Stress among secondary school music teachers in Penang / Norhazwani Mohamed Hazali

Teaching profession can be a stressful occupation as most teachers would agree that daily interactions with students, parents, and co-workers and the constant demands of teaching often lead to overwhelming pressures and challenges. The primary purpose of this study is to investigate and determine the main factor of stress among secondary school music teachers in Penang. Methodology used in this study was based on qualitative research design and an interview was the instrument. The participants in interviews were randomly selected as a total of (N=8) music teachers in eight secondary school have been chosen. Four out of eight respondents have more than 10 years’ experience served as music teacher while the rest is less than 10 years. The study were focus on music teachers' perception on musical and non-musical activities conducted at school, the stress factors among music teacher composed of student, colleague, school administration, facility and environment and ways of music teachers' coping with stress. All of the interview sessions were recorded. The results from this research reveal school administrators was the main factor contribute to music teachers stress while facilities was the least to effect music teachers stress. In conclusion, various strategies coping stress must be first self-initiative steps taken by of music teachers to balance with workloads and duty in order to achieve success in career and life as suggested by other researchers, Brock and Grady (2002), Buhler (1993), Lyles (2005), and Queen and Queen (2004) not all tension is necessarily bad or unhealthy.