STRESS


The rise and rise of stress among teachers


get worse, rather than better. For years, red tape, bureaucratic interventions,


inspections and “political correctness” have made the job harder. For years, changing social attitudes have reduced


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the respect and dignity the teacher once took for granted in the community. And on top of this, the economic problems of the


past few years have brought jobs, salaries and pensions that once seemed secure into a sea of uncertainty. Workloads and responsibilities grow and grow, rewards and security diminish...


Just how bad is it? Ask anyone who works in education and you will almost certainly be told that the stresses and pressures of work have risen very significantly over the past few years. In fact, you would scarcely need to ask to hear such comments – the issue is so prominent that it comes up time and again when teachers are gathered together. Objective measures, too, reveal the rising tide


of workplace stress. Government reports document a general rise in sickness absence across the whole workforce in recent years. Employees in the public sector are substantially more likely (estimates hover around 22 per cent) to take sickness absence than those in the private sector. The education sector is high on the list of such absences, and the evidence is that stress is a very major contributor to this. In fact, figures from the Department of Work and


Pensions suggest that the education sector is third highest nationally in terms of work-related stress, anxiety and depression. In the academic year 2009 to 2010, 52 per cent of teachers in service took sickness absence – and those individuals took an average of 8.2 days of sickness leave. To put this in perspective: this means that we lost the equivalent of 4.1 days of work from each and every teacher in the country – a huge penalty for the education system. Figures from the Teacher Support Network underline


the point: 20 to 30 per cent of calls to its helpline are from teachers reporting stress and anxiety, and the number of such callers is rising, especially in winter, when stress-related calls to the helpline almost double. The probability is that these callers represent only


the tip of the stress iceberg: it is hard to pick up a phone and tell a complete stranger that you are not coping. Even those professionals who do pick up that phone may be reluctant to reveal just how stressed they really are.


A problem that needs to be addressed


A certain degree of stress can be a good thing – offering a challenge that brings out the best in us. But nobody complains about that kind of stress. Too much stress is destructive at every level. Too much stress is inherently noxious to experience. It has


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TRESS LEVELS among teachers are at an all time high – and no wonder. For years, teachers have faced levels


of disruptive behaviour, even violent and threatening behaviour in the classroom, that would have been unimaginable 20 years ago – and which seem endlessly to


The working life of the modern secondary school teacher is, it could be argued, defined by increasing workload, pressure and stress. Psychologist Dr Stephanie Thornton


asks just how bad the situation is and considers some constructive solutions


a damaging effect on the individual’s health, sanity and longevity – there are few illnesses that are not made more likely, or worse, through stress, from the common cold to cancer, asthma to alcoholism. Furthermore, it is bad for your human relationships


– not just to family, but to colleagues and pupils. Hanging on to calm by your fingernails is a tricky place from which to offer tolerance to colleagues, or to needy-but-difficult pupils or indeed inspectors. It is these destructive levels of stress that are affecting our education system at the moment, and that is a problem that needs urgent action. Education is not just another sector of the economy.


As every teacher knows (but our politicians seem to have forgotten) education matters far more than any other area because the whole future of our society depends on the young people passing through our schools. Anything that adversely affects the education system


will have knock-on effects far into the future, whether those effects stem from reduced teaching input through teacher absenteeism, or reduced respect for education from a generation of teenagers that sees teachers pushed to the limit by an unconcerned society. Both effects are likely, in the present situation. How long can the system continue, at present


levels of stress? How long will the teaching profession continue to attract – or retain – the brightest and best, when it is becoming notoriously such a pressured career? How much does teacher stress impact on our children’s experience in school or attitudes to education? One thing is certain: stress in our schools


nationally in terms of work-related stress, anxiety and depression. In the academic year 2009 to 2010, 52 per cent of teachers in service took sickness absence – and those individuals took an average of 8.2 days of sickness leave


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is at damaging levels. Something needs to be done about this.


Fixing the problem?


The need to reducing stress on teachers is urgent – but there is no obvious strategy for doing this. Some stresses have always “come with the territory”


of teaching, and always will. For example, many new teachers experience considerable anxiety as to their ability to keep discipline in the classroom or to live up to their own high expectations as to the quality of their teaching. It is worth noting that individual teachers vary in their


expectations of themselves, and that levels of anxiety vary with these expectations. Those who demand a perfect performance of themselves experience the greatest anxiety and distress: perfection simply is not an attainable goal, and becomes even less realistic as working conditions get harder. We cannot get rid of this kind of stress – but we can


learn to cope with it more effectively. Schools have an important role to play in supporting teachers toward realistic expectations for the circumstances, and in developing a supportive staffroom culture for managing stress at large. Equally, there are stresses that stem from the


economic situation which seem unlikely to go away. Behaviour problems tend to rise when times are hard – adding to the stresses of the classroom. And one cannot imagine that the government will go back on its reforms of public sector pensions, nor its commitment to pay freezes, adding to the personal anxieties of teachers.


The education sector is third highest


Again, there seems little to be done other than finding ways to manage stress levels more effectively, both at an individual and collectively at a school level. But there are things that our government could do


to reduce stress levels in the school system – things that perhaps should be the focus of a new campaign for educational reforms. The most telling research in this context comes from studies of “teacher wastage” across the UK and other countries. Here in the UK, only a minority of those who


train as teachers actually stay in the profession – and the situation seems to be getting worse. Government figures show a recent increase of over 30 per cent in the number of full-time teachers opting out of the profession well before retirement (in fact, it is the younger groups of teachers, the under 35s, who are most likely to quit in this way). Teachers leave the career for many different reasons,


and traditionally many have returned to teaching at some later date. But current figures show that fewer teachers who leave are considering returning to the profession now than was previously the case. This “attrition” rate among teachers is a major cost to society, and is surely a reflection of the stresses of the job. And it is noteworthy that far more teachers leave the profession in this way in Britain than is the case in other countries, such as France or Germany. Why are our UK teachers more likely to leave


the profession than those in France or Germany? The phenomenon is not new. Surveys from over the past 10 years or so are most revealing. One such survey found that 55 per cent of teachers in England were considering leaving the profession – as opposed to only 20 per cent in France. Stress was a major factor in this thought process. Whereas 22 per cent of teachers in England had


taken sickness absence because of stress, only one per cent of teachers in France had done so. It is not that teachers in France and England have different views of what is inherently stressful about teaching: both groups saw those pressures as deriving from the problems of classroom discipline, the relatively low social status of teachers, and the lack of support from parents. The difference lay in the educational policies of France and England – policies which left English teachers substantially more likely to complain about excessive workloads and excessive political interference. High workloads and political interference are


longstanding and continuing problems at a systemic level in the UK education system. They are a major source of stress on the individual, and a major source of attrition from the profession, with all the social costs that that implies. No government can remove the intrinsic stresses of


an idealistic profession such as teaching. No government is apparently able to resolve the stresses stemming from the economic downturn. But dealing with the stresses of excessive workload and political interference are easily within the power of our government. Other countries do not impose these burdens on their teachers, as we do. Surely it is time to do something about that?


SecEd


• Dr Stephanie Thornton is a chartered psychologist and a former lecturer in psychology and child development.


SecEd • February 9 2012


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