An analysis of the relationship between educational stressors and the supervision of teachers

Author

Eva M. Wike

Date of Award

6-1984

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Education

Major Professor

Francis M. Trusty

Committee Members

Janet R. Handler, John Larsen, Fredrick Venditti

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between educational stress and supervisory practices as experienced by classroom teachers at the secondary level. Supervisory practices include all aspects of instructional supervision that have a direct influence upon the teacher. Educational stress is defined as the conditions which create "emotional toxicity" of the teaching environment (Levinson, 1972).

The global categories of problems investigated in this study were taken from earlier findings from research conducted by Cruickshank and others to determine the global problematic areas of teachers (Cruickshank, 1971). From the six categories of teacher problems (support, control, influence, inclusion, nurturance, and efficiency), the researcher selected 24 problems to be investigated in the study.

The following research questions provided direction for this study:

1. Is the distribution of educational stress influenced by the teacher's age, sex, tenure, years of experience, type of school district, or level of certification?

2. Which category (categories) of stress-related problems create the most stress for teachers?

3. Is there an association between teacher stress and existing supervisory practices?

Through the use of a questionnaire (Teacher Stress Survey) developed by the researcher, 1200 teachers were contacted through a random selection process. The analysis of data was done by using nonparametric statistical methods. For research question 1, the chi-square (X²) tests of significance were made on the levels of stress within each category of problem for each of the demographic variables age, sex, tenure, years of teaching experience, type of school district, and level of certification. For research question 2, the sample arithmetic mean (̄) of the stress scores was determined for each category. To measure the closeness of association between teacher stress and existing supervisory practices for research question 3, the method of rank correlation was applied.

From the 1200 questionnaires mailed, 464 usable returns were received (38.6 percent). An analysis of the questionnaire data provided the basis for the following conclusions: with more years of teaching experience (six to ten years), the percentage of teachers in the category of control deviated significantly from the expected value. The highest arithmetic mean (̄) on the stress scores was calculated for the four problems within the category of nurturance (̄ = 13.98). A significant and positive correlation between educational stress and the influence of supervisory practices was determined at the 0.0001 level of significance.

Recommended Citation

Wike, Eva M., "An analysis of the relationship between educational stressors and the supervision of teachers. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 1984.
https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/12988