A Probe into the Occupational Stress of the Teacher Educators of Self-Financed B.Ed. Colleges

Now-a-days stress has become an integral part of life; our teacher educators, the main spring of teacher education, are also feeling stress to meet up their professional challenges. The present study was carried out through descriptive survey method to understand the nature and extend of occupational stress prevalent among the teacher educators. To collect data “Teacher Stress Inventory (TSI)” was administered on a random sample of 300 teacher educators, chosen from self-financed B.Ed. colleges of South 24 Parganas in West Bengal. It was observed that the teacher educators on an average scored high in Time Management, Work Related Stress, Professional Distress, Discipline and Motivation, Professional Investment, Emotional Manifestation and Teachers Stress in totality, but low in Fatigue Manifestation, Cardio-vascular Manifestation, Gastro-Vascular Manifestation and Behavioural Manifestation factors of TSI. But in all of the cases the mean was above the “mild strength rating” (i.e. 1.9); so it was noticeable. From the result it might be concluded that the teacher educators were forced to experience high to noticeable amount of occupational stress and the plight was the same in case of both genders.


Introduction
Now-a-days, to cope with the rapidly changing world education system, we need to transform our formal education system in a technologically effective and informative way.The teacher should acquire their knowledge and innovatively improve self-efficacy, through the use of technology.So, it is a great • Email: editor@ijfmr.com

IJFMR240216252
Volume 6, Issue 2, March-April 2024 2 challenge for the teacher to strengthen their abilities to adjust with the new education system.As a result, teachers are feeling stressed and it has become an integral part of their life.Stress is a normal human reaction that we usually feel under pressure or threats.It happens when we have in an uncomfortable situation and it brings about frustration.According to Robinson (2007), unwilling circumstances that impede the natural physiological balance of the body are called stress.When a particular employee of any profession is not in his/her comfort zone at working place then it seems to be an occupationally oriented stress.Lazarus and Folkman (1984) defined stress as unsuitable fit between a person and the environment, one in which the person's resources are taxed, pressuring the person to struggle, usually in a difficult way and to cope with.Teacher stress may be defined as the experience of displeasing emotions, such as tension, neutralization, anxiety, anger and depression, resulting from aspects of working as a teacher (Kyriacou, 2001).Occupational stress of teacher is a feeling of emotional embrace and inadequate pressure that came from the workplace due to continuous changes in educational systems, plans, policies and maximum time engagement in teaching, insufficient salaries, poor quality of management and insecure situation related to the job.According to Margolis and Kores (1974) occupational stress is a pressurized situation of the worker that hampered psychological and physiological homeostasis.This hampered homeostasis is job-related stress.Occupational stress can hamper the overall well-being and sense of efficacy of teacher educators.So, occupational stress must be controlled for the teacher educator's motivation, inspiration and dedication to their work.

Objective of the Study
Stress affects teachers' ability to acquire and disseminate the knowledge properly.In the case of the teacher educators of self-financed B.Ed. colleges there may remain several causes and job hazards to put them into the situation of occupational stress.So, the present study was launched to probe into the occupational stress of the teacher educators of self-financed B.Ed. colleges.

The purposes of the study were -(i)To find out the present status of occupational stress among the teacher educators of the selffinanced B.Ed. colleges (ii)To compare the occupational stress between the male and female teacher educators of the selffinanced B.Ed. colleges The hypothesis was -(i)The teacher educators experience high Occupational Stress. (ii)
The male and female teacher educators do not differ with respect to their occupational stress.

Stress -the Construct of the Study
Stress is a feeling of emotional tension.Stress can be defined as a total response to one's environmental demands and pressures.The stress is an inevitable part of life that everyone has to face

A Brief Review on Stress and Occupational Stress
Due to the high expectation from the teacher, it might be at risk and creates a vulnerable situation that increases their occupational stress.Let us quickly review some of the recent research works in this field.In a study Jeyaraj (2013) has found that the government school teachers were less stressed than the government aided school teachers.Conversely, Saravanan and Lakshmi (2017) conducted a study on the teachers of higher secondary schools in Nagappattinam District in Tamil Nadu and reported that private school teachers were less stressed than the government school teachers.Private and government primary school teachers were found to have different levels of occupational stress.Private primary school teachers were more stressed than the Government Primary School Teachers (Bharati & Reddy, 2002; Hasan, 2014).
In another study, both the researchers Ravichandran and Rajendran (2007) have been found that, the government school teachers face less stress than the private school teachers.Private school teachers faced more stress due to poor salary and more burden of work.Jani (2017) conducted a study on the stress of teachers working at primary school in Kalahandi.This study revealed that the primary school teachers as a whole were found to be highly stressed.Ghosh, Adhikari and Mahato (2020) conducted a Comparative study on the occupational stress of male and female teachers and they found that male teachers felt less stress than the female teachers and both the male and female teachers of self-financed degree colleges had an almost equal level of occupational stress.The researcher Yadav (2017) has revealed that art teachers of aided degree college were more occupational stressed than the self-financed degree college and the teacher educators of self-financed colleges were more stressed than the aided degree colleges.
In another study on secondary and higher secondary school teachers of Purulia district Karmakar, Saha, Char and Adhikari (2023) found that the school teachers experienced low stress.

