  Citation: Fute, A.; Oubibi, M.; Sun, B.; Zhou, Y.; Xiao, W. Work Values Predict Job Satisfaction among Chinese Teachers during COVID-19: The Mediation Role of Work Engagement. Sustainability 2022, 14, 1353. https://doi.org/10.3390/ su14031353 Academic Editors: Amador Jesús Lara Sánchez, Manuel Castro Sanchez and Ramón Chacón Cuberos Received: 13 December 2021 Accepted: 20 January 2022 Published: 25 January 2022 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). sustainability Article Work Values Predict Job Satisfaction among Chinese Teachers during COVID-19: The Mediation Role of Work Engagement Antony Fute 1,† , Mohamed Oubibi 1,† , Binghai Sun 1, *, Yueliang Zhou 1,2, * and Weilong Xiao 1 1 College of Teacher Education, College of Education and Human Development, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua 321004, China; antonyfute@yahoo.com (A.F.); liby478@nenu.edu.cn (M.O.); xwl743@zjnu.edu.cn (W.X.) 2 Key Laboratory of Intelligent Education Technology and Application of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua 321004, China * Correspondence: jky18@zjnu.cn (B.S.); zhouyl@zjnu.cn (Y.Z.) † These authors contributed equally to this work. Abstract: Teachers’ job satisfaction is a prominent aspect that determines workplace well-being and job performance. With the outbreak of COVID-19, changes in the teaching process have emerged (e.g., the shift to online classes and an increase in teaching hours), which might be affecting job satisfaction. A closer look at predictors of teachers’ job satisfaction and the level to which they have influenced teaching satisfaction during the period of COVID-19 pandemic is very important. This survey involved a sample of 2886 Chinese teachers to examine the effects of teachers’ work values on their job satisfaction through the mediating role of work engagement. The analysis by SPSS 25 and PROCESS for SPSS software was run, and the results showed a strong effect of teachers’ work values on job satisfaction (β = 0.203, SE = 0.203, p < 0.01) and of work values on job satisfaction through the mediating role of work engagement (β = 0.204, SE = 0.017, p < 0.01). From the correlation analysis, work values strongly correlated with work engagement (r = 0.499, p < 0.01) and job satisfaction (r = 0.360, p < 0.01). Teachers’ work values and work engagement played a predicting role on job satisfaction among Chinese teachers during this period of the COVID-19 pandemic. Keywords: work values; work engagement; job satisfaction; mediation; COVID-19 1. Introduction COVID-19 is a global health problem that continues to affect millions of people, including teachers, students, and parents, since its initial eruption at the end of 2019 [1–3]. The pandemic has substantially disrupted education systems that have affected over 1.5 billion students worldwide [4]. In some countries, national examinations have been temporarily cancelled and face-to-face instructions ceased [5]. Concomitantly, teachers and students have been encouraged to follow the strict rules of physical distancing. Over 63 million teachers have been reported to be affected by COVID-19, while the exact number of deaths is not known. However, the disease has caused a total of 2 million deaths in more than 190 countries and territories [6]. In education, several countries have adopted measures like lockdown (total closure of schools), adoption of relevant technologies [7], promotion of personal hygiene, social distancing, wearing of masks, new teaching protocols, adjustment of curricula, and dis- tance learning as precautionary actions to reduce COVID-19 transmission in schools [1,8]. Notwithstanding, several setbacks have been reported to hinder the smooth implementa- tion of new changes in teaching and learning [9]. Teachers’ readiness, competence level, and perceived or actual organizational support have hampered the processes of education transformation during COVID-19. Resulting from these setbacks, many teachers still prefer face-to-face or, at least, blended methods [3,10]. In respect to actual organizational support, a survey jointly done by UNESCO, the World Bank, and UNICEF found only half of the surveyed countries had offered additional training to teachers on distance education. Less Sustainability 2022, 14, 1353. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14031353 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability