Teaching is a complex, dynamic activity that involves the whole person of the teacher and this narrative auto-ethnography is an interpretation of my personal explorations of past memories of experiences in education from childhood to retirement. I explore and examine the threads emerging from my recollections and reflect on how they have contributed towards a system of beliefs and values I brought into the classroom. Linking the strands, I have sought to construct and re-construct the meanings attributed to my personal development and growth of myself, my self-concept, identities, self awareness and ultimately my own self-understanding. Whilst researching this theme I noted the relative absence of teachers' own accounts of their attempts to explore issues connected with self-understanding and as I slowly pieced together the picture of who I am now and was as a teacher, I recognised the significance of deep self-understanding and its' vital contribution towards effective engagement in the complex activity of teaching. I lived alongside this self study for a long time and worked with a group of young adolescents from my school in an urban Welsh environment over a period of three years. The conversations that took place created a more thorough understanding of their perspectives on learning and resonated with the adolescent I once was. Teaching requires connections and relationships with pupils, parents, communities and the world around us and involves more than just skills and knowledge. It is challenging but also rewarding and I have sought to portray my experiential interpretations within text and imagery in order to open up and create new conversations and thoughts for the readers of this narrative.

There has been increasing interest in occupational stress during the last two decades. While studies have been carried out in developed countries, few have been conducted in developing countries, particularly in the field of education. Since 1970s, the topic of teacher stress has generated more interest among researchers who initially studied stress in teachers in different school settings all around the world. This research study was necessitated by a general lack of knowledge about teacher stress in general, and stress in Tawjihi teachers, particularly in Jordan. The study was conducted with Tawjihi teachers (12th grade), in the city of Karak, Jordan to explore levels of stress and the main sources of stress. It also explored coping strategies adopted by them and actions that should be taken by schools and the MOE to reduce teacher stress. This research consisted of two phases. Phase one was a survey using a self-administered questionnaire involving a sample of 513 Tawjihi teachers (229 male teachers and 284 female teachers), where 314 Tawjihi teachers replied to the questionnaire with a response rate of 73.68%. Phase two was a qualitative study using semi-structured interviews based on an open-ended interview schedule. Twelve Twajihi teachers, as well as sixteen other education staff, have been interviewed, which resulted in a 60.87% response rate. Overall, results indicated approximately 95% of Tawjihi teachers revealed their work as a Tawjihi teacher was extremely to mildly stressful. Only 4.8% of Tawjihi teachers reported being a Tawjihi teacher was not stressful. The findings also showed some sources of stress Tawjihi teachers revealed were limited to them, and yet others were common among teachers in other countries. Results also showed some of the adopted coping strategies were limited to Tawjihi teachers, while others were shared with teachers in other countries. The finding regarding coping strategies also showed that Tawjihi teachers tend to use indirect actions more often than direct actions. No significant differences in the level of stress in Tawjihi teachers due to gender, age, teaching experience, qualification and marital status were found. Moreover, significant positive correlations were found between the level of stress and each main source of stress. Tawjihi teachers also revealed the actions they desire schools and the MOE to take to help them reduce stress. The increased understanding of the levels of stress, its sources, adopted coping strategies and the actions that should be taken by schools and the MOE to reduce stress will hopefully make a significant contribution to the knowledge of teacher stress, not only in Jordan particularly, but in other countries generally.

This study focused on stress and resilience among teachers in 15 urban secondary schools serving areas of multiple and complex disadvantage in the Greater Manchester and Merseyside regions of England (UK). It utilised the mixed-methods approach to gather and analyse the data. This consisted of a questionnaire survey of 150 teachers and interviews of 20 teachers. It examined person characteristics of teachers in these schools; key stress risks in the schools; coping strategies employed by these teachers and their protective factors. The main quantitative analysis methodologies used in the study were descriptive analysis; factor analysis and regression analysis. Qualitative findings were analysed using thematic analysis and teacher pen portrait and school case study presentations. Integrative analysis of quantitative and qualitative findings was then conducted in the discussion of main findings. This study found that the teachers’ major force characteristics were self-efficacy; persistence; personal attitudes towards one’s job; personality and temperament and commitment to the job. Their main resource characteristic was experience while their major demand characteristic was their professional role. These teachers were also exposed to person, proximal processes, context and time risks. There were risks associated with force and demand person characteristics. The main process risks were within their interactions with pupils, parents, colleagues and senior management. There were also context risks in their microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem and macrosystem. There were also time risks across the microtime, mesotime and macrotime. To cope, teachers in this sample utilised both direct-action and palliative coping strategies. Results also indicated that these teachers’ protective factors were in their resource and force characteristics; proximal processes; context and time.