Conference Agenda

This study examined profiles of teachers’ resilience and work burnout using a sample of 331 Finnish elementary school teachers (79% females) who filled out an online questionnaire in the spring of 2022.

Teaching is often described as a highly demanding occupation (e.g., Johnson et al., 2005; Kyriacou, 2011). In recent years, demands such as increasing workloads and the time required for nonteaching duties, along with the changes teachers faced due to the COVID-19 pandemic, have strained their sense of occupational well-being (e.g., Hascher & Waber, 2021; Salmela-Aro et al., 2022). This is a woeful reality, especially given that decreased occupational well-being, such as burnout – conceptualized as exhaustion, negative attitudes toward work (i.e., cynicism), and inadequacy toward work (Maslach et al., 2001) –, is harmful and related to, for example, lower sense of job satisfaction (e.g., Hakanen et al., 2006; Skaalvik & Skaalvik, 2017).

Nevertheless, despite the demanding nature of teaching as an occupation (Kyriacou, 2011) and the alarming number of teachers experiencing stress due to their work (e.g., Herman et al., 2020), it is also evidenced that there are plenty of teachers possessing high or at least fairly good levels of occupational well-being (Hascher & Waber, 2021). Such teachers might be, for example, resilient to counter their work-related challenges (e.g., Beltman et al., 2011; Mansfield et al., 2016). Resilience can be defined as the ability to bounce back from difficulties (Smith et al., 2013). According to Smith et al. (2008), the process of bouncing back includes three intertwined phases: 1) confronting the stressful event, 2) directing oneself toward a positive future outcome of the event, and 3) taking active steps to cope with it. In addition, teachers may have contextual or individual resources that protect them against the strains of work-related demands (e.g., Bermejo-Toro et al., 2016; Granziera et al., 2022; Hascher & Waber, 2021).

Increasing empirical evidence is also suggesting that there is substantial heterogeneity in teachers’ experiences of occupational well-being (e.g., Herman et al., 2020; Pöysä et al., 2022; Salmela-Aro et al., 2019). This notion implies that teachers may not be a homogeneous group; rather, there may be different subgroups of teachers in terms of their occupational well-being. For example, while it is known that teachers’ higher sense of resilience is related to their lower levels of occupational stress and burnout (e.g., Burić et al., 2019; Richards et al., 2016), the majority of the studies examining such a relation have assumed that this is similar for all teachers. Similarly, while it is known that sense of having a supportive leader–follower relationship can act as a protective factor for teachers’ occupational well-being (e.g., Bermejo-Toro et al., 2016; Hakanen et al., 2006), this has been mainly examined without considering the possible heterogeneity among teachers.

Therefore, to gain novel insights into teachers’ occupational well-being, the present study used the person-oriented approach to simultaneously examine teachers’ resilience and work burnout. In addition, to move beyond the assumption that the relations between sense of occupational well-being and different individual and contextual factors are similar for all teachers, subsequent analyses for the identified profiles were executed. The following research questions (RQs) and hypotheses were formulated: RQ1: What kinds of subgroups can be identified based on teachers’ experiences of resilience and work burnout?; RQ2: To what extent do the identified subgroups differ with respect to teachers’ individual factors of perceptions of work meaningfulness and overcommitment with work?; RQ3: To what extent do the identified subgroups differ with respect to the contextual factors of teachers’ perceptions of a supportive organizational climate and the leader–follower relationship?

Many countries worldwide are facing teacher shortages in schools (Craig et al., 2023; Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, 2024). To maintain the functioning of schools, alternative pathways into teaching have been introduced, including shortened and practice-oriented training routes for career-change teachers (European Commission/Education Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency/Eurydice, 2021). In some education systems, including Switzerland, schools additionally employ untrained staff with no or minimal formal teaching qualifications to address acute staffing shortages (Sandmeier & Herzog, 2024).

Despite the profound challenges associated with these staffing arrangements, empirical knowledge about how teacher shortages shape everyday work in schools remains limited (McPherson et al., 2025; Sandmeier & Herzog, 2024). Emerging evidence indicates increased strain on school principals and fully certified teachers, particularly due to the increased need for mentoring and support of those staff members without full teaching qualifications (Porsch, 2025; Schwalbe & Puderbach, 2023).

