Language teachers’ wellbeing in Scotland: challenges and coping pathways

This study examines language teachers’ wellbeing in Scotland through a holistic ecological framework, addressing how wellbeing is shaped by challenges and coping pathways across interacting systems of practice and policy. Drawing on Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory, the research investigates the interplay between microsystem (classroom relations and pedagogy), mesosystem (collegial and external support), exosystem (school leadership, workload, curriculum and policy enactment), macrosystem (societal ideologies and national frameworks), and chronosystem (career stage and post-COVID change) layers. Data were generated through in-depth semi-structured interviews with nine primary and secondary language teachers. Approximately 80,000 words of interview data were analysed using a hybrid inductive, deductive thematic analysis, with psychological and social capital conceptualised as cross-cutting resources influencing wellbeing across systems. Findings show that teachers’ wellbeing was strongest when they could enact an “ideal teacher-self,” characterised by positive classroom rapports, meaningful communicative pedagogy, creative use of culture and projects, and confident target language use. Conversely, wellbeing was eroded by chronic workload and administrative demands, misalignment between curriculum, assessment, and pedagogy, particularly with high-stakes examinations and the marginal status of languages within schools and a predominantly monolingual societal ideology. Supportive departmental cultures, peer mentoring, collaborative school environments, fair and communicative leadership, and external social support emerged as key protective factors, while isolation and top-down decision-making intensified vulnerability. Across the chronosystem, more experienced teachers described a gradual development of boundary-setting and self-care strategies, with early-career teachers and those facing job insecurity reporting heightened vulnerability. Post-COVID schooling brought increased digital competence but also persistent pressures related to learners’ foundational skill gaps and expanded bureaucratic demands, underscoring the need for multi-level approaches to sustaining language teachers’ wellbeing.