Stress in Teaching

The stress involved in a career in teaching has increased considerably in recent years. In England and Wales the implementation of the Education Reform Act has led to a whole range of organisational and curricular changes to add to the existing pressures of discipline problems, poor working conditions and low pay. Anxiety, depression, relationship difficulties and even physical illness are just some of the symptoms that result. This established guide, now wholly updated for teachers and managers in the 1990s, shows how to recognize the signs of stress and how to develop strategies to control it. Its practical advice, field-tested in numberous workshops for teachers and heads, should help scholls to reduce pressures on their staff by the development of satisfactory whole-school policies and teachers to be more effective in the management of their own stress levels.

Dr Jack Dunham, Jack Dunham