The aim of the study was to examine the factors related to teachers’ stress and well-being at work, and how teachers’ occupational well-being is associated with the pedagogical quality of their work in the classroom. Moreover, we investigated the factors related to teachers’ work engagement and recovery from work. Questionnaire data was collected from 54 first grade teachers from Central Finland in fall 2017 and spring 2018. The questionnaire included background information about the teacher and the class, the teachers’ experiences of their occupational well-being, work-related stress, and burnout, as well as their recovery from work, work engagement, and interactional style in the classroom. The salivary cortisol level was used as an indicator of teachers’ physiological stress response using Salivette® cortisol swabs. The pedagogical quality of the teachers’ work was observed by analyzing teaching styles (child- centered, teacher-directed, and child dominated) and teacher–child interaction quality (emotional, organizational, and instructional support), as well as the teachers’ focus of visual attention using eye-tracking glasses. The results showed that one third of the teachers reported high work-related stress. Although the teachers reported strong work engagement, they also reported that work overload, the number of students with special needs, and tasks outside the classroom increased their stress at work. Moreover, teachers’ lower self-efficacy beliefs were related to higher stress. Work engagement was associated with school resources, school climate, and leadership. Teachers’ lower physiological stress response was associated with their higher self-efficacy beliefs. Teachers reported that their means for recovering from work consist of physical exercise, hobbies, support from colleagues and family, and organizing their work better. The results of the quality of pedagogical work showed that in the classrooms where teachers used a child- centered teaching style, they had higher work engagement, while the opposite was found in classrooms with a teacher-directed teaching style. Further, the less the teacher reported stress and burnout the more they reported showing warmth and respect toward their students. Additionally, the quality of teacher–student interactions was related to teacher stress: The higher the teachers’ experienced stress in the classroom the lower was their quality of emotional, organizational, and instructional support. Work engagement, in turn, was related to higher emotional support and better classroom organization. Experiences of higher professional inadequacy and cynicism were related to lower levels of interaction quality in the classroom. Moreover, teachers’ focus of visual attention was related to higher professional inadequacy: Teachers with lower professional self-confidence gave less attention to individual students and more attention to the whole classroom.
Based on our results, the key factors to support teachers’ occupational well-being and work engagement are sufficient school resources, collaboration with colleagues, support from principals, and support for teacher’s self-efficacy. Because teachers’ occupational well-being is related to their teaching styles and quality of teacher–student interactions in the classroom, the intervention model, which focuses on supporting the quality of pedagogical work and interactions in the classroom, was developed.