STRESSORS AND ITS IMPACT ON PUBLIC PRIVATE SCHOOL TEACHERS 1

Chapter 1

Introduction of the Study

The purpose of education is to strengthen the country by facilitating individual with

new knowledge, skills, etiquettes, civilization and to prepare them for daily life challenges and
develop problem solving abilities. In addition, education helps to sustain and raise country’s
economy by providing human capital (Wangui & Iravo, 2013). For the stability of society and
efficient sustainability of country, motivated teacher is the core instiller of knowledge and skill.
Teaching is marked as vital significant occupation as it nourishes and build up foundation of
other professions. However, this profession demands active and high intellectual involvement
in every aspect.

Background

According to Dr. Hans Within teaching has been considered as one of the stressful
occupation in many countries (Addison, 2015). Over the span of time, traditional teaching
changed into facilitating; also role of teachers transformed drastically and as a result, the
challenges faced by teachers on daily basis produce stress (Yusuf, 2015). It appeared that stress
has extra ordinary influence on an individual’s well-being, productivity, turnover, health and
performance (McCormick, 1996). However, two dimensions of stress may be seen. Positive
stress, also known as eustress which increases performance, improves concentration and makes
individual more enthusiastic to perform at work but when stress becomes too much in a given
situation then it turn out to be a negative stress which is second dimension and harmful for an
individual (Sarada, 2015).

Hans Salye’s who first introduced the concept of stress, focused on physiological
components, with the help of model General Adaption Syndrome (GAS) he defined stress as a
nonspecific response of the body to any demand made on it. Whereas, Richard Lazarus
presented second approach on stress, according to him stress is a two-way process, where the
production of stressors done through environment and the response of an individual subjected
to stressors. Further, his concept of stress led to the theory of cognitive appraisal. After Salye’s
theory the third theory which was redefined by Cox and Macay in 1976, that stress is a mental
phenomena. According to them, stress is generated when incapability of a person to meet
STRESSORS AND ITS IMPACT ON PUBLIC PRIVATE SCHOOL TEACHERS 2

demands and expectations people have from them increases. These theories will help in
research findings. During the last few decades mushroom growth has been seen in the growth
of private and public school in Pakistan. The growing number of schools also reflects the
increasing number of teachers in both sectors. Two reasons contributed to this situation: First,
dissatisfaction with the quality of education provided by both the education providers
government and private. Second, children not have access to school (Sultana, 2012). Due to
limited resources, work environment and low salary, which erode teacher’s motivation and as
a result led to anxiety and tension (Sultana, 2012). Therefore it is important to gain insight of
different factors of stress among public and private school teachers which make teachers
stressful.

Selye Hans first introduced the concept of stress in 1936 in the life of sciences. It was
derived from the Latin word 'stringere'; meant “the experience of physical hardship, starvation,
torture and pain” (Sreedevi, 2015). Stress is an inevitable experience. The stress teachers’ face
is usually known as ‘teacher stress’ where teachers experience unpleasant event at workplace
like anger, frustration, anxiety, depression which negatively reflects on teachers’ work
(Sreedevi, 2015). In Oxford dictionary the word ‘stress’ is defined as “a state of affairs
involving demands on physical or mental energy”. In medical term stress can be defined as a
physical, mental, or emotional factor that causes bodily or mental tension. (Jeyaraj, 2013).
Kotteeswari and Sharief (2014) called attention to the fact that no one can live without stress;
however, stress can be positive or negative, as per individual’s behavior towards circumstances.
Positive stress improves performance whereas negative stress causes anxiety. It reflects on total
well being of an individual. Psychological and physiological reaction to any external event is
natural response of humans towards pressure Klinic Community Health Center (2010) for
example nail biting, heart pounding, increase pulse, death of love one, abuse, health problem
etc. According to research conducted by World Health Organization (2002) they cited stress as
global epidemic because fever of stress has hit every country. Teachers all over the world faces
diverse situation in their school daily which at times become difficult to cope with.

Stress is a daily life fact which leaves individuals overwhelmed when they deal with
uncertain events. Present day classification is, stress occurs due to own practice, when person
is over demand and sets the quality of demand to meet the desire result but unable to fulfill as
per need get him in to stress (Zekaj, 2015). A person can be under stress when the goals are
settle that are above ones value and demand (Hussain, 2010). Same goes with teachers; they
STRESSORS AND ITS IMPACT ON PUBLIC PRIVATE SCHOOL TEACHERS 3

perceived their job to be stressful (Borg, 2013). Teaching become a complex profession, other
than giving awareness to students with additional important proceedings, liability,
accountability, sharing ideas, diverse responsibilities made teaching profession stressful
(Addison, 2015).

The factors of losing control over circumstances may take place due to under privilege
workers, unmet targets which create job satisfaction, lack of resources, weak competencies etc
(Brockley, 1984). Furthermore, job stress is complex phenomena as one can be under stress or
can be stressor for peers. It depends on nature of work, background, temperament and
environmental conditions. However, stress may seen in two ways first, psychological aspect
where experiential aspects involves and may create anxiety or tension as a result job holder
feels unpleasant. Secondly, physiological aspect which includes threatening scenario; body
responds with “flight & fight” (Dankade, 2016). The negative impact of stress may lead to poor
health condition, less productivity and low motivation. According to Oteer (2015), the findings
of Forest and Jepson (2006) showcased that, for teaching profession there are two work-related
stresses; one is due to nature and other is due to environment and co-workers.

Stress in teaching helps teacher to get more exposure and sustain their quality, at the
same time it also confine mind due to workload, low pay, less motivation which as a result
impacts on performance. Likewise Oteer (2015) stated in study that there are six factors give
stress during work, which includes “role of an organization, internal relationships of workers,
environmental and climate regulations, higher regulations, individual’s stages of growth and
personality components/competency.” For several years it was people perception that teaching
profession comparatively with other professions gives no stress to individual, less working
hours and less work-load keep an individual in peace of mind although this may be true but
with span of time, technology and innovation stress in teaching profession has acknowledged
widely in various researches and it was found that their performance is not effective due to
tired mind (Yusuf, 2015).

