Stress and relaxation

Is teaching a stressful activity? Most teachers would give an emphatic ‘Yes’ to this question. Several surveys have been carried out inviting teachers to state which aspects of their work cause stress (Dunham, 1981; Kyriacou and Sutcliffe, 1978; Fletcher and Payne, 1982). Among other causes, relationships with both colleagues and students were seen as sources of stress. In an investigation that involved in-service courses for training experienced teachers in the skills of self-disclosure (Woodhouse, Hall and Wooster, 1985), conflicts with staff emerged as a much more important set of problems. The term ‘burnout’ has become popular in the American literature (Alschuler, 1980b) and provides a vivid metaphor for the effects of a long period of teaching under difficult circumstances.