This chapter focuses on the conclusion of the study. It provides some suggestions based on the findings that could help secondary school teachers dealing with stress in the workplace. It also provides some recommendations especially for the Ministry of Education of Youth and Sports in Haiti which must take into account the situation of teachers at work how to handle with the level of their stress. Some recommendations will be addressed to school authority, teachers’
organization, teachers who employ in the institution whereby they teach. Finally, the researcher provides some recommendations for future research.
Conclusions
The main factors that may cause stress in secondary school teachers in Haiti are students’
behavior, teacher burnout, parent involvement, salary, work conditions, communication.
The result of this study can be applied toward developing ways to reduce secondary school teacher stress in Haiti at work. Students’ lack of effort make teachers very stressful because they may feel that they do not have control over whether or not students participate in classro om learning activities. This suggests that students’ behavior affect secondary school teachers in the classroom. It is obvious that teachers in secondary school in Haiti suffer also from parents who don’t involve in activities that school plan for students. In addition, when parents don’t care about students work at home, this attitude makes teachers very stress.
It is not surprising for the researcher that the salary is a factor that affects teachers and makes them stress in secondary school in Haiti. Poor salary is applying by Administrator of school in almost all area. Because secondary school teachers receive a minimal salary from administrator, this makes them unable to support their family who is sometimes expected some formal help from them. It is also important to mention that so many of them are angry with Principals in the workplace. To make the matters worse, teachers sometimes reduce the level of efforts that they should apply in teaching students. This fact should take into account in order to avoid the worse in the future. As a Principal of a private secondary school, the researcher have made experienced with teachers who are affected by low salary. Therefore, the researcher will
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recommend that the salary must be increased. By doing so, this may help them to reduce their stress level at work.
The salary is not only a factor of stress in secondary school teachers in Haiti. Teacher burnout is also one factor. As it was shown in the present result, teachers are stressed out in some areas. No matter age, education level they are reaching (young or old teachers), they are having stress that affect them in classroom.
Secondary school teachers are stressed out by the fact that parents don’t involve in school work of the students. This is a common situation that teachers face in Haiti. The results show that their age and education under parent involvement are significant for all questions. That means for the researcher, their stress level is very high.
Recommendations
In real life, stress in an inevitable phenomenon. There is no doubt that the teaching profession in Haiti is highly stressful as is known from public opinions and the results revealed in the present study. If teacher stress is left unresolved, it will have substantial negative impacts on teachers’ physical and mental health. Worst still, this will accelerate the turnover rate of teachers and aggravate the problem of teacher. The whole education system will be impaired and inefficiency will ensue. In view of all the possible adverse consequences of teacher stress, certain measures must be undertaken to alleviate teacher stress and strain in order to enhance their enthusiasm in teaching.
From the results of the present study, a few recommendations are raised for School Authority or Administrator of School, Teachers’ Organizations and the Education Department.
Recommendation for school authority
The following methods are proposed for school authority to help in reducing teacher stress:
1. The school authority should try to have more interactions with teachers as well as create more opportunities for communications among members of the staff. This can be done by organizing informal social gatherings and various kinds of extra-curricula
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activities for teachers with the aim to promote mutual understanding and concern among teachers. The principal should actively take part in these activities and try to establish a friendly and supportive relationship with the staff.
2. The school authority should find ways to involve parents more in the lives of their children in relation to school work. It seems that parents do not support teacher and students by checking and encouraging proper study habits. There should be ways to make parents more accountable.
3. Efforts should be made in school to see that teachers have the opportunity to fulfill their needs in self-actualization, autonomy and esteem in order to avoid the feeling of strain. The school authority should help teachers to develop their potential in teaching by allowing them a higher degree of flexibility and independence in teaching. Beside, the school authority should promote the image of teachers as deserving respect.
4. Administrator of school should avoid discrimination in term of salary. Teachers who are teaching for example Language should not receive less salary than those who are teaching humanities. The equality should be applied for all secondary school teachers.
5. Administration need to be more vigilant of teachers’ classroom management in order to reduce the stress of student behavior.
Recommendation for teachers’ organizations
In Haiti especially, there are organizations that show concern for teachers and even thought the task is difficult by battling with the Ministry for the betterment of the teachers, these organizations still do their best to help. Below are some means proposed for teachers’
organizations to help in reducing teachers’ stress:
1. Teachers’ organizations should organize seminar and workshop to help secondary school teachers cope with work stress and reduce the feeling of strain. The Haiti Professional teachers’ Union should involve in teachers situation by media more often. Teachers should be encouraged to participate in some formal seminars concerning stress. This could help them to handle with stress in the workplace.
2. They should try to fight for increasing the benefits of teachers in terms of monetary rewards so that teachers’ security needs can be fulfilled.
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3. They should provide counseling service to stressed and strained teachers.
Recommendation for the Ministry of Education
In the present study, it was found that student behavior, burnout, parent involvement, salary, work conditions and communication contributed to teachers’ stress. The Education Department should play a role in redressing this problem. The following are some proposed methods to do so:
1. The Education Department should see to the needs of the teachers by discussing with the government on increasing the salary and upgrading the social status of teachers. Besides, rules should be set to ensure that teachers have authority and control over their own teaching and have rights to participate in school decision making.
2. Salary was found to cause stress in secondary school teachers in Haiti. The Education Department should, in accordance to the Institutions staff, to increase teachers’ salary so that they could help themselves for the basic needs.
3. The Education Department should provide better working conditions and resources for different subjects so that teachers can get more information handily.
4. The Ministry of Education of Youth and Sports must involve in helping institutions to follow its regulations. In other words, the system education has to be under control of the Ministry. When the institution is not under its control, the consequence is teachers suffer from the type of work conditions that principals apply while they are in classroom.
Moreover, the Ministry should focus on increasingly on the strategic dimensions of policy formation for teachers, supporting initiatives, developing curriculum etc… As the Ministry of Education (MOE) plays a vital role in the overall development of a country, it is important to mention that MOE involve in increased salary for teachers. If so, the stress level of secondary school teachers will automatically reduce at work. The MOE needs to involve in the amount of salary that teachers receive from Administrator of school because so many secondary school apply their own policy to pay teachers per hour. A good system of salary will make them more comfortable to do their work.
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Recommendation for teachers
As the results of the present study confirmed the level of stress of secondary school teachers in Haiti, the researcher recommended to teachers to try to interact more easily to students and communicate very often to parents so that parents could involve in students work at home. It will make their job easier in dealing with stress in the workplace. In addition, they should be more open to new ideas from principals of school, parents and so on.
Teachers also need to be more receptive of administrations’ methods in governing and running the institutions. Teachers can also be more open-minded and participative in the seminars and workshops administrations design to keep them abreast of educational development.
Some teachers are opponents to change in the educational system; they are stuck in the old ways even though education is revolving.
Recommendation for further research
It is not infrequent that a research project raises more questions than it answers. The following are some proposed recommendations for future research:
1. The study should be replicated in all schools of the government and private sectors and result should be compared with that present study.
2. The present study examines whether the dependent variables are the main factors of secondary teachers stress in Haiti. Future research should investigate whether they are effectively affecting teachers in the classroom.
3. The present study is basically a correlation study. It is hoped that causal models of teachers’ stress can be established in future research.
4. There should be more research on how to change job stresses, how to improve the fit between the person and his job.
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