1 Introduction

Retaining well-being is burdensome because suffering and hardships are inevitable aspects of everyone’s life [67, 90]. Well-being denotes one’s positive psychological strength to maintain happiness, vitality, optimism, and similar notions, which are essential for pushing individuals toward personal growth and flourishing, productivity, and constructive presence in community and social interactions [23, 73]. A glimpse at every occupation and life signals that individuals typically struggle with different stressors and tensions, implying that one’s well-being and inner peace require more than a mere increase in salary [22]. Studies indicate that any rise or fall in one’s wealth might lead to further comparisons, which in turn trigger the individuals to crave more, and such endeavors would amplify the complexities of life, hence diverging from happiness and embracing a more stressful life [24, 28]. Therefore, the quality of well-being differs relative to one’s worldviews and interpretations of the situations and realities [37, 38, 83].

Language teaching is among highly stressful occupations due to the presence of particular tension-raising factors such as dealing with heterogeneous students' misbehaviors or learning needs, conforming to the syllabus, time constraints, assessment problems, and interpersonal conflicts with authorities or colleagues [33, 54]. Studies suggest that ignoring psycho-emotional stressors would eventually threaten the teachers' mental health, which in the long run affects their job and life satisfaction [30, 53]. Burnout, psychological distress, fatigue, anxiety, and other outcomes have been discussed throughout the literature as the results of ignoring stressors within teaching domains [1, 19]. Addressing these issues, scholars of different disciplines have shown interest in applying the tenets of positive psychology to deepen the existing knowledge of individuals' psycho-emotional fluctuations [73, 78]. Positive psychology recognizes the presence of negatively labeled emotions such as sadness, anxiety, dissatisfaction, anger, and similar notions. At the same time, it tries to build upon them and find ways by which the adverse effects of these factors can be allayed and decreased [29, 83]. Aside from merely studying the reasons for negative notions, researchers are also interested in finding solutions for them, and in doing so, they offer strategies and tricks by which individuals can cope with their negativity and reduce their tensions [26, 79]. The positive outcomes of strategies such as humor, laughter, non-verbal interactions, and immediacy are discussed and evidenced in recent studies [30, 53, 59, 65] and the results show that teachers who are more prone to add subjectivity to their in-class behaviors are likely more resilient and immune towards their job tensions. However, the role of minimalistic worldviews in language teaching has not been discussed, and the issue is yet to be addressed in different fields.

As an alternative to the complex lifestyles in which something more substantial and meaningful (i.e., happiness) is under the influence of something important (i.e., wealth), minimalism seeks to raise the awareness of individuals and encourage the acceptance of a simple lifestyle [76]. Minimalism helps people detach from the excesses of life in favor of happiness, freedom, and fulfillment [39]. Minimalism has been mainly studied in economic and financial contexts, such as consumerism and shopping behaviors, and the notion has been overlooked in fields such as education and psychology in general and language teaching in particular [42, 80].

The rationale for studying such views among teachers is that nurturing individuals' well-being requires conscious awareness and practice. In other words, mere reliance on theoretical aspects will not guarantee the cultivation of well-being, and the notion calls for innovative insights and practical solutions that help individuals thrive through life hardships and occupational stress [21, 90]. Studying minimalistic views among teachers could help them see the other aspects of life and occupational stressors. In other words, (language) teachers might mule over detrimental thoughts such as seeing themselves as incapable of managing the classroom, instructing the (L2) content, assessing the students, responding to the learners' needs, and struggling with their life conflicts. In this vein, a minimalist lens could help them approach the stressors more consciously and peacefully by ridding them of perpetual thoughts and focusing on the reality of their classroom atmosphere and life situations. In doing so, the minimalistic mindset would enable the teachers to see the obstacles and challenges from a simplistic lens by reminding themselves that what they experience throughout their career as a teacher is the by-product of countless context-based external factors on which there might be no control. For instance, teachers might be easily disturbed by the misbehaviors of students. In this scenario, a teacher with a minimalistic mindset would remember that the students misbehave for many reasons, such as the separation of their parents, economic and cultural issues, and the educational system where values such as tolerance, patience, and respect have been downgraded due to the overemphasis on the objective and score-based approaches of assessment. In such situations, the teachers with minimalistic views would possibly remain calm and mule over the detrimental thoughts less, and in turn, more patience and tolerance would flourish into teachers' inner thoughts and character, and they learn to reflect on the realities of their work situation rather than self-criticizing and blaming along with thinking about the idea that they are to be blamed for every tension, failures, and shortcomings that might occur in their job. The other justification for focusing on minimalism is that it directly addresses the external aspects of teachers' lives, such as their physical environment, organizational situation, and working habits. In this regard, a minimalistic mindset might resemble other approaches such as mindfulness, which helps individuals mentally and emotionally; however, minimalism would possibly help the individuals to properly manage and look upon their life and working situations by simplifying their thoughts and ridding of the excessive, detrimental, and overly negative thoughts and feelings. In other words, minimalism could function as a preventive mechanism that helps individuals remain in the pre-stress stage and keep their distance from disturbing chains of negative thoughts. However, to date, the base knowledge about such claims in the educational contexts could have been more expansive.

