Sources of Stress and Ways of Coping in Teaching: Teacher Perspective

Abstract

This chapter analyzes sources of stress and ways of coping in teaching. The study reported in the chapter attempted to complement close-ended questionnaire data by the use of an open-ended questionnaire, which allowed individual respondents to describe the sources of stress and ways of coping with them from the perspective of their own experience. In this study, a 10% random sample of the total population of teachers in a central province of Canada was taken in the latter part of the academic year. The sample was considered as fairly representative of Canada socio-economically and ethnically. At approximately 50% return rate, 572 open-ended questionnaires were obtained. A one-page one-ended questionnaire was attached to an extensive close-ended questionnaire which was mailed to the teacher sample under the sponsorship of their union. Respondents were asked to describe (1) the most stressful situation in their teaching and (2) their way(s) of coping with that situation. The chapter presents the results of the overall percentage distribution of responses to the open-ended questions. 80 percent of the respondents described their most stressful situation in teaching and how they coped with it. 11 percent of the responding teachers only indicated what stressed them the most but not how they coped with the stress.