From leadership research to district action: Language teachers’ wellbeing in Scotland: challenges and coping pathways

AI-assisted editorial implementation guide. Proposed district actions are separate from the original authors’ findings and recommendations. Independent peer review of this guide is not asserted.

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Evidence and transfer

Education-related source: verify which participants, institutions and outcomes were actually studied before district adoption. Source publication type: research-article. License and identity checks do not establish study quality or causality.

Original authors’ abstract, reproduced under the source license:

Abstract This study examines language teachers’ wellbeing in Scotland through a holistic ecological framework, addressing how wellbeing is shaped by challenges and coping pathways across interacting systems of practice and policy. Drawing on Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory, the research investigates the interplay between microsystem (classroom relations and pedagogy), mesosystem (collegial and external support), exosystem (school leadership, workload, curriculum and policy enactment), macrosystem (societal ideologies and national frameworks), and chronosystem (career stage and post-COVID change) layers. Data were generated through in-depth semi-structured interviews with nine primary and secondary language teachers. Approximately 80,000 words of interview data were analysed using a hybrid inductive–deductive thematic analysis, with psychological and social capital conceptualised as cross-cutting resources influencing wellbeing across systems. Findings show that teachers’ wellbeing was strongest when they could enact an “ideal teacher-self,” characterised by positive classroom rapports, meaningful communicative pedagogy, creative use of culture and projects, and confident target language use. Conversely, wellbeing was eroded by chronic workload and administrative demands, misalignment between curriculum, assessment, and pedagogy, particularly with high-stakes examinations and the marginal status of languages within schools and a predominantly monolingual societal ideology. Supportive departmental cultures, peer mentoring, collaborative school environments, fair and communicative leadership, and external social support emerged as key protective factors, while isolation and top-down decision-making intensified vulnerability. Across the chronosystem, more experienced teachers described a gradual development of boundary-setting and self-care strategies, with early-career teachers and those facing job insecurity reporting heightened vulnerability. Post-COVID schooling brought increased digital competence but also persistent pressures related to learners’ foundational skill gaps and expanded bureaucratic demands, underscoring the need for multi-level approaches to sustaining language teachers’ wellbeing. Keywords: coping strategies, ecological systems theory, language learning and teaching and assessment washback, Scotland, target language use, teacher agency, teacher wellbeing

Study methods

The data presented is developed as a part of a larger funded research project, by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (code: PID2021-1283410B-100), that sought to study language teachers’ wellbeing across different contexts.

Limitations

This study has several limitations that should be acknowledged. First, the sample was small and context-specific, comprising nine primary and secondary language teachers working in Scotland. Second, participants volunteered to take part, which means that the study may not fully capture the perspectives of teachers who are experiencing severe burnout, who feel disengaged from language policy, or who may not have had the time or willingness to participate. Third, the study relies on self-reported interview data, which provide rich insight into teachers’ perceptions and lived experiences but do not include classroom observations, documentary analysis, or longitudinal follow-up. Finally, although the ecological framework allowed the analysis to trace interactions across multiple systems, the boundaries between subsystems were sometimes fluid and blurred, reflecting the complexity of teachers’ professional lives rather than fixed analytical categories.

A 90-day district inquiry

Days 1–15 · Appraise. Read the source methods, recruitment, comparator, outcomes and limitations. Record how the study setting differs from your district and which claim the design can support.
Days 16–30 · Design. Map one recurring source of staff workload with voluntary staff input. Agree one reversible schedule, support or task-allocation change and name its owner. Agree participation, privacy protections, baseline and stopping rules before starting.
Days 31–60 · Observe. Collect the pre-agreed measures, keep a log of implementation changes and invite confidential voluntary feedback. Preserve existing support for staff and learners.
Days 61–90 · Decide. Compare workload hours, a consistent voluntary wellbeing measure, absence and retention intentions with the pre-pilot baseline. Report response rates and avoid causal claims from an uncontrolled comparison. Make a dated decision to stop, revise or extend the inquiry.

Board decision brief

Present the local problem, source setting, evidence limits, intervention, responsible owner, total cost, measured changes and uncertainty. Separate staff perceptions, implementation measures and student learning outcomes.

Attribution and reuse

Manuel Jesús Cardoso-Pulido; Francisco Valdera-Gil; Raúl Ruiz-Cecilia; Hazel Crichton. Language teachers’ wellbeing in Scotland: challenges and coping pathways. Frontiers in Psychology (2026-06-04). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1816586

Prepared 2026-11-07. Source authorship and DOI are preserved. The abstract and source passages are attributed extracts; this editorial guide is offered under the same CC BY 4.0 license.