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Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION
Challenge
Pre-service teachers are preparing to enter a field filled with uncertainty, frustration, and
negative stress. The expectations are high, the compensation is minimal, and the job has
immeasurable importance in terms of its contribution to the future of the world. For some
teachers, the natural progression of working under such conditions results in patterns of negative
thought processes, complaining, lack of enjoyment in both teaching and life, and eventual
burnout. By entering this profession, the pre-service teacher is knowingly placing herself into a
highly stressful environment. This stress cannot always be avoided or controlled. What can be
controlled is the way the teacher experiences this stress. The focus of this masters project was to
develop a teaching practice that is balanced and sustainable in the face of a highly stressful
teaching environment.
Importance
Children spend much of their youth within the school setting. They are socialized within
this environment. Teachers play a large role in modeling for students what it is to be an adult.
Beyond teaching curriculum to students, this role is one of the great responsibilities of being a
teacher. If teachers exhibit an inability to handle the stress in their lives in a healthful way, they
are doing a disservice to their students.
Stress is a part of living. There will always be things in life that cause it. Learning how to
handle a range of stressors is an important part of maintaining a healthy and enjoyable life.
Without models of how one might deal with stress in a healthy way, students may never acquire
this vital skill. Teachers can provide that model.
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This project is important because it gives teachers a pathway toward finding balance and
sustainability in teaching. Furthermore, the implications of it demonstrate how a balanced teacher
can positively affect the development of her students.
The Project
This Project is an Alternative Culminating Experience for a Master of Arts in Education:
Curriculum and Instruction with an Elective Emphasis on Arts in Education. It follows Pathway
I: Artist as Educator. The project involved the development of two practices: a yoga practice, and
a teaching practice. The development of the teaching practice took place during the third and final
phase of a three semester multiple subject credential program through California State University,
Sacramento. The project began with the pre-service teacher student teaching four days a week.
While upholding the teaching schedule, the pre-service teacher began daily yoga practice. For
forty consecutive days the pre-service teacher practiced yoga for an hour and a half each morning.
When the forty days ended, the pre-service teacher continued to practice yoga weekly. After four
months of simultaneously practicing yoga and teaching, the pre-service teacher was able to enter
the field of teaching with the intention of maintaining balance, and she had developed the tools
needed to do so. The result presumes a lifetime of teaching that is sustainable, enjoyable, and
energizing.
Literature
The literature review began by outlining the theories and practices of arts in education.
This was later connected to issues of high stress in the school environment and the use of the arts
as a tool to manage that stress. The review was broken into three sections. First, theories of John
Dewey, Elliot Eisner, and others were discussed in their relation to practices in arts education.
Referenced in this section were Dewey’s (1934), Art as Experience, and Eisner’s (1998), The
Kind of Schools We Need.
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The next section included literature about teacher stress and burnout. Included in this
section was literature which described the causes, effects, and prevalence of teacher stress. Some
of the articles referenced came from journals such as: Educational Psychology; School
Psychology International; Teaching and Teacher Education: An International Journal of
Research and Studies; Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas;
and Educational Leadership.
The final section explored stress management strategies, most specifically, yoga. A
definition of yoga was offered and studies examining its benefits were reviewed. Research on the
stress reducing affects of mindfulness was also included. The art of bringing the mindful
components of yoga into daily life was discussed. Some of the literature reviewed included: The
American Holistic Medical Association: Guide to Holistic Health, by Larry Trivieri, Jr. and The
American Holistic Medical Association; The Art and Science of Raja Yoga, by Swami
Kriyananda (J. Donald Walters); and The Art of Yoga, by Sharon Gannon and David Life.
Methodology
Narrative inquiry was the research method used for this project. Essential to narrative
inquiry is the idea of triangulation, which involves a combination of documentation,
dialogue/interviews, and observation. A journal was kept to document the pre-service teacher’s
observations. As a form of dialogue/interviews, the pre-service teacher spoke with peers, mentor
teachers, and yoga practitioners about their experiences with stress and their perceptions of
changes and stress levels in the pre-service teacher.
Effect on Teacher’s Professional Future
Prior to the project, the pre-service teacher had not yet entered the field of teaching. This
project shaped the kind of teacher the pre-service teacher will become. It has prepared the preservice teacher to enter the field of teaching ready to experience stress in a healthy way. The
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teacher now has the tools necessary to maintain balance and will strive to sustain herself as a
teacher for years to come.
Significance in the Field
As teachers are models for their students, they can also act as models for their peers.
During the project the pre-service teacher was part of a cohort with other pre-service teachers.
This was an opportunity for her to share her experience with others who were about to enter the
teaching field. The cohort often discussed the high levels of stress they were experiencing. The
pre-service teacher informed the group of her project and was able to discuss the techniques she
was using and the results she was experiencing. Several other new teachers will now enter the
field with knowledge of how they can use art, in this case yoga, to find balance in their teaching
practices. Once she begins teaching, the new teacher will use herself as an example to show her
fellow teachers how a yoga practice can contribute to sustaining a balanced teaching practice.
Definition of Terms
Through conducting the literature review and moving forward with this project, the
definitions of these terms will become more clear and specific to their use within this project.
Yoga - a traditional physical and mental discipline that originated in India and promotes
the control and union of body and mind.
Balance - a state of equilibrium that refers to a stable and harmonious physical and
psychological condition.
A Practice - a customary way of operating or behaving.
To Practice - to repeat an activity in order to improve a skill.
Yoga Practice - involves repeating yogic activity in order to improve one’s balance so
that this balance will become the customary way of operating or behaving.
Teaching Practice - the active pursuit of the teaching profession.
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Sustainable Practice - a practice that is nourished and maintained indefinitely.
Limitations
The personal nature of this project may limit the visibility of its effects. The pre-service
teacher participated in a yoga practice, and the result of this practice was primarily experienced
internally. The balance that was attained is something the pre-service teacher felt. This is not
necessarily measurable from an outside perspective. The success of this project was measured by
self-assessment and cannot be represented in a quantitative manner. A further limitation is that
the pre-service teacher is just starting her career. Her teaching practice could not be compared to
a previous practice, as it was just beginning. The measure of how much this project helped reduce
stress and helped her find balance is based on a her estimation of what teaching would have been
like had she not developed a yoga practice.
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Chapter 2
REVIEW OF RELEVANT LITERATURE
In this chapter, literature on three topics will be considered. The first is an overview of
theories and practices in arts education. The second is on teacher stress and burnout. The final
section is about stress management techniques, most specifically, yoga.
Theories and Practices in Arts Education
Throughout the history of education in America, the process of deciding which
curriculum to teach has been a question of what knowledge is of most worth. Various interest
groups have always worked to get the curriculum to represent what they believe is most important
for students to know. Herbert M. Kliebard, a professor of Curriculum and Instruction at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison, wrote about the history of these interest groups. He stated that,
“each [was] representing a different conception of what knowledge should be embodied in the
curriculum” (Kliebard, 1982, p. 10). Rather than consider the strengths and interests of individual
students, the focus has been largely on outsiders deciding what information has the most value
and, from this, prescribing the curriculum that will be used.
This model of selecting curriculum based on the opinions of people who do not spend
their time inside classrooms has been questioned. Donald Arnstine was a professor of Education
in the College of Letters and Science at the University of California, Davis. He thought it was
more important to ask what the purpose of education is rather than what knowledge is of most
worth. Several different purposes have been proposed, but since students all have different
interests, one purpose cannot rightly decide the content of all curriculum. In light of this, Arnstine
(1967) believed that schooling should teach children how to learn in a way that will help them
continue to learn in the future. He said that, “a student who is learning to learn, is among other
things, developing his own aims and purposes” (Arnstine, 1967, p. 345). Instead of other people
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deciding for students what knowledge is of most worth, or what the purpose of their education
should be, teaching students how to learn enables them to make their own choices about the
purposes and value of their individual education.
Arnstine (1967) thought it was crucial that curriculum content be relevant and connected
to students’ current interests. At the same time, he acknowledged the concern that many young
students are not yet mature enough to make appropriate decisions about this content based solely
on their present interests. He believed that these types of decisions could “…be made by people
who are disposed to be sensitive to and interested in the world around them, and who are disposed
to recognize and deal with problems that face them” (Arnstine, 1967, p. 345). For these reasons,
Arnstine put the responsibility on teachers to prepare students so they one day would be
responsible enough to make informed decisions about their own educational content.
Arnstine (1967) saw the teacher as a vital tool for helping students prepare themselves to
have the kind of authentic experiences that John Dewey described. Dewey was an American
philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer. In his work Art as Experience (1934), he
wrote in great detail about what it means to have an experience:
The idea is that it looks forward with desire to the final outcome; that it is interested in
the things it meets on its way, conditions that accelerate and retard its movement with
respect to their bearing on the end; that it acts and feels toward them according to the
hindering or helping function it attributes to them; and that the final coming to rest is
related to all that went before as the culmination of a continuous movement. (p. 41)
According to Dewey, an experience begins with an impulse that causes a subject to take action.
Each subsequent moment leads up to the end of the experience that can be described as a
satisfaction of the initial impulse. In order to be considered an experience, the moments along the
way, whether perceived as positive or negative, must be appreciated as having an effect on the
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end product, or satisfaction. In this way, an experience is more than simply being conscious in
each individual moment since the subject always has an eye toward the end result. Dewey
believed that an experience was naturally a social event. It is an interaction with the world in
combination with a person’s past experiences and emotions which leads that person to the future
fulfillment of their impulse (Dewey, 1934).
To Arnstine (1967), the teacher is a catalyst for students, showing them how to have true
experiences. To have an experience one must have a purpose, or an intention that arises from an
initial impulse. Arnstine thought that students needed the help of a teacher to come to the
realization of what that purpose might be. Children are able to feel impulses. They have prior
knowledge and experiences from which to launch those impulses, but without a vision of the
future a child cannot have a true experience. It is, therefore, the role of the teacher to foster in
children the ability to react to impulsions with an eye toward the future and a consideration of
present conditions, instead of simply going through the motions with no thought of where that
might lead. The role of the teacher is to provide students with the conditions and the tools they
need to be able to learn about their own interests and go through life with the purpose of serving
those interests in a thoughtful way. Dewey (1934) said, “For to perceive, a beholder must create
his own experience. And his creation must include relations comparable to those which the
original producer underwent” (p. 56). Dewey wrote about the value of children having
experiences, and Arnstine took from that the idea that schooling must ensure that students are
permitted to have those experiences. Arnstine thought that it is the teachers, through helping
students learn to learn, who give students the power to learn how to have experiences that are
meaningful to them, instead of accepting experiences that are meaningful to others. Dewey said:
Wherever conditions are such as to prevent the act of production from being an
experience in which the whole creature is alive and in which he possesses his living
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through enjoyment, the product will lack something of being esthetic. No matter how
useful it is for special and limited ends, it will not be useful in the ultimate degree—that
of contributing directly and liberally to an expanding and enriched life. (1934, p. 27)
If teachers are not there to create opportunities for children to have experiences of their own, the
fear is that experiences of others will be substituted.
Allowing students to create their own experiences requires the flexibility of teachers to
see and treat students as individuals, not as all the same. Howard Gardner was a professor of
Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He created and wrote
extensively on the theory of multiple intelligences:
Most lay and scholarly writings about intelligence focus on a combination of linguistic
and logical intelligences—the intellectual strengths, I often maintain, of a law professor.
However, a fuller appreciation of human beings occurs if we take into account spatial,
bodily kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, and intrapersonal intelligences. While we all
have these intelligences, individuals differ for both genetic and experiential reasons in
their respective profiles of intellectual strengths and weaknesses…. No direct educational
implications follow from this psychological theory; but if individuals differ in their
intellectual profiles, it makes sense to take this fact into account in devising an
educational system. (Gardner, 2003, pp. 3 & 4)
This theory considers the fact that all students are individuals, and all will not receive the same
benefits from one single faceted curriculum. Considering each student’s intellectual strengths
allows the teacher to create a school environment that will be conducive to learning for all
students. This theory is in line with Arnstine’s ideas about the teacher helping students learn how
to learn. By utilizing the information of Gardner’s theory, teachers can help students learn how to
learn in the most beneficial way to suit their individual strengths.
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Elliot Eisner was a professor of Education and Art at Stanford University. He discussed
the idea that literacy need not only include language arts, but also must embrace other forms of
knowing the world. Eisner (1998) put it well when he said, “Literacy is broader than language
because the meaning systems humans have invented to convey meaning are broader than
language” (p. 12). To be literate is to be able to experience the qualities of the world through
many forms, such as music, language, visual arts, dance, science, and mathematics, and to gain
understanding from those experiences through these forms. Therefore, to be able to experience all
that the world has to offer, students must be given opportunities to become literate in many
different forms of knowing. These ideas are in line with Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences. Rather
than schools providing one curriculum for all students, students would greatly benefit from
curriculum that is based on their individual learning styles and that embraces many different
forms of both learning and knowing.
One of the functions of schooling is to prepare students for adult life. In many schools
today though, students are being educated in a way that might bring them to expect life to be
filled with experiences that have problems that will have simple and direct solutions. Eisner
(1998) stated that, “...the curriculum we prescribe for schools and the time we allocate to subjects
show children what adults believe is important for them to learn” (p. 77). Taking this into
consideration, students of today’s schools may believe that the most important thing is to find
correct answers to problems and to do so in the quickest way possible. It would also not be
surprising to hear from these students that there is one correct way to do things in life and that
asking questions about why things are done a certain way is nothing but a waste of time and an
annoyance to others. Eisner (1998) believed that, “...when the curriculum as a whole is so heavily
saturated with tasks and expectations that demand fealty to rule, opportunities to think in unique
ways are diminished” (p. 82). The real world requires abstract thinking. It requires imaginative
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problem solving, which helps to expand understanding. If students are to be schooled in a way
that prepares them for future life, then educators should have in mind the goal of what that future
life might be. Arts courses teach real thinking; they enlarge and broaden the way people think.
Eisner (1998) thought that the arts “…celebrate imagination, multiple perspectives, and the
importance of personal interpretation” (p. 82). In order to create holistic citizens who have the
ability to solve big problems, think in unique ways, and have a willingness to explore future
possibilities, educators must present curriculum which values these important qualities.
According to Eisner, arts curriculum does so.
Instead of telling students what is valuable by choosing their curriculum for them without
taking their individuality into account, educators must guide students to learn for themselves what
is important and why. In guiding students, teachers must also act as role models. Perhaps due to
the incredible responsibility of helping students become life-long learners, teaching has the
potential to be an extremely stressful profession. In order to act as a positive influence in
students’ lives, teachers must be aware of the stressors they may face. Teachers must take on the
responsibility of maintaining their own well-being so that they will positively influence and
impact the well-being of their students.
Teacher Stress and Burnout
In a study conducted by the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future
(2003), it was reported that within the first three years of teaching 22% of new teachers leave the
field. Sparks and Hammond (1981) found that 45% of their sample would choose a profession
other than teaching if given the opportunity to start again. They further discovered that 70% of
teachers usually leave school emotionally and/or physically exhausted. While burnout exists
within all professions, it is most common in those within the human services realm, such as
education (Eastman, 1996). When compared to other professionals, teachers are the most
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dissatisfied with their jobs (Cooke & Kornbluh, 1980). More specifically, it is public school
teachers in the United States who seem to be the most vulnerable to burnout (Hock, 1985).
Today’s teachers are faced with a multitude of daily and ongoing stressors, which can lead to
physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion referred to as “burnout” (Brown & Nagal, 2004;
Sparks & Hammond, 1981).
