Stress and Its Causes Experienced by English Teachers and Lecturers during the Covid-19 Pandemic Online Teaching Period

Abstract

Covid-19 pandemic period has itself been a very strong reason for stress. It is observed that this period has created effects that cause negative feelings and shake the well-being of many people all over the world. While this is the case, many factors have emerged that cause stress for teachers who are provided with distance education. In this context, the current research aims to determine the stress causes of English teachers and their results, to determine the difficulties they experience in this process, and to evaluate the effects of distance education on the teaching profession. 293 English teachers working in high schools affiliated with the Ministry of National Education and teaching staff working in foreign language schools of universities in Erzurum participated in the research. In the study, data were collected using the random sampling method and through questionnaires distributed online. Stress Index designed by McIntyre et al. (2020) was used as the data collection tool along with the Participant Identification Form created by the researcher and the stress levels of the participants were examined. Based on the results obtained, a significant relationship was found between the stress levels of participants and some variables such as age, gender, language teaching experience, online teaching time, current working institution, current living conditions, comparison of current life and pre-Covid-19 life and lastly, living with a person working at home. However, no relationship was found between the stress levels of the participants and the teaching method they used. In line with the results of the research, some suggestions were presented to practitioners and researchers.