According to Sreedevi (2015), factors of stress varies teacher to teachers, few stressed
out due to adaption of new curriculum, few come in to pressure due to less decision authority
also due to change in school structure. As a study by Yusuf (2015) established that, teachers
are not excused from stress and that the effect of stress reduces the quality of performance and
productivity. Moreover, it also showed that the level of stress, teacher’s job satisfaction and
STRESSORS AND ITS IMPACT ON PUBLIC PRIVATE SCHOOL TEACHERS 4

job performance are interlink with each other. It showed that investigating teachers’ stress and
stressors is very significant for education sector in Pakistan.

Purpose of the Study

It has been observed that professionals experienced significant level of stress at their
work place. In Pakistan, the progress in education system also increased the responsibility of
teachers, there are chances that the change with responsibility can lead teacher in to stress and
leave impact on their work. This research aims to analyze the level of stress among public and
private school teachers of Karachi by using combination method and to identify the impact of
stress on an individual.

Researchers claim that with change in education system, working condition of schools
is a severe problem. Wide range of stress contained good or bad aspects and its factors
effectively influenced on teachers’ performance. It has been observed that teachers associated
with public school have been allotted with many different tasks other than teaching and relevant
to other school works. Same goes with private school teachers, late sitting, multiple tasks
deadlines and meeting parent’s expectation put teachers in stress. Therefore, all these factors
and many others led teachers to stress which influenced teacher’s performance, productivity,
health, teacher’s turnover and students’ output etc. At present, Pakistan has different education
system like private, Federal government, community-based, Sindh government, NGO based,
Madarssa and others. Moreover every education system has its own rules and regulation for
teachers with one thing common that is unlimited demands and expectations, which causes
stress among teachers. This study will also help to know the various stressors that not only
impact on teachers’ job performance but also impacts on their health and other aspects of life.

Considering these factors research questions and hypothesis are established.

Research Question

1. What are the perceived causes of stress among school teachers of public and private
sector?
2. How is job performance affected by stress?
STRESSORS AND ITS IMPACT ON PUBLIC PRIVATE SCHOOL TEACHERS 5

Hypothesis

There is no difference between the level of stress among public and private school
teachers.

Rationale

This research would influence school’s management and teachers to know the different
insight about causes lead to stress and can work together to reduce stress and create such
environment which would lead teachers to perform better. Also this paper would help to cut
down many factors teachers’ perceived as causes of stress. Education management can conduct
stress management workshop for teachers which could help them to perform better in class and
raise the standard of school and student’s learning. . Lastly, the intension of this paper is to
give benefit to teachers through data and make them examine and understand their own
condition and its impact on their performance.

Definition of terms

Performance: It is a particular behavior of an individual with high quality to achieve their short
term and long term goals.

Stress: Stress is an individual response toward any external or internal event which leads to
physical or emotional pressure.

Stressor: It is a stimulus that triggers the stress and may impair work performance.

Primary Teacher: Primary teacher is a person who helps to develop social, emotional, physical
and cognitive skill of student. Also she/he is responsible for teaching specific subjects.

Secondary Teacher: Secondary teacher is one who deals with 11 till 18 years old children,
specialized in one or two subjects and teaches as per curriculum.

Chapter 2

Literature Review
STRESSORS AND ITS IMPACT ON PUBLIC PRIVATE SCHOOL TEACHERS 6

Hans Selye, known as one of the fathers of stress, borrowed the term ‘stress’ from the
field of physics and first introduced it in 1936 (Sreedevi, 2015). Stress is an interaction
between an individual and environment or can be seen as personal reaction on any event which
led to physical and emotional pressure (Sharma, 2008). Number of studies explored the
relation between stress and performance; stressors influenced performance of an individual
(Westman, 2009). The level of stress symptoms among teachers are high due to which their
performance inside and outside of class declined (Dankade, 2016). In Paksitan, rules and
regulation for teachers at government and private school are little different. Timings of
teachers are different, teacher face variety of challenges in government school due to lack of
resources, laboratory, books, and furniture, moreover majority of the parents are illiterate and
unable to prepare their child for learning and only depend on teachers for child education
(Sultana, 2012). Whereas, teachers at private school have to prepare lesson plan, show
punctuality, expectations of parents from teachers are high, demands of school from teachers
keep them occupied, in addition in certain cases parents are least motivated to contribute for
quality education and their child’s learning as they also expect from teacher to ensure the
quality education, quality learning with quality pedagogies and curriculum (Sultana, 2012).
Certainly when teachers are under stress their performance and productivity became zero or
at the same time could increase the capacity of individual to cope and improve performance.
This part briefly discussed a theoretical framework along with the review of various
researchers regarding the sources and effects of stress in general among private and
government school teachers.

Theoretical framework

There are various theories on stress and performance, this paper focused on two
specific theories. First theory engaged the detail relation of external demands that is stressors
and bodily process that is stress, based in physiology and psychology presented by Hans Selye
in 1976 also known as systematic stress. Second theory approached to psychological stress
that is cognitive psychology presented by Lazarus and Folkman in 1984.

Selye’s theory

Selye on the basis of his research explored that physiological changes occurred as a
reaction of stress (Addison, 2015). He believed that biologically one’s body responded to
STRESSORS AND ITS IMPACT ON PUBLIC PRIVATE SCHOOL TEACHERS 7

stress and described this pattern General Adaption Syndrome (GAS) (Addison, 2015). GAS
is a term used to describe long-term effects of a shot-term body reactions to stress. He
observed that numerous stimulus like heat, cold or any toxic agent can produced common
effect, notably every single not specific stimuli produced specific effect (Krohne, 2002).
According to Selye “these nonspecifically caused changes constitute the stereotypical, i.e.,
specific, response pattern of systemic stress” and these stereotypical response patterns called
the General Adaption Syndrome (Krohne, 2002). GAS consists of three stages, (a) the alarm
reaction, (b) the resistance or adaption stage, (c) the exhaustion stage (A-R-E) (Addison, 2015)
as shown in figure 1. The model consist of three reactions of stress that advance in progression.

