Mathematics teacher stress in Chinese secondary schools

Since the 1970s studies on teacher stress have become numerous. However, most of the existing research has been the product of western countries. There have been a few studies conducted in the People’s Republic of China. This study aims to investigate the general level of Chinese math teachers’ stress, its main sources, and the coping methods. The questionnaire, which was used in Taiwan (Kyriacou & Chien 2004), was administered to 211 secondary school math teachers who attended an in-service training program in the summer of 2007. This study revealed that teachers in China experience a higher level of stress compared to their counterparts in western countries and in other Chinese societies (eg Taiwan and Hong Kong). Moreover, rural teachers, young teachers, and teachers with less teaching experience reported being more stressed than their respective peers. This paper provides the possible explanations for the findings and suggestions for Chinese policy makers as well as for future studies in China. 1 This article is based on a presentation made at the annual meeting of the Mid-South Educational Research Association held in Hot Springs, AR in November 2007. 2 Lingqi Meng is the corresponding author for this article. His telephone number is 225-334-5124 and his email address is [email protected]. LINGQI MENG AND SHUJIE LIU 74 Mathematics Teacher Stress in Chinese Secondary Schools Since the 1970s studies on teacher stress have become numerous (eg Abel & Sewell 1999; Borg & Riding 1991; Cole & Walker 1989; Dunham & Varma 1998; Fontana & Abouserie 1993; Hui & Chan 1996; Jepson & Forrest 2006; Kokkinos 2007; Kyriacou 2000, 2001; Kyriacou & Chien 2004; Kyriacou & Sutcliffe 1977, 1978a, 1978b; Payne & Furnham 1987; Solman & Feld 1989; Travers & Cooper 1996). However, most of the existing research has been the product of western countries. There have been a few studies conducted in the People’s Republic of China (hereafter called China). Thus, we do not know much about teacher stress in China. Moreover, there might be differences in the main sources of teacher stress or the stress coping methods in China as opposed to other countries. Kyriacou (2001, p 30) hinted this when he stated, “. . . there are differences in the main sources of teacher stress between countries based on the precise characteristics of national educational systems, the precise circumstances of teachers and schools in those countries and the prevailing attitudes and values regarding teachers and schools held in society as a whole.” This study aims to investigate the general level of math teacher stress, its sources, and coping methods in China. The main reason math teachers were chosen for this study is that math is regarded very highly as one of the core courses in Chinese secondary schools, so students’ math test scores are more important than their scores in other areas, both for the students and for their teachers. Therefore, math teachers are perceived to be under more pressure than teachers who teach other subjects. It is expected that the results from this study will contribute to the enrichment of the field of teacher stress internationally. Introduction Studies conducted over the past three decades have revealed that the phenomenon of teacher stress is widespread, and have identified various sources of teacher stress. Travers and Cooper (1996) employed the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to explore the underlying dimensions for the 98-item scale of pressure sources of teachers’ jobs in the United Kingdom. They identified 10 factors: pupil/teacher interaction, organizational structure of the school, class size, changes taking place within education, appraisal of teachers, supervisors’ concerns of management, lack of status/promotion, staff shortage, job insecurity, and ambiguity of the teacher’s role. The Kokkinos (2007) study was constructed to investigate the relationship between burnout, personality characteristics and job stressors in 447 primary school teachers from Cyprus. An EFA of the 63 job stressors revealed 11 factors: students’ behaviors, managing student misbehavior, decision making, relationships with colleagues, role ambiguity, poor working conditions, appraisal of teachers by students, work overload, appraisal of teachers by peers, time constraints, and specific teaching demands. Hui and Chan (1996) surveyed a total of 415 secondary teachers in Hong Kong. The top sources of stress they identified consisted of teaching unmotivated students, students with low or mixed abilities, lack of time for guiding students, and heavy workload. The bottom sources of stress were comprised of MATHEMATICS TEACHER STRESS IN CHINESE SECONDARY SCHOOLS 75 working relationships with colleagues and seniors, relationships with outside professionals, and handling complaints from parents. Interestingly, different studies identified different demographic variables that contributed to the significant differences on the general teacher