#ArmMeWith: Resources for Teacher Wellbeing

Abstract

With teacher burnout on the rise in the US, this study explores the resources that teachers report to need to buffer the demands of their job and to increase their experience of wellbeing instead of stress and burnout. The data consists of tweets that teachers posted as a part of the #ArmMeWith Twitter campaign to voice the resource that they need in their job. We used thematic analysis to categorize teacher resource needs from 2,639 tweets. Using the Job Demands-Resources theory (JD-R) of employee wellbeing, we sorted codes into themes (physical, psychological, social, organizational), and investigated resource needs across regions of the United States. In this sample, teachers reported needs in all JD-R resource categories, and we identified an additional theme of institutional resource needs to represent the need for political and social change that teachers reported. In our frequency analysis, the need for physical and organizational resources were the most prevalent, and we found no regional differences. This research contributes to the literature on teacher wellbeing by highlighting resources that have the potential to bolster teacher wellbeing. The research also contributes to the JD-R theory by suggesting that institutional factors may contribute to employee wellbeing.