Burnout occurs when teachers have too many responsibilities and do not have any say in
their future as professionals (Langer, 1983). It can result from having too much to accomplish
throughout the school day, not having enough resources, a lack of control over how the school is
run, issues in personal or professional life, and not utilizing coping strategies (Fimian, 1986). It
would seem then that stress is the cause of teacher burnout (Eastman, 1996; Sparks & Hammond,
1981). Indeed, in two separate studies Blase (1986) and later Friedman (1995) reported that
experiencing stress for a long period of time without using appropriate coping strategies can
result in teacher burnout. However, continually being in a stressful environment will not
automatically lead to burnout. The outcome of experienced stress depends greatly on the action or
inaction of teachers. Burnout results from teachers’ inability to identify and integrate effective
coping mechanisms (Montgomery & Rupp, 2005). Though it may be exposure to external
stressors that begins the process of teacher burnout, teachers’ reactions to these stressors
determine whether or not burnout will result. Regardless of how it does occur, the experience of
burnout is negative, and many studies document such characteristics (Hock, 1985).
When studying burnout, most researchers use the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI),
which was created by Maslach and Jackson (1981). There are three subscales within this
instrument, which represent the three main components of burnout. These are: exhaustion,
depersonalization, and personal accomplishment (Eastman, 1996; Hock, 1985; McIntyre, 1983;
Montgomery & Rupp, 2005). Hock used Maslach’s outline to describe the dimensions in detail:
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1. Exhaustion. This dimension is described as wearing out, loss of energy, depletion,
debilitation and fatigue. This appears to be a central component of burnout that can
manifest itself physically, psychologically, or as a combination of both.
2. Depersonalization. In this dimension there is a negative change in attitudes and
responses toward others, especially the recipients of the services the professional
provides. This is usually accompanied by increased irritability and a loss of idealism
about the work.
3. Personal accomplishment. This dimension entails negative responses to oneself and
one’s personal accomplishments typified by depression, low morale, interpersonal
withdrawal, reduced productivity, inability to cope with pressure, feelings of failure,
and poor self-esteem. (Hock, 1985, p. 4)
Within these three broad categories, more specific issues have been explored by researchers.
Symptoms representative of burnout are “dissatisfaction, negativism, boredom, unpreparedness,
testiness, frequent illness, forgetfulness, depression, and tiredness” (Eastman, 1996, p. 6). Swick
(1989) identified the signals of burnout to be:
1. Consistent feelings of being overwhelmed
2. Continuing and severe problems with human relationships
3. Living in a constant state of high anxiety
4. Constant feelings of inadequacy and depression
5. Lack of involvement in pursuing personal growth
6. Continuing problems with health, especially psychosomatic illness
7. Constant negative feelings about self and others
8. Continuing energy loss, sleeplessness, and related symptoms of high anxiety. (p. 18)
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At some point within all professions, exhaustion is likely to occur. When this exhaustion has
become ongoing and the teacher is no longer actively engaged in the process of teaching, but is
automatically going through the motions in an unenthusiastic manner, it is said that burnout has
occurred (Eastman, 1996).
Many well intentioned teachers who have become overwhelmed by the consequences of
burnout end up leaving the profession (Hock, 1985). Willard McGuire (1979), former president of
the National Education Association, speculated that thousands more may quit teaching due to the
potential of both physical and mental damage. According to Sparks and Hammond (1981), “Both
the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers have identified
stress/burnout as a priority” (p. 2). Students’ health needs to be considered in the discussion of
teacher burnout. In two separate studies Doyal and Forsyth (1973) and Zimmerman (1970) found
that the psychological state of teachers influences that of their students. This means that if a
teacher is overwhelmed and anxious, students may take these symptoms on themselves. Students
will express physical illness when their teachers are suffering from physical or emotional ails
(Mackiel, 1979). While qualified teachers leaving the profession is a serious concern, teachers
who are experiencing burnout and staying in the classroom may have an even greater negative
effect on students. Research has shown that employees who are experiencing burnout will make a
conscious effort to appear calm and under control so others will not realize that they are suffering
(Hock, 1985). For the sake of teachers and students, the issue of burnout must be understood so
that steps to avoid it can be taken and the stigmatism surrounding it diminished.
Research supports the correlation between stress and teacher burnout, therefore, in order
to more deeply understand burnout, one must also understand what is meant by the term stress.
Kremer and Owen (1979) described the body’s experience of stress as follows:
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Messages sent from the nervous system reach the hypothalamus and are relayed to the
pituitary and adrenal glands. This pituitary-adrenal axis pumps into the bloodstream
hormones that influence heart rate and respiration, inhibit visceral activity, and, in
general, prepare the body to cope with the perceived demand. If there is appropriate
action to be taken by the individual, mobilization is expressed and arousal diminished.
The individual is then able to rest and return to pre-exposure levels. If however, the
extant mobilization is not used to cope in an adequately expressive way, arousal and
preparedness continue in the body. (p. 42)
The perceived demand mentioned in this description can also be described as a stressor. A
stressor is an external factor that causes one to experience stress (Jepson & Forrest, 2006;
McIntyre, 1983). The body attempts to maintain a sense of balance, referred to as homeostasis.
When a stressor offsets this balance, the body adapts. Selye (1976) viewed this as a three stage
process he termed the “General Adaptation Syndrome.” Sparks and Hammond (1981) described
the process as follows: “When faced with a stressful stimulus, the body reacts (alarm reaction),
adjusts (resistance stage), and finally succumbs if the stress continues (exhaustion)” (p. 10). As in
Kremer and Owen’s description, the body must adjust, or take action in order for stress to
subside. The organism succumbs to stress if appropriate action is not taken. Miller (1979) claimed
that stress starts with a feeling of anxiety, which develops from the imbalance that is experienced
when a stressor occurs. This anxiety leads to tension, which begins the nervous system’s response
in the body (Miller, 1979). If stress is not dealt with, it can have a negative impact on the body
and exhaustion can occur.
The process of reacting to stressors has been described as the fight or flight response
(Sparks & Hammond, 1981). For an animal a stressor may be a predator, in which case the fight
or flight response is appropriate and will lead to a diminished feeling of stress. If an animal
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perceives danger this animal can literally either fight against that danger or run away from it
(flight). Either of these choices brings resolution to the stress the animal was experiencing.
Though the fight or flight response is a natural reaction to stress, it is not an acceptable way of
dealing with the stressors that occur within the classroom (Sparks & Hammond, 1981). For a
teacher, a stressor may be an evaluation by the principal. Unless a teacher consciously replaces
the fight or flight reaction with a more appropriate coping strategy, the body will continue to
experience stress and the feeling will not be resolved even after the stressor, in this case the
principal, has been removed (Sparks & Hammond, 1981). If a teacher experiences daily exposure
to stressors and is continually unable to cope with the resulting stress, burnout may occur.
Stress does not have to result in a negative experience. Stress is the body’s response to
environmental demands; therefore, it is a necessary component of living (Swick, 1989). When
one is hungry she experiences stress and then eats food, which resolves the feeling of stress.
Rather than stress being perceived as a bad thing, it should be understood that it has the potential
to produce either positive or negative outcomes. The experience of stress depends greatly on the
individual’s reaction to that stress (Sparks & Hammond, 1981; Swick, 1989). The positive and
negative results of stress have been referred to as eustress and distress, respectively (Brown &
Nagal, 2004; Selye, 1979). “Selye labeled the harmful physiological consequences of adaptation
as ‘distress,’ and called the pleasant sensations that may accompany certain stressors ‘eustress’”
(Sparks & Hammond, 1981, pp. 10 & 11). Motivation has been used as an example of eustress. If
a teacher experiences stress due to not being able to manage classroom behavior, this teacher may
become motivated to learn new classroom management skills. This could result in her being more
effective at managing her class. This is an example of eustress. On the other hand, the same
example can be used for distress. If a teacher does not attempt to learn new management skills,
and the issue continues to cause stress with no resolution, it is said that distress has occurred
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(Sparks & Hammond, 1981; Swick, 1989). If this issue continues to cause stress for the teacher, it
may become chronic stress.
Stress can be acute or chronic. According to Swick (1989), “Chronic stress is long-term,
intense, and pervades the person’s life space. It is often more imaginary than real, although in
some cases reality is distorted to foster more stress” (p. 6). Though the issue of classroom
management is real, if the problem is not dealt with, a teacher may begin to view classroom
behavior as worse than it actually is. This may lead to even more stress, which the teacher is now
in a habit of experiencing. “Acute stressors are usually short-term but intense in that they disrupt
the equilibrium sharply. In most cases, however, these stressors are ‘real’ and people can and do
act to resolve them” (Swick, 1989, p. 6). Classroom behavior can be an acute stressor. If a student
calls out in the middle of a lesson, it may cause stress for a teacher. If however, the teacher takes
action to deal with or manage that student’s behavior, the stress can quickly be resolved. Though
both forms of stress can be harmful, acute stress is most often dealt with in an effective manner,
while chronic stress may continue to build up to the point of burnout (Swick, 1989).
People in all professions go through daily struggles with job stress (Sparks & Hammond,
1981). Some jobs though, such as that of a teacher, carry a greater likelihood of stress than do
others (Swick, 1989). Although the experience of stress is dependent on the individual’s
perception and reaction to stressors, in the majority of literature about teacher stress the term
stress is clearly defined in a negative way (Kyriacou & Sutcliffe, 1979). Gulwadi (2006) reported
that, “When people encounter environmental demands that overwhelm personal resources, they
experience stress. Stress is associated with an imbalance in person-environment relationships that
triggers coping strategies” (p. 503). When a person is unable to use coping strategies to manage
stress effectively, stress may become overwhelming and burnout may occur.
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While a connection between teacher stress and burnout has been established, it is also
necessary to discuss what it is about teaching that makes it so stressful and how many teachers
actually suffer from this stress. Studies vary in what they report about the percentage of teachers
experiencing stress. Gulwadi (2006) said that 88.6% of teachers “reported medium to high
frequency of overall stress, with 20% experiencing very frequent overall stress” (p. 511). Bradley
and Eachus (1995) estimated that 20% of teachers experience distress as a result of their work.
Nearly 20% of teachers report that their jobs are very or extremely stressful (Kyriacou &
Sutcliffe, 1978). The Newark Teacher Center (1979) found that about 75% of teachers think
teaching is moderately stressful, while 41% find it very or extremely stressful (as cited in Sparks
& Hammond, 1981). A report from the Health and Safety Executive revealed that 41% of
teachers experience a high degree of job stress (Smith, Brice, Collins, Mathews, & McNamara,
2000). In a study of students training to become teachers, 46% believed that teaching would be
very or extremely stressful, and 38% experienced their training as very or extremely stressful
(Chaplain, 2008). Though the statistics vary, they all support the conclusion that teaching is a
stressful profession.
Even though most teachers experience at least moderate job related stress, they enjoy
their work and report being satisfied. Anywhere from 72.4 to 80.1% of teachers are fairly or very
satisfied. Stress is related to external factors and job satisfaction to internal or intrinsic factors
(Barkdoll, 1991; Brown & Nagal, 2004; Kyriacou & Sutcliffe, 1979). This means that though
teachers experience stress due to issues such as student behavior and evaluations by supervisors,
this may not affect their overall job satisfaction, which is based more on intrinsic rewards, such as
feeling that what they are doing is important and is helping others. In fact, Pelsma, Richard,
Harrington, and Burry (1987) found that of the teachers in their study:
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Eighty-seven percent (87%) said that “yes,” they were planning on remaining employed
in the public schools, 84% stated “yes,” their reasons for originally choosing a career in
education had been fulfilled, and almost 79% stated that they were “mostly to very
satisfied” with their present position. Approximately 62% stated that if they had the
choice to “reconsider” they would still choose education as a career. (p. 5)
It is not clear whether teachers’ job satisfaction outweighs the stress that they report experiencing.
Many regret their decision to become teachers, and some even leave the profession
claiming stress as the reason. In a poll conducted by the National Education Association it was
found that if teachers were given the opportunity to start their careers again, one-third would not
choose teaching. Further, only 60% of the sample indicated that they intended to stay in teaching
until they retired (McIntyre, 1983). Other studies have recorded that up to 50% of teachers would
not choose teaching if they could start over. In one study, as many as 52% of teachers would
choose something else if they could start their careers again (Barkdoll, 1991). Kyriacou and Kunc
(2007) reported that 40% of students who train to become teachers never do, and of those who do
become teachers, 40% are no longer teaching five years later. Up to 46% of teachers leave the
field within the first five years (Parker & Martin, 2009). In fact, after only their first year of
teaching, many quit (Bradford, 1999). Three-quarters of surveyed teachers who had left teaching
did so because of unmanageable stress. These teachers described exhaustion and other signs
indicative of burnout. Due to stress-related issues, 58% of teachers in a study had seriously
thought about leaving the profession. Sixty-five percent of the teachers in this study thought their
job was highly stressful (McIntyre, 1983). Clearly, the studies are somewhat conflicting; many
teachers report being satisfied with their jobs, while simultaneously reporting a high level of
stress. Others who report such a level of stress feel the pressure is too much and end up leaving
20
the profession. In order to more fully understand this phenomenon, a discussion on the
demographics of those most affected by stress is necessary.
Each teacher experiences stress in a way that is unique to that person. The way one
teacher reacts to and copes with stress is different from the way another will, even if the external
stressor is the same. Therefore, included in sources of stress must be the individual, as well as the
many external factors (Swick, 1989). “Poor nutrition, passive living styles, inadequate exercise,
and poor mental health habits tend to interact and create stressful conditions within the
individual” (Swick, 1989, p. 7). Clausen and Petruka (2009) claimed “that educators’ outside
lives change their perspective, motivation, and job performance” (p. 188). Beyond a teacher’s
personal habits, there are factors that can affect the amount of stress a teacher experiences or
perceives. These factors include: marital status, age, years of experience, level of education,
location of school, grade level taught, personality type, and gender.
Teachers who are not married report more symptoms of burnout than their married peers.
However, some studies have observed no differences in burnout between married and nonmarried teachers (McIntyre, 1983). McIntyre reported that younger teachers display greater signs
of burnout than do older teachers. According to Sparks and Hammond (1981), teachers ages
thirty-one to forty experience more intense stress than both younger and older peers. Pelsma et al.
(1987) found that older teachers experience more stress than younger teachers. Hock (1985) said
that age does not affect the level of stress perceived. While in some studies, more years of
experience resulted in less stress perceived, others noticed that more experience is a predictor of
more perceived stress. Even others discovered that years of experience do not affect the level of
stress perceived (Brown & Nagal, 2004; Hock, 1985; Jepson & Forrest, 2006; McIntyre, 1983).
Female teachers have been identified as perceiving greater degrees of stress than male teachers.
However, some studies have found no differences in perceived level of stress based on gender
21
(Brown & Nagal, 2004; Chaplain, 2008; Hock, 1985; Jepson & Forrest, 2006; Pelsma et al.,
1987).
Several studies have recognized that stress and burnout affect teachers in urban,
suburban, and rural settings and that the size of a district or community does not have an impact
on the level of stress experienced (McIntyre, 1983; Sparks & Hammond, 1981). Though, in a
study conducted by the New York State United Teachers, urban elementary teachers experienced
a higher level of stress than did the suburban and rural teachers in the same study (Sparks &
Hammond, 1981). While Jepson & Forrest (2006) found that primary school teachers perceive
more stress than do secondary school teachers, other researchers have reported that middle school
and high school teachers display more signs of burnout than elementary school teachers
(McIntyre, 1981). Hock (1985) also identified high school teachers as showing more signs of
burnout than others, although, Pelsma et al. (1987) observed no differences between grade level
taught and perceived level of stress.
Bachkirova (2005) stated the following:
Teachers with a low sensitivity threshold, whose personal values on education clash with
the values under which the system operates, but who want at the same time to succeed
within this system, constitute the group that is most prone to stress. (pp. 342 & 343)
Personality type can be an indicator of the level of stress perceived. Researchers have recognized
that teachers with Type A behavior patterns experience more stress than teachers with different
traits (Jepson & Forrest, 2006). Characteristics of a person with a Type A personality are
“excitability, idealism, dedication, [and] compulsiveness” (Brown & Nagal, 2004, p. 38). These
qualities not only describe the Type A personality, but are themselves associated with burnout
(Brown & Nagal, 2004). Teachers believe these attributes, which are linked with high degrees of
stress, describe a good teacher (Clausen & Petruka, 2009). Also, achievement striving predicts a
22
high level of perceived stress in teachers (Jepson & Forrest, 2006). This means that teachers who
strive for achievement will experience a greater level of stress than teachers who do not tend this
way, even if they are exposed to the same external stressors. Jepson and Forrest noticed that when
occupational commitment increases, a teacher’s perceived level of stress decreases. This means
that the more committed to their position teachers are, the less stress they will experience. In fact,
teachers who are committed expect to experience some stress (Barkdoll, 1991). Finally, teachers
who view themselves positively will experience less stress than teachers with low self-esteem
(Swick, 1989).
