CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of study

Stress is a non-specific response of the body to any sort of demand made on it. Stress management is the control and operation of the non-specific response of the body to any sort of demand made on it.

The word stress was brought into medical usage by Austrian-born Hans Style, a professor at the University of Montreal. Seyle published a book entitled “stress” in 1950. He noted that in addition to specific physical changes in the body, such as bruise from an injury, or rash from measles, there are also nonspecific reactions that increase the body’s ability to adapt and establish normally.

Siren noises, confined work spaces, and life and death decisions are all examples of environmental stress. Psychological stress can come from family, relationships, conflict at the workplace, students, and so on.

The way an individual thinks and feels is called personality stress. Each person has their own way of dealing with stressful situations. Individual reactions to stress are based on previous exposure to a specific type of stress, perception of stressful events, experience, and personal coping skills.

At first, it was believed that stress was reserved only for those with big posts, such as politicians, directors, and doctors, but as time goes by, it has been discovered that even teachers experience stress and burnout.

In most secondary schools, cases have been reported of students not performing well in public exams due to a lack of proper training from their teachers. We also have cases of teachers abandoning their jobs because they are not satisfied or happy at work. Other cases are spotted where teachers abuse alcohol which leads to family and marital problems because they are suffering from stress and burnout at school.

Teachers suffering from burnout are more likely to exhibit low morale, absenteeism, and tardiness which tend to bring down the image and the reputation of the school.

Female teachers are more vulnerable to stress. This is so because, it is believed that the female gender is supposed to take care of the home, and so having to deal with both the home and school work causes an imbalance, when it cannot be managed, it becomes a problem.

Female teachers were also specified here because, during my observation (bilingual Grammar School Molyko). I noticed that female teacher always came late to class and were always the first to leave before school closes. I also noticed that these female teachers always bullied their students, and most of them were always uncurbed and very shabby in the mornings. Having observed all this, I decided to carry out this study to know if all the behaviors that these teachers where portraying was due to stress, and if it was the same situation in other secondary schools in the south-west region of Cameroon.

Statement of Problem

Based on the fact that female teachers have to deal with responsibilities at home and in school, it is likely that these responsibilities have led to stress and burnout which tends to affect their career and when this stress is poorly managed, it causes a problem, which is stress in the teaching career.

Purpose of study

The purpose of this study is to determine whether or not stress has an effect on female teachers and to explore the causes of job stress amongst female teachers in secondary schools.

Objectives of study

1. To find out the causes of stress among female teachers in secondary schools
2. To find out the effects of stress on female teachers in secondary schools
3. To find out how stress could be managed among female teachers in secondary schools.