The examination of teacher stress among Turkish early childhood education teachers

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the level of teacher stress experienced by Turkish early childhood education teachers working in public and private preschools serving children from three to six years of age. The participants of the study include 1119 early childhood education teachers gathered through simple random sampling. The data are gathered through teacher stress inventory developed by Micheal Fimian [1984. The development of an instrument to measure occupational stress in teachers: The teacher stress inventory. Journal of Occupational Psychology, 57, 277–293], which is adapted into Turkish through preliminary psychometric investigation of its validity and reliability. Based on correlation analysis, one sample t-test and analysis of variance findings suggest that teachers' occupational stress is related to teachers' monthly income, gender, years of experience in occupation and age level of children that they are working with.

Keywords:

• teacher stress
• early childhood teachers
• teacher stress inventory
• validity
• reliability
• early childhood education

Notes on contributors

Assistant Professor Dr. Zeynep Berna Erdiller received her B.A. in Sociology at Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey, in 1997. In 1998 she was granted with a scholarship from the National Ministry of Education of Turkey to pursue a Ph.D. in early childhood education in the USA. She finished her doctoral study in 2003 and returned to Turkey the same year. Since then, first she worked at the Middle East Technical University, then Maltepe University and has been currently working at Boğaziçi University in the Department of Primary Education as an assistant professor. She has been teaching and conducting research in the field of early childhood education and teacher training.

Associate Professor Dr. Özcan Doğan received his B.A. in Psychology at Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey, in 1989 and his M.S. in the Department of Psychological Services at Education at Ankara University in 1996. He finished his doctoral study in the field of Child Development and Education and received his Ph.D. in 2001. Currently, he is working in the Department of Child Development at Hacettepe University as an Associate professor and has been teaching and conducting research in the field of child development and education.