Researchers attribute three main factors to the stress that teachers experience: the
individual teacher, external factors associated with the day to day work of teaching, and the larger
institutional and political factors associated with teaching (Bachkirova, 2005; Clausen & Petruka,
2009). This combination of variables represents what some refer to as “ecological stress”
(Bachkirova, 2005; Swick, 1989). The system that the teacher functions within is multifaceted;
when one area changes, the other areas are also affected by that change. Ecological stress has also
been referred to as “system interaction”. “This concept holds that whatever happens in one part of
a system influences all the other parts” (Swick, 1989, p. 14). If a student’s parent just got laid off
from work and has been depressed, this student may not be getting the attention he needs from
home. He may then act out in class in order to get that needed attention. This will disrupt the
learning of others in the class and may also cause stress for the teacher. This teacher, being
stressed, may then snap at a co-worker. This example is referred to as “system interaction.” In the
school environment the stress experienced by an individual is influenced by what is happening
within the larger system of the school (Swick, 1989). Swick recognized that environments have
either low, medium, or high potential for stress. Because a teacher’s environment is filled with
potential stressors from all parts of the ecological system, it has a high potential for stress (Sparks
23
& Hammond, 1981). Even the seemingly small stressors that exist within the dimension of
‘external factors associated with the day to day work of teaching’ can add up to create an intense
feeling of stress. When working in an environment where many daily irritations occur, people are
more likely to experience a high degree of stress (Swick, 1989). Teachers are “susceptible to an
accumulation of ‘small-event stressors’” (Swick, 1989, p. 8). “Stress is ‘essential’ to teaching and
learning; it can be a productive force when its sources are understood and managed in a positive
manner” (Swick, 1989, p. 14). Stress is a part of teaching, but in order for it to become a positive
force, its causes must be clear. Though the list is not complete, what follows are some of the
stressors that teachers name as the cause of their stress (Sparks & Hammond, 1981). Stressors are
the indirect cause of burnout, so identifying what these stressors are is an important step in
preventing teacher burnout (Hock, 1985).
Teacher stress may not be caused by external job factors, but more a dissatisfaction with
the intrinsic rewards associated with teaching (Barkdoll, 1991). Many may have entered teaching
expecting to be fulfilled knowing that their work was important, respected by their community,
and something they believed in. Often, this is not the reality of the teacher’s experience. In fact,
the following may be a more accurate account:
Teachers report a level of stress as a result of the conflict between the reality of their role
as teachers and the expectations that others place upon them in that role…teacher
preparation programs do not prepare teachers for the reality of their multifaceted roles,
which include many sources of stress. Instead, unrealistic expectations that include the
teacher as an admired public servant, having short hours and long vacations, a strong
support system, teaming with parents to effectively educate children and teaching as an
inherently easy task are often put forth. This discrepancy between the idealization of a
24
teacher’s role before entering the classroom and the actual experience of teaching may
lead to stress. (Brown & Nagal, 2004, p. 36)
Role conflict is a result of students, parents, administrators, and the society at large all having
different needs and expectations as to what is and is not part of a teacher’s job. Some of these
may be unreasonable and many of the expectations may conflict with those of others (Bradford,
1999; Brown & Nagal, 2004; Sparks & Hammond, 1981; Swick, 1989). McIntyre (1983) defined
role conflict as, “the simultaneous occurrence of two or more sets of inconsistent, expected role
behaviors for a teacher” (p. 17). Another related issue is that of role ambiguity, which is, “the
lack of clear, consistent information regarding responsibilities, rights and duties of a teacher”
(McIntyre, 1983, pp. 17 & 18). Researchers have noticed “teachers in organizations with high
role conflict and ambiguity levels reporting more frequent and intense feelings of emotional
exhaustion and negative feeling toward their students” (McIntyre, 1983, p. 18). Beyond role
conflict and ambiguity is role change. Not only do all of these stakeholders have varying
expectations of teachers, but these expectations, and therefore a teacher’s role, change over time.
Role change is also a major cause for stress in teachers (Brown & Nagal, 2004; Jepson & Forrest,
2006; McIntyre, 1983; Swick, 1989).
Relationships with parents and the community are stressful because of their connections
with role conflict, but other factors contribute to the strain in these relationships. There are
several reasons for the stress that comes from parent-teacher interactions (McIntyre, 1983; Swick,
1989). One of the reasons for such strained parent-teacher relationships is that often the only
interaction between the two is when there is a problem. Whether the parent has a complaint or the
teacher is concerned, most contact between parents and teachers results from there being an issue
that needs to be resolved (Hock, 1985). Parent-teacher relationships have the potential to be
stressful because of high, and sometimes unreasonable, parental expectations of teachers,
25
differing opinions about discipline plans, and value conflicts about the school-home connection
(Swick, 1989). Another stressor between parents and teachers can arise when deciding whether or
not to pass a student on to the next grade (McIntyre, 1983). Stress in the relationship can stem
from a general lack of parental support for students’ learning (McIntyre, 1983; Sparks &
Hammond, 1981; Swick, 1989). Teachers also experience stress from having negative
interactions with parents, receiving a lack of recognition for their work, and not being listened to
or respected (Sparks & Hammond, 1981).
Moreover, teachers feel that they are not respected by the public (Barkdoll, 1991;
McIntyre, 1983). Research has shown that a lack of status and social approval causes teachers to
experiences stress (McIntyre, 1983). A negative public image and representation by the press
adds to this stress (Hock, 1985; Swick, 1989). Society tends to blame teachers for students’ low
test scores (Swick, 1989). This criticism creates stress for teachers (Sparks & Hammond, 1981).
Sparks and Hammond stated the following:
The 1979 Gallup Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools reported that
23% of the respondents think the main thing a school has to do before it can receive an
“A” rating is “improve the quality of teachers.”…widespread publication of these
findings contributes to teachers’ defensiveness about their work, undermines morale, and
causes effective teachers to seek out new careers. (1981, p. 8)
In our target driven culture, teachers feel pressure from the public to prove that they are in fact
doing their jobs well (Jepson & Forrest, 2006; Sparks & Hammond, 1981). Ironically, it is not
usually teachers who make the big decisions about how our education system runs.
Teachers often feel that they are not teaching to the best of their ability because they are
forced to follow “unreasonable and illogical procedures” (Sparks & Hammond, 1981, p. 6).
Teachers lack control over the decisions being made about the education system, which
26
ultimately affects the way they run their classrooms. This sense of powerlessness causes teachers
to experience stress (Brown & Nagal, 2004; Hock, 1985; Sparks & Hammond, 1981). Regardless
of whether or not they agree with the decisions being made, teachers are forced to comply and
teach in a manner that they may not believe most effective. Stress results from having to teach in
a way that may conflict with one’s personal values (McIntyre, 1983).
System wide educational policies change often. School reform is of course intended to
bring about positive change, but when additional requirements are put on teachers, when these
requirements are frequently amended, and when teachers are given little information about the
changes, they report experiencing stress (Brown & Nagal, 2004; Chaplain, 2008; Clausen &
Petruka, 2009; Kyriacou, 2001; Kyriacou & Coulthard, 2000; McIntyre, 1983; Swick, 1989).
Adding to this stress is the lack of resources teachers are provided in order to help them comply
with the latest policies (Brown & Nagal, 2004; Hock, 1985; McIntyre, 1983; Sparks &
Hammond, 1981; Swick, 1989). When resources are provided, they are often state mandated, and
teachers do not have choices about the textbooks or instructional materials they are required to
use. This adds to the powerlessness felt by teachers and teachers report stress as a result of this
lack of control over their jobs (Sparks & Hammond, 1981). Brown and Nagal (2004) stated that:
What most frequently accompanies district or state plans to increase efficacy are
increased workloads, increased responsibilities and the implementation of a variety of
“new and improved” programs designed to boost test scores. Additionally, teachers may
be evaluated by those test scores alone as a measure of school accountability. (p. 36)
The legislature demands that teachers be held accountable for teaching students what they are
supposed to be learning and in the manner teachers are supposed to be teaching it (Sparks &
Hammond, 1981). However, these assessments of teachers are not necessarily checking on
whether or not the teacher is effectively reaching her students, but rather, whether or not she is
27
following the rules and procedures set by policy makers. Teachers have named these assessments
and evaluations as one of their many causes of stress (Brown & Nagal, 2004; Clausen & Petruka,
2009; Jepson & Forrest, 2006; Kyriacou, 2001; McIntyre, 1983; Montgomery & Rupp, 2005;
Pelsma et al., 1987).
Poor administrative leadership is another cause for teacher stress (Brown & Nagal, 2004;
Chaplain, 2008; McIntyre, 1983; Pelsma et al., 1987; Swick, 1989). “School leadership ultimately
plays a key role in shaping the climate of a school that can potentially mediate stress levels of
teachers” (Brown & Nagal, 2004, p. 37). Researchers claim that principals do not usually manage
their own stress in a healthy way. Because of the large role principals play in developing the
atmosphere of a school, them not actively coping with their own stress can create more stress for
teachers (Brown & Nagal, 2004; McIntyre, 1983; Pelsma et al., 1987). According to Hock (1985),
“The professional climate of the school in which a teacher works was shown to be related to the
amount of total stress or dissatisfaction he or she experiences” (p. 45). Teachers experience stress
from having difficult relationships with administrators and/or colleagues (Barkdoll, 1991; Brown
& Nagal, 2004; Chaplain, 2008; Jepson & Forrest, 2006; Kyriacou, 2001; Montgomery & Rupp,
2005; Sparks & Hammond, 1981; Swick, 1989). Teachers also report experiencing stress because
of not receiving enough support from administrators, mentors, or colleagues (Chaplain, 2008;
Clausen & Petruka, 2009; Hock, 1985; McIntyre, 1983; Sparks & Hammond, 1981; Swick, 1989;
Swick & Hanley, 1985). Beyond not being supported, teachers report stress caused from feeling
that their hard work is not acknowledged (Barkdoll, 1991; Hock, 1985; McIntyre, 1983). Another
major source of stress, which is related to relationship discomfort, is the fact that teachers spend
much of their days isolated from other adults. This can leave teachers with no one to talk to about
their successes and struggles throughout the day (Barkdoll, 1991; Brown & Nagal, 2004;
28
Gulwadi, 2006; Hock, 1985; McIntyre, 1983; Sparks & Hammond, 1981). It has been reported
that:
As a result of the lack of contact and communication between teachers, each feels that
s/he is the only one experiencing the problem and sees everyone else as secure and
confident. This component contributing to stress in teaching has been termed “pluralistic
ignorance”. (Hock, 1985, pp. 9 &10)
When teachers are unable to confide in each other about the stress they are experiencing, they
begin to believe that they are the only ones affected by it. This can potentially cause them to
experience an even greater level of stress.
Another major stressor for teachers is that they do not feel that they are adequately
compensated monetarily for the job that they do (Barkdoll, 1991; Brown & Nagal, 2004; Hock,
1985; McIntyre, 1983). It has been stated that, “as teachers’ salaries have failed to keep up with
inflation rates, teachers have fallen farther and farther behind in earning power and are beginning
to sense a financial disrespect for the job they are doing” (Hock, 1985, p. 14). This feeling of
disrespect manifests as more stress experienced by the teacher. Not only are salaries inadequate,
but every year numerous teachers are forced to leave their classroom, grade level, or school, as
they are involuntarily transferred to a new one. The possibility of an involuntary transfer
contributes greatly to the stress teachers perceive (Hock, 1985; McIntyre, 1983; Sparks &
Hammond, 1981). Pink slips are often given to teachers toward the end of each school year, and
teachers are left uncertain as to whether they will be teaching in the same classroom or if they
will have a job at all (Pelsma et al., 1987; Sparks & Hammond, 1981). According to Sparks and
Hammond, “relatively arbitrary processes for layoff and recall due to reduction in force as
specified in the union contract may cause teachers to believe that their careers and futures depend
on the capricious whims of a few remote and uncaring individuals” (1981, p. 6). The uncertainty
29
that results from not being secure in the teaching position held is yet another negative stressor
teachers face (McIntyre, 1983). Shrinking public school budgets affect whether or not teachers
are able to keep their jobs, but they also put constraints on what those who do keep their jobs are
able to accomplish in the classroom (Hock 1985; McIntyre, 1983). A lack of financial resources
can lead to schools having dilapidated facilities. A poor working environment, such as a
classroom that is too small or has inadequate working space, is listed by teachers as a cause of
stress (Clausen & Petruka, 2009; Kyriacou, 2001; Kyriacou & Sutcliffe, 1978; Montgomery &
Rupp, 2005; Swick, 1989).
Another stressor named by teachers is feeling that they do not have enough time in the
day to accomplish all that their job entails. More specifically, teachers have reported time as a
stressor as it relates to the following categories: preparing lessons, completing paperwork,
interruptions while teaching, reflection, meetings, and instruction time. Teachers believe their
workload is too heavy. This causes them to experience stress. Many teachers are forced to
complete job related tasks at home in order to stay caught up with their work (Barkdoll, 1991;
Bradford, 1999; Brown & Nagal, 2004; Chaplain, 2008; Clausen & Petruka, 2009; Hock, 1985;
Jepson & Forrest, 2006; Kyriacou, 2001; Kyriacou & Sutcliffe, 1978; McIntyre, 1983;
Montgomery & Rupp, 2005; Pelsma et al., 1987; Sparks & Hammond, 1981; Swick, 1989; Swick
& Hanley, 1985). Regarding time management and teacher stress, Sparks and Hammond
discovered the following:
Usually the day has too few hours to do all these things, and the result is a perpetual
sense of time pressure and tension…. Personal interests that tend to alleviate stress, such
as reading, music, and exercise, often are relegated to the lowest priority and ignored
because there is no leftover time or energy. (1981, p. 5)
30
Foregoing stress relieving activities in order to accomplish more work may in fact cause the
teacher to experience a greater degree of stress, as she is no longer utilizing coping mechanisms
to alleviate tension from the daily stress experienced.
The final factors researchers have found to be severe stressors for teachers are class size
and student behavior. Teachers have reported they have too many students in their classes and
that this is a major cause of the stress they experience. Researchers have consistently named
managing disruptive student behavior as one of the most common stressors teachers report
(Barkdoll, 1991; Bradford, 1999; Brown & Nagal, 2004; Chaplain, 2008; Clausen & Petruka,
2009; Friedman, 1995; Hock, 1985; Jepson & Forrest, 2006; Kyriacou, 2001; Kyriacou &
Coulthard, 2000; Kyriacou & Sutcliffe, 1978; McIntyre, 1983; Montgomery & Rupp, 2005;
Pelsma et al., 1987; Sparks & Hammond, 1981; Swick, 1989) On the issue of classroom
discipline, the following has been observed:
Although classroom management and discipline is one of the areas for which teachers are
prepared, it is not foremost in their minds when entering the profession, nor do they
expect it to be central in their goals as teacher. The fact is, however, that teachers are
finding it necessary to spend increasing amounts of their time on the activity of
discipline. Added to this is the great discomfort many teachers feel at having to behave in
unnaturally strong and authoritarian ways to achieve order in the classroom or on the
school grounds. This usually proves to be an emotionally exhausting routine in itself and
even more so when combined with the feelings of lack of personal accomplishment
caused by so much time being “wasted” on disciplinary activities. (Hock, 1985, pp. 10 &
11)
Besides general classroom management, teachers have also recounted students who are poorly
motivated, have negative attitudes, and have a lack of respect for teachers. Each of these factors
31
has been reported as a major stressor for teachers (Brown & Nagal, 2004; Jepson & Forrest, 2006;
Kyriacou, 2001; McIntyre, 1983; Montgomery & Rupp, 2005; Sparks & Hammond, 1981). The
final stressor that has been identified is less common, but worth mentioning. Hock noted that
physical violence against teachers is increasing. “Perhaps the most unquestionable source of
stress a person can encounter is the fear of physical attack, pain, or violence” (Hock, 1985, p. 10).
