
Structure Structure
Professional
Situated
Structure
Figure 4. Scenario 3: two dominant dimensions.
Scenario 3
This scenario included teachers where two of the three dimensions of identity dominated, putting
pressure on the other dimension.
There were 44 (15% of 295) teachers in this group. There were a number of professional, situ-
Figure 4. Scenario 3: two dominant dimensions.
ated and personal influences reported by this group (Table 4).

Of the 44 teachers experiencing this scenario, the majority were female (75%, n=33). Secondary
teachers made up over half of the numbers in this scenario (59%) and, as a proportion of the total
Professional ● Ambition ● Unsuccessful promotion

● Career advancement tension between roles
● New role ● Increased workload
Situated ● Teamwork ● Drop in school roll
● Staff morale ● Lack of teamwork
● Support from leadership ● Building work
● Pupil motivation ● Lack of enthusiasm
● Pupil relationships ● Challenging behaviour
● Pupil self-esteem ● Disaffected attitude
● New leadership
Personal ● Becoming a parent ● Personal illness
● New relationship ● Family illness
● Buying a house ● Bereavement
● Financial worries
● Breakdown of relationship
number of teachers, represented 18% as against 11% primary. In terms of FSM, there was an even
spread. Charlie was a teacher who was being positively influenced professionally, but who was
experiencing a negative situated dimension.
Charlie’s story: Negative work–life balance (dominant professional and situated dimensions)
Charlie was 31 years old with eight years’ teaching experience, some of which had been in
secondary and adult education. Yet he achieved his first primary headship in April 2003 – ‘It’s
my first headship and I’m finding it really difficult’ (teacher interview). In spite of enjoying
the new challenge of headship (professional), Charlie was frustrated by the fact that his lead-
ership/management role was distracting him from his teaching. He described this time as the
lowest point in his career.
In addition, the school roll was falling, and several established members of staff were showing
resentment towards changes Charlie was implementing in the school (situated). Both of these
issues were having a negative influence on his personal life, as he was having little time to
spend with his wife and children.
During the project, the situated dimension began to improve as he established himself in the school,
especially in relation to staff relationships. However, the dimension remained dominant to him
as he continued to focus his efforts on implementing new structures and processes in the school.
Like Charlie, 70% (n=31) of teachers in this group, unsurprisingly given the fluctuations, were
more likely to be negative with regard to their well-being and work-life balance:
I’ve had to take some time off because it got too much; the teaching, workload, marking and my
management role. (Mary)
Work does hinder my home life because I end up working most weekends and several nights in the
week. I have no energy to do other things. (Michelle)
Unlike the majority of teachers in this scenario, who were emotionally vulnerable (52%; n=23),
Jeremy demonstrated a strong sense of agency and emotional resilience. In spite of the increasing
pressures on well-being, teachers demonstrating emotional resilience in this scenario were likely
to be sustaining their levels of motivation (76%; n=16), commitment (90%; n=19) and self-efficacy
(62%; n=13). Jeremy’s story illustrates this:
Jeremy’s story: High motivation, commitment and self-efficacy (dominant situated and
personal dimensions)
Jeremy was 54 years old and had been teaching for 33 years. He enjoyed teaching because of
the success he had with the pupils and the department. Jeremy was committed to working with
children from impoverished home environments and identified himself strongly with them,
having high expectations. He had been diagnosed with high blood pressure and had tried to cut
down on the amount of time he spent working ‘after hours’. However, he continued to work
on Saturdays and even sometimes on Sundays.
Despite his ill-health in the final phase of his career, Jeremy had remained highly motivated
and committed to teaching and to his pupils. He was supported positively by the head teacher
and by the local authority, and felt that they had helped him in making improvements to the
maths department as well as to the school more generally. He had recently been invited to take
on additional responsibility (and, therefore, workload) as a member of the senior management
team (situated). Jeremy found that staff morale had had the biggest positive impact on his work.
Extreme fluctuations able/not

