Exploring the Responsibilities, Boundaries, and Well-Being of Teachers in the Philippines

Abstract

Teacher identity is a multidimensional construct that includes elements such as teachers’ perceptions of their responsibilities and the boundaries they place on those responsibilities. The purpose of this study was to examine how elements of teacher identity, specifically their perceived responsibilities and the boundaries they place on their responsibilities, are related to teacher well-being. Individual, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 23 teachers in the Philippines. Teachers were asked about their perceptions of their responsibilities, where they draw the boundaries on what they are responsible for, and their feelings of stress and burnout. A grounded theory approach was used to develop a coding scheme and code the interview transcripts. The results revealed that most of the teachers in the sample felt responsible for promoting both academic and social–moral development in their students but created boundaries that prevented them from prying into students’ personal lives and helped them maintain professional boundaries. Unlike many teachers in the U.S., few of the teachers in the Filipino sample expressed high levels of burnout or a desire to leave the profession. We argue that cultural differences in the way teachers define their roles and responsibilities may explain the differences in the burnout levels of teachers in the U.S. compared to those of teachers in the Philippines. Lessons learned from how teachers with low levels of burnout define their roles and responsibilities can be used to help teachers at risk of burning out reframe their role identities.

1. Introduction

In the United States, the teaching profession is described as being in crisis. Across the nation, thousands of teaching positions are unoccupied, and the teacher shortage is especially acute in lower-income rural and urban areas. A recent survey conducted by the National Education Association found that 55% of current teachers have said they are considering leaving the profession earlier than they had planned (Walker, 2022) and about 44% have said they regularly experience feelings of burnout (Marken & Agrawal, 2022). In addition, the number of students applying to teacher education programs has declined considerably, indicating that fewer people are going into the profession, thereby adding to the teacher shortage.

These statistics suggest that teacher well-being is under threat. Well-being is the product of several factors including stress and burnout that negatively affect well-being and positive emotions and feeling satisfied with the job that contribute to teacher well-being (Hascher & Waber, 2021). In addition, teacher well-being is associated with important outcomes, including how long teachers persist in the profession, how effective they are, how often they are absent, and their willingness to help with school reform efforts (Duckworth et al., 2009; UNESCO, 2023). There is evidence that teacher well-being was low in the U.S. before 2020 and that the stressors introduced by the COVID-19 pandemic have exacerbated the stress and burnout teachers experience (Jerrim et al., 2024; Ma et al., 2022).

There are a number of factors that contribute to teacher burnout and dissatisfaction with the profession. In the U.S., teachers often complain about low pay (especially in cities with high housing costs); a lack of professional respect; the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath (Baker et al., 2021); several recent attacks on teacher autonomy, including book bans, limits on what they can tell students about sexual orientation, gender identity, and racism (United States House of Representatives Staff Report, 2023); and the emphasis on standardized testing (Urdan & Paris, 1994).

In addition to these common complaints, teachers in the U.S. may be influenced by cultural values and an ethos that contribute to burnout. The emphasis on individualism that exists in the U.S. creates common messages about how members of the society, including teachers, have a responsibility to be special and to make a difference (Buchanan, 2015). The popular culture in the U.S., including many movies and stories about teachers, promote an ideal of individuals as heroes who use their abilities and passion to create meaningful change. For example, popular movies about teachers almost all depict the teachers as entering very challenging schools and classrooms where students are unruly and uninterested in learning. Very quickly, the teachers in these movies overcome the odds, manage to engage students, and soon the students’ lives are changed for the better. Dangerous Minds, Stand and Deliver, and Freedom Writers are but three examples of such movies.

