TEACHER’S STRESS IN RELATION TO JOB SATISFACTION

1. There should be enormous amount of research has to be taken place to answer the queries like - What is Teacher Stress?  What is Teacher Job Satisfaction? How far Teacher Stress and Teacher Job Satisfaction are correlated? How far Teacher Stress and Teacher Job Satisfaction are related to Pupil out comes in different areas of classroom learning?   The impacts of Teacher Stress and Teacher Job Satisfaction on achievement of Educational objectives are to be answered.

          The absence of a high dropout rate and job turnover among Indian teachers does not necessarily mean that they do not experience stress and lack of job satisfaction.  This may be due to entirely different reasons like non-availability of alternative job opportunities and fear of taking risks.  It is hard to believe that they do not experience stress and are not frustrated and disillusioned with their professional life under the situations prevailed in the institutions and social conditions.  Experiencing constant dissatisfaction with the job has many repercussions for the individual’s adjustment to work as well as in personal and social life and may have magnetic impact on individuals’ total personality and resulting substandard performance.

Coats and Thoresen (1976) in their review of studies on Teacher anxiety quote the NEA report to show the growing incidence of teacher anxiety.  Kyriacou and Sutcliffe (1978) in a study of 257 in a study of 257 teachers of 16 schools in England noted that 15.6% found being a teacher ‘very’ stressful while 4.3% found it ‘extremely’ stressful (total 19.9%).  David, W.Chan and Eadaoin, K.P.Hui (1998) reported that regardless of gender and guidance status, teachers with low stress and high support levels generally reported less general psychological symptoms, and teachers with high support level reported less specific symptoms related to anxiety and sleep problems.  Whereas the studies of Arikewuyo and M.Olalekan (2004) disclosed that the average Nigerian teacher prefers to organize him/herself in such a way that his/her pedagogic duties will not be hampered by domestic chores. It also implies that, whenever the teacher is stressed, he/she consoles him/herself with the fact that work is not everything and therefore feels less stressed. The teachers never use the active cognitive strategies. Their feeling is that nothing probably can be challenged in stressful situations. The teachers also express mixed feelings about the adoption of inactive behavioural strategies.

While in the case of Teacher Job Satisfaction the studies of Garett, R.M. (1999) that the evidence available from mature educational systems identified a complex picture in which job satisfaction, itself a multi-faceted concept, was closely related to the other key factors of work life complexity and work centrality.  The studies of Zembylas, Michalinos; Papanastasiou, Elena (2004) findings “An adapted version of the questionnaire developed by the "Teacher 2000 Project" was translated into Greek and used for the purposes of this study that had a sample of 461 K-12 teachers and administrators. This showed that, unlike other countries in which this questionnaire was used, Cypriot teachers chose this career because of the salary, the hours, and the holidays associated with this profession.  While Naik, G.C. (1990) found that ad hoc teaching assistants of the M.S.University, Baroda, were satisfied with their jobs mainly because of their favourable attitude towards the teaching profession, financial consideration and the facilities which they were getting for further studies; marital status, age, experience and gender did not affect their level of job satisfaction; leadership qualities of heads of institutions promoted job satisfaction, and group goals and objectives were essential parameters in determining the job satisfaction of teachers.  Sex, experience and background variables had no bearing on job satisfaction.

Objectives of the Study:

I) Studying the significance of - (1) relationship between Teacher Stress and Teacher Job Satisfaction; (2) relationship between the dimensions of Teacher Stress; (3) relationship between the dimensions of Teacher Job Satisfaction;

II) Studying the Significance of difference between demographic and professional variables like Sex, Locality, Qualification, Age, Marital Status, Experience and Type of Institution in respect of Teacher Stress and  Job Satisfaction.

Hypotheses:

1)There is no significance of relationship among the selected sample of Secondary School Teachers in their Stress and Job Satisfaction

2)There is no significance of relationship between the dimensions of Teacher Stress and Teacher Job Satisfaction Scales.

3)There is no significance of difference between the Teachers in their Stress and Job Satisfaction taking the Variables like Sex, Locality, Qualification, Age, Marital Status, Experience and Type of Institution.

Sample:

The sample selected for the present investigation is covering with 178 secondary school teachers from different Institutions situated in different areas.  Random sampling technique is followed to draw the sample for the present study.

Procedure:

          In order to test the hypotheses the investigator is planned and executed in four phases.  In the first phase developing and standardization of Teacher Stress and Teacher Job Satisfaction self-rating scales. In the second phase measuring the Teachers’ opinionnaire with the help of above two self-rating scales.  In the third phase using appropriate statistical procedure is adopted to find out the significant relationship between Teacher Stress and Teacher Job Satisfaction.  In the fourth phase using appropriate statistical procedures to find out the significant difference between the different demographic variables of teachers in their Teacher Stress and Teacher Job Satisfaction.

Analysis of Data:

          The following statistics ere calculated for arriving at conclusions like co-efficient correlation to find the relationship between Stress and Job Satisfaction and also obtained the Critical Ratio values variables wise.

