The school population evolution and the many new tasks under teacher responsibilities encourage researchers to question about the teachers' status and conditions. In this article, based on empirical data gathered from Canadian educators (2006), we are concerned about the performance of educators in this complex and evolving work called teaching, but also we're looking for factors that explain its variation. Overall, the results show that the performance of educators' work is significantly associated with the workload and working conditions but also the social relationships that surround the daily exercise of the profession. Careful examination of the results leads us to conclude that the influence of social relationships is more important than working conditions. More particularly, relations with students exert an influence much more significant than other factors studied: the more relationships are rewarding, at least as perceived by the teachers, the more teachers have the tendency to attribute positive performance to their profession. And, on the other hand, difficult relations with students have an adverse effect on the professional experience of the educators. The same is true, albeit to a lesser extent, with regard to the quality of relationships with other members of the teaching team.
job performance; task; teaching conditions; professional status; relationship with students
