Exploring foreign language teacher agency for professional wellbeing: A case study

Maintaining and cultivating the professional wellbeing of foreign language teachers is significant, not just for their benefit, but also for those with whom they interact, particularly their learners. For this reason, it is significant to investigate how they exercise their agency to achieve their wellbeing. In this doctoral thesis, complex dynamics system theory perspective is employed to explore the agency of two foreign language teachers in relation to their professional wellbeing. To gain a comprehensive view of their experiences, Retrodictive Qualitative Modeling (Dörnyei, 2014) was utilized. From this comprehensive perspective, the study aims to explore the agentic actions that contribute to the professional wellbeing of teachers and the influences that lead language teachers to exercise their agency. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews, narrative interviews, and follow-up interviews. The exploratory study of the cases identified five key components that contribute to professional wellbeing: classroom instruction and management, professional development, emotional regulation, relationships, and accepting vs. coping with working conditions. To validate the significance of the identified agentic actions, a checklist was created and examined using Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) by 14 foreign language instructors exhibiting diverse levels of agency and professional wellbeing. This research contributes to the field of language teacher education by examining agency for professional wellbeing from a broader perspective by examining the issue from the lens of complex dynamic systems theory. Furthermore, offering insights into the complex factors affecting teacher professional wellbeing and providing practical agentic actions for enhancement within educational contexts.