Introduction

Over the last decade, growing attention has been devoted to teachers’ well-being, given its implications for both teachers’ functioning and the overall quality of school life for students. Teaching is a helping profession that involves sustained emotional demands, complex interpersonal interactions, and continuous performance pressures, features that contribute to making teachers particularly vulnerable to work-related stress and burnout. Although research on burnout among teachers has a long tradition and numerous prevention and intervention efforts have been developed, international monitoring initiatives (e.g., TALIS and PISA) continue to indicate that many teachers remain at substantial risk for burnout. Consistent with the view that burnout reflects a work-related condition rather than an individual deficit, contemporary research increasingly emphasizes the role of professional resources that can foster resilience and facilitate recovery from stress. In this perspective, both personal and relational resources appear relevant for protecting well-being. For instance, higher work engagement has been associated with lower burnout; stronger self-efficacy beliefs may buffer the impact of stressors; and supportive relationships at work can promote more adaptive coping with everyday challenges. Building on this literature, the present study examines teachers’ internal and external resources simultaneously, testing whether engagement, self-efficacy, and social support mediate the association between burnout and general well-being within a single integrative model.

This study investigated the link between teachers’ burnout and well-being in an Italian sample and explored whether work engagement, self-efficacy, and social support operate as protective mechanisms. We hypothesized that engagement, self-efficacy, and social support would mediate the relationship between burnout and well-being, attenuating the negative effect of burnout on well-being.

Method

Participants were 339 Italian teachers (85.5% female; age range = 20–67; M_age = 49.65, SD = 9.26). Data were collected via an anonymous online survey, with informed consent and in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and Italian privacy regulations. Teachers completed five self-report measures: Burnout Assessment Tool (BAT), Mental Health Continuum–Short Form (MHC-SF), Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES-3), Workplace Friendship Scale (WFS), and Teacher Self-Efficacy Scale–Short Form (SAED-SF).

Results

Burnout was negatively correlated with well-being, and, as expected, work engagement, self-efficacy, and social support were negatively associated with burnout and positively related to well-being. Mediation analyses indicated that engagement, self-efficacy, and social support significantly explained the relationship between burnout and well-being: total effect (β = −0.44, p < 0.001); direct effect (β = −0.20, p < 0.001). The overall model accounted for 37% of the variance in well-being (R² = 0.37; F(4,334) = 48.72, p < 0.001). Taken together, findings suggest that teachers’ psychological and relational resources jointly reduce the detrimental association between burnout and general well-being. Notably, although work engagement functioned as a significant mediator, its predictive contribution appeared smaller than that of self-efficacy and social support, in line with prior evidence that engagement is, in part, shaped by individual and contextual resources.

Educational significance of the research

From an applied perspective, these results support the development of school-based prevention and professional development initiatives that target both personal and interpersonal resources. Interventions aimed at strengthening teachers’ self-efficacy (e.g., through coaching, mastery experiences, and instructional support) may enhance teachers’ perceived capacity to manage classroom demands and cope with stressful events. In parallel, fostering supportive collegial relationships and workplace friendship can reduce isolation, promote collaborative problem-solving, and facilitate adaptive coping. By integrating individual-focused and relational strategies, schools may more effectively buffer the impact of burnout on teachers’ well-being, with likely downstream benefits for instructional quality and students’ school experiences.

Introduction:

This contribution examines two areas of the Austrian TALIS 2024 survey:

1) principals' working conditions and the resources available to them and their schools and 2) the teaching practices and self-efficacy beliefs of teachers in the classroom.

Theoretical background:

The role of principals has changed significantly in recent years. While core administrative tasks such as budget management, timetable planning, and reporting remain central, principals’ responsibilities now include educational, organizational, and personnel management. School leadership is key to quality and school development (Schwanenberg et al., 2020). Principals coordinate and integrate different professional groups to improve educational and participation opportunities for all students (Huber & Zoss, 2023; Lütje-Klose et al., 2024). This cooperation requires appropriate structural conditions and a new leadership culture based on cooperation, trust, and shared responsibility (Fabel-Lamla & Gräsel, 2022; Rogge, 2024).

Aims and research questions:

This contribution analyzes principals’ working conditions and tasks in Austrian schools with a particular focus on support via multi-professional teams:

Which professions are represented in these teams and in which areas is additional support needed?

The second part focuses on teachers’ school climate perceptions, their teaching practices and their self-efficacy beliefs. All students can learn given high-quality learning opportunities, and teachers’ actions have a major impact on learning performance (Burroughs et al., 2019; Freiberg et al., 2009; Hattie, 2010; Herman et al., 2022). TALIS 2024 captures several teaching practices, i.e., specific actions, strategies, and routines in the classroom that actively promote learning (Lampert, 2010).

The main research questions of this section are:

- How do teachers perceive the school climate?

- Which teaching practices (e.g., classroom management, clarity of instruction, cognitive activation, adaptive teaching, and progression-based learning) do they report using and what is their perceived self-efficacy in these practices?