This cultural emphasis on the power of individuals to make a difference may cause many teachers in the U.S. to enter the profession with unrealistic ideas about what they can accomplish. Some may have a “savior complex” (Aronson, 2017) where they believe they have a responsibility to rescue poor and low-achieving students from the harsh circumstances of their lives and lead them to great heights of achievement. Indeed, teachers often list lofty purposes as the reasons they became teachers, including “to make a difference” and to “reduce inequality” and to “strengthen democracy” (Fried, 2013). Although these are noble reasons for entering the teaching profession, they can have the unintended consequences of creating among teachers a set of responsibilities that are very difficult to meet (Herman et al., 2020). When teachers feel they are responsible for the success of all of their students and some of their students fail, teachers may blame themselves. Similarly, when teachers take on the responsibility for meeting other student needs (e.g., bringing food for hungry students, intervening in difficult interpersonal relationships students may have at home or with peers, helping with students’ mental health challenges), they may quickly become overwhelmed, exhausted, and burnt out. In short, teacher well-being may suffer when teachers feel they are unable to meet overwhelming responsibilities (Hargreaves & Tucker, 1991).

2. Teacher Identity and Perceived Responsibilities

The study described in this article was guided by two related perspectives. First, we believe that how teachers define and think about their responsibilities is an important element of their identities as teachers. The Dynamic Systems Model of Role Identity (DSMRI; Kaplan & Garner, 2017) posits that individuals have different roles in different contexts, and these roles are associated with various responsibilities. For example, in the classroom a teacher may perceive that part of their role is to provide students with information to learn, and therefore one of their responsibilities is to find the information and then present it to students in a comprehensible manner. That perceived role can quickly and temporarily shift, however, if a student becomes disruptive. Now, the teacher may perceive their responsibility as calming the student down and returning to an orderly classroom. When the teacher meets with a school administrator later that day to discuss plans for an upcoming event at the school, the teacher’s role shifts to a more subservient position with responsibilities including listening and demonstrating a willingness to help with the planning. According to the DSMRI, perceived roles are dynamic, changing across situations and also evolving over time. New teachers may perceive their roles and responsibilities quite differently from veteran teachers who have perhaps mastered classroom management strategies and now must figure out how to spend less time working and more time taking care of their own children at home (Garner & Kaplan, 2019).

One major influence on teacher identity, including how teachers perceive their roles and responsibilities, is the cultural context in which they live and work (Hong et al., 2024). Teacher identity in the U.S. is shaped by the cultural ethos of individualism (as described above), and it is also influenced by where teachers work and the students served by the teachers. For example, a white, middle-class teacher working in a wealthy suburb and teaching mostly wealthy white students may perceive her role very differently than if this same teacher were teaching mostly Black or Latinx students at an under-resourced school in a low-income neighborhood. Similarly, the cultural values that are dominant in specific countries very likely influence the ways that teachers think about their role identities. For example, a number of researchers have noted how Confucianism is infused into Chinese education and affects teachers’ role identities. Teachers and students view teachers as authority figures who deserve deference and respect, and teachers believe part of their responsibilities is to serve as role models and to help students develop morality (Tan, 2017; Wang, 2004). The strong collectivist orientation in China and other East Asian countries also leads teachers to adopt the perspective that their jobs are part of a larger societal fabric and their responsibility is to contribute to the betterment of society, not just to be an effective teacher for themselves (Liang et al., 2023).

In contrast, a Western culture such as the U.S., with a strong emphasis on individualism, may lead many teachers to think of themselves and their role responsibilities quite differently. In the U.S., there are numerous websites and programs for teachers that encourage them to help students identify their unique strengths and to fulfill their unique potential (e.g., https://www.teachersoftomorrow.org/blog/insights/reasons-why-teachers-play-a-crucial-role-in-society/) accessed on 14 February 2025. Teachers are tasked with individualizing instruction to meet the needs of individual students, and they are often told that they must find ways to motivate students with varied skills and interests (e.g., Arroyo et al., 1999). There is not a strong tradition in U.S. schools of teachers automatically having the respect of their students or the general public (Will, 2022), and students are often encouraged to challenge teachers if they disagree with them or their policies. In addition, teachers in the U.S., especially those teaching secondary school, are more likely to focus on teaching students the subject matter and less likely to adopt the role of moral authority or sculptor of student character.

