Stress Among Teachers: Exploring the Role of Cultural Diversity in Schools

Abstract

We investigated the effects of stereotypical expectations regarding cultural diversity on teachers’ feelings of burnout, stress, and self-efficacy beliefs. With an experimental design, we confronted teachers with fictitious schools that were either high or low in cultural diversity and assessed the teachers’ feelings of burnout and self-efficacy beliefs (Study 1) and their stress with respect to culturally responsive teaching and locus of control (Study 2). Teachers who were confronted with a highly culturally diverse school showed higher feelings of burnout and stress and lower self-efficacy than teachers presented with a school low in cultural diversity. School composition affected teachers from primary and secondary schools differently. The consequences of holding stereotypical beliefs about highly culturally diverse schools are discussed.

Keywords:

• Teachers
• feelings of burnout
• stress
• self-efficacy
• cultural diversity
• school composition