The Coexistence of Teacher Stress and Teacher Joy: A Duality of the Teaching Experiences of Early Childhood Teachers
Principal Investigator:
Jennifer Chen
Abstract:
This study investigated this research question: How might early childhood teachers make meaning of teacher stress and teacher joy in teaching young children? To this end, I interviewed 12 early childhood teachers in New Jersey via Zoom for an average of 75 minutes. Thematic analysis revealed two overarching themes: (1) teacher stress prompted some to contemplate moving to a better school; and (2) while all teachers accepted teacher stress, they also found the coexistence of teacher joy. Three subthemes emerged: (1) a shifted positive mentality helps to discover teacher joy, and (2) the positive contributor to teacher joy lies in children’s learning growth, and (3) the positive consequence of teacher joy is expressed in teaching commitment.
Description of Research:
The Research Goal and Method
While teacher stress has been widely researched, teacher joy is a relatively understudied and undertheorized phenomenon within the complex teaching reality. To better understand the two contrasting teaching experiences (teacher stress and teacher joy), this study investigated this research question: How might early childhood teachers make meaning of teacher stress and teacher joy in teaching young children? To this end, I interviewed 12 early childhood teachers (ages 27-47 years, M = 34 years) teaching young children (in preschool to 2nd grade) during the 2021-2022 school year in New Jersey. I interviewed each teacher individually and virtually for 60-90 minutes (M = 75 minutes) via Zoom. The interviews occurred in a semi-structured format to allow the interviewer the flexibility to ask the interviewee relevant clarification, elaboration, and follow-up questions (Corbin & Strauss, 2014). The interviews were all video- and audio-recorded by Zoom, and their audio recordings were subsequently transcribed verbatim using transcription software. The transcribed data were then examined using thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006).
Findings
The analysis of the data revealed important findings related to the teaching experiences of early childhood teachers as they navigated their stressful teaching reality. The salient ways in which these teachers made meaning of their teacher stress and teacher joy gave rise to two overarching themes. The first theme revealed that teacher stress prompted some to contemplate leaving for a better school. The second theme highlighted that while all teachers accepted teacher stress as an inherent aspect of their teaching reality, they also found joy in teaching. Thus, they recognized the coexisting duality of both teacher stress and teacher joy entwined within the complex nature of their teaching reality. In the context of this second overarching theme, three subthemes emerged to reflect twofold experiences: contributors to and impact of teacher joy. The first two subthemes can be collated as sources that contributed to teacher joy (teacher joy as deriving from relationship building, and teacher joy as driving from witnessing children’s learning growth), and the last subtheme highlighted the teachers’ experience of teacher joy as a contributor to their sustained teaching commitment.
Discussion
The finding of teacher joy aligns with the perspective of positive psychology (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). It suggests that teacher joy can serve as a motivating mechanism underlying teachers’ continued commitment to teaching. However, teacher joy operates not as a means to eradicate but instead, coexists with teacher stress. The teachers in this study recount their moments of teacher joy, which reflected the theme that teacher joy for them was essentially residing in the professional relationships and connections with students and colleagues. It appears that teacher joy is intrinsic, and thus, it is incumbent upon the teachers to recognize or find joy in their teaching amidst teacher stress. School leaders might create opportunities to engage teachers in professional discourses about teacher joy, where some may share moments and the varying nature of joy in their teaching, which might encourage others to recognize, find, discover, or rediscover teacher joy despite teacher stress in their professional lives.