Teaching is often considered one of the most stressful professions. Teachers face a unique set of demands and challenges every day that can lead to high levels of stress. Understanding the common causes of teacher stress can help identify solutions and make the profession more sustainable.
What are the main causes of stress for teachers?
Some of the top causes of stress for teachers include:
- Heavy workload – Teachers often work long hours well beyond their scheduled teaching time. Activities like lesson planning, grading, and communicating with parents can mean 50-60+ hours a week.
- Student behavior issues – Dealing with disruptive student behavior and lack of motivation adds emotional strain and time pressures.
- Lack of support – Insufficient classroom resources, lack of support from school administration, and minimal involvement from parents can leave teachers feeling alone.
- High-stakes testing – The pressure and time demands of standardized testing have increased teacher anxiety in many areas.
- Insufficient pay – Low pay compounds the stress of the job as teachers struggle financially and feel undervalued.
- Lack of autonomy – Scripted curriculum and lack of teacher input into school policies undermine teacher expertise and judgment.
These common stressors interact and can feel overwhelming at times. Let’s look at some of the key challenges in more depth.
Heavy workload
Surveys consistently show an excessive workload is one of the leading causes of teacher stress. Teaching involves much more than just classroom instruction time:
- Detailed lesson planning
- Individualizing instruction
- Grading papers and assignments
- Communicating with parents
- Filing paperwork
- Supervising extracurricular activities
- Professional development
- Data analysis and documentation for administration
This workload creep often leads to 50-60+ hour workweeks for many teachers. A 2022 survey found teachers reported working an average of over 50 hours per week, with 21% working 60+ hours. This heavy workload leaves little time for breaks, self-care, and personal time – all important for managing stress.
Student behavior challenges
Managing student behavior and discipline issues is another significant source of stress cited by teachers. Majorities of teachers surveyed say they face moderate to severe problems with student misbehavior and feel they do not have adequate support or training to handle disruptive student conduct.
Key behavior challenges include:
- Disrespectful attitudes
- Distracting and disruptive behavior like talking out of turn
- Disinterest and lack of engagement
- Harassment, bullying, and violence
Teachers report losing a great deal of instructional time and energy dealing with these disruptions. They also cause emotional strain and can trigger burnout over time.
Lack of support
Insufficient classroom resources, lack of input into school policies, minimal support from parents, and poor administrative leadership all converge to make teachers feel isolated and overwhelmed. Key issues include:
- Out-of-pocket classroom spending – Over 90% of teachers report spending their own money on essential supplies without adequate reimbursement.
- Lack of administrative support – Principals often provide inadequate coaching and leadership.
- Minimal parent involvement – Many parents are disengaged from their child’s academics and behavior issues.
- Lack of teacher autonomy – Curriculum mandates and top-down policies limit teacher decision making and flexibility.
This lack of investment and support leaves teachers feeling alone, undervalued, and helpless to overcome mounting obstacles.
Standardized testing pressures
The past two decades have seen a surge in standardized testing linked to teacher evaluations and school funding. While reasonable assessment is warranted, many teachers feel the focus on high-stakes testing has gone too far creating undue stress:
- Loss of class time for test prep and administration
- Teaching a narrow subset of tested skills
- Test scores tied to teacher ratings and job security
- Intense pressure for students to score well
These testing pressures drive excessive test preparation efforts and anxiety over scores. Teachers often feel this undermines meaningful learning and creativity in the classroom.
Insufficient compensation
Teachers are among the most poorly compensated college graduates. The average teacher salary in 2020 was approximately $61,000. But in some states, average salaries are under $50,000.
Low pay compounds teacher stress in several ways:
- Financial stress – Difficulty paying off student loans, affording housing, health care, etc.
- Second jobs – Nearly 1 in 5 teachers works a second job to supplement income.
- Feeling undervalued – Low pay rates signal lack of respect for the teaching profession.
- High turnover – Low compensation is a factor driving teachers out of the profession.
Without fair pay for their long hours and skills, many teachers experience chronic financial worries and feel society does not value their critical work.
Lack of autonomy
Teachers often cite a lack of professional autonomy as a key stressor. They feel micromanaged and unable to use their expertise fully.
- Scripted curriculum – Detailed lessons are mandated leaving little flexibility.
- Bureaucratic mandates – Excessive administrative paperwork and rigid data collection take time away from students.
- Lack of input – School policies are dictated without teacher input.
- Erosion of respect – Teacher judgment is undermined by rigid, top-down directives.
When teachers feel reduced to implementers rather than treated as educated professionals, morale and motivation suffer.
What are the consequences of high teacher stress?
Prolonged and intense stress takes a toll on teachers in multiple ways:
- Burnout – Emotional exhaustion, detachment, feeling unsuccessful
- Depression – Persistent sadness, loss of interest, fatigue
- Anxiety – Nervousness, inability to relax, excessive worries
- Physical illness -Weakened immune system, hypertension, digestive issues
- Absenteeism – Calling out sick more frequently
- Turnover – Leaving teaching altogether
These effects of chronic stress disrupt teacher health and performance. A 2021 study found teacher stress is linked to:
– 50% higher likelihood of wanting to leave teaching
– 2x more likely to say their mental health is “not good”
– 2x more likely to be dissatisfied with their job
High turnover costs school districts an estimated $2.2 billion annually. Ongoing stress also impairs teachers’ ability to be present, patient, and creative in the classroom.
Do certain teachers face more stress?
Some subsets of teachers are at greater risk for extreme stress and burnout. These include:
Special education teachers
– Managing students with behavioral disorders or special needs
– Excessive paperwork and meetings
– Pressures from standardized testing
New teachers
– Feeling overwhelmed those first years
– Minimal classroom preparation
– Lack of mentoring support
Teachers in high-poverty schools
– Lack of resources
– Extreme student needs
– Health and trauma issues
Teachers of color
– Isolation and discrimination
– High demands to mentor minority students
Targeted supports are needed to retain these disproportionately stressed groups within the teaching workforce.
How can we support teacher wellbeing and resilience?
Stemming the teacher stress crisis will require efforts on multiple fronts:
In the classroom
– Training in student behavior management
– Social-emotional learning integration
– Reasonable class sizes
School practices
– Protected prep time
– Supportive leadership
– Flexible policies
– Peer collaboration
District and state policies
– Higher pay
– Loan forgiveness
– Expanded leave time
– Reduced paperwork
Societal attitudes
– Greater respect for the profession
– Engaged parent partnerships
– Advocacy and political action
A holistic, multi-tiered approach is needed to restore teacher satisfaction, effectiveness, and retention. Teacher stress is a shared problem requiring shared solutions.
Conclusion
Teaching has become a predominantly high-stress occupation due to excessive workloads, student behavior challenges, lack of investment and support, high-stakes testing pressures, insufficient pay, and loss of professional autonomy. This chronic unrelenting stress contributes to teacher burnout and turnover, impairing student learning. It also damages teacher health, wellbeing, and career sustainability over the long-term.
Reversing this trend will require efforts from teachers themselves to implement self-care habits and set boundaries. But systemic changes are also critically needed at the school district and state levels to invest more in teacher support and compensation. Improving teacher work environments in sustainable ways must become a higher priority. This will not only stem the teacher shortage crisis but also enrich the learning environment for students. Finding ways to make teaching a less stressful, more rewarding career path will have dividends for generations to come.