Figure 1. General Adaption Syndrome

1. The Alarm reaction, also known as ‘fight or flight’ stage, is the stage during which the
perception of an immediate stressor triggers a physically complex response.

2. The Resistance or adaptation stage occurs when the stressor persists and the body
attempts to combat this stressor.

3. The Exhaustion stage occurs when the stressor continues to persist for too long and
the bodily resources become depleted. The individual reaches this stage only when the first
two stages are unsuccessful and the stress continues to trouble the person

According to Selye’s popular stress response model General Adaption Syndrome

(GAS), elaborated that every biological organism aims to sustain an internal balance as an
impact of stressors’ exposure. Due to pleasant or unpleasant event the body experience stress.
Whereas, the body after recognizing the stress tried to behave in a way which can alter the
situation or reduce the level of stress. Notably, Salye only focused on individual’s physical
STRESSORS AND ITS IMPACT ON PUBLIC PRIVATE SCHOOL TEACHERS 8

component and missed emotional component of stress, because most of the work done in this
research was on an animal.

Lazarus Theory:

According to Lazarus, stress caused by person’s perception instead of stressors. He

presented two main concepts to psychological (cognitive) theory, that is.,” individuals'
evaluation of the significance of what is happening for their well-being, and coping, that is.,
individuals' efforts in thought and action to manage specific demands” (Addison, 2015).

The concept of appraisal and coping presented by Lazarus is based on emotional

practice and emotional stress r emotional practice are based on the expectations that individual
set in regard of expected outcome (Krohne, 2002). This concept also explains the differences
of an individual based on intensity, quality, time and duration and the emotion individual
extract from an environment is different (Krohne, 2002). It is a general assumption that the
state of result can be altered, sustained or even generate by definite appraisal pattern. Whereas,
appraisal established by the number of situational and personal factors. One of the most
important personal factors is motivational character. Also, goals, general expectations and
values are also comes under personal factors (Krohne, 2002). Practical situational factors can
be predictable, controllable and near to potentially stressed event.

This theory distinguishes two basic forms of appraisal, primary and secondary
appraisal (Addison, 2015). These forms rely on different sources of information. Primary
appraisal concerns whether something of relevance to the individual's well being occurs,
whereas secondary appraisal concerns coping options (Krohne, 2002). Figure 2 depicts the
relation between appraisal and the emotions. The model below elaborates the structure of the
process of an appraisal and also showcased that how appraisals differently influence the
experience of emotions. According to Lazarus in 1991, the emotion takes place when
interaction between two aspects takes place, there is relational aspect between environment
and person that engage the relationship between two.
STRESSORS AND ITS IMPACT ON PUBLIC PRIVATE SCHOOL TEACHERS 9

Figure 2. Transactional Model of Stress and Coping

According to Krohne within primary appraisal, there are three components that are notable:
goal relevance, goal congruence and type of ego.

Global Relevance shows the point of an encounter that pass on the issues about the
person that cares. Whereas, goal congruence explains the limit to which an event proceeds
according to personal goal. Lastly, type of ego involves desire commitment of an individual
such as self-esteem, ego-ideal, moral values, ego-ideal and ego-identity.

Likewise, blame or credit, coping potential and future expectation are those three
secondary appraisal components that are distinguished

Blame or credit shows the appraisal of an individual, who is responsible for an event.
By coping potential Lazarus means a person's certain behavior or cognitive operation which
help positively to influence the respective encounter. Future expectations shows the encounter
which is relevant to goal congruence or incongruence, it pass on the appraisal of additional
course.

Lazarus argued in his appraisal theory that people make a quick an automatic judgment
and assess about the consequences or happening and its impact on them. With that perspective
emotional is one of the necessary components to survive.

Relation between stress and performance

Cox and Macay in 1976 redefined Salye’s stress theory, according to them the stress
generated when individual is unable to meet the demand and expectation other person have
STRESSORS AND ITS IMPACT ON PUBLIC PRIVATE SCHOOL TEACHERS 10

from them. As it is a mental phenomenon. Cox and Macay developed a model which ellobrates
the relation between the work expectation of individual and work performance as shown in
figure 3.

Figure 3. Relation between demand and performance.

According to this model, Increase in demand improves the performance of an

individual. Notably at some extent the performance reached to finest and further demand
decreases the level of an individual performance. The model also implies that demand is not
that stressful but the way it perceived by an individual is stressful. Individual perceives ability
makes him able to cope up with the stress or t experience more stress; it’s a vise-versa process.

Eustress is the positive stressor that allow individual to improve the performance
because it perceived to be in one’s coping ability even though its short term but it motivates
individual to perform well. In contrast, distress is the negative stressor that brings down the
individual performance, it could be short term or long term depends on how individual
perceived and causes anxiety because it’s perceived to be beyond one’s coping capabilities
(Shahid, 2016). Although stress challenges individual to improve the performance but also
have negative influence on one’s life.

Type of Stress

Not all types of stress are harmful and dangerous for environment or an individual.
Stress influenced in opposite way to individual (Priyanka, 2015). ‘Fight and flight’ come
under positive stress which increases performance and also described as ‘eustress’ by some
STRESSORS AND ITS IMPACT ON PUBLIC PRIVATE SCHOOL TEACHERS 11

researchers, whereas distress’ has negative impact and has unhealthy side of stress (Priyanka,
2015).

