Between Burnout and Job Satisfaction

What role does teacher well-being play in teacher shortages, teaching quality, and student development?

by Gyde Wartenberg

“The hellish job of teaching,” was the headline in the Süddeutsche Zeitung a few years ago, and Spiegel Online followed suit with: “Teachers: Burnout despite high contentment.” This April, Der Spiegel revisited the topic with the headline: “One in three teachers feels emotionally exhausted several times a week.” Press coverage refers to empirical studies suggesting that, despite high levels of satisfaction, teachers belong to a professional group with an increased risk of burnout and elevated levels of stress. Teachers also bear a great deal of responsibility for the cognitive and social-emotional development of their students. Theoretical models emphasize that not only are teachers' knowledge, their attitudes toward their profession, and their motivation important, but also their occupational well-being, characterized by low burnout levels and high job satisfaction. The study presented here explores this question and examines the role that teachers' occupational well-being plays in coping with the various demands of their profession.

As part of my doctoral thesis at the IPN, I first conducted two research syntheses to gain a systematic overview of the potential consequences of burnout (Substudy 1) and job satisfaction (Substudy 2). I considered absenteeism and the intention to change careers as potential consequences, which are key issue in times of teacher shortages. However, I also considered the association with the quality of teacher-student interactions and student motivation and achievement, which are three key tasks of the Teachers. The next step was to use a longitudinal data set to investigate whether teachers' occupational well-being predicts changes in interaction behavior and student motivation and achievement (Substudy 3).

The heuristic working model…
...provides the framework for this study and illustrates the theoretically postulated consequences of occupational well-being (using burnout and job satisfaction as the two indicators) on teacher shortages, the quality of teacher-student interactions, and the cognitive-motivational development of students. The consequences identified can be divided into two categories. They include general, cross-occupational indicators of professional performance, such as turnover intentions and absenteeism. They also highlight teaching-specific performance indicators, which relate to aspects of teaching quality and the motivation and achievement of learners. The underlying theoretical assumption is that exhausted teachers can no longer effectively master their professional challenges due to depleted resources, are more frequently absent from work due to illness, and mentally withdraw from work. On the other hand, there's the idea that satisfied teachers have more cognitive, emotional, and social resources available to create effective learning environments and help their students grow. These teachers are less likely to be absent from work and less likely to think about changing careers.

Is teachers' occupational well-being related to their thinking and behavior at work?

A systematic literature review identified a total of 83 relevant studies on burnout and 105 studies dealing with job satisfaction. Interestingly, the number of studies has increased significantly over the past ten years, suggesting a growing interest in teachers' occupational well-being. In the majority of the studies identified, teachers themselves provided information about their occupational well-being, their intention to change jobs, their absenteeism, the quality of teacher-student interactions, and their students' achievement and motivation. However, some studies also took into account external classroom observations and student surveys about the potential consequences.

A significant correlation was found across all studies between teachers' occupational well-being and the examined outcomes. According to the findings, teachers who experience increased symptoms of burnout are more likely to consider changing careers, are more frequently absent from school due to illness, and appear to be less effective at creating positive interactions in the classroom. Students were also less motivated and engaged in class when their teachers were emotionally exhausted. Higher job satisfaction among teachers, on the other hand, was associated across various studies with lower intentions to change careers and fewer absences due to illness, more emotional and instructional support in the classroom, more effective classroom management, and greater motivation and achievement among learners. Interestingly, overall, the results of the studies show some particularly strong correlations between certain burnout symptoms and the variables examined. For example, experiencing emotional exhaustion seems to be most strongly associated with intentions to change jobs and absences due to illness. The same applies to job satisfaction, which is also strongly related to thoughts of changing jobs. Meanwhile, experiencing depersonalization is most clearly linked to the quality of teacher-student interactions.

What is remarkable here is that although the correlations varied depending on the rater perspective, they were also significant in studies that integrated other perspectives. This means that not only teachers, but also learners and external observers rated the quality of teaching less positively when teachers themselves reported increased burnout symptoms or job dissatisfaction. Similarly, a significant correlation was not only found with retrospectively recalled sick days, but also in studies that used objective documentation of absences. However, these findings are based on cross-sectional data and should be verified in longitudinal studies or intervention studies.

Does teachers' occupational well-being correlate with changes in the quality of interaction and the motivation and achievement of their students?

Data from 43 mathematics teachers and fifth-grade students (N = 749) were used to investigate this question. 

As part of the IMPULSE project conducted at the IPN, teachers and students were surveyed at the beginning and end of the second school semester. The following variables were also taken into account:

  • information from teachers about their occupational well-being (i.e., emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction)
  • an assessment of teaching quality by students (i.e., emotional support, classroom management, and instructional support)  
  • an assessment of learners' self-concept in mathematics

The results of standardized achievement tests were also available at both measurement points for students’ achievement. 

Results showed that students felt less academically supported during the school year when they were taught by teachers who reported higher levels of exhaustion at the beginning of the semester. Conversely, students reported that teachers who were more satisfied with their jobs encouraged them to think more critically, activated their prior knowledge, and asked them to explain their solutions. The well-being of teachers in this study had no influence on the development of students' academic achievement and motivation.

Conclusion

The results of my studies illustrate how relevant teachers' occupational well-being is to teacher shortages, teaching quality, and learners. This can be deduced from the meta-analytical correlations. The finding that these correlations also apply to the rater perspective of learners and external observers further underscores the relevance of occupational well-being and suggests that third parties also perceive behavioral changes in teachers in this context. However, further research is needed to determine the direction of this association more precisely. Nonetheless, given the potential consequences of teachers' occupational well-being not only for the teachers themselves but also for schools, the quality of teaching, and the cognitive and motivational development of students, various intervention approaches are being discussed in research.These approaches aim to strengthen individual resources (e.g., social-emotional skills) and develop resources and reduce demands in the work environment (e.g., improving the school climate), and are proven to foster teachers' occupational well-being.

About the author:

Gyde Wartenberg was a research assistant and doctoral candidate in the Department of Educational Research and Educational Psychology at the IPN from May 2020 to April 2024. Since May 2024, she has been working as a researcher at the Institute of Education in the Department of Educational Psychology at Humboldt University in Berlin. Her research focuses on the well-being and occupational strain experienced by teachers, the effects of social-emotional interactions in the classroom, and the question of what teachers need in order to stay healthy and create positive learning environments.

Further reading:

Wartenberg, G., Aldrup, K., Grund, S., & Klusmann, U. (2023). Satisfied and high performing? A meta-analysis and systematic review of the correlates of teachers’ job satisfaction. Educational Psychology Review, 35(4), 114. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-023-09831-4