Methods
The present study was carried out through descriptive survey method.The details regarding sample, tool, procedure of data collection and statistical technique are reported hereunder.

Variables
Occupational Stress was the only variable of the present study.

Sample
A sample is called representative when it reflected an accurate proportional representation of the population under study.To make the sample representative stratified random sampling technique was adopted.In the present study, 300 teacher educators were selected randomly from the self-financed B.Ed. colleges of South 24-Parganas, West Bengal, India.

Tool of Research
The following research tool was used in the present study for data collection.The tool was selected by applying yardsticks of relevance, appropriateness, reliability, validity and suitability.Brief description of the tool is given hereunder.

Teacher Stress Inventory (TSI) (Fimian, 1988)
The instrument "Teacher Stress Inventory (TSI)" was used in this study.The "Teacher Stress Inventory (TSI)" includes total 49 items.The items are clustered in 10 factors.Each item is followed by a Likert-type scale ranges from 1 (no strength; not noticeable) to 5 (major strength; extremely noticeable).That is the statements are rated with 1 representing definitely not, 2 representing probably not, 3 representing undecided, 4 representing probably, and 5 representing definitely.

Procedure for Data Collection
The heads of the institutions were contacted for his/her permission to allow collecting the necessary data.The relevant data were collected by administering the above-mentioned tool on the subjects under study in accordance with the directions provided in the manual of the tool.

Analysis of the Collected Data
The descriptive statistics was presented by computing with the help of SPSS-20 software.To prove the hypothesis (i.e., The teacher educators experience high Occupational Stress) the descriptive statistics such as minimum, maximum, range, mean and standard deviation have been calculated and interpreted by the different statistical techniques.

Results on Occupational Stress
The results of the present study are presented in the tabular forms.Here the results are placed in two subsections -(a) Descriptive Presentation and (b) Comparative Analysis.  1 exhibits the descriptive statistics of "Occupational Stress" score obtained by the teacher educators (both male and female considering as a whole) in the present study.In case of Time Management, the "minimum" of the scores was 1 and the "maximum" of those was 5 and the range was 4; the "mean" and "standard deviation" of the said distribution were 3.32 and 0.72 respectively.Next, in case of Work-Related Stress the "minimum" of the scores was 1 and the "maximum" of those was 5 and the range was 4; the "mean" and "standard deviation" of the said distribution were 3.10 and 0.79 respectively.Then, in case of Professional Distress the "minimum" of the scores was 1 and the "maximum" of those was 5 and the range was 4; the "mean" and "standard deviation" of the said distribution were 3.47 and 0.99 respectively.Then in case of Discipline and Motivation the "minimum" of the scores was 1 and the "maximum" of those was 5 and the range was 4; the "mean" and "standard deviation" of the said distribution were 3.06 and 0.95 respectively.Then in case of Professional Investment the "minimum" of the scores was 1 and the "maximum" of those was 5 and the range was 4; the "mean" and "standard deviation" of the said distribution were 3.02 and 0.95 respectively.Then in case of Emotional Manifestation the "minimum" of the scores was 1 and the "maximum" of those was 5 and the range was 4; the "mean" and "standard deviation" of the said distribution were 3.05 and 1.08 respectively.Then in case of Fatigue Manifestation the "minimum" of the scores was 1 and the "maximum" of those was 5 and the range was 4; the "mean" and "standard deviation" of the said distribution were 2.80 and 1.02 respectively.Then in case of Cardiovascular Manifestation the "minimum" of the scores was 1 and the "maximum" of those was 5 and the range was 4; the "mean" and "standard deviation" of the said distribution were 2.67 and 1010 respectively.Then in case of Gastrovascular Manifestation the "minimum" of the scores was 1 and the "maximum" of those was 5 and the range was 4; the "mean" and "standard deviation" of the said distribution were 2.67 and 1.10 respectively.Then in case of Behavioural Manifestation the "minimum" of the scores was 1 and the "maximum" of those was 5 and the range was 4; the "mean" and "standard deviation" of the said distribution were 2.56 and 0.94 respectively.Finally, in Teachers Stress (in totality) the "minimum" of the scores was 1 and the "maximum" of those was 4.55 and the range was 3.55; the "mean" and "standard deviation" of the said distribution were 3.00 and 0.65 respectively.were 2.80 and 2.80 respectively; again, the standard deviations were 1.03 and 1.01 respectively.In Cardio-Vascular Manifestation the mean of male and female teacher educators were 2.61 and 2.76 respectively; again, the standard deviations were 1.13 and 1.05 respectively.In Gastro-Vascular Manifestation the mean of male and female teacher educators were 2.61 and 2.76 respectively; again, the standard deviations were 1.13 and 1.05 respectively.In Behavioural Manifestation the mean of male and female teacher educators were 2.64 and 2.44 respectively; again, the standard deviations were 0.96 and 0.89 respectively.Finally, in Teachers Stress (in totality) the mean of male and female teacher educators were 3.00 and 3.01 respectively; again, the standard deviations were 0.68 and 0.60 respectively.From the results of the table-5.2, it is transparent that the two groups (male and female) of teacher educators did not differ (statistically) significantly in any factor of Teacher Stress Inventory.Hence, the results reflect that both the male and female teacher educators of the self-financed B.Ed. colleges experienced high occupational stress.Dachen (2017) observed that there was no significant difference in occupational stress among male and female physical education teachers of Jammu and Kashmir.No significant difference was found in the level of stress of primary school teachers' respect their gender (Jani, 2017; Aftab & Khatoon, 2012).
Inversely, a significant difference in occupational stress in between male and female teachers was found and female teachers perceived more stress than the male teachers (Ghosh, Adhikari & Mahato, 2020).

Conclusion
From the results and subsequent discussion of Descriptive Presentation of the present study, it might be concluded that on an average the teacher educators of self-financed B.Ed. colleges, considering both gender (male and female) as a whole, experienced high or above "mild strength rating" of occupational stress.Hence, the hypothesis-[(i) The teacher educators experience high Occupational Stress] was accepted.
From the result and subsequent discussion of Comparative Analysis of the present study, it can be concluded that the two groups (male and female) of teacher educators did not differ (statistically) significantly in Occupational Stress.So, the hypothesis-[(ii) The male and female teacher educators do not differ with respect to their occupational stress.]was also accepted.In question of Occupational Stress of the teacher educators of self-financed B.Ed. colleges, there was no gender differenceboth male and female exhibited their high occupational stress.

5. 1
Descriptive Presentation Occupational Stress of teacher educators was measured by the "Teachers Stress Inventory".Descriptive statistics of "Teachers Stress Inventory" scores are presented herewith to test the following hypothesis: I.The teacher educators experience high Occupational Stress.The results in this section are presented in table-5.1 and figure-5.1 & 5.1(a).

Figure- 5 .
1 depicts the bar diagram of different facets of occupational stressors scores of teacher educators considering male and female as a whole.

Figure- 5 . 1 :
Figure-5.1:Bar Diagram Histogram of Different Facets of occupational stressors Scores of Teacher Educators Considering Male and Female as a Whole

Figure- 5
Figure-5.1(a):Histogram with normal curve of occupational stress scores of teacher educators considering male and female as a whole

Figure- 5 . 2 (
Figure-5.2(a)shows the bar diagram of Teachers Stress Inventory scores of male and female teacher educators separately.

Figure- 5 . 2 (
Figure-5.2(a):Bar Diagram of Means of Teachers Stress Inventory Score of Male and Female Teacher Educators

Table - 4.3.1: Factor wise Distribution of Items of Teacher Stress Inventory (TSI) Sl. No. Factors
Clearly the factors are consisted of unequal number of items.The mean score of each dimension is made comparable by normalizing.The normalization procedure is as follows: Normalized Mean = Sum of the item responses in a factor (or total scale) /number of items in the factor (or total scale).Then, the normalized mean fell within the range extending from 1 to 5 with 3 as the mid-point (moderate stress).The score at the higher end of the scale should be considered a potential problem.The range of Normalized means score of each factor of the "Teacher Stress Inventory (TSI)" may be interpreted as -1 to 1.

Work Related Stress, Professional Distress, Discipline and Motivation, Professional Investment, Emotional Manifestation and Teachers Stress (in totality
, and Low in case of Fatigue Manifestation, Cardiovascular Manifestation, Gastro-vascular Manifestation, Behavioural Manifestation.But the mean scores in all factors were higher than the "mild strength rating" (i.e., 1.9).The present study is supported by Ghosh, Adhikari and Das (2019) they found that on an average the teachers did not experience much stress.Karmakar,

Saha, Char and Adhikari (2023) observed
that occupational stress was high in case of Time Management, Professional Distress and Work Related Stress; and low in case of Discipline and Motivation, Professional Investment, Emotional Manifestation, Fatigue Manifestation, Cardiovascular Manifestation, Gastro-vascular Manifestation, Behavioural Manifestation and Teachers Stress (in totality).

Antoniou, Polychroni and Walters (2000) revealed
that moderate to high levels of stress experienced by the Greek special educational needs teachers.Jani (2017) observed that primary school teachers as a whole felt high level of stress.Singh and Valsaraj (2011) found that there was a significant difference in occupational stress in various school teachers.