The Interplay of Job Demands, Job Resources and Personal Resources Among EFL Teachers in Challenging Contexts

ABSTRACT Teacher well‐being in challenging educational contexts has important implications for sustainable professional learning, yet less is known about how job demands and job resources operate among EFL teachers in underexamined regional settings. Drawing on Job Demands‐Resources theory, this mixed‐methods study examined the direct and indirect relationships among job demands, job resources, resilience, teacher efficacy, work engagement and emotional exhaustion among EFL teachers in Western China. A total of 256 valid survey responses were analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling, followed by semi‐structured interviews with eight teachers to interpret the quantitative patterns. The results showed that job demands significantly predicted emotional exhaustion, but not work engagement. Job resources showed no significant direct effects on either outcome. Instead, both resilience and teacher efficacy mediated the relationships between job demands, job resources and work engagement, whereas only resilience mediated the relationships between job demands, job resources and emotional exhaustion. The interview data further indicated that job demands were experienced as a clear source of fatigue but not necessarily as a reason to disengage from teaching, while resources became effective mainly when they were usable, timely, and connected to concrete problems of practice. The study extends JD‐R research by showing how demands and resources helped explain teacher well‐being in a challenging EFL context and demonstrating that teacher well‐being is closely tied to the conditions under which professional learning can be sustained.