scholarly journals Comparing sources of stress for state and private school teachers in England

2021 ◽  
pp. 136548022110247
Author(s):  
Jude Brady ◽  
Elaine Wilson

Teaching is understood to be a highly stressful profession. In England, workload, high-stakes accountability policies and pupil behaviour are often cited as stressors that contribute to teachers’ decisions to leave posts in the state-funded sector. Many of these teachers leave state teaching to take jobs in private schools, but very little is known about the nature of teachers’ work in the private sector. This research addresses this gap in knowledge and compares the sources of stress experienced by 20 teachers in the state sector to those of 20 teachers in the private sector. The paper is based on qualitative data from a larger study. It analyses data collected in interviews and focus groups with classroom teachers and middle leaders working in mainstream primary and secondary phase education in England. The results emphasise state school teachers’ acute distress in relation to workloads driven by accountability cultures. In comparison, private school teachers report less intense experiences of work-related stress, but some identify demanding parents as a concern. The research’s novelty lies in this comparison between sectors and these sector specific insights may help to focus school leaders’ efforts to improve teaching conditions in both sectors.

Author(s):  
Yumna Minty ◽  
Mahomed Y.H. Moosa ◽  
Fatima Y. Jeenah

Background: An increasing number of South Africans utilise primary healthcare services (either in the state or private sector) for mental health concerns; hence, there is a need to objectively assess these doctors’ attitudes and knowledge of mental illness.Aim: To investigate aspects of knowledge and attitudes towards mental illness of a group of private and state-employed non-specialist medical doctors.Method: Doctors in the state sector who were working at a primary healthcare level and who were not working towards, or did not hold, a specialist qualification were considered eligible for the study. Doctors in the private sector who were working as general practitioners and who did not hold a specialist qualification were considered eligible for the study. Data were collected by means of a self-administered questionnaire. A link to the study questionnaire, information about the study, details of the researcher and matters pertaining to informed consent were emailed to potential participants.Results: Of the 140 practitioners who responded to the survey, 51.4% (n = 72) worked in the state sector, 41.4% (n = 58) worked in the private sector and 7.1% (n = 10) worked in both the state and private sectors (χ21 = 45.31, p 0.010). The majority ( 50%) of participants in all three groups had a positive attitude towards mental illness (χ22 = 1.52, p = 0.468). Although there were no significant associations between attitude and socio-demographic characteristics (p 0.05), male SS doctors reported feeling less comfortable when dealing with mentally ill patients (p = 0.015); SS doctors who did not have family contact with mental illness were less likely to feel that mentally ill patients did not pose a risk to others (p = 0.007), and PS doctors under the age of 35 years were more likely to feel adequately trained to treat mental illness (p = 0.026). The majority ( 50%) of participants in all three groups had an adequate level of knowledge of mental illness (modal scores = 10). There were no significant associations between knowledge and socio-demographic characteristics (p 0.05).Conclusion: Despite the findings of a positive attitude and adequate knowledge of mental illness amongst the participants of this study, it is recommended that more targeted interventions are established to further improve mental health awareness and knowledge of doctors at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels of study.


2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 52
Author(s):  
Mustapha H. Kurfi ◽  
Abubakar I. Hassan ◽  
Justin N. Ezenkiri

<em>This study investigated the health implications of work-related stress among academic staff of tertiary institutions in Katsina State, Nigeria. This research adopts a descriptive survey design. The population of this study is 2,036 academic staff from thirteen institutions. A sample of 328 academic staff was drawn, using proportionate stratified sampling technique. A self-developed questionnaire (HIWRS-Q) with reliability of 0.75 was used. Chi-square and t-test were used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Findings of this study revealed that 105 (32%) of the respondents do not experienced health implications of work-related stress while, 223 (68%) of the respondents experienced health implications of work-related stress. Also, there is significant health implication of work-related stress among academic staff (P=0.001&lt;0.05). There is significant difference in the health implication of work-related stress among academic staff based on institutional ownership (P=0.023&lt;0.05). There is no significant difference in the work-related stress between male and female teaching staff (P=0.650&gt;0.05). It is recommended among others that the State government should improve on the working environment and conditions of academic staff to be health-friendly, health enhancing conditions for achieving academic excellence, and sustainable productivity in the State.</em>


