Mapping the association between productive immunity, emotion regulation, resilience, and autonomy in higher education

Abstract

Abstract In recent years, more attention has been paid to the psychological and physical well-being of educators. Nevertheless, inadequate attention has been paid to the mediator function of teacher immunity (TI), teacher emotion regulation (TER), teacher resilience (TR), and teacher autonomy (TA) in higher education. This study developed a model to demonstrate the interplay between TI, TER, TR, and TA in an effort to solve the existing research gap. To compile this information, 492 university academics who are currently working in the position of English as a foreign language teacher at various universities throughout Iran have participated in an online survey. They were asked to expressed their opinions with respect to four instruments: the language teacher immunity instrument, the language teacher emotion regulation inventory, the teacher resilience scale, and the teacher autonomy questionnaire. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling indicated that university professors who developed productive immunity and emotion regulation are more resilient and autonomous. In conclusion, the implications as well as the future direction of the study were presented to enthusiastic researchers as well as educators. This can help increase the researchers’ and educators’ understanding of the connection between TI, TER, TR, and TA and how it can produce positive results for students.

Keywords

• Teacher immunity
• Emotion regulation
• Resilience
• Autonomy
• Higher education