1 s2.0 S0346251X2030806X Main

System 97 (2021) 102446
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Emotion regulation and psychological well-being in teacher

work engagement: A case of British and Iranian English
language teachers
Vincent Greenier a, Ali Derakhshan b, *, Jalil Fathi c
a
School of Languages, Linguistics, Music & Visual Culture (LLMVC), Taylor Building, King’s College, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen,
AB24 3UB, UK
b
Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Golestan University, Gorgan, Iran
c
University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, Iran
a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t
Article history: Employing a sequential explanatory mixed-methods approach, this study investigated the
Received 2 November 2020 role of emotion regulation and psychological well-being (PWB) as predictors of work
Received in revised form 11 December 2020 engagement through using 108 British and 255 Iranian English language teachers as a
Accepted 28 December 2020
sample. A multi-group structural equation modelling was performed to identify differ-
Available online 4 January 2021
ences and similarities in the way emotion regulation and PWB could predict work
engagement among British and Iranian English teachers. The valid measuring instruments
Keywords:
of the three constructs were administered to collect the data in the two contexts. The
Emotion regulation
Measurement invariance
results demonstrated measurement invariance, including both metric and scalar invari-
Multi-group structural equation modelling ance, revealing that the constructs underlying the three scales possessed the same
Psychological well-being theoretical structure across two groups (i.e., British vs. Iranian). It was also revealed that
Work engagement both emotion regulation and PWB significantly predicted work engagement for the whole
sample of British and Iranian teachers. However, PWB appeared to be a stronger predictor
of work engagement. Moreover, some cross-cultural differences were identified in the
regression coefficients. On the whole, the association of the PWB and work engagement
was stronger for British teachers. The qualitative data analysis uncovered a number of
categories and themes contributing to explaining differences between British and Iranian
teachers. The results and implications are further discussed.
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Teaching is unquestionably a demanding vocation, and despite occasional bouts of work-related stress and even burnout,
most teachers are highly engaged in their role performance (Schaufeli et al., 2009). This sense of professional commitment
and satisfaction is often termed ‘Work Engagement’ (WE) which refers to “a positive, fulfilling and work-related state of mind
that is characterized by vigour, dedication and absorption dimensions” (Schaufeli et al., 2002, p. 74). Teachers who are more
engaged with their work tend to be full of energy, dedicated to and passionate about their job, persistent in the face of
* Corresponding author. Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Shahid Beheshti Campus, Golestan University, Shahid Beheshti St, 49138 15759,
Gorgan, Golestan, Iran.
E-mail addresses: [email protected] (V. Greenier), [email protected] (A. Derakhshan), [email protected] (J. Fathi).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2020.102446
0346-251X/© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
V. Greenier, A. Derakhshan and J. Fathi System 97 (2021) 102446
difficulties, and engrossed in what they do. Due to the importance of WE and the burgeoning of positive psychology
(Fredrickson, 2009; Seligman, 2011; Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000), there has been a surge of interest in the concept
over the last two decades, and a shift from research on teacher burnout to WE (Bakker & Albrecht, 2018; Buri c & Macuka,
2018). However, given that WE is a multifaceted amalgamation of different but complementary strands tied together by
their humanistic orientation toward the life of work, the body of research possesses an eclectic nomenclature. To aggravate
the situation, in the language teaching context, although a myriad of research was previously done on foreign/second lan-
guage teachers’ job burnout (e.g., Khajavy et al., 2017; Piechurska-Kuciel, 2011; Sadeghi & Khezrlou, 2016; Zhaleh et al., 2018),
there has been a scarcity of research on WE as a positive experience of English language teachers (e.g., Amini Faskhodi &
Siyyari, 2018), which creates a need for more studies in this area to fill this research lacuna.
As a potential source of teacher WE (Aiello & Tesi, 2017), psychological well-being (PWB) pertains to one’s life quality and
satisfaction (Brown et al., 1992). Based on a thorough review of previous related theories, Ryff (1989) introduced a model of
PWB, including six main components of personal growth, autonomy, purpose in life, self-acceptance, environmental mastery,
and positive relations with others. Ryff (1995) asserted that finding meaning and purpose in life are at the center of one’s
PWB. According to Garg and Rastogi (2009), PWB relates to a person’s degree of happiness and satisfaction with his/her life,
work, and physical and mental health. Research has indicated that PWB is associated with factors such as one’s emotional
intelligence (EI) (Guerra-Bustamante et al., 2019), job performance, WE (Çankir & Şahin, 2018), work stress and psychological
detachment (White, 2010), work cognition (Joo et al., 2017), job resources (Vîrga & Bota, 2014), emotion-regulation difficulties
(Saxena et al., 2011), self-esteem, and emotion self-regulation (Freire & Tavares, 2011).
Therefore, as another antecedent of WE, while being associated with PWB, emotion self-regulation refers to various
cognitive, physiological, and behavioral processes that a person employs to regulate his/her emotional expressions and ex-
periences (Gross & John, 2003). The teaching profession is replete with emotional fluctuation, and attention should be given
to how this is manifested in the classroom. In other words, to be an effective teacher, there is often an implicit and assumed
prescription for how teachers should display their emotions, and indeed in many cases and contexts, this expectation is more
explicit and regulated. For instance, to shield against any threat to their well-being and promote higher adaptive functioning,
teachers are often expected to suppress any negative emotions like frustration, sadness, and anger (Oplatka, 2009). Similarly,
Schaubroeck and Jones (2000) maintained that in teacher-student interactions, teachers are required to display positive
emotions and down-regulate negative emotions.
According to Bielak and Mystkowska-Wiertelak (2020a), although emotion regulation research has been slowly accu-
mulating in diverse areas such as health, business, and general education, there has been little attention in this regard in
language education. The authors mentioned that this scantiness of research in language education is surprising as effective
regulation of emotions is essential for both language education quality and outcomes. In the same vein, Dewaele et al. (2019)
have stated that “emotions are the heart of language learning and teaching, and yet they have largely remained in the
shadows in the past decades of applied linguistic research” (p. 1). Bielak and Mystkowska-Wiertelak (2020a) justified this
shortage by pointing out that the existing literature has mainly attended to how individuals deal with negative emotions such
as stress, anxiety, and burnout in the language education context (e.g., Dewaele, 2017; Zhaleh et al., 2018; Zhang & Zhu, 2008;
Zheng & Cheng, 2018), to the neglect of positive emotions such as WE, PWB, and emotion regulation. Cognitive approaches
regard negative emotions as hazardous for language learning and teaching, while their positive counterparts are desirable
(Benesch, 2018). Therefore, from a cognitive perspective, the present study departs from negative emotions by examining EFL
teachers’ WE, PWB, and emotion regulation as three instances showing language teachers’ positive emotional tendencies. As
Talbot and Mercer (2018) have announced, due to the changing nature of foreign language teaching, it is essential to know
how EFL/ESL teachers perceive their emotional well-being and the strategies that they utilize to regulate their emotions.
Similarly, Ghanizadeh and Moafian (2010) have evinced that positive emotions such as effective interpersonal relations,
joy, and happiness play key roles in language teachers’ effectiveness. Therefore, the importance of regulating both positive
and negative emotions is noteworthy in the foreign/second language education contexts where emotions contribute a lot to
the quality of teacher-student interpersonal relations and communication, being themselves primary determinants of both
teachers’ effective functioning and students’ language learning outcomes. Jennings and Greenberg (2009) argued that
teachers with high social and emotional competences could successfully find practical solutions for conflict situations and
build supportive and strong relationships between themselves and their students by facilitating mutual cooperation and
understanding. The significance of emotions for language education is well captured in Benesch’s (2017) book entitled
‘emotions and English language teaching: Exploring teachers’ emotion labor’, endeavoring to expatiate what teachers’
emotion labor is, how undesirable triggers such as plagiarism can exacerbate teachers’ emotion labor, and how both teachers
and students can regulate their emotions in the instructional context. Nevertheless, on the whole, as Mercer and Kostoulas
(2018) rightly stated, surprisingly, there is little research on how language teachers manage their emotions in order to prosper
in their WE and well-being with the ultimate aim of flourishing in their professional undertaking. The prospect is that with
the recent rise of the field of positive psychology (Fredrickson, 2009; Seligman, 2011; Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000),
which entered the field just two decades ago (Gabrys-Barker & Gałajda, 2016), more attention can be paid to positive
emotions in language learning and teaching (MacIntyre et al., 2016).
At the same time, while numerous studies have been conducted on each factor of WE, PWB, and emotion regulation (e.g.,
Castellano et al., 2019; Katana et al., 2019; Talbot & Mercer, 2018) in general education, no study has investigated these three
factors simultaneously to examine a cross-cultural comparison of English language teachers. In fact, cross-cultural studies
investigating teacher-related variables are arguably lacking in applied linguistics literature. To bridge this research lacuna, the
2
current research attempted to investigate the concurrent effects of PWB and emotional self-regulation on WE levels of two
groups, Iranian and British teachers of English.
2. Literature review
2.1. Work engagement
As a relatively new concept (Bakker & Schaufeli, 2008), WE has been defined from various perspectives since its
conception. For Kahn (1990), WE means being emotionally, cognitively, and physically involved in one’s job. Smith et al.
(2012) conceptualized WE as an individual’s attitude toward his/her job, directly affecting his/her psychological presence
and engagement during role performance. Maslach and Leiter (1997) claimed that burnout and WE are two ends of a con-
tinuum, which an employee can move on depending on his/her level of satisfaction with and involvement in his/her job. They
