Building a Foundation for Positive Psychology in Schools

Abstract Teachers in a large, non-urban school system completed one or more positive psychology questionnaires assessing strengths of character; happiness; orientation toward pleasure, engagement, and meaning as three different paths to happiness; explanatory style; orientation toward teaching as a job, a career, or a calling; and job satisfaction. These results of these 170 participants are compared with those obtained from an Internet sample of 2,538 teachers on four of the same instruments. Correlations between the results for each of the two samples are examined. The resulting profiles of the two samples are compared, and suggestions are made as to possible uses of such data to guide improvement in large school systems