Stressors For Teachers Research Articles

‘What’s wrong with me?’: an autoethnographic exploration of teacher stressors and burnout

ABSTRACT Teacher stress and burnout are serious issues in contemporary American education that are impacting a growing number of educators. This autoethnographic study compared reflective journal accounts from over the course of a semester with related research to analyse current contributing factors to these issues, such as threats of school violence, students with life-threatening illnesses, struggling student learners, high-stakes testing, and the lingering impact of COVID-19. The cumulative results of these stressors are teachers feeling physical fatigue, compassion fatigue, secondary trauma, or unable to leave vocational stress at work. While some potential solutions are discussed, such as mindfulness practices or ensuring a supportive work environment, more teacher voices are also needed in exploring this critical issue in education through methods like autoethnography.

Unraveling teacher stressors in Bhutan: a qualitative exploration of contributing elements

School teaching is widely acknowledged to be a highly demanding profession. Consequentially, an emerging academic literature deals with the stress levels teachers face. While existing studies predominantly focus on quantifying relevant stressors, this study investigates the subjective perceptions and interpretations of stressors by teachers. Data comes from Bhutan, a country with a high teacher resignation rate primarily due to teacher stress, despite being one of the highest-paid occupations. The results show that teacher stress in Bhutan predominantly emanates from heightened job demands. These demands are perceived differently in terms of how individuals view teaching responsibilities and non-academic obligations (e.g., Class Teacher). The pervasive impact of inadequate leadership and management exacerbates stress levels, directly encroaching upon psycho-social wellbeing. Ten teachers in Bhutan were interviewed using a semi-structured format. The interview data was recorded, transcribed, and coded using MAXQDA. Thematic analysis was then conducted based on the generated codes. By adopting a qualitative lens, this research enriches our understanding of teacher stress by unraveling how stressors are interconnected and how different teachers perceive the same stressor differently, providing insights on targeted interventions and support mechanisms. The results also show that supportive leadership can sometimes be viewed as a source of stress as opposed to the popular notion of perceiving it entirely as a stress-mitigating factor.

Unveiling the Phenomenology of Professional and Domestic Stressors for Private School Teachers of Lahore, Pakistan

The present research is a qualitative exploration of teacher stress faced by private school teachers in Lahore, Pakistan. We identified the professional and domestic stressors of teachers working in private schools in Lahore, Pakistan using thematic analysis. Digging into the forms of stress, three focus group interviews were conducted on three different school premises. Each focus group has eight participants, private school teachers having age ranges between 25 and 45 years, with inclusion criteria of being married and having at least three years of teaching experience in private sector. Professional and domestic themes such as workload, psychological challenges, consequences, and familial and personal factors were generated. Results confirmed some themes in previous research, such as administrative tasks, Coping strategies, classroom management, parenting issues, physical health, and emotional well-being. However, this research holds an exclusive aspect in exploring new themes such as meeting unrealistic deadlines, emotional labor, uncomfortable workstations, and unsupportive families. Implications were discussed.

Salient Stressors of Teachers Employed in Private Schools in Andhra Pradesh, India

Traditionally, teaching has been considered a noble profession. However, it has become one of the most physically and intellectually demanding service occupations in the present day. Particularly, teacher stress harms both their health and their students’ learning and performance. Stressors for teachers might vary depending on the type of school administration. Although studies have established the stressors experienced by teachers in public schools, relatively little research has been conducted on the stressors experienced by teachers in private schools. The primary purpose of this study was to determine the most significant stressors affecting teachers in private schools. It employed an explorative qualitative research design using convenience sampling. Twenty-one school teachers (nine males and twelve females, mean age of 32, and average teaching experience of 7.5 years) participated in semi-structured telephone interviews that were recorded with a call recorder. The audio data was transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis, yielding five significant themes: concerns with compensation; poor work environment; demands from parents, students, and management; interpersonal problems at work; and excessive workload. The results revealed the presence of workplace bullying and jealousy in schools, as well as new sources of stress for instructors, such as student evaluations. In addition, the report highlighted how teachers' financial restrictions and administrative responsibilities were exacerbating their stress levels and recommended administrative initiatives, such as psychological interventions for the teachers' well-being.

