NLP in Education: Enhancing Teacher Wellbeing and Professional Practice
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Other Title
Authors
Williams, Alexis
Author ORCID Profiles (clickable)
Degree
Master of Professional Practice
Grantor
Otago Polytechnic
Date
2025
Supervisors
Forsyth, Glenys
Type
Masters Thesis
Ngā Upoko Tukutuku (Māori subject headings)
Keyword
neuro-linguistic programming (NLP)
teacher wellbeing
identity
agency
practitioner enquiry
reflective practice
teacher wellbeing
identity
agency
practitioner enquiry
reflective practice
ANZSRC Field of Research Code (2020)
Citation
Williams, A. (2025). NLP in education: Enhancing teacher wellbeing and professional practice [Master's thesis, Otago Polytechnic]. Research Bank. https://doi.org/10.34074/thes.7195
Abstract
Teacher wellbeing in Aotearoa New Zealand continues to be strained by workload intensification, emotional labour, and systemic instability. While structural change remains essential, teachers also require a combination of practical tools and reflective frameworks that support emotional regulation, values alignment, identity clarity, relational responsiveness, and professional sustainability within complex and often unstable systems. Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) has a growing presence in practitioner-led coaching and wellbeing sectors internationally; however, its potential to support teacher sustainability in education remains under-examined and under-theorised.
This qualitative study investigates how NLP strategies can support teacher wellbeing and professional practice. Semi-structured interviews with eight IANLP-certified educators were integrated with researcher autoethnography and reflective practitioner analysis. The methodology followed a pragmatic, social-constructivist paradigm using Braun and Clarke’s (2006) reflexive thematic analysis. Ethical considerations, reflexivity, and cultural responsiveness — particularly in relation to Māori values — were embedded across the design. Positionality shaped interpretation, acknowledging the influence of practitioner identity and lived experience on meaning-making.
Four key themes emerged. First, participants described NLP as enhancing pedagogical practice and wellbeing through practical strategies such as rapport-building, reframing, anchoring, presuppositions, language awareness, and well-formed outcomes. These tools supported emotional flexibility, intention-setting, confidence, and clearer communication. Participants reported that well-formed outcomes clarified direction, reduced stress, sustained motivation, and strengthened values alignment in both planning and decision-making. Language-based tools, including Meta Model questioning and attention to internal dialogue, were experienced as mechanisms for challenging limiting narratives and increasing professional confidence.
Second, participants described NLP as supporting the “inner work” of teaching. They used NLP to regulate emotional states, connect with personal values, and shift from reactive to empowered mindsets. NLP practices helped participants make intentional choices, align actions with identity, and maintain self-awareness in complex contexts. Participants also identified the limits of resilience, noting that while NLP offered stabilising tools, systemic pressures could still overwhelm individual strategies.
Third, participants reported that NLP became more than a set of techniques. Over time, it functioned as a reflective framework that shaped how they approached relationships, conflict, problem-solving, and identity. NLP principles supported flexibility, curiosity, and responsibility, contributing to an ongoing sense of agency and purpose within their roles.
Fourth, participants identified important challenges. These included systemic resistance, credibility concerns, ethical ambiguity, and a lingering reputation of NLP as pseudoscientific, all of which shaped how participants navigated professional alignment. Additionally, drawing from my own practitioner lens, I identified meaningful structural resonances between NLP presuppositions and relational Māori values proposing a preliminary model of how the two frameworks correlate.
This study contributes to teacher wellbeing research, practitioner-led inquiry, identity formation, values-based pedagogy, and culturally responsive frameworks for professional development. It offers a practice-informed framework that integrates NLP tools with identity work, emotional regulation, reflective inquiry, clarity of purpose, and relational pedagogy. While NLP provided stabilising mechanisms for navigating the emotional complexity of teaching, participants emphasised that such tools cannot replace the need for wider systemic change. Instead, this research positions NLP as a flexible, ethically grounded support that can strengthen teacher wellbeing while coexisting with ongoing calls for structural reform in education.
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CC BY-NC-ND Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International