The Relationship Among Iranian EFL Teachers’ Spiritual Intelligence, Performance and Happiness: The Moderating Role of Psychological Well-being

Barani, Ghasem; Seyyedrezaei, Zari Sadat; Aliabadi, Forough; Davarzani, Mohsen

The Relationship Among Iranian EFL Teachers’ Spiritual Intelligence, Performance and Happiness: The Moderating Role of Psychological Well-being

Authors

Ghasem Barani

Zari Sadat Seyyedrezaei

Forough Aliabadi

Mohsen Davarzani

Department of English Language Teaching, AK. C., Islamic Azad University, Aliabad Katoul, Iran

Abstract

Many significant psychological antecedents accompany second/foreign language (L2) teachers in the classrooms. Most recent studies show that spiritual intelligence, happiness, job performance, and psychological well-being are among these antecedents; however, the relationship between these constructs is still underexplored in the context of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Therefore, this research aimed to explore the relationship among EFL teachers’ spiritual intelligence, happiness, and job performance considering the moderating role of psychological well-being. This study applied a correlational design. Iranian EFL teachers (n:103) were invited to participate in this study through convenience sampling. They were requested to fill out four questionnaires at work. The structural equation modeling (SEM) method was used through PLS software to analyze the collected data. Therefore, it was concluded that both spiritual intelligence and happiness positively influence EFL teachers’ job performance with psychological well-being only moderating the latter association. The findings of this study contribute to the knowledge on the teacher antecedents influencing their performance which can consequently result in enhancing the teachers’ job performance.

Keywords

Happiness

Iranian EFL teachers

job performance

Psychological well-being

Spiritual Intelligence