The Relationship Between Awe And Occupational Well-Being Among Primary And Secondary School Teachers

Only with awe can one have a prudent attitude and behavior.The trait awe is an essential personality trait for teachers.Teachers are professionals who perform teaching duties.In particular,primary and secondary school teachers are the critical determinants of the quality of basic education.The special nature of their profession requires them to work and live with a sense of awe.Due to the clash of diverse cultures and values,a few violations of teacher ethics have caused the public to lose respect for teachers.Along with the decline in social status and the long-standing skepticism of society,teachers’awe for the teaching profession has become more of a concern.Furthermore,the lack of professional well-being of teachers has also become a widespread concern among all sectors of society.To our best knowledge,existing studies lack systematic research on the trait awe of primary and secondary school teachers and have not paid enough attention to the relationship between teachers’trait awe and professional well-being and its internal mechanism.It is necessary to explore the relation between trait awe and professional well-being for primary and secondary school teachers.It will not only conducive to systematically detecting the characteristics and current situation of the trait awe among primary and secondary school teachers,but also revealing the internal pathways and mechanism that affect the professional well-being.Last but not least,we will provide countermeasures and suggestions for cultivating the trait awe for teachers and facilitating their professional well-being.From variable-and person-centered perspectives,this paper examined the association between trait awe and professional well-being of primary and secondary school teachers through a three-part questionnaire approach.The first part examined the factor structure,reliability,and validity of the Trait Awe Questionnaire and Professional Well-being Questionnaire for primary and secondary school teachers.321 valid subjects were selected in this part.We examined and obtained trait awe and professional well-being questionnaires,which are applicable to primary and secondary school teachers in China.In the second part,using a variable-centered approach,1037 valid subjects were chosen to explore the effect of trait awe on the professional well-being of primary and secondary school teachers and its mediating mechanism.Based on a person-centered approach,the third section recruited 520 valid subjects and then explored the potential types of trait awe and influencing factors and their effects on variables related to professional well-being.The results were as follows:1.The bifactor model showed that the trait awe was predominately explained by general rather than domain-specific factors and thus should be described by the total score.The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for trait awe was 0.950 and the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for professional well-being was 0.933.The composite reliability for trait awe was 0.962 and the composite reliability for professional well-being was 0.951.Both trait awe and professional well-being had good reliability.The average variance extracted(AVE)for trait awe and professional well-being was 0.528 and 0.530 respectively,supporting good convergent validity.The coefficient of correlation between dispostional awe and trait awe was 0.447,with an absolute value smaller than the square root of the AVE;similarly,the coefficient of correlation between occupational well-being and job satisfaction was 0.755,with an absolute value smaller than the square root of the AVE.In addition,trait awe was also significantly correlated with occupational well-being(r=0.495,p<0.001),with the absolute value of the correlation coefficient also less than the square root of the AVE.Thus,good criteria-related and discriminant validity for trait awe and occupational well-being were supported.2.There were positive correlations between trait awe,professional identity,professional engagement,and professional well-being among primary and secondary school teachers.The constructed chain mediated model of professional identity and professional engagement fitted well(χ~2=467.273(df=68),RMSEA(90%C.I.)=0.075[0.069,0.082],CFI=0.945,TLI=0.926,SRMR=0.056).In this chain mediated model,the trait awe not only directly predicted occupational well-being,but also indirectly influenced occupational well-being through the chain mediated effect of occupational identity and occupational engagement;the mediated effect of occupational identity was0.299,accounting for 42.9%of the total effect,the mediated effect of occupational engagement was 0.047,accounting for 6.7%of the total effect,and the serial mediated effect of occupational identity and occupational engagement was 0.166,accounting for23.8%of the total effect.The direct effect of the trait awe was 0.185,accounting for26.5%of the total effect.Though there were differences in the models between novice,skilled,and expert teachers,multiple structural equation models supported measurement invariance across teacher types.3.There were three potential types of trait awe in primary and secondary school teachers,namely low trait awe(6.7%),medium trait awe(48.5%),and high trait awe(44.7%).They were influenced by factors such as professional status and marriage.Compared to teachers in the low trait awe group,there were more teachers in the medium and high trait awe groups who were highly qualified and married.The potential types of trait awe had a significant effect on teachers’professional identity,professional engagement,and professional well-being.Teachers with higher trait awe had higher levels of professional identity,professional engagement,and professional well-being and vice versa.The recommended total scores for teachers’trait awe and the best cut-off values for its four parts can effectively identify the different potential types of teacher trait awe.4.This study proposes recommendations and countermeasures based on empirical research to improve and enhance the awe traits of primary and secondary school teachers:(1)developing a group counselling programme for the majority of teachers to shape and enhance their awe traits;(2)focusing on teacher professional training and counselling,and enhancing teachers’professional identity in the process of subject skills counselling for all teachers;(3)focusing on the work of teachers,supporting and enabling all teachers to gain and fully develop autonomy in their work;and(4)the use of positive psychology as a theoretical guide for counselling and interventions and strategies for teachers with low awe traits.In a nutshell,this research shows that trait awe among primary and secondary school teachers is mainly above a moderate level,and the primary and secondary school teachers are predominantly of the medium and high awesome trait types,indicating primary and secondary school teachers do not lose their awe;trait awe can significantly predict teachers’professional well-being,and professional identity and professional engagement play a chain mediating role between the two.Overall,trait awe is an important factor in promoting teachers’professional well-being.The implication of this research is significant for encouraging trait awe in primary and secondary school teachers;moreover,professional identity and professional engagement are facilitated by acculturating and developing teachers’trait awe,and then promoting professional well-being.Educational administrators can enhance the level of trait awe in primary and secondary school teachers through multi-level and multi-practice educational approaches such as group counselling,career counselling and training,and psychological counselling.