sought to discover an individual’s position on the burnout-engagement continuum through their responses to the Maslach
Burnout Inventory (Maslach & Jackson, 1981). However, Schaufeli et al. (2002) referred to WE as “a positive, fulfilling and
work-related state of mind that is characterized by vigour, dedication and absorption dimensions” (p.74) and later developed
a new scale for measuring WE based on this definition (Schaufeli et al., 2006). Vigour pertains to the tendency to be energetic
and make efforts during one’s professional journey, while dedication pertains to experiencing encouragement, pride,
importance, and inspiration. Absorption is present when a person is thoroughly and joyfully absorbed in his/her occupational
role. In contrast to burnout, which is a negative concept adversely affecting one’s and others’ health and work performance,
WE is a positive element of work life, favorably influencing people and organizations.
Following the common interest in mainstream psychology, concerned primarily with mental and social disorders, re-
searchers were more interested in examining negative social-work outcomes (Aiello & Tesi, 2017). During the last century,
however, interest in the field of positive psychology has turned researchers’ attention to the more favorable dimensions of
work-related health outcomes (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000), and hence attention shifted from burnout to WE by
attempting to conceptualize WE and uncover its possible catalysts and potential consequences in the workplace (Buri c&
Macuka, 2018; Schaufeli et al., 2006). High levels of WE tend to result in diverse pleasant outcomes for both individuals
and organizations, including better mental and emotional health, improved role performance, higher commitment to
occupational goals, and more pleasant emotions (Bakker & Demerouti, 2008; Ouweneel et al., 2012).
Examining a sample of 288 Spanish teachers working at public schools from a range of grade levels, Me rida-Lo
pez and
Extremera (2017) focused on predicting teachers’ WE by work-related stress and EI factors. Results revealed that, first, EI
was positively linked with WE, while role ambiguity and role conflict were negatively associated with the vigor and dedi-
cation dimensions of WE. Second, EI was found to increase WE when a teacher’s experience of role ambiguity was higher.
Similarly, in a study with 941 school teachers in the Croatian context, Buric and Macuka (2018) examined first the bidirec-
tional association between teachers’ emotions and their WE, and secondly, the possible effect of self-efficacy on both
emotions and WE of the teachers. The results indicated that teachers having more pleasant emotions experienced higher
levels of WE while those having more unpleasant emotions experienced lower levels of WE. As one might expect, because of
higher WE, some participants reported experiencing less negative and more positive emotions. It was also found that teachers
with higher self-efficacy experienced less negative and more positive emotions, and higher WE.
In two separate but related empirical studies, Runhaar et al. (2013) explored the effects of teachers’ interactions with
pupils and their interactions with human resource practices as two professional resources on teachers’ WE. Through qual-
itative analysis of interviews and documents, one study examined the human resources practices of 23 instructors working at
four schools in the Netherlands. The second, quantitative study, surveyed 342 teachers from 13 schools in the Netherlands to
investigate the relationship between the teachers’ interactions with pupils and human resources and their WE levels. Both
studies found that interactions with students were positively associated with WE, and human resources practices were also
positively correlated with vigour and dedication dimensions.
With regard to research on WE in language education, it should be mentioned that there is a paucity of research in this
area, and previous studies have mainly attended to negative experiences of language teachers in various cultures, possibly
due to the demanding nature of the language teaching subject (King & Ng, 2018). Even the studies done on the variables of
emotion regulation and psychological and emotional well-being in the language education context have focused on their
contribution to teachers’ undesirable professional experiences such as work stressors, pressure, and burnout (e.g., Fathi &
Derakhshan, 2019; Gregersen et al., 2020; MacIntyre et al., 2020, 2019; Pe rez Valverde et al., 2016) rather than language
teachers’ WE. However, to strengthen the growing attention to positive psychology in foreign language acquisition and
teaching research, and to accentuate the examination of teachers’ positive and desirable emotions and experiences (Dewaele
et al., 2019), this study examines the predictive role of emotion regulation and PWB in language teachers’ WE.
2.2. Psychological well-being
Following Maslow’s introduction of positive psychology in 1954 and its reintroduction by Seligman in the last decade of
the 20th century (Lopez & Gallagher, 2009), the past obsession with doing research on negative health-related outcomes was
replaced by a new agenda interested in positive health-related outcomes such as optimism, well-being, growth, and satis-
faction aiming to promote individuals’ and communities’ growth (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). Well-being has been
3
studied in two forms, subjective well-being and PWB, assessed by hedonic and eudemonic measures, respectively (Ka llay &
Rus, 2014). PWB relates to satisfaction with one’s mental and physical health, life, and work and judgment of one’s happiness
in life (Garg & Rastogi, 2009). Ryff (1989) introduced the most famous model of PWB, characterized by six components:
autonomy, purpose in life, positive relations with others, self-acceptance, personal growth, environmental mastery. Auton-
omy pertains to self-regulation of behavior, independence, and self-determination qualities. Purpose in life means having
goals, intentions, and aims for one’s life. Positive relations with others relate to being able to love and developing a trusting
and warm relationship with other people. Self-acceptance refers to the central characteristic of self-actualization, maturity,
optimal functioning, and mental health. Personal growth means being able to improve their habits and behaviors and
continually expand their self-awareness and sense of identity, and improve upon their talents throughout their lifespan.
Finally, individual’s mastery relates to creating environments in line with one’s psychological conditions.
Various studies in the past examined the PWB concept in relation to different emotional and work-related variables. Çankir
and Şahin (2018) explored the mediating role of WE in the PWB-job performance relationship. Through an online survey, 322
Turkish textile workers participated in the study by responding to the PWB, work performance, and work satisfaction
questionnaires. The results of structural equation modelling revealed that the participants had low levels of WE, job per-
formance, and PWB, and also WE was a mediating variable in the PWB-job performance association. Through using the work
demands-resources model, White (2010) also examined the promotion of work-related PWB by work stress, WE, and psy-
chological detachment factors. The results of correlational analyses indicated that first, there was no significant relationship
between PWB and WE, second, there existed a significant correlation between PW and work stress, and third, the psycho-
logical detachment was found to be negatively and highly correlated with PWB. Comparing the results of predictive models of
PWB indicated that work stress was the first and psychological detachment was the second most significant predictor of PWB
in the workplace.
Furthermore, the recognition and examination of language teachers’ perceived well-being, whether emotion or psycho-
logical, is of utmost significance due to the nature of the subject they are teaching which requires great emotional engage-
ment and interpersonal relations as well as the additional stressors they possibly encounter such as higher energy
methodology, language anxiety, emotional labor, and intercultural encounters (Golombek & Doran, 2014; King & Ng, 2018).
Similarly, Talbot and Mercer (2018) argued that examining well-being is noteworthy for understanding emotional stressors
and demands experienced by language teachers, and teachers with higher well-being are typically more effective. According
to Mercer et al. (2020), research evidence has evinced that well-being is essential for the effective functioning of language
teachers teaching through pre-school to higher education, as it can facilitate teaching creativity, building positive rapport
with language learners, facing fewer discipline hardships, and increasing students’ achievement level. Therefore, the aim of
the present study is to continue this nascent line of inquiry on well-being of language teachers started in the last decade (e.g.,
Golombek & Doran, 2014; King & Ng, 2018; MacIntyre et al., 2019; Mercer et al., 2020; Talbot & Mercer, 2018; Yong et al.,
2020) to pave the way for future studies in this regard, in turn facilitating more generalizable conclusions on the issue in
language education.
2.3. Emotion regulation
With the recent burgeoning of positive psychology has come the exploration of the way positive emotions such as hope,
interest, and joy can be used profitably in different aspects of individuals’ life (Fredrickson, 2009; Seligman, 2011; Seligman &
Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). A concept highlighted in such research efforts is emotion regulation, defined in different terms since
its emergence in the late 1990s (Cole et al., 1994). To Thompson (2008), emotion regulation meant the intrinsic and extrinsic
processes a person underwent to change, evaluate, or control his/her emotions with the aim of achieving one’s goals. From
another vantage point, Cole et al. (1994) defined emotion regulation as “the ability to respond to the ongoing demands of
experience with the range of emotions in a manner that is socially tolerable and sufficiently flexible to permit spontaneous
reaction as well as the ability to delay spontaneous reactions as needed” (p. 74). For Gross (1998), as an intrapersonal activity,
emotion regulation was a combination of various processes undertaken to control when and how people experience and
express their emotions.
Emotion regulation works to fulfill two different functions: Emotion up-regulation is employed to increase one’s emotions,
while emotion down-regulation is used to control some emotional experiences (Sutton & Harper, 2009). Within the teaching
profession, bound with recurrent instances of teacher-student interactions, emotion-regulation strategies are frequently used
by teachers. In this regard, teachers may up-regulate their emotions to increase teaching effectiveness and handle educational
tasks successfully, or they may down-regulate their emotions to prevent any negative influence on students’ level of
participation, success, or motivation (Gong et al., 2013). Similarly, Sutton (2010) stated that teachers might employ emotion-
regulation strategies as they attempt to create a nurturing relationship with their learners and to establish an idealized
emotional image as a teacher. Gross (1998) put forward two types of emotion regulation strategies typically employed by
teachers, response-focused and antecedent-focused strategies. Teachers use antecedent-focused strategies before the initi-
