Project Information

Teaching staff from up to 25% of primary, intermediate, composite, and secondary schools were invited to participate in a research project about the wellbeing of New Zealand teachers in mid-2018.

What is the aim of the project?
The study aims to investigate wellbeing among primary and secondary teachers in New Zealand in order to identify and understand their perception of their own wellbeing, to understand the individual and contextual contributory factors, and to compare teachers with the general New Zealand population.

What type of participants are being sought?
This study sought involvement from teachers in primary, intermediate, composite, and secondary state and state-integrated schools throughout New Zealand. A small number of teachers who completed the questionnaire were given the chance to participate in the follow-up interview stage of the research and these interviews were carried out in late 2019.

What will participants be asked to do?
Teachers who were invited to participate and who subsequently agreed to take part were asked to complete an online questionnaire called the Sovereign New Zealand Wellbeing Index developed by the Human Potential Centre, AUT, Auckland, and adapted for this research. It was estimated to take 30 minutes and teachers had two weeks to complete it.  At the end of the questionnaire, participants were asked to indicate their willingness to be involved in a follow-up interview with the researcher.  If teachers did not wish to be considered for an interview, their involvement stopped at this point.

Teachers  who agreed to be considered for a follow-up interview were contacted sometime after the questionnaires had been collected and analysed. At that time, they were notified as to whether or not they had been selected to be interviewed. Interview participants were chosen to ensure the sample included people who were the best information holders.

What data or information will be collected and what use will be made of it?
The purpose of the questionnaire was to gather data about teachers' perceptions, beliefs, and experiences related to their personal wellbeing so that trends and findings of interest for other educators could be identified. The questionnaire was an online survey that contained questions on wellbeing, health, and lifestyle and consisted of rating scales, checklists, and open-ended questions.

The purpose of the interview was to explore in more depth some of the themes and findings from the questionnaire data and to gain more insight into the wellbeing of teachers from teachers' personal perspectives.  It involved an open-questioning technique. The themes explored included factors which contribute to wellbeing, factors which detract from wellbeing, strategies undertaken to support wellbeing, and work-based contributory factors.

Raw data may only be accessible to the student researcher, Prof. Ross Notman, Dr. Keryn Pratt and Ass. Prof. Jacques van der Meer. In the event that research findings are presented and/or published, the schools and participants' anonymity will be protected by aggregated data and/or pseudonyms.

The data collected is securely stored in such a way that only those mentioned above will be able to gain access to it. Data obtained as a result of the research will be retained for at least 5 years in secure storage, as required by the University's research policy, after which it will be destroyed. Any personal information held on the participants will be destroyed at the completion of the research even though the data derived from the research will, in most cases, be kept for much longer or possibly indefinitely.

The results of the project may be published and will be available in the University of Otago Library (Dunedin, New Zealand). You are most welcome to request a copy of the results of the project. Results will also be published on this site as they become available.

Can participants change their mind and withdraw from the project?
Participants may withdraw from participation at any time and without disadvantage of any kind.

What if participants or other educators have any questions?
If you have any questions about our project, either now or in the future, please feel free to contact either of us. You may wish to use the Contact Form, or use our emails which are below.