Though it is not a frequent occurrence, the fear of physical attack is a stressor for teachers
(Chaplain, 2008; McIntyre, 1983; Sparks & Hammond, 1981; Swick, 1989).
Teachers report major health concerns as a result of these numerous stressors (Barkdoll,
1991). According to Hock (1985), 49.2% of teachers experience moderate or high levels of
physical burnout and 40.8% experience moderate or high levels of psychological burnout. Of
those surveyed, teachers who ended up resigning from their positions were experiencing high
levels of anger, anxiety, tension, and depression (Barkdoll, 1991). In a survey conducted by the
Chicago Teachers’ Union it was discovered that 56.5% of the 5,500 participants believed they
were experiencing physical and/or mental illness because of their work (McIntyre, 1983). In fact,
teachers experience both physical and psychological harm as a result of stress (Brown & Nagal,
2004; Gulwadi, 2006; Montgomery & Rupp, 2005; Sparks & Hammond, 1981; Swick, 1989;
Swick & Hanley, 1985). The psychological ails reported by teachers are emotional fatigue,
hopelessness, helplessness, depression, confusion, inadequacy, inferiority, nervousness, and
paranoia (Bachkirova, 2005; Chaplain, 2008; Gulwadi, 2006; Hock, 1985; Punch & Tuettmann,
1990; Sparks & Hammond, 1981; Swick, 1989; Swick & Hanley, 1985). Teachers suffering from
a high level of stress can become less effective in the classroom and approach students with less
patience and energy (Barkdoll, 1991; Clausen & Petruka, 2009; Gulwadi, 2006; Sparks &
Hammond, 1981; Swick, 1989). Extreme stress can cause teachers to neglect their relationships
with family and friends (Clausen & Petruka, 2009; Punch & Teuttmann, 1990; Swick, 1989;
32
Swick & Hanley, 1985). Teachers can become so emotionally exhausted that they are unable to
maintain effective relationships in the classroom and at home.
Physical illness is another result of teacher stress (Bachkirova, 2005; Chaplain, 2008;
Hock, 1985; Jones, Huxtable, Hodgson, & Price, 2003; Kyriacou & Sutcliffe, 1979; Sparks &
Hammond, 1981). Sparks and Hammond identified headaches, backaches, respiratory infections,
ulcers, hypertension, and asthma as some of teachers’ physical symptoms of stress. Hock further
observed teachers reporting headaches and frequent back pain. Additionally, Hock discovered
that teachers suffered from insomnia, colds, flu, high blood pressure, diarrhea, colitis, and
dizziness. Teachers believed these illnesses were a result of stress (Hock, 1985; Sparks &
Hammond, 1981). Some of these ailments may be the consequence of poor eating and exercise
habits that teachers report taking on when experiencing intense stress (Clausen & Petruka, 2009;
Swick & Hanley, 1985; Swick, 1989). Whether the teacher was experiencing physical or
psychological symptoms, stress has been named as the reason for many teacher absences from
work (Barkdoll, 1991; Chaplain, 2008).
Teachers are exposed to a multitude of stressors throughout their days. If they are unable
to find healthy ways of coping with this stress, physical and mental ailments may ensue. This can
potentially lead to burnout, in which case a teacher may leave the profession. Perhaps more
alarmingly though, is when these conditions lead to burnout, and a teacher stays in her position.
Hock (1985) stated that, “teachers who are suffering from physical or psychological problems
have a negative effect on the students they teach” (p. 42). The research overwhelmingly supports
the claim that the potential for stress and burnout in the teaching profession is great. Many of the
factors that contribute to this are unchangeable. Therefore, the experience each teacher will have
becomes greatly dependent on choices made by the individual. A teacher can passively succumb
to the stressors of the job, or she can enter the field knowledgeable of the potential for stress. She
33
can commit to making conscious decisions that will allow her to maintain a sense of well-being
and to stay in the profession, regardless of the external stressors she encounters.
Stress Management and Yoga
According to Montgomery and Rupp (2005), the degree to which one experiences the
negative effects of stress is determined by a combination of personality traits, coping strategies,
and the environment. Therefore, it is these factors together, not simply environmental stressors,
that influence the teacher’s level of well-being (Montgomery & Rupp, 2005). In fact,
Montgomery and Rupp claimed that it is how well one utilizes active coping strategies that
determines whether or not she will experience the symptoms of burnout. Lazarus and Folkman
(1984) described the process in three stages: first, the individual appraises the stressful situation,
or stressor, next, she appraises her ability to deal with the stressor, and finally, the individual uses
coping strategies to deal with the stressful event. There are two different types of coping
strategies: passive and active (Montgomery & Rupp, 2005; Parker & Martin, 2009). Examples of
active coping strategies are planning, changing perspective, setting realistic goals and limits,
seeking advice, using relaxation exercises, staying calm, and thinking positively. Examples of
passive coping strategies are avoidance, drinking, procrastination, wishful thinking, and focusing
on stressors, but not taking action to resolve them (Montgomery & Rupp, 2005). Active coping
strategies are more effective in reducing stress and promoting well-being than passive coping
strategies (Montgomery & Rupp, 2005; Parker & Martin, 2009).
According to Eastman (1996), wellness involves the balance and maintenance of five
components, which are: spiritual, social, emotional, intellectual, and physical. Eastman drew from
Anspaugh’s definition and stated the following:
Wellness means engaging in attitudes and behavior that enhance quality of life and
maximize personal potential. Wellness emphasizes the need to take responsibility for
34
engaging in behaviors that develop optimal health. The ongoing process of wellness
requires early decision making in the nutrition, stress management, physical fitness,
preventive health care, emotional health, [and] other aspects of health. (1996, p. 7)
The focus in this and other research is that it is the responsibility of the teacher to ensure her own
wellness and that this will help prevent the experience of stress from becoming overwhelming.
Rosato wrote that, “Wellness…is characterized by individuals who take the responsibility for
striving for optimal functioning by mitigating the negatives and building on the positives of their
lives” (as cited in Eastman, 1996, p. 11). Indeed, many researchers have emphasized that teachers
taking personal responsibility for their own well-being is a vital tool for preventing burnout
(Bachkirova, 2005; Eastman, 1996; Farber & Miller, 1981; Jepson & Forrest, 2006; Langer,
1983; Parker & Martin, 2009; Snyder, 1980; Sparks & Hammond, 1981).
An important aspect of maintaining a sense of well-being and, therefore, preventing
burnout, is constantly assessing what aspects of one’s work and life are causing one to experience
high levels of stress, and what aspects bring joy. Areas that bring joy and renewal should be
emphasized, and those that carry stress need to be acknowledged and dealt with (Eastman, 1996;
Swick, 1989). The teacher may not be able to prevent the stressor from occurring, but if she is
aware of it she can choose to react using active coping strategies (Sparks & Hammond, 1981).
Several specific strategies have been identified as helping teachers sustain their well-being and
minimize their experience of stress. Planning ahead to ensure that there is time in each day to
accomplish all that needs to be done is an effective strategy for avoiding and dealing with stress
(Gulwadi, 2006; Sparks & Hammond, 1981; Swick, 1989). Another strategy is to avoid taking
work home. This involves setting realistic goals for what can and cannot be accomplished within
the workday (Botwinik, 2007; Bradford, 1999; Clausen & Petruka, 2009; Scrivens, 1979; Sparks
& Hammond, 1981). Teachers who leave time in their day for hobbies, friends, and family are
35
better able to cope with the stress of their jobs (Botwinik, 2007; McGee-Cooper, 1992; Scrivens,
1974; Sparks & Hammond, 1981). Seeking social support from counselors or co-workers can also
help mediate the effects of stress (Bachkirova, 2005; Botwinik, 2007; Clausen & Petruka, 2009;
Gulwadi, 2006; Montgomery & Rupp, 2005). Spending time away from any work related
activities by taking a vacation or a leave of absence is another strategy for managing stress
(Botwinik, 2007; McGee-Cooper, 1992; Scrivens, 1974). Research points out the opportunity to
take a stressor and turn it into a strength by seeking new knowledge in the area causing stress. For
example, if a teacher analyzes her stress and realizes that classroom management is one of the
main stressors, she can read books about new management techniques, or take classes in order to
transform this stressor into a strength (Brown & Nagal, 2004; McGee-Cooper, 1992; Scrivens,
1974; Swick, 1989).
It is also important to care for oneself physically (Botwinik, 2007). Proper nutrition that
energizes the teacher is an essential component for physical health and stress reduction (Eastman,
1996; McGee-Cooper, 1992; Sparks & Hammond, 1981). Getting adequate sleep is another vital
step in stress management (McGee-Cooper, 1992; Scrivens, 1979; Sparks & Hammond, 1981).
Most highly noted by researchers as having stress relieving benefits is exercise (Botwinik, 2007;
Bradford, 1999; Clausen & Petruka, 2009; Eastman, 1996; Gulwadi, 2006; McGee-Cooper, 1992;
Scrivens, 1974; Sparks & Hammond, 1981). Taking time to be alone and reflect is another stress
relieving activity (Bradford, 1999; Scrivens, 1974). Relaxation techniques such as meditation,
biofeedback, progressive relaxation, and yoga have also been found to help teachers effectively
manage stress (Botwinik, 2007; Bradford, 1999; Gulwadi, 2006; Sparks & Hammond, 1981).
Finally, while the emphasis of coping strategies is on taking some action to overcome the effects
of experiencing stress, some research points to the power of simply training the mind to respond
more positively to stressors.
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No situation or person can make another person feel a certain way. It is an individual’s
interpretation of her experiences that cause her to feel certain ways about it. Though an external
stressor may seem to cause a teacher to experience stress, it is the teacher’s reaction to that
external stressor that causes the stress (Eastman, 1996; Sparks & Hammond, 1981; Swick, 1989).
A teacher can choose to feel defeated by the poor classroom behavior of her students, or she can
see it as a sign that she needs to learn better management skills, and she can take action to make
this happen. On this topic Sparks and Hammond (1981) stated the following:
What people think about and the pictures they put into their minds affect their feelings
and bodies. When an event is perceived as stressful…the body reacts. The heart rate
speeds up, the eyes dilate, and perspiration increases. The next time a teacher thinks
about the event, the heart rate may increase again just from thinking about it…. Because
people have a large measure of control over their feelings, they also have control over the
physical bodily responses that come from feelings. These include a heightened blood
pressure that may stem from anger, or a quickened pulse that can result from fear. As
illustrated here, thought affects a person’s physical response. (p. 24)
The fact that the profession of teaching has a high potential for stress does not mean that all
teachers will experience a high degree of stress. It is up to the individual teacher to maintain a
sense of well-being and engage in active coping strategies so that stress can be managed
effectively and not cause a teacher to experience burnout. The teacher must learn strategies that
will help her respond to stress in a healthy manner, rather than reacting in ways that may cause
her to experience even more stress. Yoga is a tool that can allow the practitioner to respond to
stress in a less reactive manner. Yoga enhances well-being and can help keep the teacher in a
calm state of mind through which external stressors can be appraised and dealt with in healthy
and effective ways.
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Yoga is not a simple term to define. In his book, Trivieri (2001) described yoga as
follows:
In India, where it originated [at least five thousand years ago], yoga represents a complete
way of life similar to the holistic lifestyle advocated by practitioners of holistic medicine.
In addition to its many physiological benefits, in the East, yoga is traditionally practiced
as a means of overall personal development (body, mind, and spirit) that integrates yogic
breathing practices and physical postures with an ethical code of conduct, vegetarian diet,
meditation, and the cultivation of spiritual awareness. By contrast, in the West, yoga is
primarily practiced as a means of enhancing health and alleviating various disease
conditions. (p. 364)
Much of the research available in the West about yoga examines only the practice of Hatha Yoga,
which is a physical practice involving asanas (physical postures), breathing exercises, and
relaxation techniques. However, for a broader perspective, it is worth providing a more holistic
definition of the term yoga.
The word yoga means union (Salber, 2002; Trivieri, 2001; Walters, 2002). Its original
purpose is said to have been a way of living that would integrate humans’ physical, mental, and
spiritual energies. It was also a discipline that was used to unite the individual soul with God
(Salber, 2002; Trivieri, 2001). This definition of yoga describes the broad term used to depict an
Indian spiritual discipline, which archeologists have found evidence of originating at least 5,000
years ago (Salber, 2002; Trivieri, 2001). Within this spiritual discipline there are several forms of
yoga one can embark on, depending on that person’s temperament. Salber (2002) defined the
forms as follows:
Bhakti Yoga – this form emphasizes devotion to spirit.
Karma Yoga – this is the practice of selfless service.
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Jnana Yoga – this is the path of intellectual discrimination.
Raja Yoga – this emphasizes the practice of meditation. (p. 3)
Bhakti Yoga is known as “the yoga of devotion,” and on this path “practitioners dedicate
themselves to the worship of God in all of their thoughts and actions” (Trivieri, 2001, pp. 366 &
367). Karma Yoga is known as “the yoga of action,” and it “emphasizes a way of life in which
individuals live their lives responsibly, using their talents in selfless service to humanity”
(Trivieri, 2001, p. 366). Jnana Yoga is “the yoga of knowledge…practitioners of jnana yoga focus
on a process of self-observation and meditation, seeking to detach themselves from the actions
and desires of the ego in order to uncover their true spiritual nature” (Trivieri, 2001, p. 367). Raja
Yoga is also called “the royal path” (Trivieri, 2001, p. 368). “Raja yoga encompasses elements of
most other forms of yoga, and therefore can be adapted to suit each practitioner’s temperament
and background” (Trivieri, 2001, p. 368). The ancient yogic author Patanjali “gave an eight-fold
path to reach a state of yoga [union] which he called Raja or Ashtanga yoga” (Salber, 2002 p. 3).
Salber (2002) outlined these eight steps as follows:
The eight steps of this practice designed to lead a person to self realization or
enlightenment are:
a. Yamas – moral disciplines for things and people outside ourselves.
1. Non-violence
2. Truthfulness
3. Non-stealing
4. Sexual monogamy
5. Greedlessness
b. Niyamas – self restraints we adopt toward ourselves.
1. Cleanliness
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2. Contentment
3. Austerity
4. Self study
5. Devotion to a higher power
c. Asana – physical exercises to purify the body
d. Pranayama – breathing exercise to balance the nervous system.
e. Pratyahara – control of the senses.
f.
Dharana – concentration
g. Dhyana – meditation
h. Samadhi – ecstasy. (p. 3)
While traditionally a disciple of yoga would choose one of the four main paths of yoga (Bhakti
Yoga, Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga, or Raja Yoga), in the West today, most are practicing Hatha
Yoga, which includes aspects of Raja Yoga’s eightfold path. There are many different kinds of
yoga classes one can find today in the West, but nearly all of these courses fall under the umbrella
term of Raja Yoga, and rather than embracing each aspect of the eightfold path, they often only
include asana (physical exercises), pranayama (breathing exercises), and dhyana (meditation).
Kundalini Yoga is one form of Hatha Yoga. It involves physical exercises, breathing exercises,
meditation, and mantra (chanting of words or phrases) (Lyndley, 2008). “Kundalini yoga is
characterized by exercises (kriyas) that stimulate the blood flow and energy supply to the brain,
the nervous system and the glands in the endocrine nervous system” (Granath, Ingvarsson, von
Thiele, & Lundberg, 2006, pp. 3 & 4). Most Western research about yoga involves the study of
physical exercises and meditation; however, some studies have been done on breath work, or
pranayama.
