I am interested in exploring the topics of burnout, stress, and coping amongst educators. More specifically, what stressors do pre-service teachers/teacher candidates experience, and what contributes to this stress? Right from the early stages of our teaching careers, teacher candidates experience high levels of stress. As teacher candidates are placed in the unique position of being a university student and pre-service teacher at the same time, there are experiences that are unique to being a part of this intensive program. This made me start to think about the stressors associated with being a post-secondary student and being a pre-service teacher. I also began to think about the stressors associated with the teaching profession and the school environment. Furthermore, I began to wonder about the effects of stress amongst teacher candidates.
Something I noticed in several of my classes is the interest in supporting students with mental health difficulties and illnesses in the classroom setting. However, I noticed many of my fellow classmates neglect to prioritize their own own health and wellbeing, which I believe should be a top priority. On a much larger scale, a letter written by the B.C. School Superintendents Association cites the Vancouver School Board for its toxic work environment captured my attention in the media. This further propelled me to think more deeply about possible reasons for such claims.
For several years now, I always thought stress, burnout, and coping would make for an interesting graduate school thesis. During the third year of my undergraduate studies, I took a health psychology course. I was intrigued by my instructor’s research on stress, burnout, and coping amongst paramedics and first responders. I was fascinated by this research because up until that point of my studies, I never considered the long-term implications of stress and burnout in the workplace. To this day, this remains one of the most memorable things I learned about during my undergraduate studies.