Timelines in Researching Student Teachers' Well-Being during Teaching Practice

Researching well-being has gained popularity over the last decades however, research methodologies have employed mostly surveys, and the use of qualitative and visual methods is still scarce. This study discusses using timelines as a tool for researching the well-being of student teachers in two different cultural contexts. Research data includes researchers' notes as well as focus groups and students' notions of using timelines as a course assignment, analyzed using thematic analysis. This study shares our justification for using qualitative, visual methods to collect data related to well-being and evaluates the strengths and limitations of timelining as a tool to do this, from both the participants' and researchers' viewpoints. The study argues that timelines have the potential not only to support reflections on well-being but also to provide an approach to support it during teacher training and beyond. The use of timelines as tools to explore the non-linear and dynamic experiences of well-being during student teachers' teaching practice in Finland and England will be discussed and recommendations for the further development of this approach shared.