A suitable framework for exploring these experiences is provided by the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) theory, especially in light of recent extensions emphasizing its relevance for understanding work in times of crisis (Demerouti & Bakker, 2023). JD-R theory conceptualizes working conditions in terms of job demands requiring sustained effort and job resources that support effective functioning. JD-R theory also accounts for personal demands (e.g., perfectionism) and personal resources (e.g., resilience) as individual factors shaping employees’ work experiences (Barbier et al., 2013; Xanthopoulou et al., 2007). Prior research shows that demands and resources are closely linked to well-being and retention among teachers and school principals (Collie et al., 2020; Skaalvik & Skaalvik, 2018), making this framework particularly relevant in the context of teacher shortages. In addition, recent studies have begun to examine implemented measures to address teacher shortages in schools (Boström & Bostedt, 2025; Porsch, 2025), yet little is known about how such measures are perceived by teachers and school principals and which solutions they consider promising for the future. Using a qualitative research approach, we address the following research questions:

1. Which job demands, job resources, personal demands, and personal resources linked to teacher shortages do teachers and school principals report?
2. How do teachers and school principals perceive the implications of teacher shortages for their well-being and intentions to remain in or leave the school or profession?
3. What measures do schools implement to address teacher shortages, and which potential future measures do teachers and school principals perceive as promising?

Increasing psychological strain in everyday school life makes mental health and well-being in schools a pressing issue. Current evidence on the high prevalence of depressive symptoms and anxiety disorders among students (Sevecke et al., 2022) highlights the need for preventive, low-threshold support services in which schools can play a central role. This, however, depends on teachers’ ability to sustain their own mental health and well-being, so they can reliably take on this supportive role. Reports of high emotional exhaustion and elevated burnout risk among teachers (Lillich et al., 2023), alongside their characterization as a high-risk group for stress-related conditions such as burnout (Adam et al., 2025), underscore the urgency of examining teacher well-being with greater conceptual precision.

Research on teacher well-being has traditionally emphasized adverse outcomes such as stress, exhaustion, and burnout (McCallum et al., 2017). Likewise, international large-scale studies such as TALIS, PIRLS or TIMSS have often operationalized teacher well-being primarily via negative indicators (e.g., stress levels, burnout-related symptoms) and implicitly treated low stress as an indicator for high well-being. This framing risks underestimating positive dimensions of functioning and experience and limits the interpretability of findings for prevention and school development. The present study therefore adopts a multidimensional, resource-oriented perspective and is grounded in Westerhof and Keyes’ two-dimensional model (2010), which conceptualizes psychological distress and mental health as related but distinct dimensions requiring separate assessment and promotion. This approach is consistent with the World Health Organizations (1984) definition of health as more than the absence of disease, encompassing physical, mental, and social well-being. It implies a measurement and intervention logic that goes beyond symptom reduction to also capture and strengthen positive aspects such as positive emotions, engagement, supportive relationships, meaning and accomplishment, as conceptualized in the PERMA model of well-being (Seligman, 2018). In doing so, the current study contributes a multidimensional picture of teachers’ well-being and stress experiences in Austria. Given the conceptual proximity of different well-being approaches, research question 1 examines whether PERMA and subjective well-being reflect the same construct or can be empirically distinguished.

The current study additionally draws on the Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) model (Bakker et al., 2023), which distinguishes job demands (e.g., work pressure, emotionally stressful interactions) from resources (e.g., collegial support, supportive leadership). Within this framework, high demands combined with insufficient resources are linked to emotional exhaustion and elevated burnout risk, whereas resources are expected to promote aspects of well-being and buffer strain. The JD-R model further includes personal resources such as mindsets and resilience, which affect how teachers interpret demands and use resources proactively, contributing to sustained well-being. Building on this logic, the current study models three mindsets as psychologically relevant mechanisms: growth mindset as belief in the malleability of abilities (Dweck et al., 1995) as well as visionary mindset describing a future-oriented, meaning- and goal-directed orientation and vigilant mindset as anticipatory risk awareness and proactive coping (Ninković et al., 2025). These orientations are expected to influence how teachers assess demands and utilize resources (Nalipay et al., 2022), thereby affecting well-being both independently and in interaction with job demands and resources. As research questions 2 and 3, this study examines to what extent teachers’ growth, visionary, and vigilant mindsets predict well-being and whether mindset explains additional variance beyond job-related demands and resources.

In doing this, the study responds to limitations of large-scale surveys (e.g. TALIS, PIRLS,..) by complementing predominantly deficit-oriented indicators with multidimensional, positive measures of teacher well-being. Additionally, the use of validated, internationally compatible instruments and theoretically grounded constructs (including newly operationalized mindset measures) facilitates cross-national comparison and supports the transfer of insights across European school systems.