Teacher Stress During the First Wave of COVID-19 Infections: An Analysis According to Demographic and Labor Variables

<p style="text-align:justify">The purpose of this study was to analyze the work situations that education professionals perceived as stressful during the first wave of COVID-19 infections, and their possible variation according to demographic characteristics and working conditions. Empirical, quantitative, ex-post-facto, cross-sectional study was carried out, in which participated 9,058 teachers (86.9% women; M age = 41.08; SD = 8.82) who completed a semi-structured questionnaire of demographic and labor information and a scale of teacher stressors in the context of a pandemic. It was used Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) with post hoc Bonferroni contrasts to study the variations in the perception of stress according to demographic and work variables. The MANOVAs indicated significant variations in the perception of stress according to the teachers' gender, age, marital status, having dependents (children and parents), the level of education of the teacher, the employment situation (permanent vs. transitory), teaching seniority, the type of educational management, the number of students in charge and the number of weekly working hours (for all cases, Hotelling's F with p <.001). </p>

Stress, Stressors, and Coping Strategies of Female Private School Teacher to Deal with Occupational Stress

Mental health is the least prioritized subject in Pakistan though stress, anxiety and depressive disorders have been indicated as root cause of several chronic disease. Stress arises when an individual observes that he/she cannot cope with the demands placed on them or perceives a threat to his well-being. However, utilizing effective coping strategies can help to manage stress. The current study is a quantitative cross-sectional study aimed to assess the prevalence of occupational stress, stressors, and coping strategies of female private school teachers (n=1,386) working in Hyderabad city. Data was analysed using SPSS version 22.0, descriptive analysis was calculated and p-value <0.05 was considered as significant. The results revealed that majority of teachers were experiencing higher level of occupational stress. The stressors of teachers were sorted as work-related distress, professional growth, managing their work within given time, inadequate salary, emotional and fatigue manifestations were more obvious for teachers. Teachers were found to use dysfunctional and emotional coping strategies most often. The study concluded that overall working conditions of private school teachers were observed challenging. There is immense need to promote healthy working environment for better performance of teachers and ultimately resulting in succeeding and advancing educational organizations.

Stressors, Coping Strategies, and Achievement during Teaching Practicum in a Nigerian Public University

Objectives: This study assessed pre-service teacher stressors, coping strategies, and achievement during teaching practicum in a Nigerian public university. Method: The study adopted the quantitative case study approach. The population consisted of all 300-level students in the faculty of education in the university who had completed their teaching practicum for the first semester of the 2020–2021 academic session. The quota sampling technique was used in selecting a sample of 130 pre-service teachers. We analysed data using multiple regression. Results: Findings revealed the stressors and coping strategies, controlling for gender, did not significantly predict achievement in the teaching practicum. Several coping strategies and sources of stress were identified among student teachers. Conclusion: Although pre-service teachers in many Nigerian teacher training institutions report various stressors and coping strategies, these do not predict their achievement during practicum. Implication for practice: The results can be useful in curriculum planning and policy design, especially for methodologies of coping and overcoming the various stressors accruing from the teaching profession in general. For universities and colleges of education, teacher trainers have knowledge about the teaching practicum, stressors, and the various coping strategies to be considered and appropriated into pre-service teachers’ training for optimal performance.

Teachers on the margins: How low-income public schools burden our teachers.

Teachers experience high work-related stress, which can lead to missed workdays and lower quality of life. The objective of this exploratory pilot study was to assess occupational and environmental stressors in public school districts by income level to examine the influence these stressors have on teachers perceived stress and biological stress response. Fifty-nine teachers were recruited from four school districts in Michigan (three low-income and one high-income). Participants completed a self-administered survey on teaching stressors, health, and demographics. Stress response was measured through blood pressure, heart rate, and salivary cortisol. Six salivary cortisol measurements were collected for each participant; three in the afternoon and three in the evening. Each teacher's classroom and school underwent an environmental assessment on quality and proximity to environmental hazards. Teachers at low-income school districts had significantly higher afternoon cortisol levels, lower self-reported health, higher body mass index, higher perceived teaching stressors, and worked at schools within one km of a greater number of environmentally-contaminated sites, in comparison to their high-income school district counterparts. This research aims to inform future interventions that could lessen occupational and environmental stressors for teachers, improve teacher health outcomes and retention, and impact student success rates.

Stress and Burnout: An Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis of Elite School Teachers Beliefs and Experiences

This study explored the beliefs of elite school teachers concerning the effect of students' behavior on teachers' stress and burnout in an elite school. It also aimed to find out the perceptions of elite school teachers about organizational climate inducing teachers' stress and burnout. This study used an interpretive phenomenological research design to get an insight into the lived experiences of stress and burnout elite schoolteachers face. A criterion sampling technique was used to select a sample of fifteen teachers employed in an elite school in Lahore. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to get a deeper understanding of the lived experiences of elite school teachers. The thematic cross-case analysis revealed that most teachers experience-work stress and burnout. Some of the major stressors for teachers were administrative conflicts, collegial issues,excessive workload, lack of appreciation, and organizational environment. Students' disruptive behavior is the most significant predictor of teacher stress and exhaustion. It has been concluded that teachers need to have a properly articulated policy that could possibly protect their rights.

