Teacher Professional Identity, Psychological Well-Being, and Educational Policy in Türkiye

Teacher professional identity is shaped by educational policies that have shifted markedly under neoliberal reform. This study examined the extent to which Turkish high school teachers in state schools adopt activist and entrepreneurial professional identities (Sachs, 2001, 2003) and how each identity type relates to their psychological well-being. A correlational survey design was used with 290 teachers from 17 public secondary schools in the Western Black Sea Region of Turkiye. Data were collected using the Activist Teacher Identity Scale (ATIS) and the Entrepreneur Teacher Identity Scale (ETIS), both developed for this study, together with the Turkish version (Telef, 2013) of Diener et al.'s (2010) Flourishing Scale. Teachers reported a high level of activist identity (M = 4.14) and a low level of entrepreneur identity (M = 2.55). Pearson correlations indicated a positive, moderate relationship between activist identity and psychological well-being (r = .33, p < .01) and a negative, weak relationship between entrepreneur identity and psychological well-being (r = −.20, p < .01). The findings suggest that democratic, collaborative, and critically engaged professional values are associated with greater well-being among teachers, whereas identification with managerial, performance-driven roles is associated with diminished well-being. Implications for policy, teacher education, and in-service support are discussed.