ation of the emotional arousal stages through cognitive change, situation selection, situation manipulation, and attention
deployment. On the other hand, response-focused strategies, referring to behavioral and physiological responses and
emotional expression, are activated after the initiation of the emotional arousal stages.
Since its introduction, the emotion regulation concept has been well researched, helping to identify its possible associates
and consequences. For example, Katana et al. (2019) examined subjective well-being, perceived stress, and emotion
4
regulation of a group of 89 nurses in Switzerland through daily diary writing. Content analysis of the data indicated that
cognitive reappraisal tended to increase experience of pleasant emotions which was also positively associated with higher
degrees of subjective well-being and negatively associated with perceived stress. In contrast, suppression, which was useful
for avoiding the expression of unpleasant emotions, was not significantly correlated with perceived stress or daily well-being.
In another study, Jiang et al. (2016) investigated teachers’ emotions and their employment of emotion regulation strategies
from the perspective of the teachers themselves and their students. Four schoolteachers and 53 of their students in Finland
participated in the study. The relevant data were gathered by employing questionnaires and interview sessions, respectively.
Analysis of the data uncovered links between the students’ perceptions of the teachers’ emotions and the teachers’ reflections
on their emotion self-regulation. Furthermore, response-focused emotion regulation was found to be less effective than
antecedent-focused emotion regulation, and reappraisal was more influential in reducing unpleasant emotion expression and
in increasing pleasant emotion expression than suppression. Finally, in a review article, Sutton et al. (2009) examined a series
of papers on how teachers try to monitor the duration and intensity of their emotions and how they express their emotions in
the classroom. Two significant findings emerged from reviewing these articles. First, teachers tended to practice emotion
regulation in attempts to enhance classroom discipline and management and their relations with students. Second, teachers
were better at communicating their positive emotions to their students than avoiding their negative emotions, and they
employed various preventive and reactive emotion regulation strategies in the classroom.
Despite its eminence in various domains of research, emotion regulation has been the focus of few investigations in
language education, focusing mainly on the emotion regulation of language teachers (e.g., Bielak & Mystkowska-Wiertelak,
2020b; Fathi & Derakhshan, 2019; Littleton, 2018; Talbot & Mercer, 2018) or learners (e.g., Bielak & Mystkowska-Wiertelak,
2020a). According to Benesch (2017), in English language classes, there exist both positive and negative teacher and student
emotions, with the former enhancing learning and the latter diminishing it. It is also believed that language teaching is an
inherently emotionally demanding task considering the prominence of uniting personally meaningful content and identities
as well as the importance of interpersonal relations (Golombek & Doran, 2014). As a result, language instruction needs
increased emotional understanding by language teachers in comparison to those teaching other subjects (King & Ng, 2018).
Therefore, the main aim of this line of research is to promote pleasant or positive academic emotions. It is believed that only
when a comprehensive body of research is accumulated can any conclusion and generalization be made regarding the
importance of emotion regulation in the language learning and teaching context, which necessitates further research on the
issue in language education of various cultures. It is hoped that with the increased focus on language teachers’ emotions (e.g.,
Barcelos, 2017; Wolff & DeCosta, 2017), the investigation of language teachers’ emotion regulation may also come to the fore
in many language education contexts around the globe.
To elaborate on the studies conducted in this regard, for instance, in a quantitative study done in the cultural context of
Iran, Fathi and Derakhshan (2019) investigated the prediction of 256 EFL teachers’ level of stress by their self-efficacy and
emotion-regulation tendencies. The results of SEM analysis indicated that teacher self-efficacy and emotion regulation could
account for 22.1% and 14.2% of EFL teachers’ stress, respectively. In a similar study, Ghanizadeh and Royaei (2015) examined
the dynamic linkage of emotion regulation, emotional labor strategies, and teacher burnout among 153 Iranian EFL teachers
teaching at different private language institutes in Iran. Results of the structural relations analysis indicated that, albeit
negatively, both emotion regulation and emotional labor strategies can account for the experience of teacher burnout.
In a qualitative study, Arizmendi Tejeda et al. (2016) explored how five novice EFL school teachers in a city of southwest
Mexico regulate their negative emotions. The data of the study were obtained through observations and semi-interview
session and analyzed through micro and constant comparative analyses. The findings revealed that the novice instructors
felt nervous in classes due to their lack of sufficient teaching experience and self-confidence. They also became sometimes
frustrated or angry when some learners did not regard them as the class authority. The teachers reported that for managing
such negative emotions in the instructional context, they employed various responsive and preventive emotion-regulation
strategies such as cognitive change, modifying one’s emotional expression, selecting situations, and modifying one’s
emotional experience.
Similarly, Chahkandi et al. (2016) attempted to uncover the goals and strategies that effective Iranian EFL teachers employ
to regulate their own and their students’ emotions. The results of analyzing interview data from 22 EFL teachers as well as
diary writing excerpts from 12 teachers revealed that their goals for managing positive emotions were showing unbiased
teacher behavior, maintaining authority in the classroom, and increasing their instructional effectiveness, while their goals
for managing negative emotions were facilitating teacher-student relationships, maintain their own and students’ mental
health, and buttressing teachers’ image as moral guides. For doing so, they utilized various response- and antecedent-focused
strategies such as response modulation, situation modification, cognitive change, attention deployment, and situation
selection.
In an interview-based survey, Littleton (2018) explored what strategies four kindergarten Japanese ESL teachers apply to
regulate their emotions. The results of the content analysis of the interview data revealed some dissimilarities in the emotions
and strategies reported by each teacher, but on the whole, specific recognizable patterns were extracted from teachers’ re-
sponses. Teachers’ negative emotions were aroused by various triggers like frustration as a result of being forced to tackle an
unexpected event, disciplining boisterous learners, boredom resulting from a lack of assigned tasks, and removing the lan-
guage barrier. Nonetheless, it was found that despite subtle differences, the processes that the teachers went through to
regulate their emotions corresponded to Gross and Thompson’s (2007) four-step model, including situation, attention,
appraisal, and response stages.
5
3. Research questions
1. Can the constructs of Emotional Regulation (ER), Work Engagement (WE), and Psychological Well-being (PWB) be
measured by the three scales used in this study be verified in both the Iranian and British language teacher data?
2. To what extent can teachers’ work engagement be predicted by emotion regulation and psychological well-being of both
British and Iranian English language teachers?
3. What similarities and differences exist between the British and Iranian predictive models?
4. What attitudes do British and English teachers hold towards work engagement in the context of ELT?
4. Materials and methods
A sequential explanatory mixed-methods approach to both data collection and analysis was applied in the current
research (Creswell et al., 2003). The data were first collected and analyzed quantitatively and then qualitatively so as to
substantiate the findings of the study.
4.1. Participants
As for the quantitative phase, a total number of 363 British and Iranian English teachers, chosen through convenience
sampling, from the UK and Iran participated in this project. More specifically, 108 British in-service teachers (51 female, 57
male; Mage ¼ 43.12, SD ¼ 12.54, Range ¼ 24e71) from different parts of the UK answered the questionnaires. Also, the total
number of 255 Iranian in-service teachers (142 female, 113 male; Mage ¼ 25.86, SD ¼ 8.13, Range ¼ 21e52) completed the
same battery of questionnaires. The participants ranged in their years of teaching experience and were graduates of different
English-related majors such as linguistics, teaching English as a second/foreign language, applied linguistics, English language
and literature, or English translation. They had the experience of teaching English at university or school levels, teaching at
different levels of proficiency. Concerning their academic degrees, the vast majority of the participants held degrees from
English majors, including PhD, Master of Arts (MA), and Bachelor of Arts (BA) degrees.
Participants of the qualitative phase were recruited through a call for participation at two universities in the UK and three
universities and language schools in Iran. The Iranian participants volunteering to participate in the interviews were either
MA (n ¼ 2) or PhD (n ¼ 4) holders in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL). They all had experience teaching students
at different levels of proficiency and had taken teacher training courses. The British participants, recruited first through a call
for participation at two UK universities followed by snowball sampling, were all instructors in a university language centre,
primarily teaching academic English skills to international students. Four of the five British teachers had international
teaching experience with two, Edith and Nora, having extensive experience living and teaching abroad. All held MA degrees in
TESOL or a related subject area with the exception of Sharon, who held a terminal degree in a different academic discipline.
Most British teachers taught adults and university-aged students, focusing on language proficiency exams and English for
Academic Purposes (EAP). The summary of the interview participants’ demographic information is presented in Table 1.
Table 1
Interview participants.
British Gender Years Teaching International Teaching Experience Typical Teaching Context
Teachers EFL
Name
Alistair M 45 UK, France University students (EAP)
Edith F 27 UK, Nepal, Oman, China, India, Adults & University students (general)
Indonesia
Lindsay F 5 UK, USA, China High school students (general); university students (IELTS)
Nora F 15 UK, France, Spain, Germany University students (EAP); adults (business English)
Sharon F 21 UK University students (EAP & IELTS)
Iranian Teachers
Leila F 33 e Institutes (General courses)
Rozhina F 30 e Institutes (General courses and IELTS); High school students
Saeed M 29 e Institutes (General courses and TOEFL)
Maryam F 35 e University students (General courses and IELTS); High school

students
Saman M 36 e University students (EAP & IELTS)
Ali M 38 e University students (EAP & IELTS)
6
4.2. Instruments
4.2.1. Engagement scale

To measure work engagement of teachers, the questionnaire developed by Schaufeli et al. (2002) was used. It includes
three dimensions: Vigor (VI) (6 items; e.g., Item 1: When I get up in the morning, I feel like going to work; Item 5: At my job, I am
very resilient, mentally), Dedication (DE) (5 items; e.g., Item 2: My job inspires me; Item 4: I am proud on the work that I do), and
Absorption (AB) (6 items; e.g., Item 3: I get carried away when I am working; Item 4: It is difficult to detach myself from my job).
Each item is measured on a 7-point Likert scale, varying from 0 (“never”) to 6 (“always”). The results of Cronbach’s alpha
reliability coefficient indicated that The scale enjoyed good reliability in the present study (a ¼ 0.89).
4.2.2. Emotion regulation scale

The emotion regulation questionnaire was employed to assess English language teachers’ emotion regulation (Gross &
John, 2003). The scale includes 10 items, developed to identify respondents’ willingness to regulate their emotions in two
aspects (1) Cognitive Reappraisal (e.g., Item 7: When I want to feel more positive emotion, I change the way I’m thinking about the
situation; Item 10: When I want to feel less negative emotion, I change the way I’m thinking about the situation): and (2)
Expressive Suppression (e.g., Item 2: I keep my emotions to myself; Item 6: I control my emotions by not expressing them). The
participants’ responses to the items can vary on a 7-point Likert-type scale, from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree).
Based on the data obtained in the present study, it was found that the scale enjoyed good internal consistency (a ¼ 0.87).
4.2.3. Psychological well-being at work