Occupational Stressors of Teachers in the Department of Education Calbayog City Division

Teaching is considered a noble profession. Despite being noble, it is considered demanding and stressful. This study was conducted to derive components that serve as occupational stressors of teachers in Calbayog City Division of the Department of Education. Three hundred twenty-nine teachers from Calbayog City Division of the Department of Education were identified by the researchers using random sampling technique. Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Test was applied to determine if Principal Component Analysis was appropriate for this study. Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity was used to know the strength of correlation between different variables. The researchers were able to identify four components as the stressors of teachers such as Motivation (Component 1), Cultural Professionalism (Component 2), Workload (Component 3), and Technology (Component 4).

Occupational Stressors of Teachers in the Department of Education Calbayog City Division

Occupational Stressors of Teachers in the Department of Education Calbayog City Division

Occupational Stressors of Teachers in the Department of Education Calbayog City Division

Occupational Stressors of Teachers in the Department of Education Calbayog City Division

Development and Validation of Teachers’ Occupational Stress Scale

Occupational stress has become increasingly common in teaching profession. Elementary school teachers possess the most crucial position in the entire system of education. It is deemed important to identify stressors of teachers to help them asses and manage their occupational stress in the workplace. However, no occupational stress scale has been developed for use among public elementary teachers in the Philippines. The study aimed to develop and validate a contextualized Occupational Stress Scale for public elementary teachers. This study was guided with the classical test theory approach. It utilized exploratory sequential mixed methods research design. Literature reviews and in-depth interviews were used to gather qualitative data that was used in the generation of items. Survey data was collected from elementary public teachers in Region VIII (total N=1417) using proportionate simple random sampling. Exploratory factor analysis was used to discover the underlying latent structure of the test. A 60-item scale with three-factor model was developed and labelled as Poor working environment, Work overload, and Student Misbehavior. The findings provided strong evidence that factors related to poor working environment, work overload and students’ misbehavior are the common stressors of public elementary teachers. The Occupational Stress Scale showed excellent overall internal consistency (α= .970) with strong coefficient alphas for Poor working environment (α= .962), Work overload (α= .953), and Student Misbehavior (α=.936) factors. Hence, this scale has the potential to be a consequential tool measuring and assessing teachers’ level of stress.

Educational Communication and Stress at Preschool and Primary Teachers in the Educational Pandemic Context

Abstract In the pandemic context, both stress and educational communication have been altered. In this article, we will analyse the dynamics of the factors involved in didactic communication and identify the real and potential stressors for teachers teaching before pandemic; we will also assess their perceptions of the anxiety felt about online teaching and how it affects educational communication. The hypothesis of the research postulates that the stress perceived by the teachers has elevated during pandemic and the educational communication has gone through a series of changes and reorientations both at the level of the didactic strategies adopted and the regulation of anxiety factors involved (the feeling of safety, the perception of break as a stress factor instead of relaxation, the volume of tasks attributed to each teacher etc). The research variables were the pandemic context in school environment, the level of stress as perceived by the teachers and the educational communication. The research objectives were aimed at assessing the perception of teachers in rural areas vs. that of teachers in urban areas regarding the stress felt and the dynamics of educational communication; also comparing the stress felt by teachers and the dynamics of educational communication incumbents vs. substitutes, educators vs. teachers and teachers in rural areas vs. urban teachers. We expect that the results of the research would have therefore a more assumed awareness from school managers of the fact that there are many predictors of stress that should no longer be ignored and that raising teacher’s resilience both at personal level and academic one should become a priority. School managers should organize mindfulness courses and anxiety management courses for teachers.

Exploring Occupational Stressors of Elementary Teachers

Occupational stress has become increasingly common in teaching profession. Elementary school teachers possess the most crucial position in the entire system of education. It is deemed important to identify stressors of teachers to help them asses and manage their occupational stress in the workplace. The study aimed to explore the occupational stressors of elementary school teachers. Common occupational stressors of teachers identified using in-depth interview were work overload, student misbehavior, poor supervisory style, lack of parental support, minimal compensation, unconducive physical environment, poor working relationship with colleagues, lack of available resources and poor organizational system. Experiencing stress at work can have a negative impact on their performance. It is deemed important to identify and qualify the occupational stress of teachers to understand and address issues on managing stress among teachers.

