Empowering Asian educators: Decoding the factors of 21st-century teacher well-being

In the fast-paced landscape of 21st-century education, global attention turns to understanding teacher well-being. This research utilizes a Sequential Exploratory Mixed Method design to explore the factor structure of well-being across randomly selected Asian public-school teachers. Initial qualitative interviews with 10 participants and 5 focus group members inform the development of a 78-item quantitative construct. An open sampling technique yields 1,987 online scale respondents, with subsequent Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analyses involving 800 participants each. Six latent factors emerge: Occupational Well-being, Organizational Struggles, Work Resources, Supportive School Climate, Enabling Leadership, and Teacher Support Initiatives. The model demonstrates a good fit, emphasizing the multifaceted nature of teacher well-being. Acknowledging limitations, future research should diversify samples and explore the impact on student outcomes, with implementation of the well-being scale empowering institutions for a supportive teaching environment.