The experimental version of the Index of Psychological Well-Being at Work (Dagenais-Desmarais & Savoie, 2012) was used
in this study, comprising of five underlying components: Desire for Involvement at Work, Interpersonal Fit at Work, Feeling of
Competency at Work, Thriving at Work, and Perceived Recognition at Work (e.g., Item 1: I value the people I work with; Item 4:
I feel that my work is recognized; Item 8: I feel confident at work; Item 12: I am proud of the job I have; Item 20: I want to
contribute to achieving the goals of my organization; Item 24: I feel that I am a full member of my organization). Each component
is measured by five items. The items are measured based on a six-point scale (from 0 ¼ Disagree to 5 ¼ Entirely Agree). In the
present study, a Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient of 0.84 was reported for the scale.
4.3. Procedure
The research questions were answered, employing a mixed-methods quantitative-qualitative design. Initially, for the
quantitative phase, the participants completed the survey containing a battery of self-report scales for each construct. For the
sake of increasing the convenience of administration, the online versions of the questionnaires were created employing the
Google Docs application. Then the online survey was put into a booklet questionnaire format and was shared on internet
groups and channels (WhatsApp and Telegram) which had English teachers in the two countries. To reach the largest possible
audience in the UK, the Google Doc survey was posted on numerous professional ELT platforms, including professional or-
ganization websites, WhatsApp and Facebook teaching groups, and ESL jobseeker forums. Prior to going through the items of
the scales, the respondents were asked to fill out the first section of the booklet requiring their personal information such as
nationality, age, educational degree, and teaching experience. In addition, the respondents were assured that their infor-
mation would be utilized only for the purpose of research and be kept confidential.
In the qualitative phase, 11 semi-structured interviews were conducted with a group of teachers, who were selected
randomly (6 Iranian and 5 British). Participants’ selection for interviews continued until theoretical saturation of data was
reached (O’Reilly & Parker, 2013). That is, the researchers realized that collecting further data would offer no further new
information regarding teacher engagement in both British and Iranian contexts. The interview sessions were held in English
and were recorded and transcribed verbatim after having the interviewees’ informed consent.
4.3.1. Data analysis
4.3.1.1. Quantitative analysis. All the analyses for the present study were carried out using the Mplus (version 8) program
(Muthe n & Muthe n, 1998e2017). To estimate model parameters, the full information maximum likelihood method with a
robust standard error as well as the MLR estimator in Mplus was used. Besides, all the missing values were considered to be
Missing At Random (MAR). As for the goodness-of-fit indices, the following indices were taken into account: chi-square (c2),
comparative fit index (CFI), Tucker-Lewis index (TLI), and the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) (Hu &
Bentler, 1995). Following Van de Schoot et al. (2012), the hypothesized model was examined using the total sample of En-
glish teachers, and subsequently, it was examined separately for each group.
Afterwards, multi-group SEM was run in order to evaluate the measurement invariance of the proposed model across two
nationalities (groups), as a precondition analysis for carrying out comparisons across groups (Vandenberg & Lance, 2000). To
7
this end, a kind of sequential constraint imposition approach was used through sequentially constraining model parameters
and juxtaposing changes in model fit (Dimitrov, 2010). As the three phases of measurement invariance, configural, metric, and
scalar models were examined. Concerning configural invariance, no equality constraints were imposed between groups factor
loadings and intercepts. Next, in the metric invariance the factor loadings were constrained to be equal across groups. Finally,
as for scalar invariance factor loadings and intercepts were constrained to be equal across groups. Measurement invariance is
considered to be established if 1) the amount of change in for fit indices (DCFI, DRMSEA) is insignificant (i.e., DCFI < 0.01
(Cheung & Rensvold, 2002), and DRMSEA < 0.015 (Chen, 2007)); and 2) the multi-group model fit indices show a good fit
(Beaujean et al., 2012). At the end, after verifying measurement invariance, the equality of the path coefficients across groups
was examined using a number of Wald chi-square tests in Mplus (Wang & Wang, 2012, pp. 276e278). More particularly, the
unstandardized coefficients were compared across the two groups (with the “Model test” command) in order to investigate
group differences (British vs. Iranian) in the correlations among the variables.
4.3.1.2. Qualitative analysis. A thematic analysis was used to evaluate the interview data (Boyatzis, 1998). The transcribed
interviews were first codified using open thematic coding to determine the key themes about the teachers’ perceptions
towards work engagement. Consequently, axial coding was employed to group emergent themes according to their in-
terrelationships. Finally, each group (with similar key themes) was labeled following the shared codes within that group. The
aforementioned processes followed a reiterative and bottom-up approach. To ensure the inter-rater reliability (Gass &
Mackey, 2000), the processes of open coding, categorizing, and labeling were carried out by the researchers and checked
again by another expert L2 researcher, and the discrepancies were discussed and resolved.
5. Results
Adopting a sequential explanatory mixed-methods approach to collect and analyse the data, this section includes the
results of both the quantitative and qualitative data analyses.
5.1. The quantitative analysis
As the first step of the analyses, descriptive statistics of Mean (M) and Standard Deviation (SD) for each variable as well as
Zero-order correlations between the three variables were calculated. Table 2 indicates the descriptive statistics and internal
consistencies for each variable for the two groups of English teachers. Besides, Table 3 shows correlations between the
variables.
The following results were obtained when the SEM model was performed on the whole dataset: a good fit:
c2(157) ¼ 562.842, p < 0.001, CFI ¼ 0.963, TLI ¼ 0.964, RMSEA ¼ 0.041. Standardized coefficients can be seen in Fig. 1. The
results revealed that both emotion regulation and PWB could significantly predict work engagement. Also, PWB was a
stronger predictor of work engagement. Emotion regulation and work engagement had 7% the common variance. Psycho-
logical well-being and work engagement accounted for 22.1% of the common variance. Similarly, emotion regulation and
teaching stress also had 15% the common variance. Prior to examining measurement invariance, the model was assessed
separately for both British and Iranian teachers. Table 4 indicates the model fit for both groups. Then, multi-group analyses
were utilized to examine the measurement invariance of the model across groups (Van de Schoot et al., 2012).
The goodness-of-fit indices for the unconstrained multi-group models showed the configural invariance across the two
groups (c2 (276) ¼ 573.123, CFI ¼ 0.968, RMSEA ¼ 0.040), highlighting that the factor structure is identical for both British and
Iranian teachers. Then, the metric invariance for all factor loadings was examined. All item loadings were constrained to be
equal, and this did not result in a significant decrease in model fit, revealing that factor loadings can be compared across both
groups (DCFI ¼ 0.001, DRMSEA ¼ 0.001). Finally, scalar invariance was tested by constraining item intercepts across groups.
The results indicated that scalar invariance across Iranian and British teachers (DCFI ¼ 0.001, DRMSEA ¼ 0.000).
After the measurement invariance was verified, unstandardized path estimates between two groups of teachers were
compared to check for any significant differences in the correlations between the constructs (the standardized path co-
efficients for each group are presented in Figs. 2 and 3, respectively). For each group, a single SEM model in which the
corresponding path parameters were constrained to be equal was performed. Comparisons between groups yielded a sig-
nificant omnibus Wald test of 26.16, p ¼ 0.001, showing that the paths were not all equal between Iranian and British teachers.
More specifically, one regression path was statistically different. The association between PWB and work engagement was
Table 2
Descriptive statistics and internal consistencies for the measures.
Iranian British Cronbach’s alpha
M (SD) M (SD)
Emotional regulation 35.26 (9.12) 37.58 (10.02) 0.87
Psychological well-being 74.26 (16.37) 81.34 (17.89) 0.84
Work engagement 59.47 (13.85) 67.74 (14.75) 0.89
8
Table 3
Correlations among the variables for Iranian (above the diagonal) and British (below the diagonal) teachers.
1 2 3
1. Emotional regulation e 0.27*** 0.24***
2. Psychological well-being 0.31** e 0.29***
3. Work engagement 0.29** 0.53*** e
**p < 0.01.

***p < 0.001.
Fig. 1. Tested model for the whole sample. Notes: CR¼ Cognitive Reappraisal; ES ¼ Expressive Suppression; IF¼ Interpersonal Fit at Work; TH ¼ Thriving at Work;
FOC¼ Feeling of Competency at Work; PR¼ Perceived Recognition at Work; DFI ¼ Desire for Involvement at Work; VI¼ Vigor; DE ¼ Dedication; AB ¼ Absorption.
*p < .05.**p < .01. ***.p < .001.
stronger for British teachers compared to Iranian teachers (b ¼ 0.34, SE ¼ 0.03, vs. b ¼ 0.19, SE ¼ 0.04, c2 (1) ¼ 13.24,
p < 0.001).
5.2. The qualitative analysis
To better understand the teachers’ perceptions of work engagement in the context of ELT, semi-structured interviews were
carried out. Thematic analyses of the transcribed interviews were employed to uncover the key categories and themes in this
regard. Appendix A shows the categories and themes pertaining to the Iranian teachers’ perceptions and attitudes regarding
work engagement. In addition, an exemplary quote for each theme is presented.
According to Appendix A, one group of uncovered themes was concerned with teacher autonomy as an important causal
variable affecting Iranian teachers’ work engagement. For example, teachers believed classroom standards could affect
teacher autonomy. They also reported that governmental, cultural, and religious limitations might constrain Iranian teachers’
freedom in the classroom.
The other group of themes addressed teachers’ social support, which was perceived to be effective in improving Iranian
teachers’ engagement. The participants maintained that supports from colleagues and administrators could contribute to
improvement in their work engagement. Furthermore, external validation was another category from the participants’
perspective. They maintained that receiving an adequate salary, being respected and recognized by others, and job security
were the factors that could increase teacher engagement. Additionally, intrinsic motivation was found to be influential in
engaging Iranian teachers. The participants believed that their sense of responsibility, self-initiated interest, and sense of
accomplishment could enhance work engagement among teachers.
Another group of themes revolved around organizational climate. Iranian participants maintained that if they have
learning opportunities and favorable circumstances for innovation at work, they will have more engagement in their career.
They also reported that equality and justice in the workplace could affect their work engagement. The other group of themes
pertained to the work environment. Iranian teachers maintained that facilities and equipment, working hours, and a friendly
atmosphere could make them become more engaged in their teaching activities. Finally, student variables acted as the last
group of themes accounting for teacher engagement. The participants maintained that learners’ engagement and motivation
were effective in improving teachers’ engagement. Moreover, they reported that interactions with students played a sig-
nificant role in increasing teachers’ work engagement.
9
Table 4
Fit indices for measurement invariance.
Model c2 df CFI DCFI RMSEA DRMSEA