We were interested in examining how teachers define their roles and responsibilities in the Philippines because of the interesting mix of cultural influences present there. It is an Asian country, so it may have similar cultural influences on teachers’ role identities as those of other countries in the Far East such as China. Specifically, the Confucian view of education as something designed to foster both academic and character development may be found in Filipino culture as well. In addition, as an East Asian country, the Philippines may have a cultural emphasis on a collectivist view of self, rather than the more individualistic self-definition generally found in the U.S. However, the Philippines has also been strongly influenced by Spanish and American cultures over the years, possibly influencing how teachers view their roles. Given what we know from research about how American teachers may define their roles in ways that contribute to high levels of stress and burnout, we wanted to see if Filipino teachers would be similar or different from American teachers in their role identities and well-being.

2.1. What Do We Know About Teacher Responsibilities?

Research examining teachers’ perceptions of their responsibilities indicates much overlap and some distinctions across cultures. For example, just about all teachers believe they have a responsibility to teach the content of their subjects, assess student learning, and maintain an orderly classroom. Beliefs about the nature of instruction and effective pedagogy may differ, with a greater emphasis on rote memorization and discipline in a culture like China’s (Biggs, 1996) and a greater emphasis on catering to the individual strengths and interests of students in the U.S. (Blumenfeld et al., 2021; Pane et al., 2020). But teachers everywhere believe it is their responsibility to help students understand content in a safe and orderly classroom and to assess student learning.

Most of the existing research on teachers’ perceptions of their responsibilities comes from research conducted in the U.S. and Western Europe. Recently, this research has emphasized the growing burden teachers feel because of what they perceive to be increasing responsibilities in numerous areas (Education Support, 2023). In addition to the usual demands of teaching students their content and assessing their knowledge, over the last two decades teachers have also been told they are responsible for meeting accountability standards by preparing students for success on standardized tests, promoting inclusivity and equity in the classroom, developing social–emotional learning among students, and catering to the individual needs and strengths of students (Gunawardena et al., 2024). These increased demands on teachers in the U.S. are contributing to their emotional exhaustion and burnout. In addition, teachers in the U.S., especially early in their careers, often believe it is their responsibility to help their students overcome educational deficits from impoverished home lives, placing a greater burden on themselves and creating less of a sense of shared responsibility for student development and well-being (Emdin, 2016).

2.2. Aims of the Present Study

The goal of the present study is to examine how a sample of teachers in the Philippines think about their role identities and responsibilities as teachers, and how these elements of teacher identity may affect indicators of well-being like burnout and stress. Lauermann and Karabenick (2011, 2013) provided a useful framework for thinking about teacher responsibilities by dividing them into several components, including what teachers believe their responsibilities are, for whom they are responsible, and to what realms these responsibilities extend. Using their framework as a guide, we examined how our sample of teachers in the Philippines describe their role identities and responsibilities, the limitations of their responsibilities, with whom they share responsibility for student development, and where they draw the boundaries of their responsibilities. We then consider how this sample of teachers describe their stress and burnout and how these may be linked to their responsibilities.

3. Methods

3.1. Sample

Interviews were conducted with 23 teachers in Makati, San Juan, and Taguig, the Philippines. Thirteen of the teachers were male (56%) and taught between grades 7 and 12. The average years of teaching experience was 18.57 years (SD = 11.18), with teachers ranging from 1 to 39 years of experience. Some of the teachers trained to become teachers at university whereas others pursued different professions after university and entered the teaching profession later. Depending on the institution, formal teacher training through an academic degree may or may not be required.

The sample of teachers was collected from three different private schools located in the Philippines’ National Capital Region. Participants were selected through convenience sampling. After receiving approval by the administration of each school, an email was sent out to teachers asking for volunteers. Criteria for qualifying teachers included them having at least 1 year of teaching experience; teaching full time; and teaching either junior high school, senior high school, or both. The schools included one local private Jesuit all-boys institution, one local private Jesuit co-education school, and one international private school. The schools had populations of approximately 4000 students, 5000 students, and 2000 students, respectively. Students in all schools came from mostly middle-to-high-income families. Public schools were not considered for data gathering due to time and legal constraints. School selection was convenience sampling-based, and teacher participation was voluntary. The first author is a native of the Philippines, familiar with the three schools from which the teachers were selected, and is fluent in both English and Tagalog.

