Teachers' well-being, metacognitive awareness and satisfaction with life in a school for learners with mild intellectual disability

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to design a model to determine the relationship between well-being, metacognitive awareness, and satisfaction with life of teachers in a school for learners with mild intellectual disability. To provide this nuance understanding of teachers’ well-being, and the nature of the relationship between well-being, metacognitive awareness, and satisfaction with life, a framework is offered. The framework is based on three interrelated propositions outlined in this study, namely (a) Proposition 1: Hedonic and eudaimonic well-being associates with metacognitive awareness of metacognitive regulation and knowledge; (b) Proposition 2: Metacognitive awareness of metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive regulation mediates satisfaction with life; and (c) Proposition 3: Well-being (subjective and objective) leads to satisfaction with life independently (subjective or objective). A mixed-method design consisting of a pragmatic paradigm was employed. The merging of the quantitative (correlations) and qualitative (relationships) findings confirmed the association between well-being, metacognitive awareness, and satisfaction with life. In Proposition 1, strong correlations were found between hedonic and eudaimonic well-being and metacognitive awareness of participants was also confirmed. The association between the constructs in Proposition 1 is therefore established in the quantitative and qualitative results. In Proposition 2, a significant association was found between metacognitive awareness of metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive regulation, as well as satisfaction with life as indicated in the quantitative and qualitative results of this study. In Proposition 3, the association between well-being (subjective and objective) that leads to satisfaction with life independently (subjective or objectivewas confirmed in the quantitative and qualitative results. Results and findings also confirmed that teachers in schools for learners with mild intellectual disability, specifically in the Gauteng and North-West province, experience well-being. The schools in the sample represented teachers teaching in schools for learners with mild intellectual disability in the Gauteng and North-West province in South-Africa and therefore, the findings should not be generalised to all schools in general.