Conference Agenda

Joy in professional work with children and youth within the educational context is frequently treated as a private, incidental experience rather than a meaningful dimension of pedagogical quality and professional sustainability. In this paper, joy is conceptualized as a relational and situational phenomenon emerging from meaningful interactions, mutual recognition, and a sense of professional agency (DiGregorio & Liston 2020, Fredrickson 2001, Hargreaves 1998, Roberts & Appiah 2025). Thus, joy is understood as professional well-being. Rather than being linked to exceptional or extraordinary events, joy can be found to arise frequently in ordinary situations embedded in everyday practice.

Research in education and youth work has predominantly focused on stress, burnout, and risk (Maslach et al. 2001, Hargreaves 1998), leaving positive emotional experiences underexplored. Teachers who experience joy in teaching report a willingness to learn and appreciate the diverse students they work with (Alisaari et al. 2022, Nieto 2013). Caring, which can happen while being present and promoting the well-being of others and oneself, is essential to teachers’ well-being, and can be seen as a source of joy (Alisaari et al. 2022, Nilsson et al. 2015). Also, positive interactions between teachers and students, as well as teachers’ work satisfaction supports their well-being (Soini et al. 2010). The pedagogical joy and well-being experienced by teachers has been shown to translate into higher quality teaching and higher student well-being (see, e.g. Nieto 2013, Soini et al 2010). This paper argues that joy should be understood as a significant indicator of relational quality, professional meaning, and sustainable practice in everyday work with children and youth.

The aim of the study is to explore when and how joy emerges in everyday professional practice within the educational context and how increased awareness of joyful moments can inform intentional changes in daily work routines. Situated within a European context, this study aims to add to ongoing discussions on professional well-being, and quality in child and youth work. In this study, the focus is on pre-service and in-service teachers as well as paraprofessionals from European and North American contexts. The comparative nature of the study, including different target groups working with children and youth, as well as the differing national contexts, aims to contribute to a better understanding of the universal benefit of joy for professionals’ well-being.

The central research question guiding the enquiry is: In which situations do professionals working with children and youth experience the greatest sense of joy, and how can these moments be intentionally increased within everyday practice? Sub-questions include whether joyful moments correspond with the participants’ initial assumptions, whether they recur in similar contexts, and which relational, temporal, or activity-related factors contribute most strongly to these experiences. The data is collected using a structured reflective assignment entitled Joy in Working (with Children and Youth), which combines initial self-reflection, systematic self-observation, comparative analysis, and action-oriented reflection. Data were analyzed using the Gioia methodology (Gioia et al., 2013), a variant of grounded theory. The findings suggest that joyful moments most often occur during informal interactions, dialogical exchanges, and activities that allow for creativity, presence, and authentic engagement with children and youth. In several cases, the observations challenged initial assumptions, revealing that joy was less connected to formally planned or outcome-driven activities than expected. Increased reflective awareness enabled the identification of conditions under which joy flourishes and highlighted opportunities for intentional change.

It demonstrates that reflective self-observation is a low-threshold, transferable method that supports professionals in recognizing joy as a valuable resource for both personal well-being and pedagogical practice.

Teachers’ professional agency is a popular research topic in various teaching contexts across different countries because it contributes to student learning, pedagogical activities, teacher collaboration and development, and societal and school development (e.g. Leijen et al., 2020). However, most studies have been conducted using qualitative methodology and focusing on single country contexts. Also, European and Western studies have laid the theoretical foundation for agency studies but insights from the African context have been scarce. In addition, some previous studies have examined teachers’ professional agency in relation to exhaustion and other kinds of negative wellbeing indicators (e.g., Sullanmaa et al., 2024) while the positive indicators, for example engagement, have been receiving less attention (e.g., Cao, 2024).

