Teaching has been identified as one of the most stressful professions today. The reasons for that are quite similar to other stressful occupations in the world. In a survey assessing the stress levels of various jobs by the Health and Safety Executive, teaching came out top. The report, The Scale of Occupational Stress: further analysis of the impact of demographic factors and type of job, published in 2000, found that 41.5% of teachers reported themselves 'highly stressed', while 58.5% came into a 'low stress' category, while 36% of teachers felt the effects of stress all or most of the time .
Effects of Stress
Stress is considered as an involuntary response to a dangerous situation. When we face a situation which our brain is incapable of handling, it puts the body on alert by producing hormones which are required in fight or flight situation, which are:
ü Increased blood pressure.
ü Rapid heartbeat.
ü Reduced blood supply to the skin.
ü Cessation of digestive activities.
ü Increase perspiration.
ü Additional release of sugar and fast into the system to coup up with the additional energy requirement.
ü Decrease in immune system’s functions to preserve it for later action.
All these actions are a perfect requirement if we come across a physically stressful situation, like being attacked by a large predator, but most unbefitting in a classroom scenario.
All these actions which are mentioned above have a very long lasting negative effect if these stressful situations are to become frequently occurring feature. They may lead to the following serious and even fatal conditions:
ü Depression and anxiety.
ü Alcoholism.
ü Drug dependency.
ü Congenital heart diseases.
ü Stress related Diabetes.
Causes of Stress for Teachers
From the outside teaching seems all together a different job with summer vacations, winter vacations and spring breaks. But considering everything that a teacher has to go through everyday all these days off do not do much to get a teacher back in the right frame of mind. According to a research the major causes of teacher stress are:[i]
ü Excessive working hours
ü Excessive workload
ü Rising class sizes
ü Pressures due to OFSTED inspection
ü Changes in curriculum & courses
ü Changes to assessment & testing requirements
ü Poor management
ü Workplace bullying
ü Crumbling schools
ü Pupil misbehavior
ü Risk of violence from pupils, parents and intruders
ü Lack of support with bureaucracy, form filling and routine tasks
ü Lack of job security due to redundancy and fixed term contracts
ü Lack of control over the job
ü Burden of providing cover
ü Threat to early retirement arrangements
ü Denigration of profession by politicians & media
ü Lack of public esteem