In a survey of head teachers by National Association of Head Teachers in May 2000,

40% of respondents reported they visited their doctors with a stress-related problem in
previous year, moreover, 25% suffered from serious stress related health problems including
hypertension, insomnia, depression and gastrointestinal disorders (Nyambongi, 2013). It’s a
reflection of any unset physiological and psychological events that pressurized the capability
of teachers to managed things; and it comes under Negative Stress.

In Contrast, positive stress increased potential; this too can also be generated due to
internal or external factor. The characteristics are, it motivates, gather energy, its short-term,
it’s perceived as within one coping abilities, improves performance etc ((Klinic Community
Health Centre, 2010). Moreover, researchers of Australian Psychological Society
conceptualized stress in three more ways;

 Acute Stress: This stress caused due to some specific events and demands for short
span of time and generates pressure for example: meeting deadlines, facing traumatic
events or any performance etc. People experience this stress over and over.
 Episodic Acute Stress: In this people worried endlessly about bad event. Due to a
series of tough and challenging situations people suffered under this, for example:
losing job, health issue etc.
 Chronic Stress: This third type of stress involved constant demands; worries. It seemed
to go on forever. As per research it’s harmful for an individual. It negatively reflected
on individual’s health and relationships.

Teacher stressors

Without stress, we will not be able to react to situations fast, think or act as demanded.
Stress keeps individual alert and keep out of being bored. Thus, researchers proved that not
every stress is negative. According to Hanh and Mauer (2005), too much stress can be more
negative and can be dangerous for individual’s health, whereas, moderate level stress can be
positive and beneficial. Further he added that some stress are motivating and energizing,
without stress there are chances that individual can’t accomplished the desire result because
STRESSORS AND ITS IMPACT ON PUBLIC PRIVATE SCHOOL TEACHERS 12

one is unable to think about solution which can cause tension in their personal and professional
life. Furthermore, Taylor (2003) observed and established the statement that stress is
important for one due to several reasons. Firstly, stress helped to know some of negative
stimulus which triggered individual; and lastly, it indicates stress-illness relationships. He
also added that stress at work place also help individual to redesigned job as per the need and
demand of an individual and time (Krohne, 2002).

In reality, teachers mostly worked under pressure due to different nature of tasks and
responsibilities. The reason behind stress is known as stressor. According to Zekaj (2015)
there are factors which are potential and caused stress among teacher which directly impacts
on work performance. For instance:

Demands: Different demands of jobs sometimes lead to stress. Demands would be work
conditions, shifts, long or isolated working hours and the workload.
Decision Making Authority: It deals with the level of independent decisions and the effect of
control on the decisions. Less authority of decision making impacts on performance.
Peer Support: Employees indicate that not receiving of adequate information and support
from their colleagues and superiors usually face difficulties in meeting desire goal. Moreover,
experiencing unacceptable behaviors like bullying at work, teasing or different conflicts
leaves impact on one’s well-being and performance.
Role: Stress also increases when individual does not have a clear understanding of its
responsibility in an organization, the ambiguity between the roles and relevant the position
generates conflict.
Change: The change in environment may affect stress level of an individual even small scale
change may increase pressure.
Number of Students in class: Ideally more than 20 students in class increase the workload
demands on teachers which in return makes difficult to meet the needs of students and the
standard of performance. (Pickering, )
Lack of Resources: Teachers’ perception about inadequate class-room resources contributes
in their stress level. Lack of resources puts teachers and students performance down.
Family Implication: weak family participation and more expectation from teachers’
performance also build pressure among teachers.
Time Pressure: long working hours, work load with lack of time is one of the significant
sources of stress.
STRESSORS AND ITS IMPACT ON PUBLIC PRIVATE SCHOOL TEACHERS 13

Poor Leadership: less support from supervisor or administrative staff de motivates teacher.
High expectation, less appreciation, benefits and compensation in the end highly effected on
teachers performance.

Organization Stress: Organizational demands can be stressful if they require extensive or

unwanted adjustment, when accompanied by changes in other parts of employees’ lives, when
they are unexpected and forced on employees as well as when the employees’ coping
mechanisms are absent or ineffective (Zekaj, 2015)

Teacher stressors are the outcome of personal characteristics as well as environment

and work place traits. The way teacher perceived stressor will lead h/her towards coping
strategy or toward long term negative pressure.

Perceived effects of teacher’s stress:

Level of Productivity

Productivity is lower when stress is not managed properly; in this situation it is difficult
for teacher to meet the standard of an organization and the need of students. Minimizing
negative stress will help to achieve the best performance (Yankyera, 2015)

Physiological Effect:

Prolong level of stress can be very dangerous and it affects individual’s kidney, liver,
blood pressure, insomnia and excessive sweating etc.

Behavioral Effect:

The behavioral effect lead to passiveness, forgetfulness, and individual become more
violent. The more stress, the more frustration. Teacher with high level of stress eventually
drop the job. (Yankyera, 2015). In addition, loses decision making ability.

Psychological Effect:

Psychological stress impacts on individual’s health. Majority teachers reports that

under great stress they spend sleepless or poor sleep night which affects their performance.
STRESSORS AND ITS IMPACT ON PUBLIC PRIVATE SCHOOL TEACHERS 14

Poor health transfers negative teacher attitude to students which impact badly on individual
performance (Yankyera, 2015). Moreover, job satisfaction level also comes down.

