Teaching is widely recognized as a profession characterized by high levels of stress, with teachers regularly exposed to a wide range of stressors. In the last few years, there has been a noticeable shortage of teachers, both due to a lack of new teachers and teachers leaving the profession. In my master's thesis I focused on teachers and future teachers of elementary education. I investigated which sources of stress most strongly and commonly affect working teachers, and what are the expectations of future teachers regarding the stress they will experience as elementary school teachers. I also investigated which sources of motivation for the profession prevail in both groups. The participants were 165 elementary school teachers and 161 prospective teachers, i.e. first- and second-year students of elementary education. They completed an updated Stress Scale and answered a short questionnaire on motivation for the teaching profession. The data collected show that the most important sources of stress for classroom teachers are students’ behaviour and motivation, the teacher's workload and the relationship with students’ parents. They are often confronted with these stressors and feel their impact strongly. Students also expect to experience the most stress from the same three groups of stressors when they enter the teaching profession. The differences between the two groups are mainly in the slightly higher expectations of students compared to the actual experiences of teachers. Both groups are motivated to the greatest extent to enter the teaching profession for intrinsic and altruistic reasons. This master’s thesis sheds light on the experience of stress of elementary school teachers and the expectations of future teachers about stress in the teaching profession. The findings may be useful for the teachers themselves, the school management and the professional institutions, to provide appropriate help and to improve the situation described. At the same time, they are a reminder of the importance of preparing future employees for the mental stresses that are inevitable in some professions.
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