In this regard, the present study utilizes positive psychology as the framework of reference and attempts to investigate these claims and gaps by studying the possible benefits of minimalistic views among language teachers' lives and occupations to highlight whether the application of minimalism helps the teachers to handle their life and job tensions or not. Since the present study is among the first attempts to address minimalism in education, its results open up new horizons for future researchers interested in promoting teachers' well-being and students' accomplishment.

1.1 Literature Review

1.1.1 Well-being

Well-being denotes a life lived well [55, 56]. Based on Ryan and Deci’s [74] approach to well-being, the concept questions the wellness of life by focusing on it from two vantage points. The hedonic well-being renders one's life regarding satisfaction and enjoyment [47], while the eudaimonic view prioritizes self-actualization, personal growth, and development [77]. As implied from the theoretical foundations of well-being, the notion resembles the integration of feeling good and living well [55, 56]. Meanwhile, reflecting on the literature, scholars have proposed various models and frameworks to portray the domino of the overly subjective and yet essential components of well-being, such as positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment [77]. Recent conceptualization posed by Longo et al. [51] expands the horizons of well-being by noting that it comprises one's happiness, vitality, optimism, calmness, awareness, acceptance, self-worth, involvement, purpose, connection, competence, significance, congruence, and development. However, the extent to which these concepts manifest themselves in one's life is another issue discussed in the literature. Some argue that well-being is a highly intertwined network of socially embedded entities, while others advocate the significance of shaping an individualistic, objective, and situation-based view of the concept [11, 56]. In either scenario, realizing well-being in one's life would be the by-product of numerous personal, ecological, sociopolitical, and cultural factors, enhancing the complexities that well-being denotes [86].

Well-being has been the focus of applied linguists in recent years. Reflecting on Seligman's [77] PERMA model, Oxford [62] postulated the EMPATHICS framework, which frames the concept in language education contexts. Accordingly, the well-being of the teachers depends on the fluctuations in their emotions, meaning and motivation, perseverance, agency, time, hardiness and habits, intelligence, character strengths, and self-related factors such as self-esteem, self-worth, and self-verification. It has been argued that teachers with higher well-being rates teach more effectively, share better bonds and relationships with their learners, and positively affect their learners' achievements [41]. Notably, teachers' well-being can be threatened in the presence of stress, depression, illness, insecurity, and similar factors, the exposure to which would trigger a sense of burnout and psychological distress [33]. Arguably, tending to the well-being-promoting factors of the teachers would pave the way for the establishment of peacebuilding pedagogy in language education, which advocates conflict resolution, respect, care, trust, and shared understanding inside and outside the classroom contexts [36, 61, 63]. Accordingly, educational systems are suggested to focus on cultivating hope, love, peace, and harmony, which are the essential aspects of emotionally supportive contexts, where teachers and learners, as the frontliners of education, reach a shared understanding and dialogue that helps them flourish psycho-emotionally despite stressful and challenging teaching and learning circumstances [35, 64, 92].

Esmaeilee and Hassaskhah [1] profiled the negative interplay of psychological distress, teaching enjoyment, and well-being of 243 Iranian EFL teachers. Moreover, they reported the coping strategies used by psychologically distressed teachers through interviewing 40 of them. The results showed that teachers mainly rely on distancing activities (i.e., religious coping, recreations, denial), efficacy enhancement endeavors (i.e., improving proficiency, pursuing academic goals, attending teacher training courses), mental preparedness, and insightful thinking techniques to detach from distressful situations and thoughts. Shared laughter, negotiation of feelings, and peer support were also identified by the Esmaeilee and Hassaskhah [1]. Empirical studies have also shown the interconnectedness of teachers' well-being with job satisfaction [6], spirituality [87], resilience [18], engagement [34], and quality of teaching [32]. Using a questionnaire, classroom observation, interviews, and an inventory, Kansu [43] collected data from 43 EFL teachers in a Turkish setting, and the results revealed that teacher-student rapport is more reflective among the teachers with higher well-being rates and the presence of humor and praise is more evident in their classes. In Babic et al.'s [5] study, the researchers conducted thematic analyses on the semi-structured interviews of 15 EFL teachers from 13 countries. The results reflected that factors such as workplace culture, social relationships, sense of meaning, and physical well-being are teachers' well-being' intra- and interpersonal determinants.