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Prana means life force energy. Pranayama, which has been referred to as the science of
breathing, is about controlling the flow of this life force, or breath, through the body. Pranayama
exercises have been found to strengthen the nervous system, calm and focus the mind, relieve
bodily tensions, and decrease insomnia, irritability, hyperactivity, and anger (Brown & Gerbarg,
2005; Lyndley, 2008; Trivieri, 2001). Lozoff (1985) claimed that pranayama exercises increase
oxygen intake, purify the blood, and promote better circulation. Lozoff further argued that certain
pranayama exercises can be done throughout the day as a way to quickly relieve tension, anger,
jealousy, and lust, and to improve concentration. Pranayama exercises can relieve both physical
and emotional strain (Gura, 2002). According to Gura, breathing is the only function of our body
which is both voluntary and involuntary. Dworkis (1997) stated that, “if you can learn to control
your breath, you can learn to control, or at least influence, how you feel both emotionally and
physically” (p. 17). Certain pranayama exercises have been found to help induce sleep, increase
lung capacity, help heal depression, and reduce the experience of pain (Brown & Gerbarg, 2005;
Lyndley, 2008). Trivieri recognized that pranayama exercises allow practitioners to discover how
they can use their breath to relieve stress during times of high tension, or to raise energy when it
is low. Pranayama exercises are just one aspect of yoga that have stress relieving results.
Research also supports the beneficial effects of meditation.
There are many different forms of meditation. In general, the practice involves
concentrating inward without letting the mind become distracted by what is happening outside the
body or thoughts that are passing in the mind (Salber, 2002). This can involve concentrating on
the breath, a mantra, or nothing at all. It is most often done in a sitting position with the eyes
closed, but can also be done with the eyes open and while walking, or completing any task as
long as the mind remains focused on exactly the task at hand. Sparks and Hammond (1981)
described meditation in the following way:
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During waking hours and when dreaming, the mind is continuously busy with many
thoughts, feelings, and images. With meditation, the mind slows down. It clears itself of
all other thoughts by focusing on a single word or sound and repeating it. This mind
action slows respiration and heart rate; the body experiences rest and restoration that
often is more energizing than sleep. (pp. 24 & 25)
In fact, meditation has many benefits (Beak, 2006; Janowiak, 1993; Lozoff, 1985; Wilson, 1985).
Some of these benefits have been described by Trivieri (2001):
Increased oxygen intake, greater relaxation, improved focus on the present instead of
regrets and worries for the past and future, enhanced creativity, heightened spiritual
awareness, and an improved ability to be aware of, and manage, your emotions…
reduction in blood pressure, heart rate, adrenaline, cortisone, cholesterol, muscle tension,
blood sugar, triglycerides, free radicals, and improvements in immunity, reaction time,
auditory perception, and pain tolerance…treatment of heart disease, migraine, allergies,
headache, seizures, and many other physical ailments…increased feelings of calm and
peace, improved mental functioning and enhanced powers of concentration, more
frequent feelings of joy and happiness, and a heightened sense of awareness and
compassion for others. (p. 116)
Clearly, mediation has the potential to increase the well-being of a practitioner, protect against
future stressors, and heal the negative consequences of past and present stressors.
The majority of research in this arena has been done on Hatha Yoga, which is the
combination of physical postures, breath work, and meditation. According to Wilson (1985), “the
goal of yoga is to attain a state of consciousness that is free of stress and tension” (p. 261). The
research suggests that yoga is successful in helping to achieve this state. In a study conducted on
yoga in the workplace it was found that those who participated in yoga classes had “fewer
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absentee days due to illness or physical problems, experienced less tension and stress, and had a
greater overall feeling of well-being than those who did not participate in the yoga classes” (Gura,
2002, p. 5). In a similar study, employees reported less stress and pain after practicing yoga.
Employees also reported decreased heart rate, breathing, and blood pressure, and increased
concentration and productivity. Practitioners are more aware of their bodies and thoughts
throughout the day and are able to use what they have learned in their yoga classes to relieve
stress while at work (Gura, 2002). Yoga is also effective in treating “PTSD [post traumatic stress
disorder], stress-related medical illnesses, and substance abuse, and for the rehabilitation of
criminal offenders” (Brown & Gerbarg, 2005, p. 715). Yoga improves “mood, attention, mental
focus, and stress tolerance” (Brown & Gerbarg, 2005, p. 715). It enhances both physical and
mental health by calming the body and mind and promoting a general sense of well-being (Brown
& Gerbarg, 2005; Gura, 2002; Kramer, 1980; West, Otte, Geher, Johnson, & Mohr, 2004).
Research has recognized that, “it gives strength and flexibility for other physical activities, it can
enhance your looks, posture, skin and muscle tone, and vitality” (Kramer, 1980, p. 1). Doing yoga
can make the practitioner more aware of when the mind and body are beginning to lose energy or
experience stress, and provides a tool for relieving this stress and gaining back energy (Kramer,
1980). Recovering addicts who participated in yoga as part of a recovery program claimed that
yoga relaxed them and reduced their stress. This helped them become aware of their personal
control over their experience of stress. Yoga gave them the tools they needed to relieve stress
caused by external factors without having to utilize the addictive substances they previously used
(Kissen & Kissen-Kohn, 2009). Practitioners have reported becoming less emotionally reactive to
what is happening around them (Khalsa, Sat Bir, Khalsa, Gurucharan, Khalsa, Hargopal, &
Khalsa, Mukta, 2008). Research has shown that yoga can improve “heart rate, metabolism, motor
skills, respiration, and sensory perception…help regulate blood pressure levels, and alleviate
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pain…regulate functions such as body temperature, skin resistance, and brain-wave activity, as
well as improving memory and intelligence skills” (Trivieri, 2001, p. 371). Yoga reduces stress
and anxiety, and improves depression (Brown & Gerbarg, 2005; Granath et al., 2006; Kissen &
Kissen-Kohn, 2009; Lavey et al., 2005; Lyndley, 2008; Trivieri, 2001; West et al., 2004; Wilson,
1985). It can reduce anger, fatigue, and confusion (Granath et al., 2006; Lavey et al., 2005).
“Headaches, indigestion, muscular tension, smoking, [and] irritability” have also been identified
as decreasing or completely disappearing after a practitioner begins a regular yoga practice
(Wilson, 1985, p. 259). Yoga improves the circulation of oxygenated blood, helps with digestive
problems, and boosts immunity (Lyndley, 2008).
Research has also been done on the benefits of yoga for children. Some of these benefits
include helping children concentrate and control their emotions. Yoga improves students’ school
work and grades. Children report feeling more self-confident and being able to interact with peers
more effectively after participating in yoga programs (McGonigal, 2006; Moran, 2009; Peck,
Kehle, Bray, & Theodore, 2005; Rujumba, 2010; Stueck & Gloeckner, 2005; Zipkin, 1985).
These programs provide students with a reduced sense of helplessness and aggression (Stueck &
Gloeckner, 2005). Students have reported that practicing yoga lowers their stress and gives them
a sense of calm (Moran, 2009; Peck et al., 2005; Rujumba, 2010; Stueck & Gloeckner, 2005).
Yoga can give energy to students who are sluggish and allows them to think more clearly (Zipkin,
1985). Ott (2002) and Moran (2009) observed that practicing yoga can reduce the anxiety
students feel before taking tests. Studies have also identified physical benefits such as relief of
asthma, back pain, insomnia, hypertension heart rate, and headaches (Lofshult, 2003; Peck et al.,
2005). Finally, researchers have recognized that students’ overall sense of well-being improves
after participating in yoga programs (Moran, 2009; Stueck & Gloeckner, 2005).
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A relatively new field of research is emerging that is related to the breath work,
meditation, and physical postures of yoga. This field looks at mindfulness and the benefits
associated with taking on such a state. Kabat-Zinn (2003) has described mindfulness as “the
awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally to the unfolding of experience” (p. 145). Kabat-Zinn developed a MindfulnessBased Stress Reduction (MBSR) program, which is a group course that teaches forms of
meditation and yoga to people suffering from stress related problems, illness, anxiety, and chronic
pain. The roots of the program come from the Buddhist practice of mindfulness (Biegel, Brown,
Shapiro, & Schubert, 2009; Burke, 2010; Carmody & Baer, 2008; Newsome, Christopher,
Dahlen, & Christopher, 2006; Semple, Lee, Rosa, & Miller, 2010; Smith et al., 2008). MBSR
programs have been found to increase levels of mindfulness, well-being and calm, and decrease
perceived stress and depression (Burke, 2010; Carmody & Baer, 2008; Smith et al., 2008). In a
study on the use of MBSR programs for adolescent psychiatric outpatients “reduced symptoms of
anxiety, depression, and somatic distress, and increased self-esteem and sleep quality” were
described (Biegel et al., 2009, p. 855). Studies have also reported improvement in emotional
reactivity and meta-cognition for children and adults (Burke, 2010). A study on teaching
counselors self-care through the use of the MBSR program discovered the following:
Increased ability and capacity to accept and let go of so-called negative emotions, such as
fear, anxiety, and doubt…increased clarity of thought and capacity for reflection…
increased sense of purpose and direction, a sense of “groundedness,” and trust in
themselves…a greater capacity for empathy and compassion, and enhanced listening
abilities…helping them become less reactive to stress-related or anxiety-provoking
events. (Newsome et al., 2006, pp. 1894 & 1895)
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Research has further recognized that participation in MBSR programs can decrease pain,
symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), behavior problems, and anxiety
(Burke, 2010; Semple et al., 2010; Smith et al., 2008).
For a teacher looking to reduce stress and maintain well-being, the benefits of yoga come
during the day when she is faced with stressful stimuli. Practitioners are able to focus on their
breath and regain a meditative state, which helps the focus stay in the present moment rather than
thinking too much about what has or will happen (Arambula, Peper, Kawakami, & Gibney, 2001;
Lavey et al., 2005; Lyndley, 2008). Researchers have written about the importance of utilizing a
yoga practice daily as a way to build stamina so that when things in life start to get hard or
stressful, one is able to respond in a relaxed and healthy manner rather than reacting hastily
(Lozoff, 1985; Lyndley, 2008; Wilson, 1985). Practitioners are able to notice thoughts and
feelings in a stressful situation without judging these feelings and without necessarily succumbing
to them (Lozoff, 1985; Wilson, 1985). Purna (1990) stated that, “if you perform the balancing
posture of a tree for some time, this balance will reflect in your mental and emotional outlook.
You are thus building positive qualities into your character” (p. 10). The idea is that if one
practices staying calm, breathing, and balanced in a physical posture that may be somewhat
straining, that person will be able to practice staying calm, breathing, and balanced in her life
when she is experiencing a straining or stressful event. Gannon and Life (2002) put it this way:
An asana practice can build resilience to the changeable nature of life. By strengthening
the ability to breathe smoothly and think smoothly in a situation we acquire the ability to
stay calm and do our best in any situation. Behind that smooth breath is clarity and
vision, a glimpse into the infinite. Through constant practice the breath should be
rendered unaffected by the difficulty of any physical situation in the same way that the
mind should be calm in spite of outer circumstances.... By immersing ourselves in a daily
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practice with a routine that does not indulge in the ups and downs of the mind and body,
we can create a habit of not giving into defeat. (pp. 95 & 167)
Speaking on the issue of allowing life’s happenings to take people out of the present moment
Beak (2006) said, “We become mere reflections of our same old patterns, or we act based on
assumptions of expectations or on things that haven’t even happened yet. As many of the wise
ones say, nothing else exists but right now” (p. 179). Rather than seeing each new experience for
what it is, a new moment that has never happened before, people tend to make assumptions about
how things will go and this can cause undue stress. If the last time a teacher was observed by her
principal she got nervous, did not teach the lesson the way she wanted to, and got a bad review,
she may allow these past happenings to create stress for her in the present moment. Yoga helps
the practitioner realize that whatever has happened in the past, whatever worries there are of the
future, and whatever potential stressors exist in the present moment, the reaction to these factors
is dependent on the state of mind of the individual. The practice of yoga allows this state of mind
to be one that is calm and clear, and gives the teacher the ability to choose a reaction that reflects
this state. Lyndley (2008) concluded her description of Kundalini Yoga as follows:
Yoga is a discipline, a path to follow, and becomes a way of life. It helps develop our
capacity to build stamina, strength, resistance and resilience, qualities crucial for each
one of us as individuals…. The discipline inherent in Kundalini Yoga brings about selfmastery. We must accept responsibility for our own state…. This way we remain in
control of ourselves in a chaotic world. (p. 4)
The work environment for a teacher can be a chaotic one. Developing a yoga practice is a way of
preparing for life in this environment. The practice can become a stress relieving activity and a
preventative measure against experiencing the potential stressors in the environment as distress.
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Conclusion
This chapter began with a discussion of theories and practices in arts education. It then
brought teacher stress and burnout into the conversation. Finally, the chapter concluded by
exploring stress management options, with a focus on yoga.
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Chapter 3
THE PROJECT
This Project is an Alternative Culminating Experience for a Master of Arts in Education:
Curriculum and Instruction with an Elective Emphasis on Arts in Education. It follows Pathway
I: Artist as Educator. The project involved the development of two practices: a yoga practice, and
a teaching practice. The focus of this masters project was to develop a teaching practice that is
balanced and sustainable in the face of a highly stressful teaching environment. The art of yoga
was used as support in the development of this teaching practice. Practicing yoga promotes
physical, mental, and spiritual balance. The project began with the pre-service teacher student
teaching four days a week. While upholding the teaching schedule, the pre-service teacher began
daily yoga practice. For forty consecutive days the pre-service teacher practiced yoga for an hour
and a half each morning with a group at a yoga studio. While deepening a yoga practice through
daily yoga postures and meditation, a teaching practice was simultaneously being developed
through student teaching experiences.
The development of the teaching practice took place during the third and final phase of a
three semester multiple subject credential program through California State University,
Sacramento (CSUS). Student teaching took place four days a week in a fourth grade classroom at
Greer Elementary School in the San Juan Unified School District. Greer is a Professional
Development school, which works in conjunction with CSUS in order to further the education of
teachers and student teachers. Greer is a Title I and Program Improvement school. Title I schools
receive additional funds from the state in order to ensure that disadvantaged students are able to
meet their educational goals. In order to qualify to receive Title I funds, 40% of a school’s
students must be eligible for free or reduced lunch programs. Most of the students at Greer are
living in poverty, and over half of them are English Language Learners. Schools must follow
49
strict guidelines about how they are to spend their Title I funds, and they must prove their success
in implementing such funds through improvements on test scores. If a Title I school does not
meet these requirements, it becomes a Program Improvement school and is given strict mandates
for services and interventions it must provide. Due to Greer being a Program Improvement
school, the focus of their curriculum is on Language Arts and Mathematics. The state mandated
goal of this focus is to improve standardized test scores. Improvement of these scores is a
necessity in order to meet the demands of being classified as a Program Improvement school. If
these demands are not met, one of the possible consequences is for the school to be taken over by
the state, which could involve the termination of every employee. This is a highly stressful school
environment.