Iranian 258.221* 156 0.967 e 0.038 e
British 287.451* 159 0.970 e 0.042 e
Configural invariance 573.123* 276 0.968 e 0.040 e
Metric invariance 581.623* 285 0.969 0.001 0.041 0.001
Scalar invariance 601.542* 297 0.970 0.001 0.041 0.000
Fig. 2. Tested model for Iranian teachers. Notes: CR¼ Cognitive Reappraisal; ES ¼ Expressive Suppression; IF¼ Interpersonal Fit at Work; TH ¼ Thriving at Work;
*p < .05.**p < .01. ***.p < .001.
Fig. 3. Tested model for British teachers. Notes: CR¼ Cognitive Reappraisal; ES ¼ Expressive Suppression; IF¼ Interpersonal Fit at Work; TH ¼ Thriving at Work;
*p < .05.**p < .01. ***.p < .001.
For the qualitative data analyses of the British teachers’ interviews, the researchers focused on the themes which could
contribute to explaining the differences between British and Iranian English teachers. The results in Appendix B show the
categories that emerged for British teachers. One category which made British teachers become more engaged was further
interaction with their pupils. For instance, Sharon believed that face-to-face interaction with students helped her engage
more fully in her role as a teacher. Another noticeable category that was more salient for British teachers was their sense of
purpose. They pointed out that a sense of purpose was a primary incentive for them. Another category revolved around the
10
greater sense of autonomy expressed by British teachers. For example, Edith, who had extensive experience of teaching in
various countries, believed that teachers in the UK are less constrained and feel more autonomy than teachers in China or
Nepal.
Additionally, British teachers maintained that they had a better relationship with their managers or administrators.
Comparing the UK with the Middle East, where she had taught, Edith described the relationship between the manager and
the teacher as a kind of top-down and hierarchical relationship in the Middle East. Also, British teachers held better attitudes
towards further work hours, and they underscored student recognition as a stronger motivator than other forms of recog-
nition. Another category was the better ‘group work’ culture of British teachers. For instance, Nora described most British
workplaces as more friendly and supportive though they require hard work of employees.
6. Discussion
The first objective of the current research was to examine if the three questionnaires employed in this study were
assessing the identical constructs in both the UK and Iran. In this regard, the measurement invariance of scales across the two
nations was tested. The results demonstrated full metric invariance (Steenkamp & Baumgartner, 1998), suggesting that the
teachers in the two countries perceived and answered the items similarly. The attainment of full scalar invariance indicates
that differences in the means of responses of items may be considered as differences in the means of latent variables irre-
spective of which group the teachers belonged to (Marsh et al., 2018). Overall, the achievement of both metric and scalar
invariances revealed that the constructs underlying the three scales possessed the same theoretical structure across two
groups/cultures (i.e., British vs. Iranian). Evidence for both metric and scalar invariance highlights that the presence of any
difference in the factor score is the indicator of possible group differences in the level of the variables rather than item bias or
measurement artifact. As a result, upon ensuring that both factor loadings and intercepts were invariant, the latent mean
differences in the underlying constructs could be investigated.
Second, the research endeavored to test if teachers’ emotion regulation as well as PWB could be a predictor of their work
engagement in both countries. The results indicated that both emotion regulation and PWB significantly predicted work
engagement for the whole sample (i.e., both British & Iranian English teachers). From a theoretical perspective, this finding
lent further credence to the recent flowering and application of positive psychology in foreign language acquisition and
teaching research, showing how EFL/ESL teachers’ emotion regulation and PWB, as two instances of positive emotional ex-
periences, increased their WE, being itself a desirable teacher professional outcome (Dewaele et al., 2019; Gabrys-Barker &
Gałajda, 2016; MacIntyre et al., 2016).
The significant association between emotion regulation and work engagement is on a par with a number of past research
undertakings in general education (e.g., Me rida-Lo
pez & Extremera, 2017; Zhu Liu et al., 2015), which found that EI and
components of work engagement are significantly and positively correlated. More particularly, it is in line with recent studies
in language education, emphasizing the centrality of emotion regulation and good psychological well-being for language
teachers’ healthy functioning and flourishing in their professional undertaking (e.g., Arizmendi Tejeda et al., 2016; Benesch,
2017, 2018; Bielak & Mystkowska-Wiertelak, 2020b; Chahkandi et al., 2016; Gregersen et al., 2020; MacIntyre et al., 2019).
It can be argued that language teachers regulating their feelings more effectively are more likely to become emotionally,
cognitively, and psychologically involved in their teaching activities. Since such teachers can successfully employ the intrinsic
and extrinsic processes to alter, assess, or control their emotions with the purpose of accomplishing their particular objec-
tives, they might be more energetic, make further efforts in their teaching activities, experience the feelings of encourage-
ment, pride, importance, as well as inspiration, and become thoroughly and joyfully immersed in their occupational role. Pena
et al. (2012) evinced that higher degrees of EI were positively linked to greater scores in the engagement components of
absorption, vigor, and dedication. They maintained that practitioners with greater EI are more optimistic, motivated, and
engaged in their teaching activities. Consistent with Pena et al.’s (2012) findings, teachers who can regulate their emotional
resources might be more capable of overcoming stressors in the educational context, thereby leading to further dedication to
their teaching activities. Also, Me rida-Lo
pez and Extremera (2017) found that EI could positively predict the underlying
components of engagement even after controlling for some variables such as teachers’ gender, age, and teaching experience.
The contribution of emotions to EFL/ESL teachers’ work engagement in their work context can be justified in light of social
constructivism, which emphasizes the co-construction of reality through social interactions (Kalina & Powell, 2009). From
this perspective, teachers’ emotions are highly influenced not only by socio-cultural, contextual, and organizational variables
but also by their interactions with administrators, colleagues, and their learners. These emotions play a key role in affecting
EFL teachers’ work engagement (Ghanizadeh & Royaei, 2015). With regard to the particular context of English language
teaching, Benesch (2018) similarly argued that teachers’ emotions act as a source of agency, which can foster their engage-
ment by mobilizing and energizing their activism.
In addition, the significant interplay between EFL/ESL teachers’ PWB and their work engagement is partially in congruence
with the outcomes of similar studies (e.g., Parker et al., 2012; Parker & Martin, 2009) which verifies the contribution of
teachers’ well-being to their work engagement. This finding is also partially consistent with those of Saks (2006), who found
that both well-being and engagement refer to the degree of employees’ emotional and cognitive commitment to and
satisfaction with their roles within an organization. From this perspective, higher degrees of well-being and engagement are
linked to greater satisfaction, positive job desires, and extracurricular or non-core role participation (Saks, 2006). The
interconnection between work engagement and job satisfaction can be legitimized from the perspective of broad-and-build
11
theory (Fredrickson, 2001) in which it is argued that particular positive emotions (i.e., satisfaction) can broaden individuals’
thought-action ranges and build their individual competencies, thereby enhancing their psychological well-being and
optimal functioning. On the other hand, people that are more engaged in their work are more likely to experience joy and
satisfaction in what they do (Buri c & Macuka, 2018; Høigaard et al., 2012; Xanthopoulou et al., 2012).
Further findings of this study revealed that PWB was a stronger predictor of work engagement than emotion regulation.
This finding can be justified in light of the significance of teachers’ PWB as a variable affecting teacher performance and
mental health (Roffey, 2012), and associated with work stress and dissatisfaction in general education, on the whole (Kidger
et al., 2016) and language education, in particular (e.g., Gregersen et al., 2020; MacIntyre et al., 2019; Pe rez Valverde et al.,
2016).
Subscribing to Ryff’s (1989) model of PWB, teachers who possess maturity and mental health, establish a warm and
trusting relationship with others, self-regulate their behavior, create contexts compatible with their psychic conditions,
follow particular goals and intentions, and persist in improving their sense of identity and their personal growth are those
who become more cognitively and emotionally engaged in their profession. Shuck and Reio (2014) reported that greater
degrees of teachers’ emotional and cognitive engagement in their work are positively correlated with their well-being and
individual achievement. Rusu and Colomeischi (2020) also found that work engagement has a mediating role in affecting the
relationship between teachers’ emotions and their well-being.