In this quantitative study, the relationships between teachers’ professional agency and wellbeing at work is examined both from its positive (e.g., work engagement) and negative perspectives (e.g., exhaustion) while also considering the influence of working conditions. Teachers’ professional agency is conceptualised as an action-based phenomenon that shapes and is shaped by work practices, the work community and evolving professional identity (Eteläpelto et al., 2013). Thus, agency is evident when employees influence and develop their own work and shared community practices, and negotiate their professional identity while aligning their work with their values (Eteläpelto et al., 2013; Vähäsantanen et al., 2019). Teachers’ professional agency is likely to promote their wellbeing at work which is a favourable mental and physical state that appears as the absence of exhaustion and presence of engagement (e.g., Ozturk et al., 2025). Working conditions also shape teachers’ wellbeing. Supportive and respectful relationships with the school leadership, colleagues and parents are especially important but also certain degree of autonomy in decision-making and adequate time resources (Skaalvik & Skaalvik, 2011, 2020; Leijen et al., 2020; Ozturk et al., 2025).

This study will employ questionnaire data from the East-African countries of Kenya, Tanzania and South Sudan. The data will not only offer a means to model the theoretical relationships between the teachers’ professional agency and wellbeing but also yields novel information about the understudied East-African context where teacher deficit and attrition are contemporary dilemmas (e.g. Boniface, 2016; Kiongo, 2020).

This quantitative study aims to examine how pre-primary, primary and secondary level teachers’ professional agency and working conditions are related to their wellbeing at work especially in the East-African countries of Tanzania, Kenya and South Sudan. The research questions are as follows:

1. How do teachers experience professional agency, well-being at work, and working conditions across the countries?
2. How are teachers’ professional agency, wellbeing and working conditions associated with each other?

Expectations placed on teachers have become increasingly diverse and intensified in contemporary education systems (Williamson & Myhill, 2008). This development can be understood through the lens of educationalisation, which captures the transformation of sociopolitical problems into pedagogical responsibilities (Fendler, 2018). Through educationalisation, schools and teachers are positioned as key agents expected to address complex societal challenges that originate beyond the educational sphere. Consequently, education systems are held accountable not only for what they can and should reasonably be expected to do, such as supporting student learning, but also for a broad range of social concerns, including poverty, crime prevention, and environmental sustainability (Bridges, 2008).

These intensified expectations become particularly visible during periods of social, political, or economic disturbance, when education systems are mobilised as sites of social repair and teachers are more readily constructed as scapegoats for systemic failures and unmet societal expectations (Mangez, 2022). In such contexts, teachers’ responsibility is intensified while constraining structural conditions remain largely unchanged.

In the absence of clear boundaries regarding what falls within their professional role, teachers are often required to negotiate overlapping and sometimes conflicting expectations. These dynamics have direct implications for teacher professional identity, raising critical questions about how teachers understand who they are, what their work entails, and how they sustain a sense of professional purpose under conditions of persistent pressure.

From the sociocultural perspective, (professional) identity is understood as a dynamic, relational and contextually situated process that emerges through participation in social practices (Wenger, 2008). According to Lave and Wenger’s work, identity is formed through engagement in communities of practice, where individuals gradually learn and so become who they are (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998). Through participation, teachers come to appropriate shared meanings, values, and repertoires of practice, while developing a sense of belonging. Over time, participation may shift from legitimate peripheral participation toward more central forms of involvement, as teachers gain competence and recognition within their professional communities. Viewed through this lens, teacher professional identity is continuously shaped at the intersection of individual trajectories and the communities in which teachers participate.

Moreover, building and sustaining (professional) communities is itself a socially and emotionally demanding endeavour. Participation in school communities requires teachers to engage in complex relational work, manage emotionally charged interactions, and navigate tensions between individual capacities and collective expectations. This suggests that a view of identity development grounded in community participation cannot be understood independently of teachers’ individual socio-emotional capacities. Accordingly, fostering professional communities may depend not only on organisational structures, but also on teachers’ competencies to build and sustain relationships and to regulate the emotions that accompany professional interactions.

Building on these arguments, the present study examines whether integrating individual-oriented and community-oriented perspectives on teacher professional development offers a more robust framework for understanding and supporting strong teacher professional identity. Specifically, the study explores how teachers’ socio-emotional competencies relate to their professional identity, and the extent to which these relationships are mediated by teachers’ sense of belonging within the school community and their sense of professional competence.

