Abstract:

This paper examines how meaningful work is constituted, eroded, and reconstructed in educators’ professional lives. Based on a qualitative study using interviews and narrative inquiry, it explores how teachers describe the sources of meaning in their work and the conditions under which that meaning becomes fragile or lost. Rather than locating meaningful work primarily in individual motivation or institutional role expectations, the study approaches it as a relational and narrative accomplishment emerging in the lived connection between educators and students.

Preliminary findings suggest that teachers experience work as meaningful above all when they perceive a living connection with students: their engagement, motivation, feedback, and visible progress. Meaning is constituted through the sense that one’s work has an effect, that students respond, and that teaching becomes a shared process rather than a one-sided performance. In this sense, the motivation of teachers is deeply bound to the motivation of students, not as a simple mirror effect, but as evidence that pedagogical work reaches the other and matters.

The study further shows that the erosion of meaningful work is strongly connected to the loss of this relational feedback. When teachers no longer encounter students’ responsiveness, interest, or development, they often experience not only frustration but a deeper loss of professional purpose. The paper therefore argues that loss of meaning in educators’ work can be understood as a loss of connection. At the same time, teachers also narrate attempts to reconstruct meaning through renewed forms of engagement, reinterpretation of their role, and restoration of pedagogical relationships. The paper contributes to research on teacher well-being and professional identity by conceptualizing meaningful work as relationally constituted and narratively sustained.

Keywords:

Meaningful work, educators, pedagogical connection, narrative inquiry, teacher motivation.