1.2 Minimalism

The theoretical underpinnings of minimalism are similar to another notion known as voluntary simplicity (VS). Both concepts revolve around simplicity as the core pillar, the foundation of a lifestyle wherein individuals live deliberately toward their goals by focusing on simple yet essential values [31, 40, 50]. Moreover, notions such as material simplicity, self-determination, ecological awareness, spirituality, personal growth, and social responsibility have been conceptualized for minimalism and VS [13]. However, the latter concept (i.e., VS) emphasizes environmental and social sensitivity. At the same time, the former (i.e., minimalism) is less concerned about these notions and lets individuals define their own values [25]. As Wilson et al. [89] noted, minimalism is a value that embraces mindful acquisition and ownership of few, curated possessions, with a preference for a sparse aesthetic’ (p. 7). Philosophically, the interpretations of the concept might differ based on real-world settings and domain-specific contexts such as language, art, music, or architecture [12, 15, 82]. For Millburn and Nicodemus [57], minimalism ‘is a tool to eliminate life’s excess, focus on the essentials, and find happiness, fulfillment, and freedom’ (p. 16), and entails an amplified sense of well-being-related notions by focusing on the essential aspects and excluding the factors that might hinder happiness, fulfillment, and freedom.

Scholars have discussed several justifications to explain the reasons behind the outcomes of minimalism. The first plausible reasoning is that undertaking a minimal mindset hinders consumption desires, which are the motives behind one’s willingness to crave more. Such desires would be the cradles of negative psycho-emotional feelings such as discomfort, disappointment, stress, frustration, and anger [13]. Therefore, infusing minimalism into one’s life would allay the detrimental outcomes of negative thoughts and lead to positive outcomes. Secondly, it is argued that minimally-rendered worldviews would substitute the materialistic lifestyle with one in which well-being, happiness, and growth are more valued [24]. Theoretically, materialists’ well-being and satisfaction in life revolve around possession and craving for more [2]. The results of studies focusing on materialism and well-being have been consistent in showing that such a lifestyle negatively affects one’s well-being and happiness [2, 8, 9, 48, 71, 91]. Specifically, materialists have a negative appraisal of themselves due to constant social comparisons [70, 81], compensate for insecurities or dissatisfaction with life [27, 71], and fail to satisfy their psychological needs such as autonomy, competence, relatedness, and growth [45]. Finally, lifestyles such as materialism and consumerism would possibly push the individuals into a seemingly never-ending perpetuating cycle of craving more, wherein failures in possession and reaching goals detrimentally affect the individuals’ fulfillment, well-being, and development [44, 72].

Most studies have focused on VS; minimalism has received less attention, and social psychology is in the early stages of studying this phenomenon theoretically and empirically [42, 50]. Studies show that simplicity, either form of voluntary or minimal, would lead to higher levels of well-being, happiness, peace of mind, personal control, life satisfaction, mindfulness, and autonomy [39, 66, 68, 69]. Specifically, prior to Rich et al.’s investigations [68, 69], only four studies had focused on VS, minimalism, and well-being, and their results showed that people who are more prone to such lifestyles are happier and more satisfied with their lives.

Empirically, Lloyd and Pennington [50] evidenced the outcomes of minimalism in life. Accordingly, the researchers interviewed ten people aged 24 to 52 who identified as minimalists and discussed their interpretations of minimalism and the extent to which they felt relieved. The analyses of their qualitative data revealed that a minimal lifestyle leads to autonomy, mental space, competence, positive emotions, and awareness. In line with previous studies, Kang et al. [42] declared that minimalism has been overlooked in the scientific milieu. In their article, Kang et al. [42] reported two studies in which they tried to conceptualize minimalism and test the theoretical impacts of minimalism on flourishing and depression. Thus, they collected the required data from 1050 individuals and postulated that minimalism encompassed clutter removal, cautious shopping, longevity, and self-sufficiency in the general economy and shopping context. Meanwhile, they concluded that the notion enhances flourishing and alleviates depression. Recently, Shafaqat et al. [80] studied the consumption behavior of 436 individuals and found that a minimalist lifestyle helps people achieve consumer well-being.

As induced from the literature, minimalism has been ignored in various contexts, and economy-driven contexts have been the major hosts of minimalist-laden studies. To the best of our knowledge, the concept has also been neglected in educational psychology and academic discourses. As mentioned earlier, minimalism encompasses a sense of detachment and distancing from harmful and unwanted thoughts. These features have been ignored in psychology and education, especially among language teachers. Meanwhile, there have been several calls for offering stress-coping strategies and mental preparedness programs that help teachers achieve a more resilient mindset, which helps them handle life and occupational stress properly and embrace well-being [1, 5, 32, 33, 63]. Thus, the present study investigates whether minimalistic views toward teaching have any potential stress-reducing outcomes and benefits for the teachers and tries to open up new vantage points toward the concept and future studies.

2 Methodology

2.1 Design

The present study aimed to provide preliminary evidence on the outcomes of minimalistic perspectives yielded by EFL teachers to unravel the reasons for possessing such mindset, along with analyzing the outcomes of minimalistic worldviews in language teachers' personal and professional lives. The qualitative approach underlying the design of the present study informed the generalizations which were directly derived from the reality of the respondents' lives. The exploratory design of the present study helped to elicit language teachers' attitudes toward the reasons and outcomes of possessing minimalist views in life and occupation. Additionally, according to Stebbins [85], exploratory design would pave the way for future explanatory, large-scale, confirmatory attempts and helps to frame a better understanding of the concepts, such as minimalism, about which empirical background is scanty.

