Gender‐related Causes of Stress in Trainee Teachers on Teaching Practice in the School of Education, University of Manchester, UK

Abstract

In this paper the gender‐related causes of stress in trainee teachers on teaching practice in the School of Education, University of Manchester are examined. A questionnaire was administered to trainee teachers on a Post Graduate Certificate in Education course (teacher training course for both primary and secondary trainee teachers) during their period of initial teaching practice in the academic year 1998/9 in order to identify their stressors. The means and standard deviations of each item were then calculated separately for males and females. In only 12 of the 61 items did the males have a higher mean (indicating higher anxiety) than the females. There is clear evidence to indicate that the females were more stressed than the males. However, of the 12 items the males found more stressful than the females the two which were significant centred around issues of support of friends, family and partner. The best way to deal with stress is to try to prevent it occurring, and this research would seem to indicate the need for PGCE tutors to include some stress identification and management courses in teacher training.