ABSTRACT
This study investigated Work Stress among Secondary School Teachers. Five research questions were raised to guide the study. Out of the five research questions four hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The study specifically sought to ascertain if stress exists, variation of work stress between genders, location of school as stressor to secondary school teachers, work stress differences between teachers in public schools and private schools and size of school as stressor to secondary school teachers in Ikorodu area of Lagos State.
The study employed the descriptive research survey design. The population of the study comprised nine hundred and fourteen (914) teachers. A simple random technique was used to select a total of 229 senior secondary school teachers respectively representing 25% of the total population. The reliability of the instrument was established at 0.73. The data was analyzed using the descriptive mean statistics for the research question; the hypotheses were tested using t-test statistics.
The results revealedthat secondary school teachers in Ikorodu experience work stress. There is a significant difference in the level of work stress between male and female teachers in Ikorodu secondary schools in favour of female teachers.There is no significant difference in the level of work stress between urban and rural secondary schools in Ikorodu.There is no significant difference in the level of work stress between private and public secondary schools in Ikorodu. There is no significant difference in the level of work stress between large and small size secondary schools in Ikorodu, Lagos State.
Consequent upon findings, the following recommendations were made: appropriate workload levels should be established for teachers to enable them perform optimally, Unnecessary occupational stressors, that are superfluous to the teacher’s true role of educator, could certainly be reduced, and potentially eliminated, leaving teachers free to focus on learning the skills to enable them to provide the highest quality teaching they are capable of. Teachers need to be taught a fundamental suite of skills to manage the stressors that are intrinsic to the teaching profession, including management of their own individual stress management skills, clearer boundaries and processes for supporting students, and more sophisticated and collaborative approaches to relationship development with colleagues and parents.
