Perception of Secondary School Teachers on Sources of Stress and Coping Strategies: A Case of Ludewa District, Tanzania

Abstract

The study aimed at identifying perceived sources of stress and coping strategies among secondary school teachers in Ludewa District. The study was guided by Transactional or Cognitive Theory of Psychological Stress and Coping. It employed the quantitative approach through descriptive statistics in terms of frequencies and percentages. Through simple random sampling, eight out of 22 schools were selected to participate in the study. From the eight schools, 100 teachers were selected through simple random sampling but the response rate was 74. Therefore, 74 teachers participated to fill the questionnaire. The first category of perceived stressors is for those which were very highly rated: delay in promotion, poor working condition, low salary for work, worried from student performance, overwork and lack of time to spend with family. The second category is for those which were highly rated: poor administrations, lack of social services, loans from different organizations, benefit from work and students’ misbehavior. Lowly rated source of stress was attending duties on weekends while very lowly rated sources were little acknowledgment from superior and trouble with colleagues. The study gives a number of recommendations; these include that the government should employ more teachers to reduce teachers’ overwork which is cited as one of stressors. Heads of schools should involve all teachers in decision making and treat them equally. School under investigation should employ mentoring and counseling techniques which will motivate teachers to share their economic and social problems in order to curb unnecessary stresses. Finally, teachers should employ such stress management strategies as joining in social clubs, attending physical exercises like sports and games and seeking support from either co- workers or supervisors in order to curb stressful challenges.