Teachers Anxiety: Sources Of Occupational Stress

Literature Review Sources of teachers’ anxiety Occupational stress or anxiety perceived by EFL teachers in different situations generally can be explained as a complex psychological phenomenon influenced by numerous variables contributing to the amount of stress teachers experience in their career. It can also vary from one individual to the other based on individual, personal, psychological and contextual variations. Teachers’ age, marital status, tenure, gender, teaching experience, physical condition of the class, teacher's personality, students’ characteristics, rapport with administrators and students’ parents, the context, grade level of teaching, family concerns, financial status, variation in curriculum are not all but some of the

Many scholars like Travers (2001, p.138) believe that undesirable or unfavorable conditions in which teachers and instructors work generally force them to not do their job properly. Considering contextual characteristics of a language school, to take an example, a majority of such places in Iran, and especially in the context of the present study, are established in old buildings with shabby classes and poor ventilation. This can get on teachers nerves and irritate them while teaching. Travers (2001, p.138), citing the works of other scientists working on a similar issue, highlights that the improper basal factors directly influence teaching, bring about limitations and yield tension. Such basal factors include “Inadequate school buildings and equipment, unpleasant work environment, poor physical working conditions, class sizes and noise levels”. Pithers and similarly, Forlin (2001) inspecting the results of 72 research projects published over a period of 13 years between 1980-1993, distinguished 24 common potential sources of stress for teachers. These stressors were classified into three main clusters as

Usually labor force has a demand assuring permanent job and not to be short listed for job loss in problematic situations. On the other hand, employers try to avoid taking extra responsibilities and to deprive themselves of the right of having enough control on the workers. Teaching profession is not an exception and people working in the field find abovementioned factors as major sources of anxiety and stress. Travers (2001) claimed that teaching has always been believed to be a very secure job, and yet increasingly this is not necessarily the case. In addition, the rapid pace of change within teaching, both in terms of the nature and requirements of the job, and the technologies and materials that they have to deal with, means that teachers need to consider retraining and possible career change. Nowadays, there is an immense emphasis on the proficiency and competence of teachers especially in the field of EFL/ESL and the potential for being sacked and dismissed in the competitive marketing world adds to the level of teacher anxiety perceived by professionals. In a quantitative study conducted by Kaur, Kumari, and Sharma (2013) in Doaba region of Punjab-India with an attempt to find the main sources of job-related stress among college teachers working in different fields, it was found that job security is among important stressors that cause various types of problems for