The Philippines is a majority-Catholic, Southeast Asian country with strong American, Spanish, and Chinese influences. It has a largely collectivist culture and is very community- and family-oriented. There also exists a culture of respect and deference toward elders and people in positions of power. Education and educators are valued and respected, although not particularly well paid, and teachers are viewed as authority figures responsible for helping youth develop both academically and socially.

3.2. Interview Procedure

This study received approval from the Institutional Review Board (Number 22-07-1812, approved 22 July 2022) at our home institution and was also approved by the administrators of the three participating schools. Prior to the interviews, participants were provided with information about the purpose and procedure of the interview and were informed about their rights as participants, including the right to decline to answer any particular questions or to withdraw from the interview at any time without penalty. Participants gave informed consent verbally to participate in this study and were informed that their responses during the interviews would remain confidential. Data collection took place between July 2023 and August 2023 and was mostly in English. Interviews were conducted with teachers individually, and each interview lasted between 24 and 52 min. The first four interviews were conducted over Zoom and were conducted by both authors. The remaining interviews were conducted in person at the schools, in private rooms at the respective schools where the teachers worked, and were conducted independently by the first author. All interviews were recorded and transcribed to ensure accuracy during data analysis. Teachers were given the option of answering questions in English or Tagalog, whichever was most comfortable for them. All of the teachers chose to be interviewed in English.

The broad theme of the interview questions was teacher identity. We selected interview methodology because we were interested in understanding how teachers thought about their responsibilities, boundaries, and well-being in some depth. Survey methods do not allow for real-time follow-up questions, making it difficult to delve deeper into teacher beliefs and the sources of those beliefs. The interviews were semi-structured with a set of topics that we wanted to learn about and room for follow-up questions to delve more deeply into the topics that teachers mentioned. In each interview, we asked teachers questions about how they got into the teaching profession, what they felt were some challenges and joys of teaching, the quality of their relationships with their students, and what kinds of support systems they had. In addition, we asked questions about the main foci of this paper: what they perceived to be their main responsibilities as teachers; where they drew the boundaries of their responsibilities; and their feelings of well-being, emotional exhaustion, and burnout. We were particularly interested in how their perceptions of themselves as teachers may have changed during their careers. For example, to gain information about how teachers thought about their responsibilities, we asked questions such as “What do you think your main responsibilities as a teacher are? Have those responsibilities changed during your career, or remained the same?” Although the interviews followed an open-ended, discussion-style format, we used a question guide to keep track of what topics the interview covered and to ensure that we asked about all of the topics that interested us.

3.3. Data Analysis

We used a coding scheme for interview data developed from previous research conducted in other countries by the second author. This coding scheme was developed using a grounded theory framework (Chun Tie et al., 2019), following an iterative pattern of development and modifications. First, using prior research on teacher identity and responsibilities, a set of coding categories were created that included codes about teacher beliefs, perceptions of their responsibilities, the nature of their relationships with students, and how they have changed over time. Next, as we read through the teacher interview transcripts, we noted additional themes that appeared across several interviews, such as the support systems teachers have, the challenges teachers face, the emotional toll of teaching, and feelings of burnout. As we applied the coding system to the current sample of teacher interviews, we added new codes as necessary to capture the concepts relevant to our research question, particularly about how teachers place boundaries around their responsibilities. We should note that teachers often discussed topics that were not related to our research question and were therefore not coded. For example, teachers often described specific teaching practices, such as how they taught a specific mathematical concept, or a classroom management practice. Because we were more interested in how teachers felt about themselves, their responsibilities, and their well-being, we did not focus on specific pedagogical practices in our coding. The list of categories that were included in our final coding scheme are presented in

Table 1. Coding categories for analysis of the teacher interviews.

Category	Description
Entering the profession	How and why teachers became teachers.
Student needs	Statements about what students need.
Support systems	Who teachers turn to for support and help.
Teacher–student relationship quality	How well teachers believe they get along with their students, closeness of their relationships
Responsibilities	What teachers feel they are responsible for, particularly regarding students’ achievement, motivation, social development, and emotional or physical well-being.
Boundaries	Where teachers draw the line, and which responsibilities they have decided are not theirs.
Challenges	What teachers find difficult or challenging about the job.
Joys	What teachers enjoy or love about the job.
Path to burnout	Statements about emotional exhaustion, stressors, and factors that contribute to feeling burnt out.
Beliefs about students	Statements about what they think students are like, traits or characteristics that students have, what students care about, how students spend their time.
How they have changed	Statements about how they have changed as teachers.
Why they have changed	What teachers said about the causes of any changes they mentioned.
Overall identity statements	How teachers think of themselves, broadly, as teachers; how teachers think students view them.

.

After data were collected, the first author, along with another junior researcher who joined the project after the interviews were conducted, coded three interview transcripts together under the observation of the second author. They then each coded a common set of five transcripts separately in order to establish inter-rater agreement. The researchers then met to discuss their individual codes, with a total of 95 agreements and 19 disagreements, producing an inter-rater agreement rate of 83%. Following this, the researchers then met to discuss and resolve discrepancies in the coding, in order to maximize inter-rater reliability and to streamline the transcript coding. The remaining transcripts were coded independently using MAXQDA2024. All interview segments that received the same code were compiled into aggregates reflecting such codes, as well as which teacher made each coded statement.

4. Results

Using the coded segments from the interview transcripts and holistic, summary codings of the teacher interviews, we examined how our sample of teachers spoke about their responsibilities as teachers, the boundaries they placed on their responsibilities, and their overall well-being. We summarize the results from these three areas next.

4.1. Perceived Responsibilities

Most of the teachers in our sample described their responsibilities quite broadly. In addition to the usual teacher responsibilities of presenting the curriculum and maintaining order in the classroom, the teachers in our sample also discussed their responsibility for promoting the holistic development of their students. Most teachers feel responsible for a holistic upbringing and development of their students. As one teacher said, “When you’re an advisor, being an advisor will not stop at 4 p.m. when you clock out, because you have been a part of their life, especially if they shared something with you.” (Female teacher, 6 years of experience, grades 5 and 10.) Another teacher put it this way: “We form the student not to be just intellectual beings, but rather also beings with proper virtues and values.” (Male teacher, 16 years of experience, grades 7 and 8.) In general, teachers in this sample tended to view their students holistically, focusing not just on their academic development as a member of their class but on each one as a whole person and as a member of a broader social network. This sentiment is illustrated by this quote from a third teacher: “I look at the child as a whole and, you know, the relationship they have with their family, their friends outside and inside is very important” (female teacher, 24 years of experience, grade 9).

Although most teachers in our sample said they felt responsible for the development of the whole child, including character and moral development, not all of them did. For example, one teacher, when thinking about their responsibilities outside of a student’s academics stated: “I’m not 100% comfortable with doing too much more outside of that” (male teacher, 32 years of experience, grades 11 and 12). This teacher later spoke about how they would refer students to those who are trained and able to help them navigate their lives outside of academic settings if need be. So, the overall tendency of teachers in this sample to take a quite holistic view of their responsibilities toward their students’ development was not universal, with a few teachers noting that their primary responsibilities were limited to promoting the academic development and success of their students.

4.2. Stated Boundaries on Responsibilities

In

Table 2. Number of statements and number of teachers making statements about different responsibilities and boundaries.

Responsibilities and Boundaries	Number of Statements	Number of Teachers Who Said This
Academic success only	6	2
Both academic and social development	26	11
Not involved in student issues outside of class	11	9

, we present a summary of the statements that teachers made about their responsibilities, and the boundaries they placed on their responsibilities, as well as the number of teachers who made such statements. These responsibility and boundary statements were organized into three broad groups: (1) responsibilities are limited to teaching the curriculum, (2) responsibilities include promoting both academic and social development among students, (3) not meddling in students’ social or emotional lives too deeply unless a student asks them directly for help.

