The global teacher shortage poses serious challenges to the quality of education worldwide (UNESCO, 2024). Research indicates that nearly half of new teachers leave the profession within five years (Sims & Jerrim, 2020). This crisis is worsened by declining enrolment in teacher education programs, higher rates of teachers showing signs of burnout and being on long sick leaves, and early retirements (Arvidsson et al., 2019; OECD, 2005). Multiple factors contribute to these trends, including job dissatisfaction, rising and increasingly stressful work demands, limited professional development opportunities, underpayment, diminished societal respect for the profession (see e.g., Gorard et al., 2024). The growing teacher shortage is concerning due to its impact on class sizes, educational inequities, and the widening SES gaps in access to quality education (e.g., Burroughs et al., 2019). Understanding teachers' perceptions of their work environment is essential for improving job satisfaction, fostering retention, and reducing attrition. Furthermore, high-quality professional development can enhance teacher effectiveness and sustain motivation (e.g., Kennedy, 2016).

This symposium presents four empirical studies on teachers' working conditions from different perspectives, using data from multiple countries involved in two international large-scale assessments: TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) and TALIS (Teaching and Learning International Survey). These studies collectively provide insights into teacher job satisfaction which is crucial for retaining qualified teachers and attracting new people into the teaching profession. They also highlight factors that influence or are influenced by job satisfaction, such as motivation, teachers' intention to quit, and the impact of professional development on student outcomes.

The study by Veletic, Steinmann, and Nilsen explores international trends in teacher job satisfaction. The study employs country-fixed effects regression analysis on TALIS data to examine changes in job satisfaction between 2008 and 2018 across 12 countries that participated in all TALIS cycles. Contrary to expectations, the findings reveal an increase in teacher job satisfaction in most countries, with Norway being the only exception, showing a significant decline. The fixed-effects model indicates a small but significant rise in job satisfaction between 2008 and 2013, followed by stagnation since then.  The second study examines closely the relation between teacher job satisfaction and motivational variables. Hansen Yang applies structural equation modeling to TALIS data to investigate between-country differences in the associations between teachers’ motivation, perceptions of teaching practices and the teaching profession and teachers’ job satisfaction and how autonomy and professional status can explain these cross-country differences. This study highlights that these associations vary between countries and such context-specific understanding is necessary to derive policy reform recommendations. White further investigates why teachers decide to remain in the profession with TALIS data from the Nordic countries and considers multiple explanation factors in Bayesian additive regression tree models. Importantly, he assumes that the decision to remain in or leave the profession might vary between young, beginning teachers, more and less experienced teachers, and teachers with and without permanent positions. Indeed, the study finds pronounced differences between these groups of teachers, informing differential opportunities for improvement of the working conditions of teachers. Finally, the study by Glassow, Kirsten, and Gustafsson investigates the teachers’ average professional development participation in general, and more importantly, across socioeconomic student groups and in relation to student learning outcomes. The study utilizes TIMSS data with a within-student-between-subjects design, comparing students’ mathematics and science achievement and relating these differences to their teachers’ professional development activities. Encouragingly, the study finds no disparities in professional development access based on students’ socioeconomic backgrounds. Moreover, the study does not find evidence that professional development participation reduces socioeconomic achievement gaps.

Arvidsson, I., Leo, U., Larsson, A., Håkansson, C., Persson, R., & Björk, J. (2019). Burnout among school teachers: Quantitative and qualitative results from a follow-up study in southern Sweden. BMC Public Health, 19(1), 655. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-6972-1 Burroughs, N., Gardner, J., Lee, Y., Guo, S., Touitou, I., Jansen, K., & Schmidt, W. (2019). A Review of the Literature on Teacher Effectiveness and Student Outcomes. In N. Burroughs, J. Gardner, Y. Lee, S. Guo, I. Touitou, K. Jansen, & W. Schmidt (Eds.), Teaching for Excellence and Equity: Analyzing Teacher Characteristics, Behaviors and Student Outcomes with TIMSS (pp. 7–17). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16151-4_2 Gorard, S., Ledger, M., See, B. H., & Morris, R. (2024). What are the key predictors of international teacher shortages? Research Papers in Education, 0(0), 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1080/02671522.2024.2414427 Kennedy, M. M. (2016). How Does Professional Development Improve Teaching? Review of Educational Research, 86(4), 945–980. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654315626800 OECD. (2005). Teachers Matter. OECD Publishing. https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/teachers-matter-attracting-developing-and-retaining-effective-teachers_9789264018044-en.html Sims, S., & Jerrim, J. (2020). TALIS 2018: Teacher Working Conditions, Turnover and Attrition. Statistical Working Paper. UK Department for Education. UNESCO. (2024). Global report on teachers: Addressing teacher shortages and transforming the profession. https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/global-report-teachers-what-you-need-know