The international symposium on ‘The quality of life at school’ was held 1-2 June 2017 in Nantes. Organized as part of a partnership between the Educational Research Centre of Nantes and the National Council for School System Evaluation, it brought together many actors around this theme which represents a relatively recent research interest and a major challenge for public policies in favour of young people.
A multidimensional concept, the quality of life includes subjective aspects, such as life satisfaction, perceived well-being, sense of competence or self-efficacy, and objective aspects such as living conditions, level of autonomy, etc. Although there is no consensus to date on a definition for quality of life, we agree that it is above all a feeling associated with different areas of life and dimensions of the individual (Bergugnant, 2017).
If student well-being was largely discussed during this symposium, that of teachers was also addressed with the issue of psychosocial risks and burnout. The emergence of intensity and pressure at work associated with relational difficulties (feelings of isolation, lack of support from colleagues and management) felt by teachers are all sources of stress that can impact quality of life.
