OCCUPATIONAL STRESS IN TEACHING: A COMPARATIVE STUDY BETWEEN THE LIBYAN AND THE IRAQI SCHOOLS LOCATED IN TURKEY
Author:
Abstract
This paper focuses on the school teachers' occupational stress in the Libyan and Iraqi schools located in Turkey. The stratified convenience sample consists of 146 teachers who are Libyans and Iraqis, and selected a targeted population. A questionnaire was used to discover the sources of the occupational stress among the teachers at Libyan and the Iraqi schools operating in Turkey. The results revealed that teachers suffer from high levels of occupational stress in both the Libyan and Iraqi schools. Moreover, the results showed that for teachers' salaries and incentives are the most important reason behind working in the Libyan and Iraqi schools. The Independent Samples Test showed that there is only one statistical difference between the two samples, which is the nature of work. This indeed indicates that the nature of work plays a significant role behind stress experienced by the teacher serving at both Iraqi and Libyan schools. However, we determined the relationships between the sources of the occupational stress and some demographic variables. In the data of Iraqi schools, there are only two demographic variables (gender and service), which have impact on the nature of work, wages and incentives, and the physical working environment. In the Libyan data, only three demographic variables (gender, age, social status) affected the occupational stress. The results also showed there are not significant differences with some demographic variables and sources of occupational stress among the teachers under study, with slight differences in some variables. The study also presented some recommendations for future research.
Keywords
Abstract
This paper focuses on the school teachers' occupational stress in the Libyan and Iraqi schools located in Turkey. The stratified convenience sample consists of 146 teachers who are Libyans and Iraqis, and selected a targeted population. A questionnaire was used to discover the sources of the occupational stress among the teachers at Libyan and the Iraqi schools operating in Turkey. The results revealed that teachers suffer from high levels of occupational stress in both the Libyan and Iraqi schools. Moreover, the results showed that for teachers' salaries and incentives are the most important reason behind working in the Libyan and Iraqi schools. The Independent Samples Test showed that there is only one statistical difference between the two samples, which is the nature of work. This indeed indicates that the nature of work plays a significant role behind stress experienced by the teacher serving at both Iraqi and Libyan schools. However, we determined the relationships between the sources of the occupational stress and some demographic variables. In the data of Iraqi schools, there are only two demographic variables (gender and service), which have impact on the nature of work, wages and incentives, and the physical working environment. In the Libyan data, only three demographic variables (gender, age, social status) affected the occupational stress. The results also showed there are not significant differences with some demographic variables and sources of occupational stress among the teachers under study, with slight differences in some variables. The study also presented some recommendations for future research.