Moreover, some cross-cultural differences were identified in the regression coefficients. The association of PWB and work
engagement was stronger in British teachers. Qualitative data collections and analyses were carried out to further explain the
cross-cultural differences. The thematic analysis of the interview data revealed some differences in factors relating to teaching
engagement between the two groups. Categories uncovered about the Iranian teachers’ attitudes towards teaching
engagement included: autonomy, social support, external validation, intrinsic motives, organizational climate, work envi-
ronment, and student variables. However, the categories which emerged for British teachers’ perceptions regarding teacher
engagement were more concerned with further interaction with students, sense of purpose, further perceived autonomy,
better relationship with management, positive attitudes towards further work hours, more emphasis on student recognition,
and better group work culture. The nature of categories of British teachers appears to be consistent with factors contributing
to improving teachers’ PWB.
More specifically, as for further interaction with students, positive interactions with pupils is argued to affect teachers’ well-
being (Spilt et al., 2011). With regard to better relationship with management, it is claimed that positive interpersonal re-
lationships among teachers, students, and administrators contribute to teachers’ performance and their PWB (Gozzoli et al.,
2015; Van Horn et al., 2004). Supportive and positive relations between teachers and administrators are claimed to affect the
well-being of teachers (Butt & Retallick, 2002; Turner et al., 2002). Similarly, a significant correlation was identified between
the quality of school work life and teachers’ PWB (Ilgan et al., 2015).
Regarding positive attitudes towards further work hours, teachers holding positive cultural attitudes towards their work
conditions have better mental health and PWB (Bentea, 2015; Wong & Zhang, 2014). As far as sense of purpose is concerned,
doing something special, or self-concordant motivation, plays a pivotal role in decreasing the impacts of work demands on
teachers’ sense of happiness at work (Tadic et al., 2013). With regard to better group work culture, Webb et al. (2009) found
that collaborative working requiring group work in schools has a significant contribution to teacher well-being. As revealed
by the qualitative data, the British teachers perceived a better relationship with their management and considered them-
selves to have better group work culture. It is argued that a friendly school climate, cooperative management, and collegial
support in conjunction with group work spirit and collaboration can enhance teachers’ job satisfaction and buffer stress,
thereby increasing teachers’ PWB (Wong & Zhang, 2014). In addition, further perceived autonomy is consistent with the
literature supporting the role of perceived autonomy in enhancing teachers’ well-being (Skaalvik & Skaalvik, 2014).
Taken together, the stronger interconnection between PWB and WE for British teachers might be attributed to the lower
degree of Iranian teachers’ PWB in the correlation data. Socio-economic and geopolitical circumstances have shaped the
investment in English language education in Iran, making ongoing professional development financially challenging for many
institutions and adversely impacting professional prestige, salaries, job security, and overall job satisfaction. In contrast, ELT is
an important industry in the UK and the Higher Education sector in particular has invested significant resources in preparing
international students for their academic programs, requiring a large number of highly qualified instructors. As a result, ELT as
a career is viewed positively in society and hence teachers are more likely to engage in continuous professional training,
reflective practice, and action research, which in turn can provide higher job satisfaction, enhanced self-efficacy and au-
tonomy, and a greater sense of professional identity.
7. Pedagogical implications
Language teachers’ well-being should receive much more serious attention in teacher education programs as teachers’
psychological, social, and professional well-being positively influence their teaching performance, classroom atmosphere,
and students’ well-being as well as their academic performance (Bentea, 2015; Briner & Dewberry; 2007; Mercer et al., 2020;
rez Valverde et al., 2016; Roffey, 2012; Van Horn et al., 2004). Gaining more knowledge of teachers’ PWB can contribute to
Pe
protecting teachers’ mental health and their professional development. From a research point of view, further empirical
studies pertinent to language teachers’ well-being and its underlying factors may help to increase the quality of school
climate and language teaching context, consequently enhancing the effectiveness of instruction (Roffey, 2012). Therefore, pre-
12
service teacher training programs aimed at enhancing language teachers’ PWB should be developed. Such programs can be
effective in improving prospective teachers’ self-efficacy, resilience, and job satisfaction (Shoshani & Steinmetz, 2014; Vesely
et al., 2014). Finally, the probability of lower levels of Iranian teachers’ PWB could call for a desideratum for further
governmental support and investment in ELT education. Without a serious focus on enhancing the teaching conditions in the
Iranian ELT educational system, lower effectiveness of teachers, poor L2 learning outcomes, and a tendency for teacher
burnout may continue.
8. Limitations and suggestions for future research
With regard to the limitations of this study, English language teachers from two countries were used as the sample for
testing the measurement invariance of the three scales. Future studies checking measurement invariance employing data
from other nations would be very beneficial for verifying the cross-cultural validity of the three questionnaires in language
education. In addition, the research was limited by not considering language teachers’ background variables such as teaching
experience and gender. Further empirical studies employing bigger as well as various samples and longitudinal designs could
increase the generalizability and cast useful insight into how the three variables develop and interact over time.
9. Conclusion
Adopting a sequential explanatory mixed-methods approach, the results of the current research undertaking demon-
strated measurement invariance, including both metric and scalar invariance, revealing that the constructs underlying the
three scales possessed the same theoretical structure across two groups (i.e., British vs. Iranian). In addition, it was revealed
that both emotion regulation and PWB significantly predicted work engagement for the whole sample, although PWB was a
stronger predictor of work engagement. Furthermore, with regard to cross-cultural differences in the regression coefficients,
it was shown that the association of PWB with work engagement was stronger for British language teachers. The qualitative
data analysis revealed that the stronger interconnection between PWB and work engagement for British teachers could be
attributed to a lower degree of Iranian EFL teachers’ PWB. It is concluded that positive emotions, such as WE, PWB, and
emotion regulation, are indispensable for EFL/ESL teachers where emotions are conducive to the quality of teacher-student
interpersonal relations and communication, which are per se the primary determinants of both teachers’ effective functioning
and students’ language learning outcomes. We hope that EFL/ESL teachers with high levels of WE, PWB, and emotion
regulation can find viable solutions for the conflicting situations and construct supportive and strong relationships between
themselves and their students by enhancing bilateral cooperation and understanding.
Credit author statement
Vincent Greenier: Conceptualization, Methodology, Data curation, Visualization, Investigation, Validation, Writing-
Reviewing and Editing, Formal analysis, Project administration, Resources. Ali Derakhshan: Conceptualization, Methodology,
Data curation, Writing- Original draft preparation, Visualization, Investigation, Software, Validation, Writing- Reviewing and
Editing, Funding acquisition, Formal analysis, Project administration, Resources, Supervision (Golestan University). Jalil Fathi:
Conceptualization, Methodology, Data curation, Visualization, Investigation, Software, Validation, Writing- Reviewing and
Editing, Formal analysis, Project administration, Resources
Declaration of competing interest
None.
Acknowledgments
The present study was funded by Golestan University under the Grant Number 992053. The authors wish to thank
Golestan University for its support. They are also grateful to the insightful comments suggested by the editor and anonymous
reviewers.
Appendix A
13
Iranian teachers’ attitudes and perceptions towards teaching engagement
Categories Themes Example excerpt
Autonomy Classroom standards Rozhina: I guess autonomy and agency play crucial roles in the way I am emotionally engaged in my classrooms. I
need to realize that my voice is heard by the supervisors and colleagues and I can make decisions about the
textbook, the syllabus and assessment.
Governmental/cultural Maryam: It is not acceptable and allowed in Iran to teach some certain topics in class, while it may be quite the
constraints opposite in other countries. Moreover, the books selected in Iran for teaching are usually censored due to religious
and cultural beliefs.
Ali: When there was a homework assignment for two or more students, I could not assign girls and boys to be in
one group because of the strictness of their parents, especially those of the girls.