Narrative inquiry was the research methodology used for this project:
Researchers have been accustomed to distancing themselves from their work as if such
separation would somehow render the work more plausible, credible, and perhaps even
more “scientific.” We teachers often possess narrow notions about doing research from
our university experiences where use of the word “I” was forbidden and we were taught
that such expressions as “the researcher noted…” and “the investigator found…” were
more appropriate. Happily, times have changed, and today the idea of “teacher-asresearcher” has gained greater value, not only in the educational research community, but
also among classroom teachers who realize that investigations conceived, implemented,
and evaluated by actual teachers in real classrooms among live schoolchildren promise to
better stand the test of practicality and personal relevance. (Burnaford, Fischer, &
Hobson, 2001, p. 7)
Witherell and Noddings (1991) consider narrative inquiry particularly relevant in educational
research because it gives a voice to those details of the experience that would not necessarily be
50
noticed in a quantitative report. Narrative inquiry is gaining respect in the educational field as
teachers realize that their own stories and those of their colleagues are more useful and significant
to their practice than is the data that comes from traditional research. According to Clandinin and
Connelly (2000), “One of the starting points for narrative inquiry is the researcher’s own
narrative of experience, the researcher’s autobiography” (p. 70). The narrative inquiry approach
acknowledges that prior to effectively improving classroom practice, educators must look at their
own experiences and ways of being (Coles and Knowles, 1999). Narrative provides a method to
allow people to construct meaning from their experiences and share this meaning with others
(Josselson, Lieblich, & McAdams, 2003). Ritchie and Wilson (2000) stated that when given the
opportunity “to compose and reflect on their own stories of learning and of selfhood…teachers
can begin to resist and revise the scripting narratives of the culture and begin to compose new
narratives of identity and practice” (p. 1). Narrative inquiry allows the educator to frame research
within the context of the past, while including details from the present, so that what emerges is a
valuable and whole picture representation of the experience and answers to research questions
(Charles & Mertler, 2002; Clandinin & Connelly, 2000; Witherell & Noddings, 1991). Connelly
and Clandinin (1988) stated that:
We tell stories about ourselves that are historical, explanatory, and foretelling of the
future.... Narrative is the study of how humans make meaning of experience by endlessly
telling and retelling stories about themselves that both refigure the past and create
purpose in the future. (p. 24)
By sharing their experiences, individuals can impact the action and beliefs of others. For the
purpose of most richly portraying one’s experience, and therefore, more positively impacting the
future of education, narrative form is more effective than are the statistical measures of
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quantitative research. For this reason, the remainder of this project will be written using first
person, as I am the pre-service teacher who participated in this experience.
Essential to narrative inquiry is the idea of triangulation, which involves a combination of
documentation, dialogue/interviews, and observation. I kept a journal to document my
observations. Recorded in this journal were my feelings and experiences, and my perceptions of
the stress levels of mentor teachers and fellow pre-service teachers. I utilized the journal daily
throughout the project for reflection upon the process of developing both a yoga and teaching
practice. As a form of dialogue/interviews, I spoke with peers, mentor teachers, and yoga
practitioners about their experiences with stress and their perceptions of changes and stress levels
in me. Before I begin to narrate the experience, I must first provide the context within which it
took place. Therefore, what follows if a brief autobiography of my past experiences with yoga
and teaching.
The first time I did yoga was during my freshman year at California State University,
Chico. I was looking for an easy elective and had always enjoyed stretching, so I thought I would
give it a try. In 2002, I was eighteen, and despite having had a remarkably healthy and happy
childhood, I was beginning to lose myself. I started using marijuana and alcohol multiple times a
week, and I stopped putting effort into school. I was majoring in music; I was a singer. Singing
became a chore; I was not interested in practicing. The self-esteem I had developed prior to
college seemed to vanish as I began to use marijuana and alcohol more and more in order to feel
comfortable in my skin and in order to experience a sense of joy and peace. Yoga provided me
with an overwhelming sense of serenity. I had never experienced this sensation before: joyful, yet
grounded, love for myself and those around me, and a complete feeling of contentment.
Everything was okay. Unfortunately, the feeling was fleeting. Though the practice of yoga
brought me a sense of peace I had not known before, the temptation of marijuana, alcohol, and
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parties was too great. I attended my yoga class irregularly, but this exposure was significant, and
it sparked something within me.
After my first year of college, with no job and no classes until the fall, I was trying to
decide how to spend my summer. I spoke with my mom about options. She knew of a place in
Nevada City, a couple hours from Chico, where they had a Karma Yoga program. This yoga and
meditation ashram and retreat center is called Ananda. A small community of yogis (people who
practice yoga) live and work there and provide a retreat opportunity for anyone who can afford to
stay. For those who cannot afford the retreat, they offer a working program, or a Karma Yoga
program. For a small fee anyone can stay at Ananda for anywhere from one week to three
months. The program includes room and board, and free yoga and meditation classes in return for
daily service. Service generally involves preparing and cleaning the facilities for the use of
paying guests. I participated in this Karma Yoga program for one month. During this month I was
drug and alcohol free and practiced yoga and meditation daily. I was healthier than I had been in
a while and felt better than ever. My eyes were bright, I lost weight, I gained self-confidence, and
I felt spiritually connected, something that I had never felt before. After being at Ananda for a
couple of weeks, I was certain that yoga would always be a part of my life; I had never
experienced something that brought me such profound joy, gratitude, peace, and contentment.
In the fall I returned to Chico for one more school year. I continued to drink and smoke,
and I enrolled in another sporadically attended yoga class. One morning during the summer after
my sophomore year I woke up, and literally experienced an awakening. Suddenly, it became
ridiculously clear that I was not living up to the potential that I knew was possible for my life. I
called my parents that day and made somewhat of a confession to them and to myself. I
articulated the reality of how I had been living for the past two years. I finally said out loud that I
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was drinking and smoking marijuana daily and that I did not feel that the person I was expressing
was the person I was meant to be. Later that week, I left Chico.
Over the next year I attended community colleges, got my smoking habit under control,
and quit drinking. I continued to enroll in yoga classes each semester. In fact, I had too many
units from yoga classes and stopped receiving credit for taking the class. Eight years have passed
since my first yoga class. I have struggled to maintain a regular yoga practice. I have participated
in Ananda’s Karma Yoga program several times since my first visit. When I am there, I practice
yoga daily, but when I return home this daily practice always fades. Daily becomes weekly,
weekly becomes monthly, and then I realize that it has been four months since I last practiced that
incredible yoga, which brings me more peace than anything else. Inevitably, I always come back
to yoga. I can only ignore its power for so long before I remember what I am missing.
Two years ago I participated in my first forty day sadhana. At a studio three blocks from
my house, about twenty of us met each morning at 5:00 a.m. We practiced Kundalini Yoga,
chanting, and meditation until 6:30 a.m. This regular practice was an intense and transformative
experience. Practicing yoga periodically is not without value. Doing yoga almost without failure
leads to a peaceful and productive day, but without regular practice, the benefits fade. This forty
day sadhana left me generally more peaceful, friendly, accepting, healthy, content, grateful, and
happy. These feelings did not fade. Each of these qualities are deeply a part of who I am today.
Sadhana was not the first time I had known these qualities, but the experience integrated them
more fully into who I am. One session of yoga brings these sensations to me, but forty successive
sessions truly adjusted who I was. These qualities became more ingrained into my being. After
this sadhana, I again noticed my practice wavering. Daily practice ceased. Though I do believe
the benefits of that sadhana are with me for life, other habits began to sneak back in. Without
regular practice I became more judgmental of myself and others. I found fewer opportunities to
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experience gratitude, and the solid joy and contentment was becoming less prominent. My
practice was once again sporadic; sometimes I would practice a few times a week, sometimes a
few times a month, and, eventually, I was practicing no more than once every few months. When
the opportunity for this project presented itself, I had another motivator for increasing my
frequency of practice. Once again I committed to a forty day sadhana, which is where this project
begins.
Shortly after moving from Chico, I started taking classes at the City College of San
Francisco. In order to meet one of my general education requirements, I took a class in Child
Development. I excelled in this class and developed a deep passion for the topic. With
encouragement from my professor, I decided to major in Child Development. I transferred to
CSUS, where I graduated with a degree in Child Development two years later. While studying at
CSUS, I worked at the Children’s Center on campus. Working with children, I was able to put to
practice all that I was learning in my courses. I became confident and recognized by supervisors
and professors as having an undeniable talent for working with children. My mom is an
elementary school teacher, and somewhere in the back of my mind the idea arose that becoming a
teacher was always meant to be. I decided to enter the teacher preparation program at CSUS. I
had become academically inclined, so I was interested in pursuing my masters degree as well.
When I learned about the masters program that emphasized the arts in education, I was thrilled.
This was my opportunity to fuse my new found passion for children and education with my
background in music and my overall disposition toward the arts. I immediately enrolled and
simultaneously pursed both my multiple subject teaching credential and my masters degree. Two
years later brings me to this moment, narrating the culmination of these two programs. I did all of
my student teaching at Greer Elementary School. The first half was spent in a first grade
classroom and the second half, in which this project falls, was spent in fourth grade. My
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experience in the elementary school setting was minimal, but my passion runs deep. I am invested
in this path, and this project provided me with a platform from which to build the kind of teaching
practice I desire.
At the end of the second semester of the credential and masters programs, I had decided
that yoga would be the art of choice for my masters project. I was not yet sure about my plan of
action, but I knew that I wanted to deepen my yoga practice as a means of helping to strengthen
the development of my teaching practice. In the spring of 2009, I started keeping a journal to
document the process. Though I had decided that yoga was going to be the focus for my project, I
had not actually started practicing. In the middle of May, the semester was coming to an end, but
I was feeling overwhelmed by the stress of the teacher preparation program. The work was
lessening as the semester was ending, but my stress was not decreasing. I felt as though my stress
level should have been diminishing since the external stressors I was experiencing were, but it felt
as though I was stuck in the habit of stress. I felt frazzled and un-centered, and I was not
practicing yoga.
During the summer the stress eventually subsided, as I was not student teaching or taking
classes. I had not yet decided what my plan of action was for implementing the project, but I had
started to practice yoga more often. On June 4th, 2009, shortly after the end of the semester and
following a session of yoga, I wrote that I “feel good, balanced, and calm. Not crazy – just
naturally calm, good” (Journal). For the past year, managing classes and student teaching had
made me feel almost crazy. Stress was the norm, but with the summer and my yoga practice
beginning, I was reminded of the power yoga had in making me feel grounded. As summer
progressed, I was practicing two or three times a week, but it did not feel like enough. For the
purposes of this project, I wanted to develop a regular practice and a couple times a week did not
seem significant enough. Coming to the decision to practice daily was a struggle. “I have not
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committed to whether I will do yoga every day or what. I think I should/want to, but it is sooo
easy to come up with excuses not to” (Journal, June 10, 2009). Despite the lack of daily practice,
every time I did yoga, I experienced the benefits: “I feel less tired, but also more relaxed. My
breath feels calmer. I feel less fearful and happier” (Journal, June 10, 2009).
At the beginning of the fall semester, my last semester in the teacher preparation
program, I began to feel the pressure build. I had four courses and was student teaching four days
a week. The course work was intense, the student teaching was challenging, and the expectations
were high. Two weeks into the semester, I had not practiced yoga in about a month and the stress
hit me hard. The weekend before I started my daily yoga practice I was tired and felt stressed
about everything, school related tasks and even daily life things like doing my nails and ironing
my clothes. I became easily overwhelmed and was not enjoying even the things where I usually
found enjoyment, like walking my dog. Trying to balance my course work, lesson planning,
teaching, relationships, and health felt like more than I could handle. I felt defeated and
overwhelmed with an utter lack of motivation. Ironically, I was succeeding. My course work was
satisfactory, and I was becoming an exemplary student teacher. Inside though, I was a jumble.
When I had the time, all I wanted to do was sleep; and when I would wake, I was still tired. My
head felt cloudy as all of the things I had to do were swirling around inside. “It started to make
me physically dizzy. I was dizzy, nauseous, light headed to the point where I couldn’t even walk
around. I had to just lie there.... I felt like I wanted to quit everything” (Journal, September 7,
2009). Thankfully, sadhana began the next day.
As I had found from my previous experience, maintaining a daily yoga practice was
difficult for me. For this reason, I chose the support of a group sadhana. The sadhana I chose
focused on Kundalini Yoga. Each morning, for forty days, a group of about thirty of us met at a
yoga studio three blocks away from my midtown Sacramento home. For us, sadhana involved
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Kundalini kriyas (sets of exercises), chanting, meditation, and deep relaxation. The practice took
place from 5:00 a.m. until 6:30 a.m. Kundalini Yoga includes exercises that work to balance the
nervous system. I had used this powerful practice periodically over the previous two years and
during a forty day sadhana the year before. Despite the overwhelming emotion of the previous
weekend, after day one of sadhana, “I felt good. I was being silly with Scott [my fiancé] and felt
mellowly excited” (Journal, September 8, 2009). Where I was so tired the days before that I could
have slept for hours, I now felt a high level of energy; but this was just day one.
Day two of sadhana, and my unrealistic expectations of how yoga would affect me
became clear:
I had hoped, and kind of assumed, that I would feel really high, really happy right now. I
thought my energy would be high and my mood would be too. I thought I would have
more patience. When you walk into that classroom though, everything becomes a jumble.
I feel like I have been hit with a cloud full of tired; like I could pass out from tired at any
moment. I have very little patience. The kids are driving me crazy. I am getting so easily
annoyed with them and I feel like I am on the verge of mean.... I feel really overwhelmed
and like I can’t think straight.... I’m not really enjoying the kids at all. I’m just looking
for reasons to get annoyed at them.... I feel afraid of teaching them...afraid of losing
control.... I have felt so angry – so discouraged today that it has made me question
whether or not I even want to be a teacher. I feel majorly disrespected. (Journal,
September 9, 2009)
Nothing out of the ordinary happened in the classroom that day. This was a typical day; students
were testing my management, which is what students generally do to a new student teacher. I
wanted the start of my daily yoga practice to make everything better, but I was still feeling
overwhelmed by my experience. In this same journal entry I went on to realize the subtle change
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my two days of practice had instilled: “While part of me feels really tired and over it, another part
of me continues to take marvelous deep breaths.... I feel somewhat resilient in this moment – not
completely ruined” (Journal, September 9, 2009). That feeling of complete ruin was one I was
familiar with. The past weekend had felt that way; I had truly wanted to give up. At this moment,
although I felt discouraged, it felt okay. I remembered to breathe deeply, and I was able to calm
myself before I reached the point of defeat. This became a theme: being in the presence of
extreme stressors, but maintaining a sense of calm.
One of our big assignments during our third semester was the Performance Assessment
for California Teachers (PACT). This caused the cohort (the group of students in the teacher
preparation program) to feel a great deal of stress. We had issues with deadlines, changes in
requirements half way through the semester, and a general confusion and lack of communication
about our assignments. Yet, I noticed I felt mellow about it. One day in particular I was sitting in
the staff room journaling, and two of my peers came in talking about the latest changes in
requirements. They were in an uproar about it. No, I was not thrilled to hear that we had even
more work to do, but I kept breathing deeply, and I remained calm. More and more, I was able to
maintain this sense of calm in the face of stressors:
I felt almost overwhelmed on Sunday with the amount of work that needs to be done this
week, but I stopped myself. I haven’t broken down since the beginning of the semester. I
did a couple times toward the beginning of the semester, but since then I have not. I can
feel myself moving in that direction and I just stop myself. I have to stop myself and
remind myself that everything really will be okay, whatever happens, I really will be
okay. Everything will. (Journal, October 5, 2009)
A few weeks later, I was again aware of my self-control over my experience. “I do not feel
overwhelmed. I’m tired and busy, but happy and enjoying it” (Journal, October 14, 2009). My
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yoga teacher spoke of the parallel between yoga and the ability to live well through stressful
times: “We hold these sometimes uncomfortable positions and breathe through them so we know
how to breathe through uncomfortable situations in our daily life. In this way yoga is practice for
life” (C. Collins, personal communication, October 15, 2009). There are so many instances in my
journal when I am beginning to feel burdened with stress, and I literally stop to take a deep breath
and feel immediately more calm and capable. My cooperating teachers also noticed my ability to
handle stress: “Even if you were [stressed]...you looked balance, you looked even-keeled, you
looked very ready for life as you walked onto campus and as you walked off” (T. Casanova,
personal communication, June 3, 2010). Regardless of the amount of work that was required, I
began to be able to handle it and maintain a sense of well-being. Another cooperating teacher
said, “I think you were very organized and you were able to manage all those different tasks” (B.
