Teachers' Job Structure and Stress : Focusing on the cognitive appraisal of stressors

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the relationship between teacher's job structure and their stress, by analyzing quantitative aspects and cognitive appraisal of working conditions. Findings are as follows: 1. The quantitative aspects of working conditions are not significantly associated with teachers' stress types except for a few cases. 2. Teacher's morale (qualitative aspect), on the contrary, is significantly associated with their stress type. In spite of the common opinion that "the higher teacher's morale become, the lower their stress become", it is found that some of the teachers with higher morale feel high physical stress. 3. Through the analisis of the teacher's cognitive appraisals of stressors, four main categories of stressors are found. (1) Confusion of the belief and sense of value (2) Friction and dissension in personal relationships (3) Sense of pressure of work and busyness (4) Sense of powerlessness or meaninglessness Each life stage of teachers has specific characteristics of stressors. (1) The younger teachers receive "reality shocks" because the climate of their workplace and/or the students' attitudes differ from those they have imagined. (2) The middle-aged teachers meet "crises in the middle career" and reflect their own educational ideas and practices. (3) The elder teachers recoginize the gap between their own ideology and students' ways of thinking.