According to Addison (2015) stress also have diverse effects on the organization. With
an individual organization also suffers. For instance absenteeism of teachers, low productivity
low output, conflicts, turnover, poor performance low credibility in market etc. Workload,
excess working hours, poor discipline and evaluation uneasiness comes under essential
stressors in teaching (Addison, 2015). As per Pakistani context, public schools’ condition are
not very well, teachers are untrained, resources are limited, turnover of students are high and
job security level is also low, these all factors are creating stress among public school teachers
(Majed, 2011). And there is found that government school teachers are comparatively more
stressful than private school teachers (Majed, 2011). The acceptance of private schools in
society was the result of dissatisfaction with the quality of teaching and education system in
public schools. The high ratio of increase in number of private schools as well as the
proportion of o student enrollment according to survey due to quality of education in
comparison of public school (Sultana, 2012). There has been little research into the effects of
reducing or mediating them. Thus the current research intends to find out the effects of stress
on the performance of teachers in private primary schools in Karachi.

Chapter 3

Methodology

The major focus of this study is to find out the factors of stress among private and
government teachers and its impact on their performance. This section of this paper describes
the systematic series of approach and procedures used to conduct this research and its findings.
It also gives brief rationale behind the usage of particular approach and procedures.
STRESSORS AND ITS IMPACT ON PUBLIC PRIVATE SCHOOL TEACHERS 15

Study Design

This comparative research was conducted through mix method research design. Mix
method research helps in collecting, finding and analyzing both qualitative and quantitative
data in single study. Mix method study gives deeper understanding of the phenomenon, this
method will allow researcher to come up with new findings and helps to generate ideas for
future researches (McKim, 2015). Moreover, it will allow researchers to examined previous
theories and model of related study and responses. As mix method requires knowledge and
data of both methods, for this reason close ended questionnaires and open ended questionnaire
were considered for getting information from the respondents from both public and private
school teachers of Karachi; it’s a combination of hypothesis and research questions. In this
study qualitative and quantitative data are collected simultaneously to fully understand the
problem, here, mix method research helped to get clear picture of responses (McKim, 2015).
Here, qualitative will depict the relevant aspects and relationship between them, whereas,
quantitative data answered the problem typically in quantitative format with factors and has
potential to give recommendation or further studies (McKim, 2015). Hence, combined method
research provides deeper understanding of the comparisons and questions which are
distributed in two phases one is qualitative and one is quantitative.

Research Instrument

Semi-Structured Interview refers to qualitative approach which has no standardized

teas and result like quantitative. It typically involved observation and interviewed to
understand the personal experiences of an individual (Blandford, 2013). Semi-structured
interview is very efficient and simple of collecting data as it helped in investigating the realty,
in this research the interview questions were formed to know the relation between stress and
performance of teachers. This method allowed respondents to relate and share their
experience, moreover allowed individual to talk in detail also the helps to extract the meaning
behind action and gives little direction to researchers about the validity of response (McKim,
2015). Individually the interviews were conducted which gives room to every respondent to
speak without any distraction, however it’s feasible for interviewer to probe and know more
about the experiences. Interview was based on five open-ended questions regarding stress and
performance, the influence of stress on performance, perception of teachers in general and
what are the cope up strategies they use during stress. In this research, interviews were
recorded, transcribed and coded, later thematic analysis were done. Questions are below:
STRESSORS AND ITS IMPACT ON PUBLIC PRIVATE SCHOOL TEACHERS 16

‘What motivated you to become a teacher? What according to you the word
performance mean? How do you define stress? Does Stress have any impact on individual’s
performance? How do you realized that you performance is influenced by stress?’

Stress Survey Questionnaires Two questionnaires were used to derive a single questionnaire survey
form to know the level of stress among public and private school teacher and to know the factors
of stress respectively. A questionnaire of teacher stress level has devised in 2013 from
International Stress Management Association UK teachers (Stress Management Consultant,
2013) whereas, Columbia Country Council questionnaire was derived to know the main areas
and stressors in daily life among teachers. Quantitative questionnaire helped to gather data
from targeted respondents; it was used to measure the overall stress of male and female
teachers’ stress of both sectors in Karachi. The questionnaire was based on consent form with
demographic details, questionnaire was consist of 49 questions altogether out of which 28
questions were close-ended and 19 questions were based on 4-points Likert scale and 2 open-
ended questions regarding work place qualities. The questionnaire was constructed through
Google form, and mostly by approaching teachers at work place and home as per the feasibility
of respondents.

The data was collected in a subjective form in qualitative. The collection of data and
data analysis done side by side, analysis were started with the collection of data which gives
direction about the respondents and responses. Also, interviews are analyzed through thematic
analysis to get new information, findings from the responses (Kramer, 2011).

Sample

Population for this research was teachers of public and private school in Karachi,
Pakistan. Sample of 53 teachers were selected from Karachi as it wasn’t manageable to collect
data from entire teacher body of Sindh. Non-probability sampling method was used for this
research, which is flexible, less expensive and have convenient sampling technique (King,
2000). 11 were male, 42 were female, whereas 30 were private and 23 were public teachers.
Sample consisted of primary and secondary teachers, teaching from level 3 till 10 in different
public and private schools of Karachi.

Data Analysis
STRESSORS AND ITS IMPACT ON PUBLIC PRIVATE SCHOOL TEACHERS 17

Interviews recorded and transcribed later evaluated through thematic analysis. To

measure the levels comparative analysis was done to extract the result whether there is a
relation between stress and performance or not and how stress is influencing teachers’
performance if there is relation.

Data for stress level and factors were collected through questionnaire. Data was coded
and analyzed through SPSS. t-test sample was run on data to test the hypothesis in this
research.

Ethical Consideration

All ethical considerations were made including confidentiality of school name,

participants’ name. All processes were done with complete honesty without manipulating the
results.

Chapter 4

Results

The data collected through questionnaire and interview wad tabulated, analyzed and
organized.

Hypothesis

Through SPSS One-Sample t-test was conducted to analyze the level of stress among
public and private teachers of Karachi. Result shown in Table 4.1.

Table 4.1
STRESSORS AND ITS IMPACT ON PUBLIC PRIVATE SCHOOL TEACHERS 18

One-sample t-test: Level of Stress among Public and Private Teachers

One-sample t-test regarding mean stress among teachers of public and private shows
two-tailed significance value was .977 which is higher than 0.05 (p>0.05) shows that there is
no difference between the level of stress among school teachers of both sectors. Hypothesis
of this research was proved.