Lawson, personal communication, June 3, 2010). I felt a level of control over my emotions. I was
aware of when I was in a bad mood, and I was able to make the decision to get over it and be
present. I made the conscious decision to enjoy my time. When I did this, I also enjoyed being
with my students. When practicing yoga, we are continuously reminded to be aware of the
present moment, aware of how our bodies feel, aware of our breath, aware of our thoughts. I was
able to bring this into my daily life. Rather than getting stuck in a bad mood, I became aware of
it. I did not get mad at myself for feeling this way; I just made the decision to get over. I changed
my mind about my mood, and I felt better. Not only did I feel better, but I was more available to
my students:
I felt this morning like, “oh my God, I don’t want to be here, I’m in a bad mood, I don’t
wanna!” But then I was like, so what? I’m just gonna be in a bad mood all day?! And I
decided that that is ridiculous! So I changed my mind. It’s not like I’m totally thrilled
now and excited to be here, but I feel much better. I taught a grammar lesson and really
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enjoyed it; enjoyed the kids during it. I felt relaxed, yet was still holding a high standard
for their engagement. (Journal, October 15, 2009)
Another change in my mindset was the ability to let go of the need for perfection. “I am
not expecting as much from myself as I normally do. Instead of trying to get three things done
while I’m making one copy, I make the one copy, then move on to the next task” (Journal,
September 16, 2009). Commenting on teaching a lesson to my class I wrote the following:
The goal is not to get through the lesson perfectly, but to help them understand the
concept.... It is actually quite a relief to know that there is not one way to do it. There is
not a perfect way to teach it. Until I am in it with the students I can’t know how it will go
down. To ignore the reality of the students in that moment so that I can stick with the
lesson plan is a disservice to the students because I am making it about my teaching, not
about their learning. (Journal, September 16, 2009)
During sadhana that same day, I was experiencing back pain and was unable to fully complete
each exercise. At first I felt embarrassed and inadequate for not being able to fully engage, but I
was able to let go of that. My teacher spoke at an opportune moment, “if you need to modify, still
do it fully, whatever level you are doing, commit to it and really be there with it” (C. Collins,
personal communication, September 16, 2009). I had planned to have an intense yoga session that
morning, but my body would not have it. I had to respect that. Later that day, I realized the same
is often true in the classroom. I plan to teach a lesson a certain way, and it often does not go the
way I thought it would. This day I realized that this does not mean failure. In fact, by fully
respecting the learning process, and teaching to where my students currently are, rather than to
where I thought they were or think they should be, I am doing what is in their best interest.
Letting go of perfection is applicable when teaching, but also when preparing to teach and when
completing assignments for my courses. There were times when I was stretched so thin that I had
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to accept mediocrity for some of my school work, and for some of my lesson plans. My yoga
practice helped me realize that all I can do is my best in the moment, not the best I could ever
possibly do, but my best at that very moment. “When I stop to breathe, to relax, I am not falling
backwards, because I have not given up; I am simply resting” (Journal, October 5, 2009). I feel
more able to enjoy living, enjoy each moment. I have begun to acknowledge and accept the fact
that I am not perfect and I never will be. “Teaching is a total practice; it is never perfected, but
always something that continues to change and grow” (Journal, September 21, 2009). Accepting
this allowed me to let go of stress when I felt it building and embrace the present moment. “I felt
really connected in the classroom today.... I was breathing deeply, really present, really there,
paying total attention to what was happening in the room, really listening, really watching the
kids, and thinking clearly about what was happening” (Journal, September 24, 2009).
Rather than feeling like going to work was a chore and a high pressure situation, I was
happy to be there. I appreciated the students, my peers, and my mentors. I felt energetic and
joyful, and this did not go unnoticed. One of my cooperating teachers said, “You’re very
confident, friendly, and approachable.... Your comfort level around the school, around materials,
even collaborating with us or the other student teachers was high!” (T. Casanova, personal
communication, June 3, 2010). A student teacher one semester behind me asked me how the third
semester was going. I said:
It’s going okay (and smiled), it’s a lot, but I’m doing okay with it. It is important to have
some kind of stress relief in place for yourself, because it is highly stressful. I have a lot
of support at home in my fiancé so that really helps too.... It can be a challenge, but I’m
managing and getting through it. It is what it is, so you just have to find a way to stay
healthy as you’re in it. (Personal communication, September 23, 2009)
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She told me that she had asked several others in my cohort the same question and that this was
the most positively anyone had responded. Later that day I reflected on our conversation:
I think having a positive attitude is a big part of maintaining a balanced teaching practice
- staying positive through the stress. You may as well try your best to be happy and enjoy
yourself through the process. Why not? It’s not like it’s denial of the stress; actually it’s a
technique to reduce the stress – get happy! Be positive and be nice to people. I am being
nicer to my students, smiling often.... It can be hard to stay positive, kind, and greet other
adults in the environment in a kind, warm, sincere way, and smile, but I think it is an
important part of it. (Journal, September 23, 2009)
I did not transform into an always happy being, in fact there were times in my yoga practice when
I would get angry. Moving through the practice though, would dissipate my anger. It gave me the
opportunity each day to release any pent up emotions, and this made me more available for my
students:
I felt very angry during my practice this morning. I think I got it all out though, because I
am feeling patient and enjoying the children today. I am being very kind and talking
slowly and clearly when I explain things.... I feel easy about my stress right now. Yes
there is a lot to do, a lot going on, a lot due very soon, but it feels fine. It is what it is and
I’m really trying to enjoy doing everything I do as I do it. So while I am here at school, I
want to really be here and enjoy the class, the routine, the learning, the practice of
teaching. (Journal, September 21, 2009)
I was so grateful to be able to express and relieve myself of stress and emotion each morning so
that I could continue to put all that I could into teaching each day.
My patience continued to grow:
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I was really patient with Allison today. She needed help with her math homework. She
totally doesn’t get it. You tell her something and then ask her the question to the answer
you just gave her and she doesn’t get it. I went over and over it with her. It is so easy to
get frustrated and annoyed, but I saw that I was starting to feel that way and immediately
turned it around to empathy and really being patient and trying to help her get it. (Journal,
September 22, 2009)
Feeling patient brought me a sense of calm, which transferred to the classroom environment.
When I was calm, the students were too. Others who came into the room also noticed this:
You came to school and you were very calm. I just commend you, I think that’s amazing
that you can do that for your children, and you know it transfers to the room. There are
student teachers who look calm when people come in, but the kids...they look stressed....
I didn’t see that in Betina’s and your kids. When they were in here they knew they could
rely on you. You’re very consistent, consistent and reliable. If that’s what yoga and your
chemistry produce, I think every school should have it as an elective for teachers before
school. (T. Casanova, personal communication, June 3, 2010)
One of my peers also noticed, “You always look so calm and serene” (Student Teacher C,
personal communication, September 17, 2009). Researchers have acknowledged:
...the value of teachers managing their own stress in order to manage student behavior.
They examined the interrelationship between student anxiety and teacher anxiety and
proposed that high teacher anxiety had a direct effect on student behavior, particularly in
terms of increased levels of student anxiety. This may indicate that teachers must engage
in managing their own stress as well as their reactions to students’ stress to assuage the
overall effect of stress or anxiety in the classroom and its subsequent impact on student
behavior. (Brown & Nagal, 2004, p. 36)
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Realizing that my mood had such an influence on my students’ mood increased my feeling of
responsibility for caring for myself, so that I could better serve my students.
Not only did my feeling of calm directly impact my students’ feeling of calm, but it also
changed the way I handled classroom management. I felt so aware of each moment, like I was
“observing it all, but not actually part of it” (Journal, September 17, 2009). This allowed “me to
detach from emotional reaction” to student behavior (Journal, September 17, 2009). If a student
misbehaved, I no longer took it personally. “The expectation has been set; the consequence is
walking the circle during recess. So when the expectation is not met, they will walk the circle.
There is no need to get angry” (Journal, September 17, 2009). My cooperating teacher noticed
this as well:
You always told the kids your expectations...you told them your expectations and right
away you responded whether they did it or not...before you lost your patience you
responded to it automatically, immediately. I never saw you...lose your patience.... You
nipped it in the bud right away; you’re not gonna wait for them to push you.... I’ve never
really seen you frazzled like I’ve seen some other student teachers. I’ve never seen you
get mad. (B. Lawson, personal communication, June 3, 2010)
My yoga teacher spoke about the benefits of practicing yoga: “There are two benefits you can see
as proof that your practice is working: being kind, and being non-reactive” (C. Collins, personal
communication, September 24, 2009). Later that day I reflected:
During homework check I noticed I was both [kind and non-reactive]. I felt very calm
and noticed that even my voice was more quiet than usual. When students didn’t have
their homework I very calmly stated the consequence. Some of them got angry when they
heard they would have to stay in and finish it, but even when they got mad, I stayed very
calm when repeating what and why the consequence was. (Journal, September 24, 2009)
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This became my habitual way of handling student behavior:
The rule is what it is. I am not mean about it. I don’t get mad or emotional or anything. I
don’t really care. I mean if they don’t follow the rule they will receive the consequence.
I’m not mad or angry about it, just direct and consistent.... I can be firm and insist that
they follow directions and I can make sure that the consequence happens, but I can stay
patient. I need to stay patient. Even when telling a student that a consequence is going to
come into play. I can do it in a kind, fair, patient, not scary way. When I feel more calm
and non-reactive I am more able to respond that way rather than getting worked up. I
want them to meet expectations because they feel that it is the right thing to do, not
because they are afraid of me.... And yeah, maybe they don’t want the consequence, so
this is why they behave appropriately, but it’s not that they fear the consequence, or fear
me. (Journal, September 28, 2009)
I became consistent, non-reactive, and even-tempered regardless of my external experience. Both
of my cooperating teachers noticed these qualities and one of them commented:
I’d have to say that I think you are one of the most even student teachers that I’ve met. In
that I mean that, really you took everything in stride...you were very focused in whatever
you were doing.... I have always wanted to be...what my kids can count on when I walk
through the door. They can always count on me to be even tempered, to not overreact, to
not under react, to be what’s steadfast in their life, and I can’t say that I’ve done that this
year...because they can’t be in their brain stem, they might be in their brain stem when
they’re at home and they’re reacting to fight or flight, or you know, whatever hassle is
going on there, when they walk through the educational door they gotta know that their
teacher is there for them and that they can come out of their brain stem.... If you can do
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that for your kids, you’re gonna have some powerful learning going on, because our kids
need stability. (T. Casanova, personal communication, June 3, 2010)
Feeling steady and even-keeled made me a better teacher. It made my response and my
interactions with my students more appropriate, consistent, and kind. It also made handling the
pressure of the program easier. Nothing seemed as serious as it had before, and it certainly was
not as scary as it had once felt. Unfortunately, my ability to cope with the stress does not
represent the experience of the majority in my cohort.
In a survey, 73.3% of the student teachers in my cohort rated the program as very or
extremely stressful. Particularly, they struggled with trying to balance teaching, school work, and
family. One student teacher commented:
The work quickly became too much for me to handle. I wanted to do a good job on
everything and get good grades, but I just didn't have the time to prepare and do all that
was being expected of me.... I always felt guilty that I couldn't do more for my students.
(Anonymous, survey, June 3, 2010)
A peer in my masters program spoke to me about her experience of stress as a teacher:
Sometimes it’s just like I can’t do it anymore. I feel raped. I am only human. I want to
give everything I am and then I think, no! I am a person too. And I am okay with giving
myself permission to say no, to give myself those moments. (A. Henry, personal
communication, September 18, 2009)
She experiences extreme stress and she struggles with wanting to give everything for her
students, but she acknowledges her own personal needs and limits, and she is able to establish
boundaries that protect those needs. It did not seem that the majority of my peers in the teacher
preparation program were able to accomplish this. There were many comments that, “weight
gain, tears, and sleep deprivation” were consequences of stress (Anonymous, survey, June 3,
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2010). Another student teacher said that she experienced, “anxiety, sleep deprivation, lack of a
social life, and being sick more often” (Anonymous, survey, June 3, 2010). These comments were
in line with how most of the students in the program experienced stress. One student went into
detail about how she responded to the stress of the program:
I actually had to visit a doctor a couple of times due to extreme stomach pain during the
semester. I was diagnosed with stress induced acid reflux disease. My diet had to be
restricted and I was instructed to take an acid reducer medication for several months long after the credential program had ended and I learned that I had earned my teaching
credential. I was very tired and emotional. Several times I would break down and start
crying. I would start crying in the strangest places. For example, I once had to excuse
myself from a Sunday church service. It was very unusual behavior for me and really
embarrassing. (Anonymous, survey, June 3, 2010)
In a letter to our program coordinators, pleading for changes to be made, students wrote, “We just
wanted to let you know how distressed our cohort is.... The workload is tremendous” (Student
Teachers A & B, personal communication, September 6, 2009). In an email regarding this letter
another student agreed, “The workload this semester is pretty intense” (Student Teacher D,
personal communication, September 8, 2009). In yet another letter, this time to the Chair of the
Department of Teacher Education, a student wrote, “The stress that I am feeling is
insurmountable and I do not know how I will continue through the semester at this pace” (Student
Teacher A, personal communication, October 9, 2009). I have nothing but respect for all of the
people in my teacher preparation program. I empathize with the experience of overwhelming
stress, for I too was affected by it. It was courageous of my peers to express their concern about
the extreme stressors we were facing, and to request that something be done to change it. As
demonstrated in Chapter two, research has shown that there are too many demands placed on
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teachers and that this causes them to experience stress. To have had this experience of standing
up for their rights as teachers is valuable. The result of them doing so though, is telling about how
our experiences as teachers might be. No changes were implemented as a result of letters and
meetings with the leaders in the Department of Teacher Education. My peers stood up for
themselves. They expressed their concern for their well-being and their ability to best serve
children under such conditions, but no changes were made. Unfortunately, this may be how our
experience as teachers goes. Even if some changes are made to relieve stressors from teachers’
lives, the job will continue to have the potential for high stress. Acknowledging this is where
teachers can have control over their experience. Regardless of efforts made, we had to continue
through the semester under exposure to extreme stressors. Our control manifested in the way we
responded to this reality.
Based on their responses to survey questions and my observations of them, I do not
believe that the majority of my peers in the teacher preparation program were able to recognize
their option of finding healthy ways to handle the stress of the program. I overheard a teacher in
my masters program talking with another teacher, she said, “When I’m done with my masters I’m
gonna do stuff like that [exercise]” (S. Sparks, personal communication, September 18, 2009). I
fear that many teachers may have this mentality of waiting until stress subsides before they start
to take the time to care for themselves. Ironically, if they were to engage in activities such as
exercise during times when they are experiencing stress, it would likely act to relieve some of the
stress that they see as so consuming. Somewhat frustrated by my student teacher peers, I wrote,
“There are no excuses for being imbalanced. If you are in a highly stressful environment, do
something to make yourself balanced and find a release for stress!” (Journal, September 18,
2009). I want to be sensitive to teachers’ experiences, because I know how hard it can be, but I
also know that people can make choices about how to respond to their environment. If they are
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exposing themselves to a highly stressful environment, it is their responsibility to be aware of this
and take action to protect themselves from being damaged by it. Especially as teachers, we must
find ways to maintain balance in our lives so that we can be positive role models for our students.
While the program was intense and there was always work to be done, I started to figure
out what balance meant for me:
I watched T.V. last night. I haven’t been doing that on weeknights. I get home, unpack,
and start getting ready for the next day. By the time I’m ready it is usually time for bed.