2.2 Participants

A total of 34 EFL teachers (male = 15; female = 19) were purposefully chosen through purposeful sampling in which is a common method in qualitative research through which the participants who possess particular characteristics or experiences relevant to the research objectives partake in the study [4]. Given the importance of studying the role of minimalist lifestyle and perspective in the context of language teaching, it was vital to ensure the inclusion of participants who were consciously aware of their minimalist lifestyle. In doing so, we conducted a pilot study wherein 50 language teachers responded to five questions that were designed based on the minimalism principles (Appendix A). The interpretation of the questions showed that 34 of the respondents not only were aware of minimalism and its principles, but also had various examples of applying minimalism in their daily life experiences. The participants were teachers in either public, private, or both channels of Iran's junior and senior high-school systems with ages ranging from 25 to 38 and the experience of 3 to 18 years. All respondents were briefed about the study, and ethical considerations outlined by BERA [10] were followed and applied throughout the study. Table 1 provides a summary of the participants’ demographics:

Table 1 Participants’ demographic information
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2.3 Instrument

Based on Ambrose’s [3] thesis on simplicity, we chose four questions (Appendix B) to utilize in the semi-structured interview, which addressed the role of minimalism in the life- (2 questions) and work style (2 questions) of the EFL teachers. The first question addressed the reasons for which the teachers partake minimalistic lifestyle. The second question asks about the outcomes of yielding such worldviews by considering the outcomes of minimalism in the teachers’ personal life. In a similar vein, the second part of the interview included the third and fourth questions. The third one asked the teachers about the applicability of minimalism in the classroom context by considering the reactions of students and colleagues. The final question focused on the outcomes of applying minimalism to language teaching. It is noteworthy that the questions were checked, finalized, and revised under the supervision of a qualitative researcher expert.

3 Procedure

The present study rests primarily on the qualitative data obtained via semi-structured interviews. The researchers created a Telegram group for the respondents in which they were briefed about the nature of the study and the expectations. After being ensured of confidentiality and anonymity concerns, they agreed to partake in the interviews. The group also provided easy access to each contact, and interviews were conducted privately and lasted around 30 min for each of the respondents. The interviews took place in January 2023, and the participants were free to provide the answers in audio or text. Moreover, they were free to respond in either Persian or English; however, for conducting the analyses, all of the answers were translated into English.

The answers were transcribed in order to be analyzed through open, axial, and selective stages of the thematic analysis as outlined by Boyatzis [14]. The codification and analysis processes were initiated after ensuring a satisfactory saturation point [60]. The researchers undertook an inductive approach and read through the answers multiple times to become familiar with the overall tone of each participant's answers. The initial themes were elicited, coded, and refined in the open coding stage. In the axial coding stage, the core concepts were linked together, and finally, in the selective stage, the major themes were identified and branded. The credibility of the findings was examined via a member-checking process through which the extracted themes were discussed with the participants [49]. To ensure the transferability of the findings [58], we evaluated them using cross-case participants to see how teachers with different perspectives would assess the findings. This phase led to some rounds of negotiations between the authors and the auditor on disagreement areas to resolve and compromise the mismatches and misunderstandings. Finally, to check the confirmability of the analyses [58], 30% of the emerged codes were presented to an independent qualitative research expert who used cross-source comparison and reported that the findings enjoyed 94% inter-coder agreement.

4 Findings

Reasons of minimalistic lifestyle. The first two questions of the semi-structured interview functioned as the starting point for delving into the ins and outs of applying and practicing a minimalist lifestyle. In this vein, the first interview question asked the interviewees why they became interested in undertaking a simple and minimal lifestyle. Teachers asserted that they tend to a minimal lifestyle because a complex life is stressful (32 references), anti-realistic (30 references), and in opposition to their life values (29 references). Precisely speaking, for 32 of the respondents (94%), a complex lifestyle would not work because they think embracing such a lifestyle overwhelms them with stressful thoughts and negative feelings. For instance, some teachers noted that ‘I think that a complex life is very distracting [p3]’; ‘I gave up complex life. It gave me blood pressure. I suffered a lot from it [p17]’. Moreover, 30 of the teachers (88%) noted that they have shifted from a complex life into a simple and minimal one due to the anti-realist nature of such lives; ‘Complex life makes you feel that there’s always something missing and you’d never know what [p12]’; ‘It is addictive and far from reality [p32]’. Furthermore, 29 of the interviewees (85%) indicated that complex life devalues their personal values, such as inner peace; thus, a minimalistic view towards life would put their minds and conscience at ease.

