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Sources Of Stress And Professional Burnout Of Teachers Of Special Educational Needs In Greece

Sources of stress and professional burnout of teachers of special educational needs in Greece
Antoniou, A.S. University of Manchester
Polychroni, F.University of WalesAthens Campus
Walters, B.University of Manchester
Abstract
According to recent international research, Special Educational Needs (SEN) teachers serve one of the most stressful occupations. Special working conditions such as the high ratio of teachers and pupils, the limited progress due to the various problems of the pupils with special needs and the high workload exert an additional psychological pressure on the personality and the work performance of SEN teachers. The aim of this study was to investigate the specific sources of stress which make the work of Greek SEN teachers especially demanding and the specific mechanisms that they use to cope with this stress. Since there was no relevant previous research in Greece, the specific sources of stress were constructed after in-depth interviews and a review of the pertinent international literature. Questionnaires were administered to a representative sample of SEN teachers of special classes and special schools across Greece. The findings will be discussed in reference to current educational practice and suggestions for intervention will be given. It is envisaged that the identification of the specific sources of stress will shed some light into the problems of SEN teachers that make their job particularly difficult.
LITERATURE
According to the international literature, it has been established that teachers serve one of the most stressful professions. Cooper (1988), in his classification of several occupations in terms of the degree of stress that they cause on the employees, he indicated that, as far as the occupations of social welfare are concerned, teachers experience the highest levels of stress (in second place came the job of the social worker). The international concern with teacher stress and burnout stems from the mounting...