Either that or I’m doing some kind of homework. But last night I watched T.V. and ate
nachos. The idea is balance. Not always working so hard, and also not giving up and
sleeping all weekend when I feel overwhelmed, which I did sometimes at the beginning
of the semester.... It’s about finding a middle ground with my diet too. I didn’t eat rice
and vegetables, I had nachos, but all of the ingredients were healthy, and it was a healthy
amount.... When Betina asks me to teach a lesson without a lot of notice I am able to pull
it together and do it the best that I can at that time. I am not going to prepare for hours
and teach it in the best way that I ever possibly could, but I am also not going to do
nothing and tell her that, no, I am not comfortable teaching it. (Journal, September 23,
2009)
Throughout the semester I remained committed to getting enough sleep and to eating a nutritious
diet, but every once in a while I stayed up late and ate pizza! To be able to do that once in a while
felt good! I wrote again about balance:
There continues to be a lot of stress, a lot to do, but I feel like I am handling it better than
before. I hung out with Mandy on Friday night. It was so great to see her, to go out, to be
with one of my best friends, and to talk about something other than school!... I feel
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rejuvenated remembering that I have friends, and a life, and freedom outside of this
program. (Journal, September 28, 2009)
When Tina (one of my cooperating teachers) first heard that my project involved caring for my
well-being and trying to maintain balance in my teaching life, she thought that I might try to take
on less responsibility, but she acknowledged that I did not take on any less than I should have:
“You had everything in place, everything was done” (T. Casanova, personal communication, June
3, 2010). She went on to share her perception of balance in my life:
You were here...willing to get everything done. You were not gone early. You got things
done here so that...this was your work place and then you had your home place...which is
extremely healthy. It really is the way to do it, so I found myself being jealous of how
you were so balanced. You had a party.... You had fun! (T. Casanova, personal
communication, June 3, 2010)
In some ways I was strict with myself: I attended yoga every day, I stayed on campus late to
prepare for the next day, I had a bed time that I enforced, but I made sure to take time out. My
commitment was to my well-being. Being strict with myself about certain things helped me keep
that commitment, but I also acknowledged when breaking my “rules” was in my best interest.
And I did not feel guilty about it. I was able to find a balance between my work and personal life;
my health and well-being were the result.
According to Betina (one of my cooperating teachers):
During the time you were doing it [yoga] and then after you were done, you were still
doing a good job. You were on task. You did what you were supposed to do. You had
your work prepared for the kids.... There was not a big change at all...it did not affect
your performance in class, when you weren’t doing the yoga. (B. Lawson, personal
communication, June 3, 2010)
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Though my performance did not suffer, when sadhana was over my internal experience changed:
I am noticing a difference in the way I feel since not doing yoga. It has now been a week
since I stopped doing it. Since sadhana ended I have not done yoga. I think it is very
interesting that I haven’t done it since the commitment stopped.... Now that I don’t have a
time set aside and a group expecting me to show up, I’m not doing it.... The commitment
was what was keeping me on top of things. It was keeping me getting to bed on time and
getting everything prepared and put together for the next day. Now that I have the
freedom to sleep in a little later and stay up a little later, I’m not being as strict with
bedtime. I’m also not being as prepared for the day. So I am rushing a little more.... I
definitely feel sleepy, I feel groggy.... This morning in the shower I felt like, “uh, I don’t
wanna be up, I don’t wanna do this day.” I haven’t really felt that way too much this
semester. I have really felt happy to be doing what I’m doing and glad to be going to
work.... I didn’t really feel this way when I was doing yoga. Not only do I feel groggy,
but I feel heavy. Like I’m being pulled magnetically toward the ground.... The difference
in the way I feel is very evident.... Less joyful, less productive, less energetic, less high,
getting up is harder.... I feel tired all morning. (Journal, October 26, 2009)
These feelings continued the next day:
I am so tired and kind of grouchy. I am being quick with the kids, a little bit snappy. Not
patient. I am annoyed with everything. All I want to do is eat and sleep. I want caffeine....
I feel like I need to be doing yoga. If I don’t have it I feel so out of it. So blah. Rather
than actually enjoying being here I am suffering through it. Suffering!... I fear that if I’m
not doing yoga, I’m not going to enjoy any of it. It is just going to pass me by as
something else I have to do. Something to check off a to do list. And I will move through
it, and life, in an uncommitted, unenthusiastic, bitter way. I am creating the kind of
72
teacher I want myself to be. I am creating habits that will become my teaching practice.
When I am teaching my own class I don’t want to feel this way. I don’t want to feel like
I’m dragging through it. I need to enjoy myself, my career, my life. Currently, when I
don’t do yoga before teaching, I don’t really enjoy it. Maybe it’s not true that I need it
every day. Because last week I didn’t feel too bad, but now it’s been a week and a half
with no yoga and I am really starting to feel low: low energy, patience, attitude, mood,
interest, care, enjoyment in teaching and the kids. It’s not fair to the kids for me to not be
my absolute best as their teacher. It’s not okay for me to know that I could be more
inspiring to them and I am choosing not to be; choosing not to live my life as full as it
could be. I am supposed to be a role model for them, but right now I am not modeling
how to live well. (Journal, October 27, 2009)
The change in a week and a half was drastic. All of the qualities I had built and had been
recognized for were fading. Meanwhile, my cooperating teacher had no idea. Externally, I was
still succeeding. This was an internal struggle. This is the part that scared me most: that I could go
through life successfully meeting the demands of my work, but be feeling so unsatisfied and
having such a lack of enjoyment for it. I had experienced such passion in all that I was doing, and
it scared me that I could get by with mediocrity and no one would notice except me. My students
however, were impacted by my internal struggle. I was not as nice to them. My colleagues did not
notice though. It scared me that I could get away with unenthusiastically teaching. My students
were suffering, and there was no one to stand up for them, because that was my job and I was the
one hurting them. I had to be careful though, not to overreact and have expectations of myself
that I should always be fully present, excited, and kind to my students. I am a person, and I do
have emotions and it is okay for me to be influenced by them. However, I had the tools to make
myself feel better, and I was not using them. Eventually, I became aware of this:
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I feel lame today. Heavy, tired, angry, easily annoyed, frustrated, impatient, grouchy....
I’m still not doing yoga. I totally want to fill the void with food and caffeine. And I am,
and it kind of works.... I don’t at all feel hopeless about it though. At all! I feel blah right
now, but I don’t feel lost.... I know what to do to feel better. I have tools; I know how to
use them. I can make a decision to use them.... I need to take care of myself. I have been
choosing not to. It’s not devastating, but it has left me paying the consequences today.
Cause and effect. I can choose to nurture myself and I will feel better. (Journal,
November 14, 2009)
Technically this project was over when my sadhana ended. The project is never over though. The
goal is to create a balanced and sustainable teaching practice. It is not something I can accomplish
with forty days of yoga. Maintaining the kind of teaching practice I desire will be a lifelong
endeavor. These forty days have shown me the incredible possibilities for my teaching practice. I
have also realized the mediocrity that is exactly the kind of teaching practice I want to avoid. The
process is a struggle, but now that I know what is possible. I know that I will never settle for
anything less.
This chapter narrated my experience of implementing a daily yoga practice into my
student teaching schedule. The goal of this project was to develop a balanced and sustainable
teaching practice, regardless of my external experience. The teacher preparation program was an
intensely stressful experience, but I found that my regular yoga practice helped me cope with this
stress. I felt calm in the face of extreme stressors and this calm was transferred to my students. I
gained patience and my response to my students became one that was not characterized by
emotional reactivity. My mood was even-keeled, and I became a consistent force in my students’
lives. I found a way to maintain balance in my work, school, relationships, and health, and I
enjoyed the process along the way.
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Chapter 4
REFLECTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
As student teachers, the habits we create in our teaching practice will follow us into our
teaching careers. The purpose of this project was to consciously create a teaching practice that is
well balanced and sustainable, so that I can maintain a healthy teaching career for years to come.
A review of scholarly literature described the potential for stress and burnout in the teaching
profession. My teacher preparation program was equally rife with stress potential. As a means of
coping with this stress and habituating myself into a healthy teaching practice, I practiced yoga
daily before student teaching. This yoga practice instilled a sense of calm, kindness, patience,
enjoyment, and balance into my daily teaching practice. What follows are reflections on the
project and recommendations for future endeavors.
We may not always be able to control the circumstances we find ourselves in, but what
we can control is the way we perceive these circumstances, the way we react to them. Life around
us continues to happen, and we can choose to be angry and bitter, or we can choose to stay calm
and live peacefully, regardless of the circumstances. It is not an easy thing to accomplish, but
having knowledge of this choice is invaluable. This project was a concrete example of this. Going
through the teacher preparation program was one of the most challenging things I have done.
Based on my experience student teaching and my research, I believe that teaching will continue to
be challenging work. I know that I cannot control many of the stressors that I encounter in my
career, but I also know that regardless of these stressors, I will remain stable. Yoga has provided
me the ability to remain steadfast no matter what my environment.
The analogy between yoga and life is where the art of yoga lies. Every morning I
practiced remaining aware of each breath. I practiced remaining calm while moving through
challenging kriyas. When I entered the school environment, this calm awareness stayed with me.
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I learned how to be a consistent teacher in the midst of a sometimes chaotic and uncertain school
environment. Gannon and Life (2002) claimed the following regarding yoga as art:
The ancient Sanskrit scriptures tell us that joy is the nature of God and that joy is at the
core of every living being and thing. The art of life is to uncover this joy. The art of yoga
is to trace your way back to this eternal fountain of joy.... Art must express joy as life’s
final aim.... Art is an experience. The word art also encompasses the techniques and tools
used by the artist to evoke an experience. But art is much more than technique. Art is also
a way of life and a way of looking at things - or a philosophy. The word yoga is used in
somewhat the same way. It refers to an ineffable goal and the tools and techniques used
to attain it. (p.12)
Dewey (1934) also defined art as experience. Though, he believed that in order to be defined as
an experience, and therefore an art, one must have an eye toward some end result as she moves
through the experience. In this case, the end result I am seeking is a life of joy. I seek to create a
teaching practice in which I can know joy. Yoga is an art because it gives me the tools I need in
order to have a true experience living, so that this experience can itself become art. Dewey stated
that:
...the making comes to an end when its result is experienced as good – and that
experience comes not by mere intellectual and outside judgment but in direct perception.
An artist, in comparison with his fellows, is one who is not only especially gifted in
powers of execution but in unusual sensitivity to the qualities of things. This sensitivity
also directs his doings and makings. (1934, p. 51)
My yoga practice has developed me into an artist. I am able to experience joy in my daily
teaching practice. My awareness in each moment has made me sensitive to the way I respond to
and interact with students so that I am able to do so in a calm and respectful way.
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Eastman (1996) said that, “one of the most important ways we can give to others is to
take good care of ourselves.... Assuming responsibility for a person’s own health requires
forethought and effort” (pp. 17 & 28). In order to prepare to best serve students in the classroom,
I practiced yoga each morning. Mark Twain wrote, “We ought to be interested in the future, for
that is where we are going to spend the rest of our lives” (as cited in Eastman, 1996, p. 4).
Intending to avoid career burnout, and instead experience true enjoyment in teaching, I
deliberately executed this project so that my future teaching experience will meet my need of
maintaining well-being.
Forty consecutive days of yoga allowed me a glimpse into what a joyful experience
teaching can be. When my commitment was over though, I struggled to stay living in this joy. I
began to feel overwhelmed by the stressors in the environment and the joy that I had known
quickly faded. Toward the end of the semester I realized how yoga might be integrated into my
life more consistently:
I am still not doing yoga every day, but I went to a class yesterday and it was good. I
think this will be the reality of the balance. Doing yoga once, twice, or three times a
week, not every day, but finding a way to work it into my life. (Journal, November 2,
2009)
Even after the teacher preparation program ended and I came to the task of putting together this
project, I struggled to integrate yoga. At the beginning of 2010 I was done with the teacher
preparation program; my only tasks were writing this project and finishing my masters program. I
was so used to every minute of my day being filled with responsibility that I struggled with my
new found free time. I went from having a regimented schedule and routine to having no
responsibilities for days at a time. Without this external structure to my days, maintaining
productivity was difficult. For the first few months of the year I rarely worked on my project, and
77
scarcely practiced yoga. It surprises me that I knew full well how incredible this practice is and
what an impact it has on my well-being and enjoyment in life, but I still chose not to use it.
Eventually, the absurdity of my choice to deny myself the experience of fully participating in my
life was clear. I have since been practicing yoga several times a week and have found delight in
writing this project. I know that I will continue practicing yoga as a means of bringing me into an
experience of deep enjoyment in life. There will probably be periods of time when my practice
fades. But with the knowledge of the contrast in my life experience between when I am practicing
yoga and when I am not, I know I will always return to it. More and more often I will choose a
life of engagement and joy, rather than mediocrity.
Having a commitment of how and when I was going to practice yoga was vital to keeping
up a regular practice. As is evident from my experience after sadhana ended and in my experience
with not practicing yoga after the teacher preparation program ended, I take better care of myself
when I have structure and routine in my life. Having this routine requires that I make
commitments and plan ahead for what I want to accomplish each day. When I begin teaching I
will need to stay aware of this and make a plan for how I will integrate a yoga practice into my
schedule. I also realized that I can get through life without practicing yoga and I may still be
viewed as successful. When I stopped practicing toward the end of my last semester student
teaching, my cooperating teacher did not notice a change in my work or in my teaching. My
performance continued to be satisfactory. This is important because it reinforces the fact that the
responsibility of maintaining a yoga practice is in my hands alone. I could not do yoga and no one
around me would likely notice. My internal experience, however, will suffer. As a result, my
students will not have as kind and stable a teacher as they could. It is my responsibility to take the
best care of myself that I can, so that I can have as positive an impact on my students as possible.
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Not only will my patient and consistent attitude positively affect my students, but, as a model, I
will be helping students learn the art of living calmly and joyfully in a fast paced world.
This project is important to the field of education because it gives a true account of how a
teacher can take control of her experience and create the kind of teaching practice she desires. At
the beginning of our teacher preparation program, fear was instilled in us. We were told that we
were about to embark on a year and a half long interview and that we were always being watched.
We were told that teaching was going to be stressful and one of the hardest things we would ever
do. We were told that our first years of teaching were going to be filled with challenges and
torment. Practicing yoga allowed me to not only manage the stressors that came up, but to
overcome the fear that this preparation instilled, and to live freely through the experience
regardless of the surrounding circumstances. I am grateful that our mentors tried to give us a
realistic expectation for how teaching would be. However, if those running the teacher
preparation program actually believe that teaching and the program are as full of stress as they
expressed to us, I am unsure as to why they did not teach us tools for managing this stress. My
single recommendation for teachers is to take control of their lives. Teachers need to be aware of
their surroundings. If they are knowingly exposing themselves to daily stressors, they must do
something to protect themselves. We are in the field of education because we want to have a
positive impact on children. In order to be successful at this, we must put ourselves first. We
cannot give to others and sustain ourselves if we are not consciously taking action to maintain our
own well-being. It is absurd that teacher preparation programs do not give future teachers the
tools to cope with the stress that they fully acknowledge will be present. In fact, several
researchers have recognized the importance of including stress management as a part of teacher
preparation programs (Brown & Nagal, 2004; Chaplain, 2008; Swick, 1989). Of course I
recommend that this change, but I have learned that we cannot rely on our external situation to
79
maintain us, we must take this action for ourselves. We must become our own advocates and
recognize that while we do not have control over many of the parameters of our jobs, we have
control over how we experience life. I recommend that educators and individuals in all walks of
life engage in activities to increase their awareness of the world around them so that they can be
more prepared to thrive within this world, regardless of the chaos that may be present.
I chose this path for my project because I was aware of the potential for burnout in my
teaching career. My student teaching experience clearly illustrated why burnout is so prevalent in
the field. My life goal is to live joyfully. I am not willing to let my decision to become a teacher
keep me from reaching this goal. Engaging in a conscious practice allows us to create habits of
being. By engaging in a yoga practice I was able to consciously create the kind of teaching
practice that I know will allow me to experience balance and sustain me in the field. This practice
involves being aware of my actions as I move through each day, approaching my students with
kindness and compassion, implementing a management technique that is consistent and nonreactive, and at its core, creating space for my students to experience calm and trust in their
learning environment so that they can have the most enriching educational experience possible.
By implementing the art of yoga into my life, I am able to experience life as art, art as the
experience of living joyfully.
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APPENDIX
81
APPENDIX
Survey – Student Teachers and the Experience of Stress
1. How stressful was the experience of the program?
extremely
very
moderately
not very
not at all
2. If stressed, what seemed to cause the most stress?
3. What were the consequences of experiencing such stress?
4. Did you consciously engage in stress relieving activities? If so, what were they?
5. How (if at all) did the stress of the program change your perceptions of teaching?
82
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