I was previously a perfectionist person. Nothing was enough for me. I used to spend lots of money, time, and energy on things that were unnecessary. The compulsive feeling of wanting more and more irritated me until I realized that beauty of life lies in simplicity. I don’t try to detach myself entirely from the world and live in a cave (laughter), but I’m living a life in which I feel more immune towards negative thoughts. I laugh more, sleep better, and am less concerned about future and things that are not under my control. [p 29]

The second question shed light on the outcomes of undertaking a minimal lifestyle as a teacher. All respondents (n = 34; 100%) noted that they are happier when they keep life and teaching simple. The claim was traceable in the answers of the 32 respondents (94%), where they indicated that a ‘Simple life means more peace of mind and conscience [p4]’. Teachers in the present study asserted that minimalism helps them remain calm and peaceful during their experiences inside and outside the working context. In doing so, they believed that focusing on essential aspects of language-related content makes them less stressed about time constraints and the course syllabus since they would always have enough time to instruct the necessary L2 content in their classroom. Besides, minimalism helped them to reduce their talking time in the class. Since increasing the students’ engagement requires a reduced talking time of the teacher, being a minimal language teacher helped the teachers achieve this goal, and by doing so, they believed that their reduced talking time led to increased constructive student–student interaction in the target language. Precisely, the points about the reduced talking time were prevalent in the answers of the teachers who were involved in public schools (n = 24). Regarding the research context and the Iranian educational system, it is noteworthy that teachers have to confront over 90 students each day, assuming that each classroom is filled with approximately 30 students. In such psycho-emotionally demanding situations, increased teacher talk time might help teachers have better control over their classroom and behavior management, which might resemble a traditional and teacher-centered teaching pedagogy. However, the teachers in the present study asserted that minimalism has helped them reduce their talking time since they believed that minimalism helped them focus on essential aspects of each lesson and facilitate the student–student interactions by talking less and focusing on essentials such as enriching the input through visuals, gestures, realia, and non-verbal behaviors (i.e., nods, winks, and smiles).

In line with the previous point, teachers also noted that minimalism helped them enlist simple, achievable, and feasible tasks proper for their classroom contexts and focus on the essential instructions, materials, and assignments appropriate for nurturing the accuracy and fluency of the students in the English language. Moreover, teachers asserted that such minimalistic-driven endeavors would provide some additional time wherein the teachers and students become involved in the discussion of non-English topics (e.g., motivational remarks, the students’ role in society, etc.), which help them to educate their students regarding the crucial issues which would help them outside the classroom context.

Rather than overwhelming my students with exhaustive and unnecessary activities, I planned my syllabus to emphasize what truly matters for the communication through English. This has enabled me to remain focused and provide the necessary input and feedback. My students no more complain for excessive tasks which might not be fulfilled due to time and space constraints of the class. Instead, we collaborate to accomplish simple and yet communicative tasks and extend our practices by focusing on important tasks which are emphasized in their workbooks. [p 19]

Keeping the tasks simple, manageable, and communicative sometimes leads to additional 20 to 30 minutes time, which we use to discuss non-English content. For instance, as a language teacher, I have discussed the future of learning English as a translator, instructor, or a literature expert to my nine-graders who have to select their study fields for future. In another session, we shared our thoughts regarding the main theme of the lesson which was about media. We spent 3 weeks on learning the English-related concepts of the lesson. Afterwards, we discussed how media shapes our understanding of the issues and how can we trust or ignore different sources of information. [p 3]

Similarly, 30 of the teachers (88%) mentioned that minimal life keeps them away from being greedy and in return they become more grateful and start their day with positive thoughts and feelings; ‘Simplicity makes me feel less concerned about being judged by others. I no longer bother myself to convince everyone and make them happy. I try living a life and am grateful for it [p9]’. Regarding the classroom context, they believed that the sense of gratitude triggered by keeping life and job simple and clear let them remind themselves about the significance of their efforts and investment in their job and be grateful for the extent to which they can positively enact in the education of students by being a language teacher and a mentor to them simultaneously. Precisely, the sense of gratitude was evident in the respondents' answers since they believed that processing less important job-related issues (e.g., being judged by colleagues and authorities) helped the teachers focus more on L2 instruction. At the same time, the additional free discussion moments of the classroom moment functioned as the time in which the teachers were able to share their thoughts, feelings, and experiences with their students and raise their awareness or at least give them insights about life, education, and social problems so that in light of the increased competence and critical thinking skills of the students, they see themselves as capable, effective, and essential parts of the educational domino and society.

