Teachers’ Handlingsrom Under Cross-Pressure: Developing the CP-Well Model of Well-Being in Gifted Education

This article draws on research in a Norwegian municipality to examine the affective aspects of teaching gifted students and to explore how systemic and cultural norms surrounding gifted education in Norway may shape teachers’ perceptions and practices. Teacher well-being is a concern for educational quality and sustainability, yet in gifted education, it is often overlooked. Giftedness refers to a high ability to learn faster, more complex or in greater depth than same-age peers when adequately supported. In Norway, teachers face contradictory signals concerning teaching the gifted: definitional ambiguity, limited training, strong egalitarian norms that make giftedness a contested category, and, at the same time, a strong principle of inclusive adapted education for all. Those combined may lead to ethical tensions that challenge teachers’ professional integrity and well-being. Such conditions can reduce teachers’ handlingsrom, meaning their space (room) for professional agency, within institutional, cultural, and policy frameworks. To investigate how such pressures shape teacher’s well-being, this study synthesises findings from four interrelated sub-studies conducted within a single research project on gifted education. Using a meta-ethnographic approach, we translated and integrated insights from the sub-studies to develop higher-order constructs not visible in the individual analyses. The synthesis identified three key dynamics: conceptual ambiguity, ethical strain under cross-pressure, and buffers as recalibrators of demands and resources. Together, these insights informed the Cross-Pressure Model for Teacher Well-being (CP-Well Model) developed in this study, which positions teacher integrity at the centre of professional well-being. We argue that teacher well-being in gifted education may depend less on individual resilience and more on systemic, cultural, and policy conditions. Addressing these cross-pressures requires structural change, supportive leadership, and sustained professional development to enable teachers to work with integrity.