ERIC Number: EJ1430728
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2024
Pages: 19
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0142-5692
EISSN: EISSN-1465-3346
How Teacher Wellbeing Can Be Cruel: Refusing Discourses of Wellbeing in an Online Reddit Forum
British Journal of Sociology of Education, v45 n2 p248-266 2024
Teacher wellbeing is a growing international concern. Despite teachers' experiences being deleteriously impacted by education policies and organisational conditions, dominant discourses of wellbeing focus on strategies that enhance individual self-management of wellbeing. This paper critically examines teacher wellbeing and the counter-discourses of wellbeing mobilised by teachers on an online platform, Reddit. Contributors criticise the wellbeing approaches taken in their schools and education systems. They react to the erasure of how work conditions impact their wellbeing. These forums speak back to the assumption that teachers are deficient and that teachers must be positive in self-managing their wellbeing. We coin the term 'cruel wellbeing' to critique wellbeing programs that neglect teachers' challenging work conditions. We question the practices of training teachers to assume responsibility for their wellbeing using strategies of positivity. We suggest that social media is an important political tool for creating and circulating counter-discourses of teachers' work.
Descriptors: Well Being, Social Media, Educational Policy, Teaching Conditions, Self Management, Teacher Attitudes, Discourse Analysis, Computer Mediated Communication, Work Environment, Criticism, Program Evaluation, Teacher Education, Faculty Development, Political Attitudes, Misinformation, Teacher Responsibility, Foreign Countries, Administrator Surveys, Teacher Surveys
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Australia
Identifiers - Assessments and Surveys: Teaching and Learning International Survey
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A