Abstract

Providing online instruction has become a normal part in primary and secondary education. The teachers’ work engagement and intention are critical to the sustenance of high-quality online teaching. Therefore, this mixed-methods study proposed and validated a theoretical model from the perspective of the Job Demands-Resources Model to shed light on what drives teachers’ online teaching work engagement and its consequent effect on continuance intention. The partial least squares structural equation was applied to 1066 primary and secondary school teachers’ valid self-reported questionnaires to examine the proposed model. We found that it is the perceived usefulness of technology, rather than the ease of use, that affects teachers’ online teaching engagement and intention; institutional support has the most influence on sustaining teachers’ online teaching; urban teachers focus more on the perceived usefulness of technology, while rural teachers are concerned with their online teaching readiness. The follow-up qualitative research further yielded three major themes, including the availability of technical equipment and guidance constitutes teachers’ online teaching basic needs, teachers emphasize the institutional support from parent, and teachers are not troubled by the use of technology but focus on its functions. These themes provided rich details and in-depth knowledge regarding the key aspects that influence teachers’ online teaching work engagement and continuance intention in quantitative study. This study extends our understanding of the theory of work engagement in the context of online education and provides practical guidance for online teaching instruction in primary and secondary education.