An Evaluation of Teacher Stressors in an era of COVID-19: An Initial Analysis

School lockdowns prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic has required teachers to work in a climate of rapid and significant adaptation. In this paper, which is part of a larger study, we provide a summary of the effects the COVID-19 school lockdowns in 2020 had on teacher stress. The paper outlines firstly the specific teacher stressors that existed before 2020 as well as the additional stressors that became apparent during and since the COVID-19 pandemic, as identified in scholarly literature. Secondly, the paper provides a brief overview of the responses from teachers in the 48 schools within Adventist Schools Australia (ASA) to an online survey designed to explore their workplace stressors surrounding the school lockdowns in 2020. Overall, there was a general increase in workplace stress during the COVID-19 school lockdowns, but it was not the degree that has been reported in previous literature.

Potential classroom stressors of teachers: An audiovisual and physiological approach

The number of teachers leaving their professions due to high levels of stress is a growing worldwide concern. Previous psychological and physiological research has already identified potential classroom stressors: low student engagement and motivation, negative teacher-student relationships and interactions, as well as teacher-centered activities. The current study extends this research by examining the frequency and intensity of these stressors during actual classroom teaching. The heart rates of 40 teachers were recorded throughout one real-life classroom lesson as a proxy for teacher stress. Heart rate measurements were used to select potentially stressful and non-stressful classroom situations. We transcribed the interactions during these situations and coded the stressors according to the previously mentioned stressor categories. Multilevel regression analyses were conducted to predict teachers' heart rates based on the occurrence of classroom stressors. Students’ low engagement and motivation, as well as teacher-centered activities, significantly predicted an increased heart rate. However, pronounced differences were observed between teachers in what they experienced as stressful. This points to significant individual differences in teacher stress triggers and processes. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

SECONDARY SCIENCE TEACHERS IN CHARTER SCHOOLS: UNIQUE CHALLENGES OF TEACHING DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

The COVID-19 pandemic restrictions presented teachers, students, and parents with unique challenges that were met with varying degrees of creativity, flexibility, and stamina and were dependent upon specific contexts and available resources. This work utilized interviews to examine charter school secondary science teachers' online teaching in response to COVID-19 restrictions. Specifically, this study explored teachers' instructional approaches, teaching constraints, and teacher stressors with a semi-structured interview within a community of inquiry framework. In addition, there were significant challenges to providing remote instruction due to technology constraints involving hardware, software, and Internet connectivity. Moreover, teachers were ill-prepared for online teaching due to the lack of training, professional development courses, guidance, and communication among peers. Although many of the teachers in the study suffered emotionally and physically, they were generally creative and resilient as they struggled to develop novel pedagogical resources that could be applied to the online setting. The findings suggest that greater planning, training, hardware and software infrastructure preparation, guidance on instruction formats or standardization, peer support systems, and communication could enhance teachers' capacity and skills for online teaching.

Emotions, Stressors, Coping Strategies, and Motivational Factors in Private Higher Education Institutions amid COVID-19 Pandemic

Private school teachers among Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) continue to strive to sustain quality education despite the psychological impact of the COVID-19 crisis. This study aimed to assess the emotions, stressors, coping strategies, and motivational factors of private HEI's teachers in Southern Philippines. Both negative and positive teachers' emotions were observed. Low salary scheme was the primary teachers' stressor. But, teachers utilized helpful strategies to cope with stress. Several motivational factors were seen as significant steps for their institutions to implement and follow. The high level of stressors of teachers during the pandemic influences the emotions towards the community and work situations. As they increasingly practice varied coping strategies and augment motivation to continue to work despite the situation, the better emotional state with lesser adverse feelings they will have. Government support is needed to aid private schools to continue the quality delivery of higher education. It is necessary to address stress-related problems of teachers during the pandemic, and help them strengthen their coping practices and motivation at work.

Language teachers’ coping strategies during the Covid-19 conversion to online teaching: Correlations with stress, wellbeing and negative emotions

Teaching often is listed as one of the most stressful professions and being a language teacher triggers its own unique challenges. Responses to the Covid-19 pandemic have created a long list of new stressors for teachers to deal with, including problems caused by the emergency conversion to online language teaching. This article examines the stress and coping responses of an international sample of over 600 language teachers who responded to an online survey in April 2020. The survey measured stressors and 14 coping strategies grouped into two types, approach and avoidant. Substantial levels of stress were reported by teachers. Correlations show that positive psychological outcomes (wellbeing, health, happiness, resilience, and growth during trauma) correlated positively with approach coping and negatively with avoidant coping. Avoidant coping, however, consistently correlated (rs between 0.42 and 0.54) only with the negative outcomes (stress, anxiety, anger, sadness, and loneliness). In addition, ANOVA showed that although approach coping was consistently used across stress groups, avoidant coping increased as stress increased suggesting that there may be a cost to using avoidant coping strategies. Stepwise regression analyses using the 14 specific coping strategies showed a complex pattern of coping. Suggestions for avoiding avoidance coping strategies are offered.