able to be managed,
depending on strength of
support from internal and/or
external factors
Structure
Personal
Structure I Structure
Professional Situated
Structure
Figure 5. Scenario 4: three conflicting dimensions.
However, his strategy was one of adjusting one or more component to the needs of the others,
whereas other resilient teachers in this group were more likely to maintain a balance between the
professional, situated and/or personal dimensions by engaging (with one or more components
with full commitment) and/or separating (one part of work or life from another).
Scenario 4
This Scenario comprised teachers where all three of the dimensions (professional, situated and
personal) were conflicting, causing extreme fluctuations in teacher identity. There were 18 (6%
of 295) teachers in this scenario group.
Unlike the previous groups, Scenario 4 involved extreme fluctuations that may or may not be
Figure 5. Scenario 4: three conflicting dimensions.
manageable depending on the strength of support from internal and external factors, and which
may result in the need for longer-term management.
The key influences in personal, situated and professional lives, such as workload, leadership,
pupil behaviour, family responsibilities and personal ill-health, were overwhelmingly negative.
Table 5. Key features in Scenario 4.
Professional ● Workload
Situated ● Leadership
● Pupil behaviour
Personal ● Family responsibilities
● Ill-health
Over one third (39%) of the 18 teachers in this scenario group were in the 8–15 professional life
phase. Nearly three quarters (72%; n=13) of the teachers taught in lower socioeconomic contexts
(FSM 3 and FSM 4) schools. This suggests that the experience of conflicting pressures may be
greater in more challenging contexts. An example of a teacher experiencing these conflicts is Eva
who, in spite of working in a school in challenging circumstances, manages to remain committed
to teaching.
Eva’s story: Highly committed (three conflicting dimensions)

Eva was in her 40s and had taught for nearly 25 years. She was a Year 6 teacher in an urban
moderate socioeconomic status (FSM3) primary school of 255 pupils. She was assistant head
teacher and maths coordinator. Eva had a difficult boy in her class in Year 1 of the project,
who played a ‘dynamic’ role in class (situated). She was very dissatisfied with the amount of
time she gave to behaviour management.
Eva felt that policies, either internally or externally developed, had negative influence on her
work, her effectiveness and her values (professional). This was particularly the case in her
early career phase. But she added that her attitude towards policies had changed. Seven years
ago, Eva had thought about leaving teaching because she felt that she had had enough with the
national policy overload.
Eva felt that her work encroached into her personal time. She wanted to spend more time look-
ing after her four children, but paperwork at home had taken time away from her own family
and she felt guilty about this. Eva’s health had suffered since Year 1 of the project, and she
was on anti-depressant tablets. This was a major consequence of the pace and weight of her
job, particularly the workload accrued from her multiple roles.
In spite of all this, Eva felt that teaching was part of who she was. Although she was worried
that her motivation had decreased over the years as ‘the job has become harder over the course
of the year’ and the ‘pressures are too great’ (teacher interview), she knew that her commit-
ment towards the job and the pupils had remained high.
The majority of teachers in this scenario were judged to be emotionally vulnerable or at risk. They
were likely to be less motivated. They were also using a wide range of strategies in order to cope
with the three dominant dimensions they were experiencing, including subjugating (one or more
component to accommodate the needs of the other(s)); tolerating (the imbalance to the system
caused by the new circumstances); resisting (any change); and separating (one part of work or life
from another).
Strategic management
The impact of the particular scenario upon motivation, self-efficacy, commitment, resilience,
well-being, job satisfaction and effectiveness related to a greater or lesser extent to a) whether the
dominant dimension had to be managed over a short, medium or long term (e.g. unsatisfactory
relationships in the classroom, staffroom or home); b) individual biography (i.e. the strength of
their values and aspirations, their emotional resilience/vulnerability to stress of different kinds,
and physical health); c) personal and professional support (e.g. leadership, colleagues, friends,
etc.); and d) sense of agency.
In all scenarios, we found a dynamic relationship between identity and agency (an individ-
ual’s ability to pursue the goals that s/he values), commitment, emotional resilience and effec-
tiveness (both perceived and measured). Agency, in relation to each identity scenario, is
concerned with teachers’ belief in their ability to a) manage each of the three dimensions and
the interaction between them; b) reconfigure themselves within them where necessary; c)
manage critical events that may threaten their stability or which need to be managed; and d)
live with contradictions, tensions and conflicts within and between these various dimensions,
while continuing to be effective in their workplace (i.e. maintain their commitment and
resilience).
In order to manage the balance (stability) or imbalance (instability) of different identity
scenarios, one or a combination of a number of the following strategies were adopted, consciously
or unconsciously, by teachers to deal with particular circumstances:
(1) Accommodating by adjusting one or more component to the needs of the others;
(2) Tolerating the imbalance to the system caused by the new circumstances;
(3) Subjugating one or more component to accommodate the needs of the other(s);
(4) Resisting any change;
(5) Reevaluating the nature of the existing composite identity;
(6) Accepting the imbalance positively;
(7) Separating one part of work or life from another;
(8) Engaging with one or more components with full commitment;
(9) Refocusing from one component to another;
(10) Adapting to the new situation in a positive way.
Although some of these strategies may appear to overlap, it was the teacher’s sense of agency and
identity that determined which particular approach was adopted. The majority of teachers (67%)
had a positive sense of identity. However, one in three teachers did not.
Variations in the identities of teachers: three mediating influences

Whilst individual teachers’ experience can be dominated (to varying degrees) in terms of profes-
sional, situated and personal influences, there are also a number of factors that either ‘support’ or
put additional ‘pressure’ on teachers. These factors play a significant role in how they manage
variations in their work and lives and, subsequently, how these variations impact on their profes-
sional identity. The analyses revealed that the interaction between these dimensions contributed
to teachers’ sense of commitment (manifestation of belief and motivation), agency (ability/
resolve to pursue one’s own goals), well-being and job satisfaction (sense of fulfilment and
achievement), and resilience (the ability of an individual to withstand or recover quickly from
difficult conditions related to self-efficacy).
Elements of work and life that either help or hinder the ongoing process of identity construc-
tion include teachers’ professional knowledge, their personal experiences, beliefs and values, the
‘micropolitics’ of the school setting and its pupils, and wider policy and sociocultural contexts.
1. Resilience and school socioeconomic contexts

The vast majority of teachers in the study (79% of 295; n=233) were experiencing either Scenario
1 (relative balance) or Scenario 2 (one dominant dimension), whereas only 21% (n=62) of the 295
teachers were experiencing Scenario 3 or 4. Teachers in Scenarios 1 and 2 were more likely to be
primary teachers (58% of 233; n=135), whereas in Scenario 3, teachers were more likely to teach
secondary phase (59% of 44; n=26). Teachers in Scenario 1 were also more likely to teach in FSM
1 and FSM 2 schools (62% of 133; n=144). This was also the case for those teachers in Scenario
2 (56% of 131; n=73). Conversely, teachers in Scenario 4 were more likely to teach in FSM 3/4
schools (72% of 18; n=13).
Resilient teachers in Scenarios 1 and 2 were more likely to teach in FSM 1/2 schools. The differ-
ence, it seems, was in the relative intensity of the presence of a greater combination of negative influ-
ences in FSM 3/4 schools, which made ‘managing’ the scenarios and sustaining a stable, positive
sense of identity more challenging. For these teachers, the presence of positive life and work influ-
ences was more critical to sustaining their commitment. The analyses also revealed that there were
associations between teachers’ resilience and relative effectiveness. For example, teachers who were
judged to have demonstrated resilience during the project were more likely to have pupil value-added
results of ‘above expectations’ or ‘as expected’. Likewise, those teachers who were thought to have
demonstrated a lack of resilience (or vulnerability) were more likely to have pupil value-added results
of ‘below expectations’ or ‘as expected’ (though there were some exceptions to this).
2. In-school and personal support

The key factors that contributed positively among the 198 (67%) of teachers with a positive sense
of agency, resilience and commitment in all scenarios were:
(i) School/departmental leadership (63%)
(ii) Supportive colleagues (58%)
(iii) Family (52%)
These teachers (except for those in Scenario 4) were also more likely to demonstrate high moti-
vation and high self-efficacy. Interestingly, more teachers in FSM 4 schools were resilient than
those in FSM 3 schools. Key negative factors among the 97 (33%) of teachers judged to be
‘vulnerable’ were:
(i) Pupil behaviour (87%)
(ii) Workload (70%)
This group of teachers experienced their levels of motivation and self-efficacy decrease as the
number of dominant dimensions increased. They were also more likely to have negative well-
being. Unsurprisingly, a higher proportion of teachers in Scenario 1 were positive about their
well-being (73% of 98 who commented; n=72). This was not the case for teachers in Scenario 2,
who found it more difficult to maintain a healthy work–life balance and felt negative about their
well-being (77% of 131; n=101).
3. Professional life phase

