ABSTRACT
The need for competence refers to an individual’s fundamental inclination to “experiencing opportunities and supports for the exercise, expansion, and expression of one’s capabilities and talents”. Teachers’ basic needs of competence, autonomy, and relatedness are interrelated, and answers for the questions listed above vary depending on the tasks or activities the teacher is dealing with, and whether and to what extent their basic needs are being met. Eudaimonism is concerned with “processes” and “how to” live a life, in a way to develop and actualize one’s potential. Teachers’ goals, beliefs, and related emotional responses all contribute to shaping teachers’ identifying processes in relation to their interactions and negotiations with immediate and social-historical contexts. The tensions teachers experience are often accompanied by unpleasant emotions, such as anger, frustration, and helplessness, which may perpetuate a sense of survival, instead of flourishing and thriving.
