Teacher Job Stress in Albania

The classroom demand relating to students’ disruptive behavior was a major stressor in teaching jobs. Karaj and Rapti (2013) studied the impact of students’ disruptive behavior and other factors in the school context on teachers’ job stress. This survey-based descriptive research was conducted with 540 basic education teachers in Albania.

In this study, Karaj and Rapti constructed a structured questionnaire to measure teachers’ job stress and various stressors including students’ disruptive behavior, time pressure & work overload, relations with the school principal, and relations with colleagues. The Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient was used to determine the direction and the strength of the relationships between teachers’ job stress and related factors. Standard multiple regression was used to determine the amount of variability on teachers’ job stress explained by the independent factors involved in the study (Karaj & Rapti, 2013).

The results demonstrated a substantial, positive and significant correlation (r=0.583, p< 0.01) between students’ disruptive behavior and teachers’ stress. The correlation between time pressure & work overload and teacher stress was moderate, positive and significant (r=0.349, p< 0.01). The results also indicated students’ disruptive behavior was the best predictor of teachers’ job stress (Karaj & Rapti, 2013).

The findings went along with other teacher stress related studies (Collie et al., 2012; Crafford & Viljoen, 2013). A limitation of this study was the lack of validity of the instrument. In this dissertation research, teachers’ job stressors were measured by an instrument with proven reliability and validity.

Reference

Karaj, S., & Rapti, E. (2013). Teacher job stress in Albania: examining the role of students’ classroom disruptive behavior and other factors in the school context. Problems of Education in The 21St Century, 54, 14-21.