TEACHER STRESS IN RURAL MIDDLE SCHOOLS: TEACHERS' PERCEPTIONS OF THREE CONTRIBUTING FACTORS.

TEACHER STRESS IN RURAL MIDDLE SCHOOLS: TEACHERS' PERCEPTIONS OF THREE CONTRIBUTING FACTORS. PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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The purpose of this research was to examine rural middle school teachers perceptions of stressful factors present in their current position. Data was gathered from 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade teachers in the city and county schools located in O County, Mississippi. Two instruments were used for the study. The first survey instrument identified three stress factors (teacher workload, student discipline, and No Child Left Behind) and their relationship with teachers. The second instrument measured the degree to which the three stress factors were appraised as stressful. The data gathered in this study provided an awareness of factors that can increase understanding of teacher stress levels. The discussion of stress emphasized that what is perceived as stressful for one person may not be perceived as stressful for another. Results revealed that these teachers face some difficulties at their schools and in the classroom dealing with their emotional perspective or from the perspective of the children they teach. Furthermore, results indicated that rural schools offer a less stressful learning environment than urban schools. Just knowing some of the common stress factors can assist school systems and administrators in developing interventions to alleviate stress that may at some point lead to burnout.

Teacher stress in rural schools

Teacher stress in rural schools PDF Author: Patrick Wade Randall
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Rural Middle School Teachers' Perceptions of Their Efficacy and Stress

Rural Middle School Teachers' Perceptions of Their Efficacy and Stress PDF Author: Kristy Black
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Electronic dissertations
Languages : en
Pages : 142

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Book Description
Johnson, Cooper, Donald, Taylor, and Millet (2005) surveyed teachers to examine connections between their career and occupational stress and found that teaching was the second most stressful career. In fact, outside of driving an ambulance, teaching was more stressful than 24 other careers. In the age of accountability, stress can be potentially devastating to the educators. Many of the stressful factors that cause a teacher to reexamine his or her career choice come from outside the walls of the classroom. Additionally, a lack of administrative support in schools can lead to a negative climate and cause teachers to seek another career path (Billingsley, 2003). It is these stressful factors that I became interested in. Therefore, the study I conducted provides an outlet for teachers to provide input about the stresses they experience or have experienced during their teaching careers. In offering this data, I wanted to add information to the body of knowledge on teacher efficacy in order to combat teacher stress and/or burnout. While I found a tremendous amount of research on how stress impacts high school teachers (Friedman, 1991) and elementary school teachers (Gold, 1996), I found a lack of data representing middle school teachers. In particular, there is a gap in the available data with respect to rural areas. Therefore, my focus became to investigate rural middle school teachers' perceptions of stress. In researching, I found there is little data available that examines the beliefs and perceptions current middle school teachers hold and how that impacts their teaching practices. My interest became specific to middle school teachers in rural areas. Thus, the purpose of this mixed methods study is two-fold: 1) to learn what factors impact rural middle school teachers' efficacy; and 2) to better understand which of these factors increase their stress (and potential burnout). This study employed to methods of data collection: 1) online survey of 36 teachers; and 2) interviews with 12 participants. This study found that teachers in the rural middle school setting feel they are impacted by more outside stress factors than from within their own classroom. It becomes obvious, though, that the concerns are generated by people and things the teachers have no control over. Micro-politics, trust and support, and the practice of hiring relatives are the main stress factors impacting these teachers. The support and close ties to family, friends and religious associations were places of comfort and solace. The overall implication is that teachers feel more stress based on the type of administrator the school has than on the teaching.

Occupational Stress of School Teachers in Four Rural Minnesota School Districts

Occupational Stress of School Teachers in Four Rural Minnesota School Districts PDF Author: Donald Joseph Hoodecheck
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 552