In the same vein, 28 of them (84%) asserted that the increased concentration and awareness of life has given them a better insight into existential thoughts and spirituality, implying that simple life would free the room for thoughts that previously had almost no place in their mind:

Now that I compare my life with others, I see that the worst situations that I might undergo is somehow a dream for a lot of people. Although I have been blamed for my simple life, I love all the patience and calmness that have found their way to my life and of course that I no longer blame myself for things that I do not possess or have not experienced. I have made a list of valuable things about which I have to be grateful. Previously, I had no time for reflecting on my role in the society and the educational system. My minimal view towards life has empowered me to see the order in the complicated issues instead of focusing on the chaotic aspects of them. [p14]

Outcomes of minimalism in language teaching. The second set of questions aimed at unraveling the role of minimalism within language teaching territory. The first question asked the teachers whether their minimal worldview towards life conflicts with language teaching and if the students and colleagues favor such views. Although all of them asserted that their minimalist views might sometimes cause misunderstandings between the authorities and their colleagues, none of them believed there was any conflict between their worldview and language teaching regarding the students and classroom context. In other words, all of the teachers indicated that their students appreciate the simplicity and overall tone of their language class, L2 interactions and tasks, assignments, and teachers’ expectations. This was not the case for 21 of the respondents concerning their colleagues and school authorities. However, minimalism granted a higher tolerance towards such interpersonal conflicts, since teachers asserted that such discrepancies and critiques were mostly due to their colleagues’ different worldviews, where they typically seek a perfectionistic approach toward educational goals. Meanwhile, as we theoretically discussed earlier, minimalism hinders such thoughts and helps people to adapt themselves based on classroom reality.

I think my minimal views add more flow and subjectivity to whatever I do in my class. I think education comes first and language teaching follows. Sometimes I play game and discuss non-subject topics with my students. This would make everyone happy, and the classroom context becomes more supportive and bearable. [p22]

Some of my thoughts are not tolerated or accepted by the school authorities or some colleagues in first place, but when I enlighten them, they do agree with me. However, they think that sometimes, a teacher’s simplicity might underestimate the work of other teachers which is also a true scenario in some classes and contexts. [p28]

Identifying the outcomes of being a language teacher with a minimalistic mindset was the other objective of the second array of questions. Increased peace (n = 32; 94%) and rapport (n = 29; 85%) were the two most frequent outcomes of the teachers’ minimal beliefs. Accordingly, all of the respondents noted that minimalism makes them less concerned about excesses of classroom context and teaching, including, students’ misbehaviors ‘Tending to the students’ misbehaviors takes time and patience [p31]’, syllabus ‘Instead of following each step of the lesson plan and conforming to the syllabus, I make sure to focus on the content which is essential for my learners [p24]’, and pre-determined summative exams ‘I test my students whenever I decide it’s the time. Sometimes I don’t score their answers and try to make the test a practice and learning tool [p20]’. Regarding the course syllabus, the teacher mentioned that minimal and simple-oriented job plans and endeavors helped them save time and energy and teach points that actually helped their students communicate their thoughts. Further, they believed that due to the increased flow, subjectivity, and freedom injected by minimalism, they experienced more context-dependent assessment of their students. Explaining the reasons for their increased tolerance due to minimalist views, teachers noted that students’ misbehaviors or mistakes are inevitable parts of any educational context; thus, instead of overthinking about such issues, they try to patiently negotiate their expectations and feelings with the students in the presence of laughter and smile; ‘Being strict and behaving complicated won’t work for today’s generation. We have to laugh with them, which is also an excellent way to control the class [p10]’. As emerged in the answers of teachers, the increased patience caused by focusing on essential job-related factors and ignoring excessive thoughts helps to have an emotionally supportive classroom climate in which rapport and shared understanding between the teachers and students decreases the stress (n = 27; 83%) and helps them to reconsider the negative thoughts positively (n = 28; 84%):

I try to improvise and be creative. I can’t be an objective, fixed-minded, pre-determined, and an ever-disciplined person. Instead, I rely on my patience to come up with solutions. I always prepare myself in-advance, but never overthink about the future about which I have nothing in mind. This helps me to ignore negative thoughts about the forthcoming problems. Aside from some of the students’ misbehaviors, there are actually no threatening or worrisome issue in language teaching [p23].

Figure 1 sums up the four major elicited themes of the study. Accordingly, teachers reported that embracing minimalist life- and teaching style not only fostered a sense of inner peace and tranquility but also increased their ability to tolerate teaching-related issues such as dealing with students’ misbehaviors, conforming to the syllabus, and discussing educational issues with colleagues and authorities. Meanwhile, they declared that minimalism enabled them to approach classroom management and L2 instruction efficiently. Additionally, reducing teachers’ stress seemed to be another implication of minimalism for the teachers, which in turn led to a more harmonious teacher-student rapport and dynamic interpersonal relationships. The essence of a minimalist lifestyle seems to catalyze these factors, emphasizing the significance of simplicity and awareness as the most vital components that help cultivate an emotionally supportive and responsive language learning environment.

