An Investigation into the Views of Refugee Students’ Teachers on Their Subjective Well-Being - A Qualitative Descriptive Study

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by dabgoudw

Negative effects of natural and social issues have made subjective well-being a major health concern, and teachers’ well-being is pivotal to education system functioning. This qualitative descriptive study investigates refugees’ teachers’ views on their subjective well-being through semi-structured interviews. Data were collected from seven teachers at a public primary school in Çanakkale, Turkey, during fall semester 2020–2021. Four themes emerged: family relationships, communication with refugee students, cooperation with parents, and working conditions.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages12

Reading Time30 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

An Investigation into the Views of Refugee Students’Teachers on Their Subjective Well-Being: A Qualitative Descriptive Study Nejat İRA1 Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University Eylem YALÇINKAYA-ÖNDER2 Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University Tuğçe Gül ÇETİN3 Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University Abstract The negative effects of natural and social issues on individuals have necessitated the discussion of the concept of subjective well-being as a major health concern. Teachers' subjective well-being has a crucial role in the functioning of the education system. This qualitative descriptive study aims to examine the views of refugees’ teachers on their subjective well-being. The data obtained in the study were collected with semi-structured interviews. The data were collected from seven teachers working at a public primary school in Çanakkale, Turkey in the fall semester of the 2020-2021 academic year. The analyses of the semi-structured interviews with the teachers of the refugee students produced four subjective well-being themes – i.e., family relationships, communication with refugee students, cooperation with parents, and working conditions. The data revealed that teacher's good relationships with the refugee students’ family members and parents, culture-sensitive education-oriented communication with students, and working conditions with a supporting school environment were key to enhancing subjective well-being of the refugees’ teachers. This result presented a crucial implication for policymakers to prepare in-service training for the population of the interviewed teachers. Keywords: Subjective Well-Being, Primary School Teachers, Refugee Students, Primary Schools DOI: 10.29329/epasr.2020.345.16 1 Assoc. Prof. Dr., Education Faculty, Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Çanakkale, Turkey, ORCID: 0000-0002-2271- 9353, [Correspondence](Correspondence: nejat.ira@gmail.com)[: nejat.ira@gmail.com](Correspondence: nejat.ira@gmail.com) 2 Assoc. Prof. Dr., Education Faculty, Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Çanakkale, Turkey, ORCID: 0000-0003-1306- 9931, Email: [eylemyk@gmail.com](eylemyk@gmail.com) 3 MSc, Education Faculty, Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Çanakkale, Turkey, ORCID: 0000-0003-2741-0176, Email: [tugcegullcetinn@outlook.com](tugcegullcetinn@outlook.com) Introduction The fact that today's world is facing with the negative effects of global warming, natural disasters, economic recessions, homelessness, terrorism, and wars causes sadness, anxiety, and fear. People’s challenging experiences affect well-being, a subject of positive psychology, which focuses on such other areas as happiness, strong personality, intelligence, creativity, groups, and institutions (Hefferon & Boniwell, 2011) . Well-being has complex definitions, and researchers have used similar terms, such as “happiness”,“quality of life”, or “life satisfaction”. Despite these conceptualizations, what happiness and well-being are and how they are felt is still a question that positive psychology seeks to answer (Hefferon & Boniwell, 2011) . Diener, Suh, and Oishi (1997) define subjective wellbeing (SWB) as how people evaluate their lives considering variables, such as life satisfaction, marital satisfaction, lack of depression and anxiety, and positive moods and emotions. SWB is a result of the individual's evaluations oftheir lives and emotional responses to events. Accordingly, SWB is defined as experiencing mostly positive emotions but fewer negative emotions and getting high satisfaction from life (Myers & Diener, 1995) . If individuals have positive emotions, they derive high levels of satisfaction from their lives, thus have a high level of SWB (Diener, 2000) . Similarly, Albuquerque et al. (2012) confirms that SWB is a multidimensional construct comprising three components, i.e., life satisfaction, positive emotion, and negative emotion. SWB is an essential indicator of the quality of life (Eid & Diener, 2004) and provide a necessa

FAQs

What is the study’s main purpose?

To examine refugees’ teachers’ views on their subjective well-being using a qualitative descriptive design.

How was the data collected in the study?

With semi-structured interviews conducted with seven teachers working at a public primary school in Çanakkale, Turkey.

What themes were identified from teachers’ interviews?

Four themes were identified: family relationships, communication with refugee students, cooperation with parents, and working conditions.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by dabgoudw