This study constituted the first stage of the project ‘TEACHEMPOWER: Building Communities of Practice to Strengthen Teacher Identity and Foster a Better School Environment’, implemented by the Institute of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, with the support of the Uncredit Foundation. The project aims to strengthen positive teacher professional identity in 26 primary schools in Serbia through sustained participation in communities of practice, in which teachers collectively negotiate the boundaries of their professional roles and develop socio-emotional competencies that support the constructive negotiation of newly emerging professional boundaries with other members of the school community.

Across Europe and beyond, the teaching profession has become increasingly marked by declining attractiveness, growing dissatisfaction and high levels of emotional exhaustion, raising concerns about teacher retention and the long-term sustainability of education systems (OECD, 2021; European Commission/EACEA/Eurydice, 2021). These trends are particularly visible in contexts where ageing teaching workforces, staff shortages and intensifying accountability pressures intersect with rising expectations regarding inclusion, wellbeing and educational outcomes. In Portugal, these challenges have become more pronounced over the last decade, indicating broader international dynamics while also revealing context-specific structural and organisational tensions (Flores, 2020; Flores et al., 2025). The COVID-19 pandemic did not initiate this process but acted as a catalyst, exacerbating pre-existing fragilities in teachers’ work and amplifying professional dissatisfaction (Flores et al., 2021; Martí-González et al., 2023). In line with international evidence, Portuguese teachers were required to rapidly adapt pedagogical practices, manage intensified workloads and maintain meaningful relationships with students under conditions of uncertainty and limited institutional support (Aktan & Toraman, 2022).

This paper therefore addresses the following research question: What factors explain Portuguese teachers’ professional dissatisfaction in contemporary school contexts? Rather than approaching dissatisfaction as an individual psychological outcome, the study aims to conceptualise it as a multidimensional and relational phenomenon, influenced by the interaction between professional values, organisational arrangements, structural conditions and policy frameworks. The objective is to contribute to European and international debates by offering an empirically grounded analysis of how dissatisfaction is experienced and interpreted by teachers themselves, and how it relates to broader transformations in the governance and meaning of teaching.

The theoretical framework draws on research on teacher job satisfaction and professional identity, particularly perspectives that emphasise the moral, relational and existential dimensions of teachers’ work (Kelchtermans, 2009, 2018). These approaches argue that professional satisfaction and dissatisfaction are not solely determined by material working conditions, but by the alignment, or misalignment, between teachers’ values, sense of purpose and everyday practices. This framework is complemented by models that examine the balance between job demands and resources, autonomy and control, including the Job Demands-Control perspective (Skaalvik & Skaalvik, 2018), which has been widely applied in international research on teacher wellbeing.

Empirically, the paper is based on qualitative data from a wider national research project on school leadership and teachers’ work, informed by international scholarship on leadership and school improvement (Leithwood et al., 2006; Day, Gu & Sammons, 2016). The study is based on 17 focus groups with 97 teachers from different school levels and working in public school clusters across mainland Portugal. This diversity of contexts allows for an exploration of dissatisfaction across different school sizes, geographical locations and socio-educational environments, allowing dialogue with international findings on contextual variation in teachers’ experiences (Toropova et al., 2021).

The findings point to four interrelated domains of dissatisfaction: profession-related, structural, organisational and curricular-pedagogical factors. These domains reflect patterns that resonate with international research, including work intensification, bureaucratic overload, declining professional autonomy, insufficient recognition and tensions between policy rhetoric and classroom realities (Hargreaves, 1998; Trinidad, 2025). At the same time, the Portuguese case brings to the fore specific challenges associated with school clustering, teacher shortages and territorial inequalities, contributing context-sensitive insights to broader European discussions.

Through the analysis of teachers’ voices, the paper argues that professional dissatisfaction should be understood as a collective and symbolic response to the erosion of professional meaning and agency. In doing so, it expects to inform European debates on teacher wellbeing, retention and policy design.