ASSESSMENT OF TEACHERS’ STRESS AND FRUSTRATION ON JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENT ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
The changes in the global system today have resulted in an increase in the growth of educational institutions all over the world, and the education scene in Kenya is no exception, particularly in light of the current scenario of attempting to achieve Vision 2030. According to Aikaman and Unterhalter (2015), education remains the most important strategy for societal development in the developing world. Teachers, in essence, are the primary stakeholders in the teaching profession. This means that any factor affecting the teaching profession, such as stress, affects teachers.
Stress is derived from the Latin word “stringere,” which means hardship or draw tight.
According to the dictionary, stress is defined as pressure, tension, worry, and strain caused by problems in one’s life.
Stress is related to man’s social, physiological, and psychological makeup. It is a major cause of both physical and emotional disorders. Frustration can keep you from achieving your goal. It could be interpreted as disappointment or defeat. Stress is not the same as frustration. Stress is caused by a demanding situation (Selyes, 2016). Frustration, on the other hand, is an ongoing intervention situation (Welman, 2015).
Stress is common among teachers in both the private and public sectors. Stress manifests itself behaviorally as a lack of adequate concentration and thinking, as well as minor physical ailments such as headaches, sleepless nights, and stomach upset. Norfolk (1977) observed that people who are stressed become irritable and overreact to situations.
Kyriacou (1987) defines educator stress as the experience by a teacher of unpleasant emotions such as tension, frustration, anxiety, anger, and depression as a result of aspects of work as a teacher. Teaching can be a stressful job. Interactions with students and coworkers, as well as the constant and fragmented demands of teaching, frequently result in overwhelming pressures and challenges, which can lead to stress. Workplace stress can have negative physiological, psychological, and behavioral consequences (De Robbio and Iwanicki 2016).
Many teachers would agree that teaching is not only difficult, but also stressful. Pressure from school reform efforts, insufficient administrative support, poor working conditions, lack of participation in school decision making, paperwork burden, and a lack of resources All of these resources have been identified as stressors for school staff. Contact between cultures may be a source of workplace stress in a multicultural region; for teachers who are more familiar with cultures, acculturative stress can lead to poor mental health (e.g., confusion, anxiety, depression) and feelings of alienation; those who feel marginalized may become highly stressed. Teachers from different cultures may not understand or appreciate the cultural differences of the communities in which they work. Because new teachers are often hesitant to seek assistance, they may be afraid to tell anyone that they are experiencing difficulties in the classroom. This could lead to even more stress. As a result, the well-being of teachers is critical to success and achievement.
of educational goals. A teacher’s role and responsibility in today’s school system is multifaceted; the teacher has additional managerial responsibilities such as planning and executing instructional lessons, assessing students based on specific objectives derived from the set curriculum and communicating with parents, accountability for students’ performance, supervisory role, classroom management and discipline, and extracurricular activity. Teachers are regarded as knowledge creators, scientists, philosophers, advocates, politicians, and administrators, and they hold important and prestigious positions in society. A teacher is the primary means of carrying out all educational programs. (Kaur, 2018)
Frustration is the impediment to one’s goal. Frustration may be caused by the working conditions and environment. Okoye (2021) stated that frustration occurs when
is a conflict with an ongoing action.
All of this, and much more, causes stress in teachers’ activities both inside and outside of the classroom. It is believed that a stressed-out teacher cannot carry out his activities effectively and efficiently, which means that effectiveness and efficiency, which are good qualities expected of teachers, will be lost, and when both are absent in teaching, the teacher cannot impart real information to the students, and thus the students’ academic performance may be low or poor. As a result, in order to avoid poor academic performance in students, the numerous causes of stress in teachers should be investigated and checked, because quality teachers produce quality students. It is hoped that
The findings of this study will provide recommendations for reducing teachers’ stress and frustration in relation to students’ academic performance.
1.2 Problem Description
Stress is a commonplace and now major concern of managers and administrators in the workplace. Teachers, like other workers in various professions, face stress. Teaching is one of the top five most stressful jobs, according to Kyriacou (2019). Stress has an impact on output. Administration’s function is performance. The school administration frequently blames poor performance on stress. A stressed teacher is fatigued, easily irritated, and makes irrational decisions, which affects the teacher as evidenced by student school factors and employment factors are management factors that influence teacher stress. The impact ranges from
From one teacher to the next, from one region to the next, from one school to the next, the success or failure of any educational system is dependent on the teacher. According to Cole (2004), when an organization’s employees are stressed, the following outcomes are likely: high levels of sickness and absenteeism, reduced productivity and failure to meet targets, increased accidents and error rates, increased number of internal conflicts between individuals and undesirable high rate of staff turnover.
1.2 The Study’s Objective
The goal of this study is to determine the impact of teachers’ stress and frustration on the academic achievement of junior secondary school students. This study’s specific goals are as follows:
i. Identifies various types of stress and frustration among teachers
ii. Identifies the factors that contribute to stress and frustration among teachers.
iii. Determines the level of stress and frustration among public junior secondary school teachers.
iv. Determine whether teacher stress and frustration have a significant impact on student academic achievement in a public junior secondary school.
1.4 Hypotheses for Research
The following hypotheses will be investigated.
HO1: Teachers in public junior secondary schools have a low level of stress and frustration.
HO2: Teachers’ stress and frustration in public junior secondary schools have no significant impact on student academic achievement.
1.5 Importance of the Research
Teachers play an important role in the lives of any school organization, students, and the overall development of our society and country. Frustration and stress
On the other hand, they are a destructive force in the life of the teacher. As a result, it is necessary to investigate the impact of stress on students’ academic performance and propose solutions to the problem. The study will also aid in reducing stress and, as a result, increasing teaching job satisfaction, resulting in high academic performance on the part of students.
1. 6 STUDY OBJECTIVES
The scope of this study is limited to the effect of teachers’ stress and frustration on jss students’ academic performance.
However, the study was limited to public junior secondary schools in Markurdi, Benue State, Nigeria.
1.7 THE STUDY’S LIMITATIONS
The researchers encountered minor constraints while conducting the study, as with any human endeavor. The important The researcher incurred more financial expenses and much time was required in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature, or information and in the process of data collection due to the scarcity of literature on the subject because it is a new discourse, which is why the researcher resorted to a limited choice of sample size covering public junior secondary schools in Benue State, Nigeria. As a result, the findings of this study cannot be generalized to women in other Nigerian states. Furthermore, the researcher’s involvement in this study while also working on other academic projects will impede maximum dedication to the research. Nonetheless, despite the constraints encountered during the research, all factors were minimized in order to provide the best results and make the research successful.
1.8 Terms Definition
Teachers’ stress refers to the difficulties they face in carrying out their duties successfully.
Frustration: The inability of teachers to positively adjust to a challenging situation in their teaching profession.
A teacher is someone who has been trained and certified to teach students skills, knowledge, values, and norms.
Academic in education refers to an educational study, an educational institution, and/or the educational system.
Performance is defined as the accomplishment of something by the students, the act of carrying out or accomplishing something.
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