school management
Take the pressure down
Teachers ’ stress isn ’ t just an individual issue , it ’ s also related to the school .
How schools can reduce teacher stress and improve wellbeing .
By : Emilie Lauer
Teachers ’ sources of stress at work reflect the broader school climate , new research has highlighted .
Managing stress is not only the responsibility of the individual teacher – schools also have an important role to play in developing a supportive workplace for their staff , said Professor of Educational Psychology at UNSW , Rebecca Collie . Sources of stress at work come from workload , student behaviour and management expectations .
“ It is important for schools to develop a climate where teachers feel supported and build strong relationships with students and colleagues to whom they can turn to for support ,” Collie added .
She joined Education Review to discuss the impact of stress on teachers and how schools can improve their staff wellbeing .
ER : To what extent does stress impact teachers ? RC : Teaching is recognised as a highly stressful profession , and research suggests it has become more stressful over the past decade .
When teachers are stressed at work , this has a ripple effect on all of their interactions – with their students , their colleagues , students ’ parents – and it also can impact their home lives .
Stressed teachers do not fare as well in terms of their wellbeing and job
satisfaction . They may become less committed and engaged at work , and their students ’ wellbeing and achievement may also be impacted .
Helping to boost teachers ’ wellbeing and reduce their stress is important for teachers , and it ’ s also important for students and schools .
What are the current factors putting strain on teachers and increasing their stress levels ? In a recent study we conducted we looked at three well-known sources . The first was workload stress , where teachers feel they have too much lesson preparation , instruction or marking work in the time available to them .
We also looked at student behaviour stress , where teachers sense that student behaviour is overly disruptive or aggressive . And we looked at expectation stress , and that ’ s teachers ’ sense that professional or registration bodies and parents are placing very high or unrealistic expectations on them .
How is this stress experienced by different teachers ? In our study , we wanted to see how those three types of stress combined for different teachers . We wanted to see if there are distinct groups of teachers who experience similar combinations across those three types of stress .
For example , are there teachers with low stress across those three sources or high stress , and are there teachers who have mixed levels of the sources of stress ?
We identified five stress profiles among a sample of over 3,000 teachers . The first one we called the low burden profile . This was about one in 10 teachers and they displayed very low levels of all three stressors , so that ’ s quite a positive profile .
Then we found two mixed profiles . We called the first of these the mixed burden workload profile . This was about one in 10 teachers as well . This group displayed low levels of stress , but with elevated workload stress .
The third one was the mixed burden behaviour profile . This was about two in 10 teachers in our sample . This profile displayed low levels of stress , but with elevated student behaviour stress .
We called the fourth profile the average burden profile . This was about four in 10 teachers , and this group displayed slightly above-average levels of all three stressors .
Finally , we had what we called the high burden profile . This was two in 10 teachers , and they displayed high levels of all three types of stress .
Next we wanted to see how these five profiles differed on two workplace outcomes .
We looked at work strain – a teacher ’ s sense that they are feeling highly stressed and they have reduced mental or physical health at work . We also looked at work commitment , which refers to a teacher ’ s attachment to their profession .
We found the low burden profile and the two mixed profiles had the lowest work strain and the highest work commitment , whereas that high burden profile had the highest work strain and the lowest work commitment .
To what extent does the environment in which teachers work impact their stress levels ? After identifying those teacher profiles , we next examined how they are distributed in schools . The 3,000 teachers in the study were from 225 Australian schools , and we identified three school profiles .
The first was called the workloadoriented school profile . This was composed mostly of teacher profiles with
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