Special Education Teachers’ Work-Related Stress: Nature And Management Through The Pandemic

Abstract

This global pandemic caused by COVID19 is unlike anything we have ever experienced before.
It has caused a lot of changes, including in our education systems. The world will never be the
same when we raise from these difficult times. Teaching during the pandemic has made
education more complex. Many of our teachers have endured work-related trauma caused by a
rapidly escalating viral crisis that our education system must adapt to a new curriculum to
address our students' needs. Some degree of pessimism and self-doubt comes with this challenge.
This study purposefully seeks to identify special education teachers' coping strategies for
managing work-related stress during the pandemic and their perceived relationship between how
they cope and their profession. With a quantitative design, the study used the Teacher Stress
Inventory to determine which work-related stressors highly affect our teachers, physical and
emotional manifestations of work-related stress, and coping styles commonly used. The findings
show that special education teachers generally used a common coping strategy, such as taking
advantage of different Entertainment made available by different platforms. Most special
education teachers reported that their most noticeable work-related stressor has too much work to
do with much less time. The flexible instructional modalities to address the educational needs of
the students depend effectively and efficiently on the severity of the fluctuating circumstances
brought by this health crisis. It reveals that most special education teachers manifest emotional
stresses than physical stresses. The results will be the keystone for implementing a wellness
program aligned to the predominant coping strategies of the special education teachers that will
encourage and improve their abilities to cope with adversities brought by the uncertainties of this
pandemic