Based on the interviews, it is clear that the teachers in our Filipino sample care deeply about their students. As the results presented in Table 1 indicate, most of the teachers believed that their responsibilities extended beyond presenting academic content in an orderly environment, and many even said they extended beyond the classroom. However, all of the teachers we interviewed also noted that there is a limit to their responsibilities toward their students, and that they do have limits to their emotional involvement with their students. During the interviews, teachers highlighted their views on two kinds of boundaries on responsibilities. First, they place limits on their responsibilities as emotional support for their students. Second, they do not take full responsibility for their students’ academic outcomes. We discuss each of these in turn.

Most of the teachers we interviewed said that they were open to discussing just about anything with their students, even problems in their social or emotional lives. However, they noted that there are limits to how they will discuss these kinds of issues. For example, one teacher said that students need to raise these kinds of subjects with their teachers in a respectable way. “They can talk to me about anything and everything, but … if they want to express something, they have to do that in a nice way, in a respectful way” (female teacher; 29 years of experience; grades 8, 9 and 10). This emphasis on certain expectations for civil engagement, no matter the topic being discussed, fits another theme that arose regarding boundaries: the teacher–student relationship is a hierarchical one, with the teacher as a professional and as an authority figure, not a peer or a friend. As one teacher put it, “There are certain things that they cannot do that they would normally do with their friends. So, it’s important that they understand that” (male teacher, 33 years of experience, grade 8).

Similarly, although teachers said that they were open and available for students to speak to them about personal matters, most of the teachers also noted that they do not pry or try to get involved if their students do not bring certain things up. “But for them to share their bigger problems with me or for me to care about their personal lives, I will only start to care about those if they tell me about it” (female teacher, 9 years of experience, grades 8 and 9). These teachers believed that conversations about personal matters needed to be instigated by students, and that teachers asking students to divulge too much about their personal lives was a professional boundary they were not comfortable crossing. Another teacher, when asked about boundaries, put it this way: “I don’t really delve or investigate personal matters about them. So, if it’s not something that they open up, I don’t talk about” (male teacher, 16 years of experience, grades 7 and 8). In addition, teachers sometimes acknowledged that some matters raised by students were outside of the teachers’ realms of expertise, so they would pass the responsibility for handling such problems onto those who have the training necessary to handle the situation. “It just kind of depends on what the student shows that they need or and if I’m able to offer the same level of vulnerability. And if the answer is no, then I’m happy to send them to a counselor, somebody that is willing to do that” (male teacher; 21 years of experience; grades 10, 11, and 12).

The majority of the teachers in our sample also placed clear boundaries on how much responsibility they were willing to take for their students’ academic success. Although they all felt a responsibility to do their best to teach their students and support their learning, they also noted that there was only so much they could do, and that much of the responsibility for student success depends on factors and on people beyond their control. “These are things beyond my control. And these are things that are given. Sometimes there are things that you do it, you do it, you do it. But after that, you rest your case. Don’t make it too personal because there are things that really, it’s beyond your control, you know” (female teacher; 21 years of experience; grades 7, 8, 9, and 10). Most of the teachers we interviewed had internalized this sense of limited control over student outcomes and an almost fatalistic view that they could only do so much to affect them. A few teachers, however, said they were still in the process of creating such boundaries. For example, one teacher said: “I have to learn to let go because at the end of the day, as I said, I have shared to them I will not be the one to answer their tests” (female teacher; 39 years of experience; grades 9, 10, 11, and 12).

4.3. Changes in Responsibilities

We also asked the teachers in our sample whether they believed their responsibilities had changed during their careers. The results of this analysis are summarized in Figure 1. Some teachers reported that they had not experienced any changes in their perceived responsibilities to help students develop academically (N = 4) or in their responsibility to help students develop holistically, in both academic and social domains (N = 3). But most teachers said they did believe their beliefs about their responsibilities changed over time. The largest category of teachers reported that over their careers they placed less emphasis on their responsibility for developing students’ academic abilities (N = 8) and more responsibility for developing students holistically (N = 4). Although all teachers acknowledged that a major responsibility of theirs was to teach the subject matter to students, the eight teachers in this change category reported that their emphasis had changed over time. Whereas they were focused almost exclusively on developing academic ability at the beginning of their careers, over time they realized that focusing on the development of the whole person, including character and social development, was more important than just focusing on academics.