The evidence also supports the claim that teachers’ initial identities may change over time as they
are challenged by different life and work experiences and school contexts. Although the scenarios
themselves cannot be attributed to specific professional life phases, there are particular points when
certain professional and personal events are more likely to occur, such as starting a family (4–7 and
8–15), taking on additional responsibility (4–7, 8–15 and 16–23), etc. These events can be paralleled
by situated (work-related) factors such as disruptive pupil behaviour, change of leadership, or rela-
tions with colleagues. This led us to the understanding that identities may be more, or less, stable
and more or less fragmented at different times and in different ways according to the impact of
personal, professional and situational factors; or a combination of these and the capacities of teachers
to manage the different scenarios that they experience within each professional life phase.
Conclusions
There are implications from these findings for policy-makers and school leaders with regard to
possible variations experienced by teachers in terms of their sense of well-being, commitment
and resilience, and the associations between these and their abilities to sustain effectiveness. It is
not possible to control for fluctuations in identity scenarios caused by personal events and expe-
riences. However, it is possible to predict the impact of policies that challenge teachers’ existing
beliefs, purposes and practices, just as it is possible to predict the impact on teachers of teaching
in schools in highly disadvantaged socioeconomic contexts. Professional life phases themselves
indicate, also, that teachers are likely to have different needs and concerns at different times
during their careers. It is clear from the research reported here that teachers need to be resilient
to sustain their sense of effectiveness in what is an emotionally as well as an intellectually
demanding endeavour; that their capacity for resilience relates to their sense of positive or nega-
tive identity; and that the extent to which they are able to manage this relates to their sense of
effectiveness. It is important, then, for policy-makers and school leaders, if they really want the
implementation of system-wide school and curriculum change and improvement agendas to
meet with success, to factor into their planning the potential effects upon teachers’ professional
identities.
Notes
1. Teachers were divided into six professional life phases according to total number of years in teaching.
The phases were defined as 0–3, 4–7, 8–15, 16–23, 24–30 and 31+.
2. For a more detailed discussion of teachers’ resilience, see Gu and Day 2007.
3. These dimensions – professional, situated and personal – will be discussed later in this paper.
4. Eligibility for free school meals is divided into four categories. FSM 1 describes schools with 0–8% of
pupils eligible for free school meals. This percentage rises to 9–20% for FSM 2 schools, 21–35% for
FSM 3 schools, and over 35% for FSM 4 schools.
5. Inter-rater reliability of 90%.
6. NVivo is a Computer-Aided Qualitative Data Analysis Software (CAQDAS) program.
7. Inter-rater reliability of 95%.
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Identity, well-being and effectiveness: The emotional contexts of teaching

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Christopher Day Alison Kington

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Identity, well-being and effectiveness: the emotional contexts of teaching

School of Education, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK

*Corresponding author. Email: christopher.day@nottingham.ac.uk

ISSN 1468-1366 print/ISSN 1747-5104 online

Scenarios that challenge identity

Table 1. Number of teachers in each scenario.

Scenario Dimension Subgroups Total

Scenario 1 Dimensions in balance 102

Teacher identity scenarios: key characteristics and influences

Structure Professional Situated Structure

Anna’s story: Positive well-being and work–life balance

Table 2. Key features of Scenario 1.

Scenario 1 Positive Negative

Professional ● Promotion ● Policy changes

Situated ● Supportive leadership ● Pupil behaviour (lack of respect)

Personal ● Family/friend support ● No family support

Structure Professional Situated Structure

Table 3. Key features of Scenario 2.

Scenario 2 Positive Negative

Professional ● Promotion/additional role ● Increased workload

Carmelle’s story: Highly motivated (dominant situated dimension)

Two dimensions of identity

Structure may be managed in the short term,

ated and personal influences reported by this group (Table 4).

Table 4. Key features of Scenario 3.

Scenario 3 Positive Negative

Professional ● Ambition ● Unsuccessful promotion

Extreme fluctuations able/not

Figure 5. Scenario 4: three conflicting dimensions.

Table 5. Key features in Scenario 4.

Scenario 4 Positive Negative

Eva’s story: Highly committed (three conflicting dimensions)

Variations in the identities of teachers: three mediating influences

1. Resilience and school socioeconomic contexts

2. In-school and personal support

3. Professional life phase

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