Methods:

Results are based on Austrian data from the 2024 cycle of TALIS, an international large-scale educational survey of teachers and principals in lower secondary education. In Austria, 4,335 teachers and 266 principals participated (Koschmieder & Unterköfler-Klatzer, 2025). Weighted descriptive statistics were used to produce the reported estimates.

Results and Discussion:

Regarding principals in Austrian schools, the results of TALIS 2024 demonstrate that, despite high levels of satisfaction with their work, school leaders perceive challenges, particularly in administration and concerning support personnel.

71 % of principals perform administrative tasks daily – this is 29 percentage points above the EU average of 42 % (EU average: 22 countries meeting the required data quality for international comparison). According to the principals, these activities also constitute their greatest source of stress.

In terms of multi-professional teams, many school leaders see their schools as underserved, particularly in psychosocial and administrative support.

Principals play a crucial role in the education system, but their workload is increasing. To provide sustainable support for school management, targeted investments in administrative and psychosocial support for students are needed.

Regarding the second part of this contribution, teachers’ perceptions of school climate and teaching practices, results reveal that teachers report a generally supportive school environment: 82 % of teachers report a positive school climate in terms of collaborative school culture, mutual support and collegial cooperation.

Perceived self-efficacy for motivating students is lower than the EU average. Thus, teaching practices on how to motivate students should be given greater emphasis in teaching education. Furthermore, self-efficacy in classroom management has declined in almost all areas compared to TALIS 2018. At the same time, teachers report that they use classroom management practices more frequently in 2024. Reported use of cognitive activation practices has increased compared to 2018; however, it remains below the EU average.

Teachers in Austria often report a supportive school atmosphere, but to ensure educational opportunities for all students, strategies to raise teacher self-efficacy in certain practices should be further developed in teacher education.

Educational Significance of the research:

Considering that TALIS provides representative survey data, the findings allow robust inferences about principals’ working conditions and insights into staff resources as well as teaching practices and teachers’ self-efficacy across school contexts.

Introduction

Teachers are central to educational quality, yet their capacity to enact “future education” depends strongly on working conditions, professional well-being, and opportunities for learning across the career span. International research links teacher stress and burnout to high job demands (e.g., workload, time pressure, challenging student behavior) and limited job resources (e.g., supportive leadership, collegial collaboration, autonomy, recognition). These mechanisms matter not only for teachers’ health, but also for retention and the stability of school improvement processes. The teaching and learning international survey (TALIS) provides a comparative evidence base on teachers’ working lives. This presentation focuses on lower secondary education in Austria and examines (a) who teaches in Austrian schools, (b) how teachers experience stress and job satisfaction, and (c) which job-related demands and resources are associated with stress, satisfaction, and intentions to leave the profession before the age of 60.

The guiding research questions are:

1. How prevalent are reported stress and intentions to leave the profession among Austrian lower secondary teachers, and how do these change over time (TALIS 2018–2024) and compare to European benchmarks?

2. Which job-related demands and resources are associated with teacher stress, job satisfaction, and intentions to leave the profession?

Methods

The analyses draw on TALIS 2024, an international large-scale, standardized questionnaire survey coordinated by the OECD. In Austria, lower secondary teachers and principals were surveyed online. The Austrian stratified sample comprises 4,335 teachers and 266 principals, with a weighted overall participation rate of 76% (Koschmieder & Unterköfler-Klatzer, 2025). Weighted descriptive statistics are used to describe the prevalence of key indicators and to compare Austria with EU benchmarks where available, as well as to track changes since TALIS 2018. Linear regression models were applied regarding job satisfaction and self-reported stress. In addition, a weighted logistic regression model estimates associations between individual and structural factors and the intention to leave the profession before age 60.

Results and Discussion

Reported stress has increased since 2018. In 2024, 54% of Austrian teachers report being strongly burdened by stress, exceeding the EU average (43%). Regression results indicate that stress is systematically related to working conditions, particularly perceived workload and stress linked to student behavior.

One quarter (25%) of teachers in Austria state they are likely/very likely to leave teaching before their 60th birthday. In the weighted logistic regression, lower job satisfaction and higher overall stress are associated with higher odds of early-leaving intentions; stress related to student behavior also has an impact.

Educational Significance of the research

For shaping education that can meet current and future challenges, the results underscore the following implication: teacher capacity is inseparable from teacher well-being and professional conditions. The reduction of avoidable job demands by streamlining administrative tasks, safeguarding time for core instructional work (preparation, feedback, collaboration), and ensuring coordinated support for managing behavioral challenges (e.g., consistent school routines, access to specialist support, structured collaboration) could serve as central approaches to improving the education system. Also, strengthening protective resources that buffer stress and support satisfaction, such as supportive leadership, collegial exchange, meaningful participation in decision-making, and recognition of professional expertise are important interventions to support teachers.