4.4. Well-Being

Although a number of the teachers in our sample described feeling stressed (seven) or burnt out to some degree (five) during their careers, either in the past or currently, only one said they were actively thinking about leaving the profession. Overall, the teachers in our sample said they were coping with the stresses of teaching well and were content with their career choice. Similarly, although several teachers mentioned low pay as a concern, none expressed enough dissatisfaction with their pay to say it was making them think about quitting. Overall, all of the teachers were coping reasonably well. Only one teacher expressed a desire to leave the profession, but there were some that talked about feelings of stress and burnout. Seven teachers talked about feelings of stress from their job, five spoke about feelings of burnout at some point during their careers, and three indicated that they were currently burnt out. The one teacher who was actively considering leaving the profession had this to say about it: “This is my ninth year and I would say yes [to feeling burnt out] because I already feel there are moments when I wanted to quit because it’s quite overwhelming” (female teacher, 8 years of experience, grades 8 and 9). In contrast, there were a number of teachers who, despite acknowledging that the job was stressful at times, also expressed a strong motivation to continue with their careers. For example, one teacher had this to say when asked about whether they felt burnt out: “How does that make me feel? Like does it burn me out? Hell no. It energizes me” (male teacher; 9 years of experience; grades 9, 11, and 12).

5. Discussion

The teachers we interviewed expressed perceptions of their role identities and responsibilities that were mostly consistent with the Confucian-influenced perspectives of teachers in Far Eastern countries like China. Specifically, most of the teachers in this study stated that they were responsible for supporting students’ growth in academics and in moral development, and that they, as teachers, had a responsibility to serve as role models. Research conducted with teachers in China has found that they view themselves as authority figures and role models tasked with developing the whole person, not just presenting academic content (Liang et al., 2023). Similarly, our sample of teachers in the Philippines talked about their responsibility to care for and educate the whole person, but to do so within the context of a professional teacher–student relationship that includes the student showing appropriate levels of respect for the authority of their teachers.

Despite shouldering large responsibilities that included supporting students’ social, emotional, and moral development, the teachers in this study generally reported low levels of burnout and almost none of them expressed a desire to leave the profession. This is in sharp contrast to teachers in the U.S. A recent Gallup survey of American teachers found that nearly half of them report feeling burnout “often” or “always,” and that teachers report higher levels of burnout than American adults in any other profession (Marken & Agrawal, 2022). In addition, two-thirds of teachers report that burnout is a very serious issue, and over half of teachers in the U.S. report that they will leave the profession earlier than they had originally planned to (Walker, 2022). These statistics raise an important question: why do the teachers in our Filipino sample seem to be coping with the stresses of the job so much better than American teachers?

There are a number of differences between Filipino and American culture that influence how teachers think about their role identities and subsequently may affect burnout. One important factor may be cost of living, with American teachers stating that low compensation was their number one reason for leaving the profession (Steiner et al., 2023). Several of the teachers in our Filipino sample also complained about low pay, but it was not a big enough issue to make them want to leave the profession. Other cultural factors may also explain some of the differences in teacher burnout and well-being between these two countries. In the U.S., for example, teachers report that unrealistic expectations about what they are supposed to accomplish as teachers is a leading cause of stress (Bryant et al., 2023). These include expectations that they will be able to reach every one of their students and maximize their potential, differentiate instruction, motivate all of their students, and reduce societal inequalities. Such unrealistic expectations are fueled both by political demands that place the burden for societal inequalities at the feet of educators and by cultural narratives that teachers are miracle workers who should view their students’ failures as their own failure to teach them. In contrast, teachers in the Philippines seemed to place reasonable boundaries on the expectations for what they can achieve, noting that they are only one person and that student success depends on a number of factors, including the efforts of children and their families.