stress level or on sources of teacher stress (eg Abel & Sewell 2001; Kyriacou and Chien 2004; Travers & Cooper 1996). In terms of gender, some studies (eg Kyriacou & Chien) showed that there was no significant difference on the general level of teacher stress, but other studies found that there was a significant difference between female and male teachers. Even for the latter, the findings were still inconsistent. For example, Borg and Riding (1991) found that male teachers reported greater stress than female teachers, but Laughlin (1984), as well as Payne and Fumham (1987), found that female teachers reported greater stress than their counterparts. The Travers and Cooper (1996) t-test showed that there was a significant difference between female and male teachers regarding only some factors of sources of stress. For example, female teachers suffered more stress from organizational structure of the school, class size, appraisal of teachers, and job insecurity than male teachers; while male teachers reported greater pressure from supervisors’ concerns of management. As for other demographic variables, the Kyriacou and Chien (2004) study showed that there was no significant difference on the general level of stress in terms of length of teaching experience or position held in the school. There was, however, a significant difference in school size with those teachers in large schools reporting a higher level of stress than other teachers. Payne and Fumham (1987) found that teachers with less experience and lower qualifications reported greater stress than their counterparts. Laughlin (1984) found that younger teachers, teachers from secondary schools, and those not in promotion reported more stress. The Abel and Sewell (2001) study examined 51 rural and 46 urban secondary school teachers in the USA. The MANOVA revealed a significant overall difference between urban and rural school teachers on the sources of stress. The univariate tests found significantly greater stress for urban teachers than for rural teachers regarding poor working conditions and poor staff relations, but no significant differences were found between urban and rural school teachers in terms of pupil misbehavior and time pressure. Although research on teacher stress has been conducted in Hong Kong (eg Hui & Chan 1996) and Taiwan (eg Kyriacou & Chien 2004), there may be sources of teacher stress that are unique to the educational context in mainland China. In this light, let us examine China’s educational context more closely. In general, the education system in China can be divided into basic education (K-12) and higher education. There are two high-stakes exams for K-12 students. One is the high school entrance exam, and the other is the college entrance exam. For many years the national uniform college entrance exam (NUCEE) has almost exclusively been the route by which students are accepted by colleges in China. Therefore, the NUCEE exerts a powerful influence on the primary and secondary education systems across the country. Specifically, all educational activities LINGQI MENG AND SHUJIE LIU 76 center on the NUCEE so that teachers “teach to the test” and students “learn to the test.” Teaching to the test is a problem everywhere for various reasons; however, the problem is magnified in China by the competitive nature of school placement. Some schools are considerably better than others. Attending to these schools has a major impact on a child’s future. The main way to get into one of the better schools is to score in the top percentage on the entrance tests. This heightens the temptation on the part of the teachers to “teach to the test” and on the part of the students to “study to the test.” Meanwhile, schools have traditionally been evaluated by all levels of educational departments, which mainly use students’ test scores. The principals also use these test scores to evaluate their teachers. Under such situations, teachers bear more stress. The curriculum reform, which was implemented in 2001, calls for an evaluation system that combines teacher selfevaluation with evaluations by principals, peers, parents, and students. However, Liu and Teddlie’s (2007) study indicated that the current teacher evaluations are primarily based on students' test scores, and the results still give rise to reward/punishment of teachers. Thus, teachers are currently under great psychological pressure in the context of the curriculum reform. Against the educational context in China described above, this study was designed to answer the following questions regarding teacher stress in China: 1. What is the general level of math teacher stress in China? Is there a significant difference on the general stress level in terms of gender, age, teaching experience, position, school size, and school location? 2. What do math teachers consider to be the main sources of stress in China? 3. What do Chinese math teachers consider to be effective coping methods used by themselves, their schools and the government to reduce their stress?