Unpacking purpose, meaning, and vision: A configurational analysis of language educators' job crafting practices

This study explores how purpose, meaning, and vision shape job crafting behaviors among English Language Teaching (ELT) instructors in Türkiye. Using an integrated approach that combines qualitative process-tracing with crisp-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (csQCA), the research investigates the mechanisms through which these psychological constructs influence how educators proactively reshape their professional roles. Data were collected through autobiographical narratives, semi-structured interviews, and reflective journals from language educators, followed by a broader survey to enable set-theoretic analysis. The findings reveal that purpose, meaning, and vision function as distinct but complementary pathways to job crafting. The study identifies specific configurations of these constructs that lead to different job crafting domains and explores their temporal and bi-directional relationships. These findings extend job crafting theory by highlighting multiple causal pathways and identifying the particular importance of these constructs in educational contexts. The research offers practical implications for teacher education, institutional support structures, and professional development programs, emphasizing the need to nurture educators' sense of purpose, meaning, and vision to enhance their professional agency and effectiveness.