Teacher stress has increased numerously after the first covid pandemic.More than half of the teachers are thinking of quitting the profession.The covid pandemic affected the mental health of teachers as well.
But the problem didn’t start from here, it started long ago. Nearly 8% of teachers quit their profession each year.
A 2017 survey had an almost identically worded survey item, 61 percent of teachers said that work was often or always stressful (American Federation of Teachers, 2017); most of these teachers said the job was stressful.
What is teacher stress?
It is like the stress faced in every job,But it has different dimensions and impacts. Most teachers choose the profession because of their passion,Still, they face a lot of challenges during their job, physically and mentally.
As the job includes direct interaction with children for hours, the energy level they need is enormous. You know about the energy of a child, then think of a classroom of 40 restless students. Managing kids is not a simple task. So is the stress from the job.
Reasons why teachers are so stressed
In the research paper ‘Stress factors and solutions for the phenomenon of burnout of preschool teachers
(Otilia Clipa, Amelia Boghean)
Listed out 25 stress factors and took the survey of them they are
- Frequent changes in the education system
2 Pressure from higher bodies (facility management, inspectorate, ministry)
3 Wage
4 Putting extra hours for courses, seminars, meetings
5 Exaggerated requests regarding paperwork
6 Extra administrative work
7 Presenting demonstrative activities within methodical circles and/or to obtain. qualification degrees
8 Managers style
9 Lack of professional acknowledgment
10 Workload
11 Taking multiple roles
12 Large working classes in a small space
13 Insufficiency or lack of materials
14 Competition between colleagues/groups
15 Poor communication with parents
16 Children’s inadequate behavior
17 Extra responsibilities given by the management team
18 Time crises
19 Perfectionism
20 Failure fear
21 Lack of support from the management team/colleagues
22 Not participating in decision making
23 Extra nonplanned work hours
24 Arguments between colleagues
25 Routine
We can classify into two categories of stress sources with a major impact:
Administrative factors
one with a percentage over 60% (even up to 83%) in the area of a very and extremely
strong effect – the stress being caused by the exaggerated requests regarding papers, the large number of children in
class in a reduced space, extra administrative work, or the workload in general.
Financial factors
one with percentages between 50 and 60% in the same effect area which
comprises the wage and the insufficiency or lack of teaching materials.
Also, different stress sources which got more percentage, children
inappropriate behavior towards the teacher.
And attending courses or seminars, committees or qualification degrees causes a certain amount of stress, sources of stress competition or peer groups, routine, or the administrator’s behavior.
The 3 main stress sources identified from the investigations with preschool teachers are the low salary, high workload and classroom environment.
Low salary
Most teachers are underpaid.They have to do a second job for earning one-third of teachers do a second job for a living.
Workload
Teachers are bombarded with a lot of work other than teaching, which increases their stress and decreases their productivity.
Classroom environment
In this reason, children’s behavior, Inadequate classrooms, equipment, and overcrowded classrooms are included,
We can list out many more reasons for stressed teachers. Most of them are more or less connected to these three categories. All the factors are not easy to solve, but most of them can be solved by planning and by aides from the government and management. We are so focused on childcare, also we need to take care of people who take care of our children.