Author(s):  
Stewart Kaupa

Excessive pressure emanating from economic recession, heavy competition, modern and rapid technological changes, coupled with demands of jobs have emerged as key drivers of work-related stress amongst employees. Stress exists in all phases of our life and if not tactfully handled it can lead one’s mental state to depression. In the workplace, it can affect performance of employees, thus affect the productivity of an organisation. It is against this background that this study aimed at investigating the relationship between work-related stress of high teachers and the performance of learners in high schools in the Khomas Region in Namibia. 100 teachers were sampled using convenience and judgmental sampling methods. The study employed mixed methods as both qualitative and quantitative methods were used. The findings from the study revealed that work stress does exist in amongst high school teachers due to the stressful nature of their work. The key drivers of work stress amongst high school teachers were noted to be; the shortage of staff in schools, lack of resources; workload; poor remuneration and poor working conditions, resulting in, absenteeism and turnover of teachers, temper outbursts and suicidal thoughts amongst the teachers all of these having a negative impact on the performance of teachers. Based on these findings the study recommends the Ministry of Education to introduce work stress management which can take the form of workshops and training to assist teachers to better deal with work-related stress which negatively impacts on their performance and that of learners. The key limitation of the study was that some respondents were reluctant to reveal the extent of the problem amongst them as they felt that in any case the ministry will not do anything about their problems.


2011 ◽  
Vol 39 (5) ◽  
pp. 627-651 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lotte Thomsen

Abstract This paper examines private businesses’ access to land and capital in Vietnam. It finds that the allocation of these resources to private firms is still excessively state-driven and personalised, and examines the links that business people of different ethnical and regional backgrounds have with the state and how this facilitates or hinders their access to land and capital. Lacking relationships with the state may have profound consequences for unconnected private enterprises, which are accordingly subject to uneven competition from connected ones. The paper suggests that private businesses’ uneven opportunities are basically a consequence of the general history of the country and the role that individual business people have played in it, in such respects as having had former state-sector employment, party membership, the “side” they were on before and during the Vietnam War etc. In this, factors such as ethnicity, origin and present location in either northern or southern Vietnam play an important part.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 221
Author(s):  
Lawrence Mundia

The aim of the present study was to investigate the prevalence of stress in work situations for 860 randomly selected Brunei public and private sector employees of both genders. A quantitative field survey was used to probe the problem. This strategy’s main difference and advantage compared to postal, telephone and online survey procedures was that it enabled an immediate collection of data onsite. Work-related stress was prevalent in Brunei public and private sector employees. Employees with low and middle level education were the most affected by work stress. In addition, workers who lived with parents and the chief income earners in the households were also distressed. Incorporation of an interview component would have helped in triangulation and interpretation of the survey findings. Prolonged and untreated work-related stress poses a high likelihood risk of lowering the quantity and quality of productivity in any work environment. Appropriate individual and group interventions (educational, counseling and psychotherapy) for vulnerable employees at risk of developing work-related stress problems were recommended. In addition, further research with interview probes was also desired to address the problem. To promote holistic employee mental health well-being, the labor force needs to operate in none-stressful work-places and live in stress-free contexts.


Author(s):  
Sandra Ingried Asaloei ◽  
Agustinus Kia Wolomasi ◽  
Basilius Redan Werang

Stress influences teachers’ performance and school effectiveness alike. The main objective of this study is to describe work-related stress and its eventual relationship with job performance of teachers working in primary schools of Boven Digoel district, Indonesia. To attain this objective, a survey study was employed by utilizing two survey questionnaires. Research data derived from a total of 352 primary school teachers who were incidentally established as samples. Data were statistically analyzed using Pearson’s correlation analysis. Result of data analysis shows a significant negative correlation between the work-related stress and job performance of teachers working in the primary schools of Boven Digoel district.


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