Teachers' purpose and well-being: a study with Brazilian public school teachers in light of the Organizing Models of Thinking

• Grant number: 25/06234-0
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: September 01, 2025
• End date: August 31, 2028
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Education - Specific topics in Education
• Principal Investigator: Valéria Amorim Arantes de Araújo
• Grantee: Valéria Amorim Arantes de Araújo
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Educação (FE). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Genoveva Sastre ; Montserrat Moreno Marimon

Abstract

Abstract: The main objective of this project is to advance the understanding of the relationships between teachers' purpose (Damon, 2009; Frankl, 2008; 2021) and well-being (Ryff; Singer, 1998; Seligman, 2011; Seligman; Csikszentmihalyi, 2000; Delle Fave et al., 2013; 2011; Mahali et al., 2018). This research continues the studies of the research project "Values ¿¿and Purpose of Undergraduate Students, Pedagogy Students, and Education Professionals" (which received private funding from the Iungo Institute), whose results pointed to well-being as an essential element of purpose, through dreams, desires, and needs (Araújo; Arantes, 2023). This result then instigated us to investigate how teachers represent well-being and how the school relates to it, seeking to understand how purpose can support the development of well-being for teachers in the Brazilian public basic education system. In order to do that, the research will quantitatively and qualitatively analyze responses from an electronic questionnaire of 500 Brazilian basic education teachers, respecting the geopolitical proportionality of the Brazilian Basic Education Census. Complementarily, the study will also qualitatively analyze individual online interviews with 100 of these teachers and face-to-face interviews with 20 of them. Based on a multifactorial approach to well-being, as a construct that combines moments of pleasure with existential challenges (Delle Fave et al., 2013; 2011; Mahali et al., 2018), we aim to identify and analyze the individual views of teachers on well-being. In this process, we aim to understand their desires, dreams and needs as a result of a unique trajectory that reflects their values, beliefs, and purpose. In this sense, individual online interviews will provide a more in-depth analysis of the questionnaire responses, and face-to-face interviews will also facilitate the study of the role of emotions in these psychic constructions. (AU)