Independent t-test was conducted on the responses that were obtained from the sample
to compare the stress level among male and female public and private teachers. Table 4.2
shows the result

Table 4.2

One-sample t-test: Level of Stress among Public and Private Teachers

Above table indicates that there is negligible difference between the stress level of
male and female teachers of public and private school.

Qualitative Analysis

The interview was conducted for qualitative data, it was analyzed through enlisting
emerging themes and content analysis. In the light of semi-structured, open-ended,
phenomenological interview two of the private school teacher o Karachi, mentioned he
viewpoint about stress that most of the teachers experience stress and it affect them physically,
mentally and emotionally during working hours and after working hours too. Whereas, pattern
of teacher of public school was also same as privet teachers, she stated that teachers do suffer
from stress which impacts on their performance in class. The public school teacher, whose
STRESSORS AND ITS IMPACT ON PUBLIC PRIVATE SCHOOL TEACHERS 19

primary focused on limited resources, lack of attention from government also admitted that
due to lack of resources teachers come under pressure and unable to give their best in class
due to which student’s also suffered. Another key point one of public school teacher raised
that teachers at young age suffer less whereas, teachers with aged comes in more stress and
due to which they become short tempered and have less motivation, she also added that hiring
retired teachers makes environment most stressful because teachers after retired unable to
delivered due to coming in stress in every task. Additionally, one of the private school teacher
mentioned that due to high expectations and limited time teachers come under stress and
unable to achieve objectives. However, the existence of stress is present in both sector,
moreover the relation of stress and performance also present due to which majority of teachers
are unable to give their best in class, home and society. Following are the thematic interview,
which in-depth elaborates the situation of teachers of both sectors.

Stressors: The interview helped to uncover number of stressor which normally teachers
faced during the routine. The group of public and private school teachers expressed that one
of the major reason teachers experienced stress is due to great amount of task during job and
other than job. Teachers agree that they have to give an extra hour at work to finish the given
task in unsuitable time limit also they have to take work home to complete it as per demand.
One of the participants of private school said:

“I realized that most of the time my performance impacts due to stress, and I
feel that there are unfinished and unmeet able task allotted to us mostly in
eleventh hour, which makes chaos and on not meeting the task, chaos changed
in to stress. I have to stay back for late hours; most of the times I have to bring
work home just to finish task it on time”.

One of public school teacher who is married explained that:

“Working in public sector has its own charm but being one of younger teacher
in school puts me in too much workload. It triggered me when there is already
task to complete but other teachers also allotted their tasks to me, I have to stay
back so that I don’t have to take work home. I am married and I have other
responsibilities at home to, there are other task aligned at home for me, I have
to maintained my lesson plans daily, I make sure to do given my hundred percent
in class but due to additional task and periods of absentees teachers I let with no
STRESSORS AND ITS IMPACT ON PUBLIC PRIVATE SCHOOL TEACHERS 20

extra time to arrange resources for my kids, sometimes I have to take work at
home but due to stress and expectation of teachers and administration I suffer
with sever migraine.”

Other private school teacher expressed her view that:

“Being a class teacher already loaded you with loads of responsibility,

copy checking, filing, classroom boards responsibility, meeting objectives
daily of curriculum, maintain students record on daily basis, having 22 23
periods weekly already keeps class teachers to sit late hours”

The above statements reflects that teachers are expected to do tons of work within a
given time and have to sit back more than working hours which is challenging and
demanding. Private school teacher further added that:

“We are basically bond with limited time and have to accountable for
every second, which puts us in stress, because attending meeting, fulfilling
other demands without getting any appreciation, exhausts us mentally.”

This shows the expectations with completing task and no tab of appreciation makes
teachers less motivated, being mentally exhaust made tough for teacher to meet the
deadlines. Another private school teacher participates and shared her view point that:

“I became a person with a clock ticking in mind, I have to be on my toes

after entering in schools, lots of expectations, competition, and unlimited
task started deteriorating my performance in class and at home as well.
Do this, Do that, Done with it.. is every day scenario. due to under lots of
stress i know that I am losing interest and not performing from my heart.
due to workload I take my frustration out on my children or my husband,
knowing that I love what I do leads me to nervous breakdown, headache,
body ache, as a result even in spare time I think about my work.”

One of private school mentioned:

“We worked so hard to meet an end but still it’s not enough, even we are
not allowed to make decisions on the basis of our students – this need to
be change”
STRESSORS AND ITS IMPACT ON PUBLIC PRIVATE SCHOOL TEACHERS 21

Teacher with too much workload also have no autonomy to take initiative for their
students. The workload generating the stress among both public and private school
teachers, also giving time limit giving teachers mental stress. moreover, expecting
much without appreciation making teachers more burdenised and stressful.

Consequences of Stress: the thematic analysis also highlighted that teachers whether
its male or female, married or unmarried, experienced or inexperience, associated with
public or private revealed that out of job there are other consequences of stress
individual is suffering from. One of privet school teacher mentioned that:

“I used to love my profession but after 4 years of service I realized that

it’s thankless job, I don’t feel like coming to work. it’s been four years I
am still unable to satisfied my management, even though I learned a lot
from peer, students, management, although I have to pay huge amount in
the form of my health condition, due to unmeet tasks, No off day, and stress
I am now suffering with insomnia. This disturbed me and my family, the
saddest part is school management is not considering my health condition
and doesn’t allow me to take off. Thinking of leaving this profession.”

