Supervisors info:
Α.-Σ. Αντωνίου, Επικ καθηγητής, ΠΤΔΕ,ΕΚΠΑ
Summary:
In recent decades, increasing research interest has been gaining the occupational stress of teachers working in the field of Special Education. The demands of the profession, the increased workload, the lack of support, the inappropriate behavior of the pupils and the lack of professional recognition are primary factors that encourage increased levels of occupational stress among special pedagogues. Teachers' occupational stress has been shown to be inextricably linked with the sense of self-efficacy and the levels of resilience they have. The term self-efficacy refers to an individual's perceptions of his ability to cope with difficult and challenging situations, while the term resilience refers to his ability to recover from them and to return as soon as possible. The primary aim of this investigation is to examine the correlation between the occupational stress of special education teachers and their levels of self-efficacy and resilience. For the needs of the research, 304 teachers of all specialties, from primary and secondary education, who work in the field of Special Education in the region of Attica as well as in the province, participated in the research. A questionnaire was used in order to collect data, which included the Teachers’ Occupational Stress Scale (Antoniou, 2006), the General Self-Efficacy Scale (Jerusalem & Schwarzer, 1981), the 14-Item Resilience Scale (Wagnild & Young 2009), demographic and work items. The results of the survey have shown that teachers' occupational stress is mainly influenced by the students' inappropriate behavior, lack of recognition by the state and working conditions. In terms of self-efficacy, the self-image and the teachers' commitment to their goal are more influential, while optimism and perseverance are a matter of resilience. Finally, there was a positive correlation between self-efficacy and resilience and negative among them and occupational stress.
Keywords:
Teachers’ Occupational Stress, Special Education, ,Self-Efficacy, Resilience, primary education, secondary education
