From Intensified Work to Professional Development

Teachers often feel that they have to mount enormous hills in their daily work. Teaching can be demanding, distressing and even painful, but it can also be very rewarding, just as the climber who reaches the top can feel intrinsically satisfied. These facets and consequences of teachers’ work are apparent in the studies presented in this book. Some studies report that teachers experience a diversity of stresses, while others find that teachers in general report work satisfaction and only moderate levels of work-related stress. There are various reasons as to why this might be, and this book’s objective is to explore some of these and their effects on teachers’ working lives. Another objective is to explore what schools as organisations do (or can do) to facilitate teachers’ professional development and well-being. The book gives a European perspective on issues relating to teachers’ professional development and well-being in an age of reform-pressure and deregulation common to schools in most European countries.