Fig. 1
figure 1

Outcomes of minimalism in teachers’ life and job

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5 Discussion

The dearth of research on minimalism in both social psychology and language education, along with beneficial impacts of the concept as addressed in non-educational literature, motivated us to study it within language teaching territory by focusing on 34 EFL teachers to unravel the opportunities and possibilities which minimalist worldviews would provide to the welfare of the teachers inside and outside the classroom context. In this vein, an exploratory approach was undertaken, and the qualitative data obtained through the semi-structed interview was thematically analyzed. Accordingly, teachers indicated that following a minimal mindset simplifies their lives by crossing a line on unnecessary issues and highlighting the significance of crucial possessions such as inner peace, in-class rapport, tolerance, and reduced stress.

The respondents were asked to reflect and elaborate on their minimalistic mindsets relative to their personal and professional lives. Results indicate that minimalism provides a lens through which teachers see the beauties of life despite chaotic and stressful situations. The results reflect Gregg’s [31] and Lloyd and Pennington’s [50] conceptualization of minimalism, which asserted that individuals remain focused on important values of their life while ignoring the unwanted and distracting aspects of it. The results also suggested that EFL teachers with minimalist mindsets are more prone to handle their personal and professional lives stressors and are likely to live a more realistic life in which tensions of perfectionism are outperformed by values such as inner peace, healthy lifestyle, spirituality, and meaning in life. Based on Boujbel and d’Astous' [13] elaborations, we could further justify the findings by pinpointing that teachers' minimalist views would substitute the senses of discomfort, stress, and frustration with more positive feelings such as happiness and inner peace. In this way, the results are in line with previous studies who asserted that individuals with minimal mindset are happier and less depressed, while enjoying from higher satisfaction of life, mental space, awareness, positive emotions, and competence [42, 50, 68, 69] a, b,Shafaqat et al. [s80].

In light of the increased peace through minimalistic view of language teaching, teachers would arguably become less concerned about their students’ misbehaviors and see them as an opportunity to negotiate the conflicts and raise their students’ awareness about the issues involved in language learning in particular and education in general. Additionally, findings implied that the minimally-oriented teachers are more focused on accomplishing the essential goals in the syllabus and testing the materials in the appropriate times. In doing so, the teachers believed that minimalism helped them enlist achievable and manageable tasks which focused on different communicative contexts to nurture the essentials such as accuracy, fluency, and appropriacy, without overwhelming their students. Also, teachers' minimalistic views would possibly enhance their inner peace, which might be the source of the subjectivity and creativity practiced by them in the classroom. According to positive psychology tenets, and reflecting on the present findings, we might mention that the results are justifiable relative to the idea that minimalism fuels one’s inner peace, which helps individuals become self-regulated, personally guided, and free from unwanted peripheral concerns. The idea which is reflected in the findings and aligns with peacebuilding pedagogy that rests upon the premise that cultivating peace would help the teachers and learners to establish more rapport, understanding, trust, and harmony, and move towards accomplishing a more sustainable well-being and awareness in light of the decreased conflicts, violence, misunderstandings, and stress [35, 36, 61, 63, 64, 92].

Moreover, reflecting upon the findings, we argue that upon the peaceful mind, language teachers with minimalistic view of life and occupation would try to nurture an emotionally supportive classroom context in which feelings and thoughts are negotiated. The idea which is supported by the findings of the present study and those of Esmaeilee and Hassaskhah [1] who asserted that teachers' trial for making an emotionally supportive classroom is a coping strategy which helps them to remain immune from psychologically distressful feelings such as depression, fatigue, loneliness, and worthlessness which in turn guides the teachers towards more enjoyment and well-being. Thus, we might further argue that minimalism and keeping things as simple as possible enhances the possibility of nurturing the well-being and happiness of the EFL teachers in either their personal or professional life. The claim which is also supported by the evidence analyzed in domains other than language education asserting that minimalism leads to well-being, happiness, peace of mind, life satisfaction, and autonomy [39, 66, 68, 69]. Specifically, based on the findings, we argue that minimalism contributes to language teachers’ well-being by increasing peace, tolerance, and rapport and decreasing teachers’ stress. The claim is supported and justified relative to Oxford’s [62] EMPATHICS model of L2 teacher well-being, which highlighted the importance of nurturing motivation, tolerance and perseverance, positive relationships, and similar constructive well-being determinants. The reduced stress, as reflected in the findings, signals that minimalism can function as a stress-coping mindset that helps the teachers remain focused and calm during challenging moments and enjoy higher well-being [5, 6, 18, 32,33,34, 87]. Also, the emergence of laughter, negotiation of feelings, humor, and increased rapport in the findings would support the claims of Esmaeilee and Hassaskhah [1] and Kansu [43], who found that language teachers rely on such endeavors to detach from distressful thoughts, which might creep into the classroom context and nurture their resilient mindset toward life and teaching.

