Teacher Well‐Being Across Career Stages: An Ecological Study of Early‐ and Mid‐Career English Teachers in Japanese Secondary Schools

ABSTRACT Teacher well‐being has garnered increasing attention in language education, as it plays a vital role in shaping both their professional lives and student learning. Although its importance is recognised, further research is still needed to gain a more comprehensive understanding of language teachers' well‐being. Especially, experienced teacher well‐being is considerably under‐researched compared to early‐career teachers, who have received a dominant focus in previous research. This study explores how teacher well‐being is shaped across career stages by gathering data from interviews with English language teachers in Japanese secondary schools, comparing those in the early ( n = 3) and mid‐career ( n = 2) phases. Using thematic analysis, teacher well‐being was sought through the combination of ecological and challenges‐and‐resources perspectives. The study revealed that different multilayered factors intricately contributed to teacher well‐being development, ranging from individual to macrosystem levels. This psychological landscape also somewhat varied across career stages, with early‐career teachers relying more on external support and mid‐career teachers drawing upon internal resources and professional experiences to bounce back from their challenges. The study highlights the crucial impact of multi‐level ecological factors on teacher well‐being, providing important insights for developing tailored practices to empower language teachers.