Occupational Stress and Management Strategies among Technology Education Teachers in Higher Institutions

Abstract

The study investigated the occupational stressors and management strategies among technology education teachers in higher institutions in Niger and Kaduna states. The population of the study was 87 technology education teachers. Two research questions and two hypotheses tested at .05 level of significance guided the study. The instrument for data collection was a 76-items Occupational Stress and Management Strategies Questionnaire (OSMSQ) developed by the researchers. The OSMSQ was face validated by three experts in the Department of Industrial and Technology Education, Federal University of Technology Minna, Niger State. The instrument was also trial tested at Federal Polytechnic Kauran-Namoda, Zamfara state. The reliability coefficience of the instrument calculated using Cronbach alpha method was found to be 0.76. Data collected was analyzed using SPSS statistical software (version 20.00). Mean and Standard deviation were used to answer the research questions while Analysis of Variance and Post Hoc Test were used to test the hypotheses at .05 level of significance. Findings revealed among others that epileptic power supply, teaching and evaluating large class size, doing a lot of work in the job area, frequent attendance of school meetings were occupational stressors among technology education teachers. Also, cultivating good hobbies, developing good communication skills, developing emotional intelligence and others were found to be stress management strategies among technology education teachers. Based on these findings therefore, it was recommended that: (1) Conducive and enabling environment should be created by employers of labour to help reduce stress, (2) More workforce should be employed by government in higher institutions to reduce work load of staff and by extension reduce stress, and (3) Continuous retraining of staff should be carried out to enable teachers cope with stress.