Social support Colleagues Saman: The role we have with our co-workers play a vital role in being engaged at work. Support and trust are the
two main necessities we need at work and having these two features in our relationships affect many other things.
Administrators Maryam: If we have a good relationship with them, we will negotiate and have a better work situation and
engagement.
Leila: Teachers should think that they are appreciated by the school principals. Teachers should feel that they are
supported by their colleagues, and principals.
External Salary Saeed: The financial aspect of teaching is the most influential factor, which can certainly affect me to like to
validation continue my job or not. If I am supported monetarily, I can spend almost all my quality time on developing my
teaching skills and caring about my students’ problems, but if I am not, I would teach reluctantly.
Respect Rozhina: If I am respected by people in society, it gives me self-confidence and motivates me to work well. I think,
teachers who are respected and praised, are more productive and participator at work, and have higher
satisfaction.
Social recognition Ali: Being recognized at work brings self-satisfaction and makes me more motivated to pursue my career
Job security Saeed: If I am sure that I have further job security in this institute, I become more motivated and try more to
become a more effective teacher.
Intrinsic Sense of responsibility Maryam: Although the work condition or atmosphere is not favorable in some cases, my personal sense of
motives responsibility makes me not to be demotivated and not to decrease the quality of my teaching.
Self-initiated interest Leila: We all should know ourselves well and be cognizant of the possible differences among all individuals
(colleagues). We should also realize the challenges of English teaching. This way we can change these two to
motivating factors; otherwise, they would ruin us. Doing a job without first justifying it for your “self” would be
like committing suicide using a slow knife.
Sense of Maryam: The feeling that I can cause a change can help me feel very engaged. I think that a good teacher should
accomplishment be able to bring about that significant change.
Organizational Learning opportunities Leila: Receiving practical methods and up-to-date approaches can have a huge impact on ELT teachers so that
climate they can convey the message more straightforwardly. Observing different classes can also help them grasp the
idea of teaching better.
Saeed: If the school provides me with learning opportunities and change, this sense of life-long learning is what
helps me stay engaged in the job.
Innovativeness Saman: Teaching might be very monotonous unless it is associated with unpredictability elements and a sense of
innovation.
Remunerative justice Rozhina: People should be posited in a place in which they have interest, skill, and expertise and they should that
they have been discriminated against.
Work Facilities Saeed: I cannot deny the role of equipment, laboratories, and the appearance of the building in making me more
environment engaged and interested in teaching.
Working hours Leila: The working hours should not be so long to make people bored and disappointed.
Friendly atmosphere Rozhina: Being in a peaceful workplace where there is no tension between colleagues with each other, where
there is no top-down system with supervisors being superior to teachers, where there is some respect to the
teachers’ performance and attempts, and where you feel fulfilled whenever you think of going to that place.
Student Student engagement Rozhina: Some students themselves are more engaged in the content, assignments, and what I present in the class.
variables In such classes, I feel more engaged.
Student motivation Ali: I suppose more motivated students can play a key role in improving the engagement of the instructors. Such
students push you to really get more involved.
Interactions with Maryam: Whenever I have further interactions with my pupils I can establish a kind of rapport with them and this
students really makes me more engaged in what I do.
Appendix B
British teachers’ attitudes and perceptions towards teaching engagement
Categories Examples
Further interaction with students Sharon: Interaction with students Yeah. face to face with students. Because I think although you go into the class with a
plan and are prepared, I don’t think you can anticipate what actually happened in the class. And so I think you’ve always
got to be, you got to respond to what happens in the class. So, yeah, I think that makes you more engaged.
Sense of purpose Nora: I think if there’s a specific goal that I’m working towards with a group of students, and I think having something
specific that I find useful that we’re doing together, rather than just doing content for the sake of it.
14
(continued )
British teachers’ attitudes and perceptions towards teaching engagement
Categories Examples
Nora: So that energy just kind of increases because I will feel that what I’m doing is worthwhile, and I’ll be able to convey
that to the students. And they should understand the worth of doing a particular activity. Because of the way I explained
it, and because of the kind of usefulness of the task.
Further perceived autonomy Edith: So as long as I’m given some leeway to slightly bend the rules, you know, to weave in and out of the rules a bit. I’m
okay. But actually, in a foreign environment, with absolutely no boundaries, which I’ve done in China and I’ve done it in
Nepal, there are formal exams at the end that is quite difficult.
Edith: I feel that Working in the UK, it’s much more independent work, which is linked to a group. Yes, it’s a team, but I
feel so far back in the UK, I feel that I’m much more of an independent worker than I am a team player. Whereas when I
work abroad, I’m 100%, the team player because these cultures don’t really have an independent work culture.
Better relationship with Edith: I worked in the Middle East, I worked in a very strict Islamic area. In the end, it was very top down. And very
management dominant. And the trust relationship between management and teacher was absolutely the worst I’ve ever seen. Very
bad. And so the management will be worried that you’re doing something and they’ll put new measures in. And then the
teacher would try and subvert that and try and go around it.
Positive attitudes towards further Sharon: Well, I think it’s accepted that teachers work long hours. And I think it’s part of the work culture for teachers to
work hours do that, whether it’s right or wrong. I don’t know. But I, so I accept some things.
More emphasis on student Edith: You know, I’m not really into that. But if the people, some key people make it matter to me, if my students
recognition acknowledge that I’m doing a good job, if my immediate line manager thinks I’m doing, you know, a reasonable job, I’m
okay with that. I you know, I’m okay with that kind of acknowledgement. But no acknowledge or judgement at all is
really hard at work. So, I would say I need to be acknowledged, not necessarily recognized.
Sharon: Yeah, I think students first and foremost would be most important to me. I think when you’ve been teaching for a
while you came to, and you can read people and you, you know, when the class is not following you, and, you know,
when they’re engaged, so I think, and it’s nice when, at the end of the course, students send you a nice email or something
like that. That’s what’s nice to get back in terms of recognition.
Better group work culture Edith: Because in the classroom, I’ve worked in many countries where the concept of working in a group is completely
alien. So, working in a group is just impossible to get them to do it virtually (meaning online). They don’t work well in
groups. And so it’s quite alien. And so that is a difference if somebody was coming into the UK, that kind of idea that you
can learn in a group. In fact, a lot of the courses when we teach here, we spend the first two weeks trying to convince
Chinese students that actually this is a good idea and that the teacher doesn’t know everything. So that’s a big difference.
Nora: I think British people are generally supportive and friendly to their colleagues, like you come to work. You want to
work hard, but you still want to enjoy your time. So, there’s always some sort of banter or, well, the majority of British
workplaces, I would say it’s quite friendly and supportive. But you are expected to work hard, but you’re expected to play
hard as well.
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Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Emotion regulation and psychological well-being in teacher

2.1. Work engagement

2.2. Psychological well-being

2.3. Emotion regulation

4. Materials and methods

Rozhina F 30 e Institutes (General courses and IELTS); High school students

Saeed M 29 e Institutes (General courses and TOEFL)

Maryam F 35 e University students (General courses and IELTS); High school

Saman M 36 e University students (EAP & IELTS)

Ali M 38 e University students (EAP & IELTS)

4.2.1. Engagement scale

4.2.2. Emotion regulation scale

4.2.3. Psychological well-being at work

4.3.1. Data analysis

5.1. The quantitative analysis

Iranian British Cronbach’s alpha

**p < 0.01.

5.2. The qualitative analysis

Model c2 df CFI DCFI RMSEA DRMSEA

8. Limitations and suggestions for future research

Credit author statement

Declaration of competing interest

Iranian teachers’ attitudes and perceptions towards teaching engagement

Categories Themes Example excerpt

British teachers’ attitudes and perceptions towards teaching engagement

British teachers’ attitudes and perceptions towards teaching engagement

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