In the recent decade the teaching profession has been experiencing teacher shortages across Europe and they are expected to continue in light of demographic changes and challenges in the social standing of the teaching profession (Ingersoll, 2001; Mezza, 2022; Nairz-Wirth & Feldmann, 2015). Teachers’ job satisfaction is central in keeping them motivated and committed to their profession (Wartenberg et al., 2023, S. 2; Woods et al., 2023). Additionally, job satisfaction is a driver of teachers’ performance, commitment, and their own as well as their students’ motivation and achievement (Edinger & Edinger, 2018; Wartenberg et al., 2023; Woods et al., 2023).

One of the goals of professional development (PD) is to raise teachers’ instructional, professional and personal competences in an effort to increase students’ academic and sociocultural learning outcomes (Darling-Hammond et al., 2017; Efstathiades, 2026; Guskey, 2021; Sims & Fletcher-Wood, 2021). Furthermore, PD is seen as a key support measure for positive professionalization, specifically for early career teachers, which could support the retention of teachers (Suarez & McGrath, 2022, p. 21; Ingersoll & Smith, 2003; Minea-Pic, 2020). PD is identified as an important resource to support teachers throughout their career path (Darling-Hammond et al., 2017; Guskey, 2021; Sachs, 2016; Sims & Fletcher-Wood, 2021; Suarez & McGrath, 2022) and is consequently linked to teachers’ motivation, their identification with the profession (Suarez & McGrath, 2022), their self-efficacy (Edinger & Edinger, 2018; Wartenberg et al., 2023)and ultimately, their job satisfaction (BMBWF, 2021; Mezza, 2022; Minea-Pic, 2020; Wu & Wu, 2026). 

In this study, the relationship between teachers’ job satisfaction and effective PD will be analyzed in three different European regions. Across Austria, Germany, and Denmark, professional development (PD) is primarily regionally organized. Austria’s PD is approved at the national level but organized regionally through public, ministry-approved providers; Germany’s PD is both approved and organized at the regional level and delivered by public (free) and private (fee-based) providers; and Denmark’s PD is organized at the school and municipal levels, allows both public and private providers, and is funded at the regional level within a highly decentralized framework which, compared to Austria and Germany, shows more market-based characteristics. The comparison of the three regions will illuminate to which extent the varying education systems play a role in teachers’ PD and their job satisfaction. 

Education systems, institutional settings, and culture constitute the conditions in which the professional habitus of teachers is interpreted, negotiated, challenged or enabled (Benoliel & Berkovich, 2021, p. 146; Hansson & Erixon, 2020; Hardy et al., 2018). These conditions are what Bourdieu (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1990) refers to as “fields.” A cross-regional comparison can illuminate the ways in which fields shape teachers’ professional habitus. Applying theories of habitus to teacher professionalism allows a nuanced examination of the relationship between job satisfaction and effective PD. Examples of the professional habitus that are addressed in PD settings include how teachers are expected to act and think, as well as which educational practices are considered appropriate or feasible. Accordingly, PD can be conceptualized as a process of negotiation through which notions of teacher professionalism are shaped within political and socio-cultural understandings of what constitutes a “good” teacher.

This study uses FOOTT PRINTTS* survey data (N = 5,024) from three educational regions: Vienna (Austria), Aalborg (Denmark), and North Rhine–Westphalia (Germany). A structural equation model (SEM) analysis will be performed to analyze and compare the relationship between teachers’ overall job satisfaction and perceived effectiveness of PD in the three regions. By analyzing varying levels of job satisfaction, this study draws a nuanced picture of the relationship between job satisfaction and effective PD. The model controls for gender (men are the reference category, gender categories inter, diverse and open were included in the survey but had to be excluded in the statistical analysis as the response rates were too low), teachers level of experience in years, whether they work part-time or full-time, and public vs. private schools. All control variables are associated with teachers’ job satisfaction. For robustness, every variable was added separately and controlled for with a Likelihood-ratio test to ensure all variables significantly enhance the explanatory power of this model. Subsequently, nine qualitative interviews were conducted to deepen the understanding of similarities and differences across the three educational regions. In each region, one teacher (micro-level) and two experts responsible for coordinating PD at the leadership level (macro-level) were interviewed to elicit narratives of professionalization, effective PD and job satisfaction. A sequential mixed methods design is well suited to this study, as the qualitative phase serves to contextualize and clarify similarities and differences in the patterns observed in the three regions. Comparing the relationship between effective PD and job satisfaction across the three regions situates teacher professionalization within their respective education systems and institutional contexts. *FOOTT PRINTTS is a KA2 project co-funded by the European Commission. The author declares that no conflicts of interest were present at any stage of the research process, including survey development, data collection, or data analysis.

A first analysis shows that similar effects can be found in all three regions, however effect sizes vary. A positive relationship between job satisfaction and effective PD was found for satisfied teachers but not for unsatisfied teachers. The results of this study paint a more precise picture than previous studies, as it takes into account participants’ levels of satisfaction when analyzing the relationship between job satisfaction and effective PD. This has, to the best of my knowledge, not been considered in empirical studies so far. This study found that the lower the job satisfaction the weaker the relationship with effective PD. Furthermore, for unsatisfied teachers no significant relationship between job satisfaction and effective PD could be found. This suggests that effective PD could support satisfied teachers but will likely not support unsatisfied teachers. A Bourdieusan lens provides a theoretical framework to understand the different effects of PD for satisfied and unsatisfied teachers. It indicates that satisfied teachers might be more in line with the collective professional habitus that is promoted in PD settings, which can be seen as an overall agreement with the content, practices, values and ways of thinking. In other words, PD could be deemed an effective tool for collectively and positively shaping teacher professionalism of satisfied teachers only. Future research should focus on unsatisfied teachers and their perspectives, expectations, needs and challenges both in formal and informal professionalization, to identify which challenges can be addressed effectively by PD measures and which ones need to be addressed on a different level, such as the school or policy level.

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