Some of the differences in the perceived responsibilities, boundaries, and well-being of teachers in the Philippines and the U.S. may reflect broad differences between individualistic and collectivist societies. Although research examining the pedagogical practices of teachers in collectivist cultures may be moving toward more Western practices of active learning and constructivism (Kaur & Noman, 2015), there is not much evidence to date showing that differences in how teachers define their roles and responsibilities have changed. Because the U.S. is a more individualistic society, teachers may feel more of a burden to promote the individual interests of each student and to feel personally responsible for the success of each student. In addition, the individualistic nature of U.S. culture may promote a belief among American teachers they are solely responsible for meeting the academic and social needs of their students, and that they have the power to make a real difference in their students’ lives (Aronson, 2017). When some of their students fail, many teachers may have a difficult time letting go of that failure, and this gnawing feeling of their own failure as teachers can create anxiety and unease. Teachers in a more collectivist society such as the Philippines, however, may be more inclined to view their own responsibilities within a collective framework that shares responsibility for student success among several invested parties. This sense of shared responsibility can alleviate some of the stress and self-blame that occurs when some students do not succeed, leading to greater job satisfaction. As noted by Hong et al. (2024), teacher identity develops within specific socio-historical contexts, and how teachers think about themselves and their role identities has an effect on their satisfaction and well-being (Kaplan & Garner, 2017).

Limitations

The primary limitation of this study involves the sample. Access to public schools in the Philippines for research purposes is extremely limited. As a result, we were only able to include teachers who worked at private schools in this study. Although we expected that the broad cultural values that permeate Filipino society would have similar influences on teachers in public and private schools, the challenges teachers in public schools face could be different. In particular, we suspect that teachers in public schools may have fewer resources and be working with students from families of lower socioeconomic status than their private school counterparts. These challenges faced by public school teachers may have consequences for their perceived responsibilities, job satisfaction, and experience of burnout. Future research examining the perceived role responsibilities of public school teachers in the Philippines would be quite interesting.

Another potential limitation of this study is the small sample size and the convenience sampling procedure that we used. Interview methodology is quite labor-intensive and often yields small samples. Because of the small convenience sample in this study and because the teachers all worked in private schools, we cannot know how well the results of this study generalize to other teachers in the Philippines.

Lastly, the results depend on how honest and open the teachers were when sharing their thoughts during the interviews. Because we asked teachers to discuss certain topics that may have been personal, including things they found challenging about their jobs, some teachers may have been uncomfortable discussing such issues with a researcher they did not know well. There may be a cultural element to this as well, with greater reluctance to openly share personal opinions and feelings with someone outside of their social circle among teachers in a collectivist society like the Philippines than we might find when talking with teachers in the U.S.

6. Conclusions and Implications

How teachers think about their roles and responsibilities can have important implications for their well-being and desire to remain in the profession. Research in the U.S. has revealed a great deal of stress and burnout among teachers, and this is contributing to teacher shortages across the country. Our interviews with Filipino teachers in this study indicates that although teachers sometimes complain about low pay and feel responsible for developing both the character and the academic abilities of their students, they did not report high levels of burnout or dissatisfaction. We believe that studies with teachers outside of the U.S., including in places with a more collectivist definition of self, can provide insights about how to frame teacher role identity in a more sustainable manner. When teachers define their responsibilities as meeting all of the needs of their students and perceive that they may be the only one meeting those needs, it can lead to high levels of stress and burnout. In the U.S., the emphasis on individual accomplishment may be feeding this “savior complex” view of role identity. By framing the teacher’s responsibilities as limited and part of a collective, as most of the teachers in this study did, teachers can place boundaries on their responsibilities, thereby reducing stress and burnout. Although efforts to mitigate teacher stress and burnout have generally produced only modest results (Iancu et al., 2018), we believe that greater success can be had if the root causes of burnout and stress among teachers are identified (Sipos et al., 2024). Lessons learned from cultures where teachers report lower levels of burnout and higher well-being can be used to identify the causes of burnout and help teachers in places with high levels of stress and burnout reframe their role identities to be less all-encompassing.