Other teacher added:

“Due to my unsatisfied boss, low appraisal ratio in my school, it stressed

me out as its becoming difficult to meet my family needs with the limited
income. I am ready to stay back after school but management is not ready
to increase my income or add overtime in it, I have t take tuitions after
school due to meet the ends, and when times come to sit with family I got
exhausted physically, mentally and emotionally, this think make me more
crazy ”

Under the light of above statement it can be seen that with teachers families are also
suffering. One of the participants added:

“I can’t recall, when last time I went or holidays with my family, we didn’t
get off nor workload allow us to be more socialized, even it’s been three
month I went for dinner with my family, more than me my family is
STRESSORS AND ITS IMPACT ON PUBLIC PRIVATE SCHOOL TEACHERS 22

suffering, interestingly, when we get summer vacations, school calls us

after ten to fifteen days which are not enough”

Public School teacher also shared her input that

“there is a competition in my school, I agree that I am less trained and

still face difficulty in managing class, other task and unable to balance my
work life and social life. due o which I come in stress but I would say it’s
positive one. its been two years I am learning and challenging my
competency to meet the end I know my hard work will pay off”

Interestingly, from above input it can be perceived that intrinsic motivation o

teacher also help to turn negative stress into positive one. It can be easily interpreting that
teacher of both sectors not only suffered at work place but also stress influenced in their
personal life and social life.

Impact of Stress: The detailed interview of teachers revealed that impact of stress is not only
on teachers but also on their families. Moreover, teachers are suffering physically, mentally
and emotionally due to stress, where as there are few teachers on board who are getting
positive energy from it. For instance:

“I believe human is a machine, but a complex one, so there are

individuals whose neuron system work efficiently during pressure, and
I am among those, I every time take pressure as a challenge, never let
stress to overcome me”.

In contrast other teacher mentioned;

“ Stress influenced me physically and mentally, even though I admit

without stress one can’t achieve goals, but not in my case, due to stress I
lack in my performance not in class only but also I lack in planning
lesson, my creativity stop and my mind freeze for some times.
Emotionally, I start feeling things A lot, mood swings, over think
situations a lot, and it doesn’t work for me.”

One of private teacher commented

STRESSORS AND ITS IMPACT ON PUBLIC PRIVATE SCHOOL TEACHERS 23

“Many times I think to resign, because stress makes me gone crazy, I

shouted on my students, I taunted my peers or no reason, I pin point
mistakes of my peer in a way, that she realized that she is wrong, my tone
go high, and oppositely, I stay quite at home, not share my problem, don’t
prefer to talk and all these things are uncontrollable. Whether it’s a stress
of work, home or society or me is tough to manage and at the end I have
to take sleeping pills or head ache pills to make myself calm down.”

Hence, these analysis shows that teacher at any sector of any level, their motivation of
teaching is declining, the expectation their management set makes them more exhausted not
physically, but mentally, emotionally too. The areas discussed by teachers not only impacting
the quality of teaching, but also can lead down the standard of school and individual’s
competency. All the issues rose due to stresses which even make teachers think to quit work
and also paralyzing them from socializing.

Chapter 5

Discussion

In this section the impact of stress among public and private teacher of Karachi, factors
and relation between stress and performance would be consider. Argument would be supported
with other research findings. Discussion section of this research is distributed in to the
following parts: a) relation between stress and performance, (b) factors of stress, (c) stress
level among public and private teachers.

Stress level among Public and Private School teachers of Karachi

The result revealed that the stress level among public and private school teachers at
Karachi is equal, also showcasing that there is no difference between stress level among male
and female teachers of public and private school. Through percentage analysis, it was observed
that 53 respondents working in different public and private school work under stress. Majority
of teachers experience stress and few teachers have ability to cope up with it. However, this is
alarming situation as teachers in stress impacts on their performance and students output.

Role of education is very important in sustainability of development, like social

development, individual development, emotional development and others; also it is a whole
STRESSORS AND ITS IMPACT ON PUBLIC PRIVATE SCHOOL TEACHERS 24

planned procedure to run society efficiently (Türkkahraman, 2012). Here, teachers play vital
role in performing their responsibilities. There is also a possibility that certain proportion of
teachers, who experienced stress, may have little or no interest towards this profession and the
reason to enter in this profession is to passing time or not getting permission from family to
work in relevant field. Moreover, their competency of teaching and skills as per educational
practices are less. Also, in public sector teachers above 50 years old are also unable to meet
demand of management and student needs due to changes in teaching methods, practices and
have less information about technology; seen during interview, lead them towards low
motivation in this field and made them face various challenges. As a part of the data, majority
of teachers who participated in research were private school teacher and it was assumed that
they must be satisfied as compare to public school teachers of Karachi.

Factors of Stress

Through data analysis it was extracted that there are possibly four major stressors that
causes stress among public and private teachers of Karachi. The first one is limitation of time,
teachers faces due to number of tasks allotted to them. It was common complaint from teachers
of both sectors that other than copy checking and teaching they have to prepare class and have
to maintained records and other files, which hardly left any time for planning and complete
other relevant task. Teachers who have less than 3 years experience and are untrained reported
that this profession is a complex one, the timing of this profession also equals to office timings
that is 8 to 5. Teachers also reported that due to occupied in classes they are unable to meet the
demand of other task which causes stress. Report keeping, resource management, copy
checking, class setup, updating soft boards, planning, observing, parents meeting, designing
new pedagogies for next lesson and attending school meetings made them to take work home
too. As a result, they were not left with a time to follow their hobby. Thus teacher faces
“quantitative over demand”. The term used by Blasé in 1986, he expressed the idea that having
number of task and deadline to meet made it difficult for teacher to concentrate in class and
due to this lack of effective participation and preparation effect the quality of teaching and
learning.

Second stressor was observed as over-thinking regarding work related task even in
spare time. Teacher stress out due to excessive thinking about meeting task and its completion
STRESSORS AND ITS IMPACT ON PUBLIC PRIVATE SCHOOL TEACHERS 25

that they skip meal and it directly impacts on their health. Whereas, school management also
focuses on quantity over-demand which become challenging for teachers. Over expectation,
unpredictable hassle, uncertainty, un-specified task, lack of decision making authority,
conflicts, lack of follow ups, lack of resources provoke stress among teachers in both sectors
equally.

