In this present study, quantitative method was adopted for fulfilling the purpose and proofing the framework. A questionnaire was developed for survey. All the data which were collected was analyzed. It was designed to investigate whether those main factors (Students behavior, teacher burnout, parent involvement, salary, work conditions, communication) might cause stress in secondary school teachers in Haiti. According to Johnson and Christensen (2004), quantitative research attempts to operate under the assumption of objectivity whereby all
observers in the world will look at the same phenomena and basically agree on its existence and characteristics”. In this study the researcher, therefore, had collected data from secondary teacher school to investigate the effect of the demographic variables and the stress factors of secondary school teacher in Haiti who were employed.
The test used a Likert’s Scale: and the responses were based on a five point Likert’s Scale: 1 = Strongly Disagree, 2 = Disagree, 3 = Neutral, 4 = Agree, and 5 = Strongly Agree.
Teachers were instructed to refer to their stress level while they are teaching in classroom. All respondents supplied their demographic data of gender, age, education level, subjects taught, and tenure. These determined whether they affected or not secondary school teachers stress level.
Population and sample
The population for this study is only teachers in secondary school in Haiti. The researcher used a non random technique known as convenient sampling. There are 450 secondary schools in Haiti with a population about 9,000 teachers. However, for the purpose and time of the study, the researcher used 20 schools from the Department of West in Haiti. This gives a sample about 400 teachers, all of which was used as the sample population. In the Department of West only 225 secondary school teachers answered the questionnaire.
Demographic items results
The total of participants who answered the teacher stress survey is two hundred and twenty five (225) which are represented 99% of the total target population. It is important to mention that because the researcher was supported by Principals of school and teachers in secondary school in Haiti almost one hundred percent of the questionnaire were answered. Of the total number, there were one hundred seventy four (174) male who responded. This number
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represented 77.3% and fifty one (51) female responded which is represented 22.7% respondents.
The data results show that whereas the percentage of teachers who are undergraduate education level is 64% with a total of participants one hundred forty four (144), the percentage of teachers who are graduate or doctorate education level is 36% with the total respondents eighty one (81).
In the column of subject teaching “languages”, there were seventy two (72) secondary school teachers represented 32%. For the subject science, ninety one (91) teachers responded; this number represented 40%. For the subject “Humanities”, sixty two (62) answered with a percentage 27%. The table 3.3 below provides a view of the sample population with their demographic, education level, and subjects taught.
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Table 3.1. Demographics items percentages of responses (N=225) Demographic items Frequency of response Percentage
Gender
40 Instrumentation
In this survey study, the instrument was a questionnaire that applied for data collection of factors of stress of secondary school teachers in Haiti. It was an efficient way to know if all the six variables are the main factors of stress of secondary school teachers in Haiti. The instrumentation that the researcher used was a teacher stress questionnaire. A Likert’s Scale five-point response system was administrated. For example, the first question is equal to strongly agree, the second one is equal to disagree, the third is equal to neutral, the fourth is equal to agree and finally the fifth is equal to strongly agree. In the questionnaire, the researcher was interested with the demographic questions which was concerned their gender, their age , the name of the subject teaching, their education level and also the researcher had seek any kind of information about teachers’ thoughts, feeling, attitudes, types of problems that they face in the workplace if those problems really affect their stress. Since the questionnaire was written in English and analyzed by an expert, it was recommended to translate all questions into French so that the participants could understand them in their native language. This way was a good strategy for the researcher to avoid any kind of misunderstanding. It was very consistent for all secondary school Haitian teachers who will be selected for the study.