Table 1

Table showing significance of ‘r’ between

Teacher Stress and Teacher Job Satisfaction

Variable category

N

df

‘r’

Probability

Teacher Stress

Teacher Job Satisfaction

178

176

0.69

Significant at 0.01

Level

Table 2

Table showing the inter-correlation Matrix of various

Dimensions of Teacher Stress of Uday’s Scale

Intensity of work

Students’ Behaviour

Professional growth

Extrinsic Annoyers

Total Teacher Stress

Intensity of work

1.00

0.46

0.36

0.58

0.41

Students’ Behaviour

1.00

0.62

0.45

0.38

Professional growth

1.00

0.54

0.61

Extrinsic Annoyers

1.00

0.45

Total Teacher Stress

1.00

Table 3

Table showing the inter-correlation Matrix of Various

Dimensions of Teacher Job Satisfaction Scale

Professional

Teaching Learning

Innovation

Inter-Personal Relations

Total Teacher Job Satisfaction

Professional

1.00

0.56

0.48

0.37

0.29

Teaching Learning

1.00

0.65

0.45

0.34

Innovation

1.00

0.39

0.47

Inter-Personal Relations

1.00

0.38

Total Teacher Job Satisfaction

1.00

 Table 4

Table showing the significance of difference of Mean Between Teachers

taking the various variable into consideration in their Stress

Variable category

Mean

S.D

N

C.R

Male Teachers

Female Teachers

92.65

99.28

22.97

20.91

86

92

2.01*

Rural area Teachers

Urban area Teachers

100.11

93.15

22.13

18.61

67

111

2.16*

Teachers with TTC

Teachers with B.Ed.,

94.74

102.54

22.36

19.33

56

122

2.29*

Below 35 years Experience

Above 35 years Experience

85.37

90.64

22.91

22.74

80

92

1.54@

Married Teachers

Unmarried Teachers

102.37

96.74

19.31

22.09

94

84

1.8@

Below 15 years Age

Above 15 years Age

97.29

103.51

20.86

19.46

98

80

2.06*

Residential

School Teachers

Non-residential

School Teachers

96.72

91.14

21.73

17.85

74

104

3.87**

          **Significant at 0.01 level

           *Significant at 0.05 level

           @Not Significant at any level

Table 5

Table showing the significance of difference of Mean

Between Teachers taking the various variable into

consideration in their Job Satisfaction

Variable category

Mean

S.D

N

C.R

Male Teachers

Female Teachers

94.65

100.26

21.62

20.22

86

92

1.78@

Rural area Teachers

Urban area Teachers

99.49

92.12

18.71

16.87

67

111

2.65**

Teachers with TTC

Teachers with B.Ed., 

95.54

101.45

20.44

18.51

56

122

1.84@

Below 35 years Age

Above 35 years Age

94.75

85.73

21.69

22.72

98

80

2.69**

Married Teachers

Unmarried Teachers

100.85

93.74

22.29

19.43

94

84

2.27*

Below 15 years Age

Above 15 years Age

102.15

93.69

19.63

20.86

92

86

2.36*

Residential

School Teachers

Non-residential

School Teachers

101.52

92.59

21.37

18.52

74

104

1.98*

          **Significant at 0.01 level

           *Significant at 0.05 level

           @Not Significant at any level

Conclusions:

1)   There is significance of relationship between Stress and Job Satisfaction among the Secondary School Teachers.

2)   There is significance of relationship between the dimensions of Teacher Stress.

3)   There is significance of relationship between the dimensions of Teacher Job Satisfaction.

4)   In respect of Teacher Stress, there is significance of difference between the variables – Sex, Locality, Qualification, Age and Type of Institution. Whereas the Teachers in respect of Experience and Marital Status categories do not differ significantly.

5)   In respect of Teacher Job Satisfaction, there is significance of difference between the variables – Locality, Experience, Age, Marital Status and Type of Institution.  Whereas the Teachers in respect of Sex and Qualification categories do not differ significantly.

From the above findings it is concluded that the Teacher Stress and Job Satisfaction aspects are independent and interdependent. 

References:

1)   Ahuja, D.C., ‘Mental health Hazards among School Teachers’, The Educational Review, 8, 1976, 155 – 157.

2)   Barr, A.S., ‘Measurement of Teaching Efficiency’, In growing points in Educational Research, Official Report of American Educational Research Association, 1949.

1. 3)   Garrette, H.E., ‘Statistics in Psychology and Education’, New York, David   Mc.Kay Co., Inc., 1966.

4)   Guilford, J.P., ‘Psychometric Methods’, Mac.Graw Hill Publishing Co., New York, 1954.

5)   Guilford, J.P., ‘Fundamental Statistics in Psychology and Education’, Mac.Graw Hill Pub.Co., Inc., Tokyo, 1978.

6)   Gupta (1981),’Job involvement and need patterns of Primary School Teachers in relation to Teacher Effectiveness’, Ph.D.,Edu., All.Univ

7)   Jenkins, C.D., ‘Psychological modifiers of responses to Stress’, Journal of Human Stress, Dec., 1979, 3.15.

8)   Kyriacou, C. & Sutcliffe, J. ‘Teacher Stress – Prevalence, Sources, and Symptoms’, British Journal of Educational Psychology, 1978, 48, 158 – 167.