As induced from the results, EFL teachers with a minimalist mindset are less concerned about things they have no control over. However, it is noteworthy to demystify that being a minimal teacher does not entail inactivity or caring less about the students. Instead, minimally-oriented teachers could focus on utilizing the essential materials and instructional approaches that help them teach language skills. Moreover, minimalism would help teachers to reduce distractions and simplify the learning process for their students. In doing so, the teachers encourage the students to engage in a more impactful and focused learning experience aimed at meaningful and communicative language use. Additionally, we might consider the idea that minimalism reduces the worrisome about being judged by students, colleagues, and authorities. This justifies the emergence of laughter, smile, immediacy, and non-verbal signals in-between teachers and their students, which in the long run, add up to the emotionally supportive climate of the classrooms by enhancing rapport and connectedness among teachers and their students. The claim can be justified relative to Elgin and Mitchell’s [25] elaborations on minimalism, according to which people with such tendencies would see themselves as responsible for their own and others’ welfare and personal growth as a valued principle of a minimalist lifestyle is intertwined with the growth of others. Further, studies might also support the idea that minimalism would alter the mindset of the teachers from being concerned about less critical issues to commitment, care, and love of others [20]. In other words, we suggest that minimally oriented teachers are prone to embrace the idea of a pedagogy wherein teachers instruct the specific content material and guide their students toward growth and flourishing through increasing their awareness, nurturing their critical thinking skills, and showing love, respect, and trust [88]. The endeavor which in the long run would possibly lead to the increased shared peace and rapport, as emerged in the findings, along with forgiveness, kindness, empathy, and acceptance which are among the values achieved through minimalism [7, 16, 42, 52, 92].

Findings imply that being a teacher with a minimalistic worldview might help the teachers’ welfare and happiness in some ways. First, the tendency to devalue unwanted peripheral concerns permits the infusion of more positive thoughts and feelings, such as joy and rapport. Secondly is the very nature of minimalism, which might help the teachers remain immune from the detrimental side effects of stressors. Educators can reflect on the results of the present study to prioritize the significance of teachers’ well-being-related notions such as inner peace, tolerance, and reduced stress in teacher education programs. Results also imply that following a minimalist perspective toward education fosters mindful learning by which students and teachers are focused on essential concepts and meaningful interactions, leading to a deeper and enriched understanding of education and their role in the educational system in general and language class in particular. Further, a minimalist view can serve as the basis for cultivating an emotionally supportive and tolerant learning and teaching environment where educators and students appreciate diverse perspectives and are open to discussing language and non-language content in a forgiving and respectful atmosphere. Thus, in light of the increased peace, tolerance, and teacher-student rapport, as reflected in the findings, we would argue that minimalism is beneficial to cultivate a forgiving and teacher-learner-friendly context, where students see their teacher as competent, responsive, and supportive [46], which in turn mends the bonds between the language teachers and learners that leads to reduced distress and senses such as teachers’ loneliness, inefficiency, and self-blame [1, 17, 46, 75].

Further, a minimalist view can serve as the basis for cultivating an emotionally supportive and tolerant learning and teaching environment, where both educators and students appreciate diverse perspectives and are open to discuss language and non-language content in a forgiving and respectful atmosphere. Furthermore, adopting keeping the job-related issues minimal would help the teachers to reduce their stress and properly handle the occupational tensions by streamlining their teaching methods and techniques and ignoring unnecessary administrative burdens. In the broader context of educational policymaking, minimalist principles would possibly help to re-evaluate the curriculum and syllabus design to a more practical, reality-based, and to the point education while minimizing unnecessary complexities. This can result in cost and energy saving and a more sustainable approach to educational practices. Language teachers’ emphasis on inner peace and tolerance resulted from minimalism, echoes that minimalism can be considered among possible mindfulness practices that promote well-being and mental clarity and fosters their in-class decision making capabilities, since the view detaches the teachers from unwanted thoughts and keeps them focused on providing proper response to the classroom needs. Arguably, findings imply that minimalism is beneficial for reducing language teachers’ cognitive overload, promoting meaningful interpersonal connections with students, and creating a constructive rapport-based learning environment [84].

6 Limitations and suggestions for future research

Future studies might build upon the present findings to further explore the possibilities of minimalism to unravel further opportunities that possessing such a mindset might provide. The claims and argumentations of the present study rested on qualitative data within a limited sample. Thus, the generalizability of the findings requires more robust data collection and procedures. In doing so, explanatory, intervention-based, and mixed-methods studies would enrich the existing body of knowledge. Researchers might replicate the present study with different sample sizes and consider the teachers' demographics to see whether simplicity functions differently across individuals. Cross-cultural studies might also enlighten us about the extent to which the language teachers' understanding of minimalism differs from one context to another.

7 Conclusion

The present study suggested that minimalism would yield positive outcomes for language teachers. In line with social psychology, the language teaching and learning domain could benefit from focusing more on this notion from different aspects. The present qualitative attempt studied the application of minimalism in the teachers’ personal and professional life. Results indicated that regardless of their job, the EFL teachers possessing such worldviews would embrace the joy and happiness of life by ignoring the excesses of life and focusing on essential aspects such as the welfare of themselves and their students.