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The experience of stress in high school teachers: appraisals of threat

University of British Columbia

The purpose of this study was to expand our understanding of the meaning of work-related stress, from the perspective of high school teachers, with a focus on threat appraisals. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with a volunteer sample of 8 high school teachers (5 men and 3 women). Background information was also recorded based on previous research and theories of teacher stress. The initial interview focused on a school-related situation that the teacher considered to be stressful, and which had occurred in the previous 2 weeks. In the second interview the teacher was asked to confirm or disconfirm the researcher's basic understanding of the story's themes and to clarify and expand on specific statements. I analysed transcripts verbatim in order to allow the meaning units to emerge from the data. Data analysis followed Giorgi's (1975) steps for qualitative analysis. The eight themes that emerged were: (a) the experience of conflict, with a subtheme of inner conflict; (b) the experience of power, with the subtheme of control; (c) the experience of anger and frustration; (d) the experience of autonomy; (e) the experience of role conflict; (f) the experience of support; (g) the experience of efficacy, and (h) the experience of workload pressure. The second part of the analysis involved asking the data a question (Alexander, 1988). The focus was on finding threat appraisals and determining what was at stake for the teacher (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). All participants showed evidence of threat (and loss) appraisals related to the common themes. There were individual differences in terms of what was at stake and in terms of the dominance of particular common themes. However, the dominant appraisals for individuals did relate to the common themes. The results of this study indicate that teachers experience similar stressors but that what is appraised as threatening for individuals differs in three ways:(a) different themes are dominant for individuals, (b)appraisals of threat (and loss) weave throughout common themes in unique individual patterns, and (c) for a particular theme, what is at stake is unique to the individual. The implications of this research are that teaching and stress must be understood at an individual and a systemic level in order for effective coping strategies to be found. In addition to the common stressors within the profession, there is an appraisal process that involves personal meanings interacting with that environment. It is incumbant upon the teaching and counselling professions to assist teachers in raising awareness of the existence and interactive nature of these components, in order for personal resources to be more adequately accessed and appropriate coping strategies found.

Thesis/Dissertation

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2008-09-17

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/2112

Counselling Psychology

University of British Columbia

UBCV

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