Abstract:
Enhancing teachers' professional well-being is not only a value orientation of teacher education policy but also a critical issue in building a high-quality teaching force. Teachers' professional well-being is not merely a subjective perception; it is influenced by individual characteristics, school environment, and policy environment, exhibiting group heterogeneity. A questionnaire survey was conducted among primary and secondary school teachers, and latent profile analysis (LPA) and Shapley value decomposition were employed to explore the categorical characteristics and influencing factors of their professional well-being.The results indicate that teachers' professional well-being can be categorized into three latent profiles: "stagnant and struggling" (35%), "progressive and exploratory" (50%), and "peak and hidden-worry" (15%). The formation of these profiles is influenced by the macro policy environment, meso school environment, and micro individual characteristics. Policy support has a significant positive impact on teachers' professional well-being and its sub-dimensions, while the school environment exhibits a "double-edged sword" effect. Compared to the school environment, policy support is the core determinant of professional well-being across different teacher types. Further analysis reveals that material condition su-pport is the key to enhancing the well-being of "stagnant and struggling" and "peak with hidden-worry" teachers, whereas career development support is the most critical factor for "progressive and exploratory" teachers. Based on these findings, three recommendations are proposed to help teachers overcome professional well-being challenges: (1) Strengthen policy support to meet teachers' legitimate needs; (2) Optimize the work environment and reshape school culture; (3) Tailor personalized support resources by understanding the characteristics of different teacher types. A new theoretical perspective is thus offered for addressing the challenges of group disparities in teacher professional well-being, and significant reference value is held for improving the teacher education policy system.