Browsing by Author "Laulajainen, Katja"

Aim. Teachers' coping and well-being at work has been discussed recently in school communities as well as in the media and the approach has mostly been negative. It is important to also research the positive side of well-being at work. The purpose of this study was to examine what factors are the most important for well-being of class teachers together with how class teachers experience work engagement and whether the experiences differ in different stages of the career. The objective was to examine newly graduated and experienced teachers' well-being at work and work engagement. The assumption was that the results would differ from each other between these two groups. Methods. The study was a qualitative research. The research data consisted of individual interviews with four newly graduated and four experienced teachers. The interviews were semi-structured and were collected in Spring 2017. Data from the interviews was analysed by using thematic analysis. Results. Class teachers found the work community, work and working, the physical working environment, their own health and attitudes as well as leisure time to be important factors for their well-being at work. Work community was a particularly important factor for newly graduated teachers. Pupils, work community and the chance to influence on their own job were the most important factors that produced work engagement. For the newly graduated class teachers the work community was the key factor in being able to experience work engagement. Things that teachers felt hard were the factors that challenged work engagement. The work engagement manifested itself as a desire to learn and develop, enjoyment at work and co-operation. Teachers also experienced the three dimensions of work engagement: vigor, dedication and absorption. Experiencing work engagement can be seen positively related to well-being at work. For teachers' well-being at work, it is important that teachers have enough resources in their work.