The Perfect Storm: Stress, Anxiety, and Burnout in the Secondary School Music Classroom

John Vitale

doi:10.26522/brocked.v22i1.307

Abstract

This study investigates teacher stress, anxiety, and burnout through my experience teaching music in a suburban Toronto secondary school between 2002 and 2008. Primary data sources include a rich collection of journal entries I have written over a six-year period, which were retrospectively analyzed in this study. Hence, this study is principally rooted in reflective practice. In addition, this study is informed through autobiographical and phenomenological lenses. These other two lenses have allowed me to incorporate secondary source data (anecdotal notes, emails, text messages, and video footage) that were repurposed for this study. Findings have exposed two principal thematic representations from the data, namely; (a) those that directly or indirectly addressed extracurricular performances, and (b) fear of failure. Reexperiencing my experience has been exceedingly therapeutic and cathartic for me, providing insight and transparency into the demanding nature of music pedagogy at the secondary school level. In addition, findings have helped me to refine and develop my current and future pedagogy as a teacher educator.

Highlights

Introduction and PurposeI consider myself fortunate to have had the experience of teaching secondary school music for well over a decade
I will elucidate and explain each of these themes with the support of primary data source passages and secondary repurposed data. The extrapolation of these two themes will provide insight into the extreme levels of stress and anxiety that I was experiencing at Melody High, which eventually lead to teacher burnout
Despite a full time teaching timetable, the entire success of the music program rested on extracurricular performances, which usually necessitated a multitude of early morning, lunchtime, and after school rehearsals, as well as numerous phone calls, emails, and late night planning sessions

Summary

Introduction

I consider myself fortunate to have had the experience of teaching secondary school music for well over a decade. Despite the numerous successes that I have had during this experience, stress and anxiety slowly began to imbue my daily teaching. I exhibited many signs of teacher burnout. The most valuable coping mechanism for me during times of elevated stress and anxiety, was reflective practice. It is no surprise, that the largest number of reflections that I have written during my entire educational career coincided with a six-year period of teaching music in a suburban Toronto secondary school (from 2002 to 2008), where I experienced extreme levels of stress and anxiety. I will refer to this particular secondary school as Melody High (a pseudonym) throughout the duration of this article

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion