External and Internal Correlates of Teachers' Satisfaction and Willingness to Report Stress

S ummary . In order to examine the nature of feelings of work satisfaction and reports of job‐related stress, teachers were asked to rate themselves regarding various aspects of their work functioning. Data regarding these teachers were also collected from principals, other teachers, parents and pupils. Teachers' general satisfaction and stress at work were found to relate mostly to their reported feelings about what happened within the class rather than to administrative or policy questions. Satisfaction as a teacher was related to internal factors (satisfaction in life in general and feelings of self efficacy) while reported stress was related to external factors (principal and pupil ratings.) The “better” teachers, according to external ratings, were willing to report more stress in their work situation.