Johnson and Christensen (2004, p. 164) stated that the main objective of the questionnaire was a self-report data collection instrument that each report participant filled out as a part of exploratory study. According to this statement, each participant inside the schools that was selected received a questionnaire survey in accordance of their own problems that they may face in secondary school teachers in Haiti. The Likert’s Scale with five point measurements was rated in this study as follows: 1- Strongly Disagree 2 - Disagree 3 - neutral 4 - Agree 5 – Strongly Agree. The questionnaire, at the end of the study, helped the researcher to know if the dependent variables affect teachers in secondary school in Haiti. The content of the questionnaire had 29 questions related to teacher stress. It was divided into 3 sections. The first section concerned the demographic data; the others emphasized the problems that affect teachers in secondary school in Haiti.
The 29 questions accords to all the dependent variables. For the first factor of stress which is student behavior, the questions items are: Q1, Q7, Q13, Q19, and Q22. For the second factor which is teacher burnout, the question items are: Q2, Q8, Q14, Q20, and Q28. For the third factor which is parent involvement, the question items are: Q3, Q9, Q15, Q21, and Q23.
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For the fourth factor which is salary, the question items are: Q4, Q16, Q24, and Q10. For the fifth factor which is work conditions, the question items are: Q29, Q11, Q17, Q5, and Q25. For the sixth factor which is communication, the question items are: Q6, Q12, Q18, Q26, and Q27.
Reliability and validity
The validity and the reliability of this study are based on the sample size selection which came from secondary school teachers in Haiti. The validity of the instrument is basically the extent to which the instrument measures the variables. The researcher obtained content validity by having expert checking the instrument item by item. For the validity the researcher also conducted a pilot test.
The results from the questionnaire gave a reliability interpretation about the questionnaire and the overall framework of the study. The researcher conducted a pilot test for testing the reliability. The total of the samples was 20. It gave the researcher based on the alpha reliability for all 29 items the Cronbach alpha value for each section: Student behavior .658; Teacher burnout .720; Parent involvement .736; Salary .707; Work Conditions .625; Communication .527.
The Cronbach alpha value for the final is: Student behavior .645; Teacher burnout .701; Parent involvement .736; Salary .665; Work conditions .660; Communication .636.
Table 3.2. Cronbach alpha value of the instrument
Tests
Pilot Final
Student Behavior 0.658 0.645
Teacher Burnout 0.720 0.701
Parent Involvement 0.736 0.703
Salary 0.707 0.665
Work Conditions 0.625 0.660
Communication 0.527 0.636
Complete Test (Total) 0.932 0.930
42 Data analysis
In this study, different statistical methods were used to analyze the main factors of stress of secondary school teachers in Haiti. The researcher used, from the SPSS 15.0 version, descriptive and inferential statistics to analyze and interpret the data collected from the sample population. ANOVA was used to test the hypotheses. This statistical procedure allowed the researcher to present the relevance and importance of the study. The descriptive statistics helped to find the researcher to arrange the data into a more interpretable form by forming the frequency distributions and generating graphical displays and by calculating numerical indexes such as averages, percentile ranks, and measures of spread, trends. All this data can be summarized easily or can be examined on their interrelation. The weighting of the data is very essential and important. The table below gives details how the researcher codes the data.
The use of inferential statistics helped the researcher to examine relationships, differences and trends, a process also known as hypothesis testing or significance testing. The descriptive and inferential statistics was used to analyze and interpret all the data that would be collected from the population, and this collection helped the researcher to present a depth explanation about the importance of this study. Furthermore, all the questions answered by the participants was ranked to find out if there is an effective need for teachers in secondary school to be helped to deal with stress while they are teaching in classroom.
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Table 3.3. Coding system used in SPSS 15.0 data analysis
Categories Code System
Age 1= 20 – 29 years
2 = 30 – 39 years 3 = 40 – 49 years 4 = 50 – 59 Years
Tenure 1 = 1 - 5 years 2 = 11 – 15 years
3 = 6 – 10 years 4 = 16 – 20Years
Education Level 0 = Undergraduate
1 = Graduate & Doctorate
Subject Taught 1 = Languages
2 = Science 3 = Humanities
Gender 0 = Male
1 = Female
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