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Teaching in Rural Places

Teaching in Rural Places PDF Author: Amy Price Azano
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000220435
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
This teacher education textbook invites preservice and beginning teachers to think critically about the impact of rurality on their work and provides an overview of what it means to live, teach, learn, and thrive in rural communities. This book underscores the importance of teaching in rural schools as an act of social justice—work that dismantles spatial barriers to economic, social, and political justice. Teaching in Rural Places begins with a foundational section that addresses the importance of thinking about rural education in the U.S. as an educational environment with particular challenges and opportunities. The subsequent chapters address rural teaching within concentric circles of focus—from communities to schools to classrooms. Chapters provide concrete strategies for understanding rural communities, valuing rural ways of being, and teaching in diverse rural schools by addressing topics such as working with families, building professional networks, addressing trauma, teaching in multi-grade classrooms, and planning place-conscious instruction. The first of its kind, this comprehensive textbook for rural teacher education is targeted toward preservice and beginning teachers in traditional and alternative teacher education programs as well as new rural teachers participating in induction and mentoring programs. Teaching in Rural Places will help ensure that rural students have the well-prepared teachers they deserve.

An Investigation Into Sources of Teacher Stress in Rural Secondary Schools

An Investigation Into Sources of Teacher Stress in Rural Secondary Schools PDF Author: Azwidohwi Philip Kutame
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Educational change
Languages : en
Pages : 266

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An Analysis of Educator Resiliency Within a Rural Public Secondary Setting

An Analysis of Educator Resiliency Within a Rural Public Secondary Setting PDF Author: Lucinda Carolyn Vassar
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Understanding Teacher Stress in an Age of Accountability

Understanding Teacher Stress in an Age of Accountability PDF Author: Richard Lambert
Publisher: IAP
ISBN: 1607525232
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 243

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Book Description
School districts today face increasing calls for accountability during a time when budgets are stretched and students’ needs have become increasingly complex. The teacher’s responsibility is to educate younger people, but now more than ever, teachers face demands on a variety of fronts. In addition to teaching academic content, schools are responsible for students’ performance on state-wide tests. They are also asked to play an increasingly larger role in children’s well-being, including their nutritional needs and social and emotional welfare. Teachers have shown themselves to be more than capable of taking up such challenges, but what price is paid for the increasing demands we are placing on our schools? Understanding Teacher Stress in an Age of Accountability is about the nature of teachers stress and the resources they can employ to cope with it. Accountability is a two-way street and the authors in this volume suggest remedies for reducing teacher stress and in all likelihood increasing student learning—greater administrative support, more and better instructional materials, specialized resources targeted at demanding children, parental support, and professional recognition. Readers will discover that lack of funding, low pay, concerns about academic performance and student misbehavior, and increased public and governmental scrutiny are not exclusive to the United States. In this volume, the third in a series on Research on Stress and Coping in Education, authors from Australia, Turkey, Malaysia, and the Netherlands sound the same alarms, post the same warnings, and draw similarly disturbing conclusions.

An Analysis of Job Related Stress Factors as Perceived by Rural Schools Teachers

An Analysis of Job Related Stress Factors as Perceived by Rural Schools Teachers PDF Author: Lloyd Posnikoff
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Rural schools
Languages : en
Pages : 12

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Teacher Stress

Teacher Stress PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Burn out (Psychology)
Languages : en
Pages : 47

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Book Description
There is a concern for the level of stress teachers experience in their jobs. The effects of stress are not only harmful for the individual teacher, but for the teacher's students and the learning environment as well (Travers & Cooper, 1996). Stress among teachers is related to absenteeism, turnover, and early retirement, which negatively affect the climate of the school and lead to poor student outcomes, both academically and behaviorally. The nature and severity of these concerns highlight the need for programs designed to reduce stress among teachers. A critical first step in partaking in program development efforts is to conduct a needs assessment (Nardi, 2003). The current research attempted to determine if teachers in one rural school system are in need of and receptive to participating in a stress reduction program to address work-related stress. Full-time teachers in grades K-12 were asked to fill out questionnaires related to their stress level and interest in participating in a stress reduction program. The results indicated that there were no differences in teachers' overall stress levels based on years of experience; however, as teacher experience increases, stress related to student behavior and relationships with parents decreases. In addition, there were no significant differences between the overall stress levels of high school and elementary school teachers; however, high school teachers experience greater stress related to relationships with parents than elementary teachers. Also, the higher teachers' stress levels, the more interested they are in participating in a stress reduction program. Implications for school psychologists, suggestions and feedback regarding the development of stress reduction programs within the schools, and future research are discussed.