After deep analysis of interview the third stress revealed was lack of flexibility or
inability to change the lesson plan according to student’s need. According to teachers working
in public sector claims that they every time have lack o resources which let down teacher’s
motivation. According to Blasé (1986) when teacher has less time to cover the curriculum in
the given time period, then they pay lesser attention towards students learning and focusing on
curriculum completion. This again results as dissatisfaction with quality o teaching and
learning and causes stress among teachers.

The fourth one which was interpreted that majority of teachers from both sectors prefer
doing work themselves instead of distributing task among peers or do it collaboratively, they
believe that doing all task by own self will ensure them to complete it in proper way, but as a
result, they have to face muscular ache, less time, and feel over burden which again lead them
to stress.

Impact of Stress

The impact of stress could be positive or negative but as the result shows the impact of
stress detected in this research was negative. The major stress impacts extracted were three.
The first impact of stress on public and private school teachers of Karachi was physiological
stress. This stress can be prolonging which is dangerous or an individual. Result showed that
due to physiological stress female teachers mostly faced muscular ache, headache etc. Also,
public teachers claim that due t their age they ace physiological stress and their mood swings
more often. Whereas, male teachers of both sectors didn’t claim nay physiological stress due
to work.

Second major stress impacts on teacher’s productivity. Teachers claim that due to stress
they can’t think out o the box and have to followed command or strategy given to them which
as a result, they can’t able to promote student’s productivity.
STRESSORS AND ITS IMPACT ON PUBLIC PRIVATE SCHOOL TEACHERS 26

Stress also impact on behavior o an individual, as per result, new teacher or experienced
teacher their behavior changes with peers, students and also it lead to passiveness,
forgetfulness, and one become more violent.

Relation between Stress and Performance:

According to Cox and Macay (1979) the stress generated when individual is unable to
meet the demand and expectation other person have from them. According to according to
them the stress generated when individual is unable to meet the demand and expectation other
person have from them. Out of 53 respondents there are many who believes that stress has
direct impact on individual performance not only that but also its effect environment and
changes the mood of peer as well.

It was found that all stress causes high psychological task demands, negative social
aspects, negative organizational aspects, lack of developmental opportunities and negative
pupil aspects and have positive significant relationships with one or more of the stress
responses. The finding also highlighted that due to strong negative relation of stress and
performance in this research also is responsible of teacher burnout. It can also be seen that with
too much experience, unexpected demand and unmeet able target also declines the quality of
performance and lea d to stress. Responses also highlighted that with decline of performance
intrinsic motivation also falls down. Cox and Macay model shows when individual working at
peak effectiveness, they intrinsically and extrinsically motivated, their performance influence
student’s performance, whereas, they socialize a lot that’s where teachers are in flow, highly
productive state with enthusiastic approaches.
STRESSORS AND ITS IMPACT ON PUBLIC PRIVATE SCHOOL TEACHERS 27

Chapter 6

Conclusion and Recommendation

Thus, the result and finding of this research established that the data projects equal level
of stress level among public and private school teachers in Karachi. As well as also established
that there is no difference between the stress level of male and female, it is also a positive sign
of contributing public and private sector in this research. Moreover, great amount of female
contributing their part in society by teaching in schools. As defined by Cox and Macay (1976)
teacher with eustress are motivated and are effective learner whereas, as per Lazarus theory its
indivual perception that generated stress and impact emotionally and mentally. However, there
are great number of teacher who are influenced by stress which not only impacts their school
performance but also real life performances instead impacting people who are associated with
the person, keeping in mind the role of teacher in student’s life and or the development of
society.

When teacher are less over loaded with task they have more time to spend in any
productive work which makes them connected with themselves and with students as a result,
chances of progress will be higher not only physically but emotionally and mentally too. This
research established that due to stress, teacher focused toward students academic is low
whereas, meeting deadline becomes prior objective. If the role of teacher in our society gets
clears it will be considered as more thankful and selfless job. As teachers are the one who can
STRESSORS AND ITS IMPACT ON PUBLIC PRIVATE SCHOOL TEACHERS 28

make individual a human capital for state. Teachers training regarding stress management,
managing multiple task, manage workload, can not only benefit teachers but students,
teacher’s’ families, school organizations, community and society too, Entire country even can
get benefited due to small effective initiatives. Counseling session may help teachers and
schools to redesign job description, to redesign the structure of school, to know the need of
teachers.

Lack of appreciation, low performance appraisal, work overload and limited time may
create stress among teachers which seems causing individual well-being, relationships, low
down motivation and most importantly health is being affected. Following consideration may
consider while catering the issue.

 Organizations need to provide trainings related to stress and development

 Teachers at their end need to put efforts and aligned their work as per priority and task
demand.
 School can allocate duties with helping hands so the work can be done before time also
school need to set time as per the competency of teacher and task
 Autonomy should be given to teacher where necessary like, in class, in curriculum, in
using of resources etc.

Limitation

The limitation of this study was the school polices of not allowing their teachers to take
part in research. Secondly only teachers participated; not school management which is why
this study not only focused on job stress instead focused on overall aspects of stress. Time
constrain was also there due to which limited sampling took place. However, management may
be involved to showcase that on what basis task have been allocated to teacher. Lastly, this data
only present private and public school teacher of Karachi, which included less school of public
and private sector.

Way forward

This research may possess as many questions in the area of stress among public and
private school teachers of Karachi as it answers. Further research on a national level should be
carried the other domains of stress among teachers in Pakistan.
STRESSORS AND ITS IMPACT ON PUBLIC PRIVATE SCHOOL TEACHERS 29