THIS paper documents stress associated with a career transition for mature-age, male tradespeople entering teaching as technology studies teachers in secondary schools. In a qualitative action research study, group support emerged as an essential means of stress relief, without which learning was severely impeded by inappropriate coping strategies. However, since self-disclosure about stress appeared to contravene a masculinist ideology of toughness, creating a supportive group was initially difficult It is argued that, if beginning teachers are to profit fully from their learning experiences and cope productively with stress throughout their professional lives, then stress management programs are vital components of teacher education courses. Yet such programs need to be flexible in accommodating diversity in biographies, attitudes and expectations, and thus stressors and concerns, with which various groups of beginning teachers enter such programs. Particular attention to the formation of group cultures conducive to self-disclosure and mutual support is required.
BenhabibS. (1986). Critique, norm and utopia — a study of the foundations of critcal theory. New York: Columbia University Press
2.
BenjaminW. (1955). Illuminations. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World
3.
BernardM. E. (1990). Taking the stress out of teaching. Blackburn, Vic: Collins Dove
4.
BlundenR.De La RueP. (1990). A survey of teacher concerns across one year of teacher training. Journal of Teaching Practice, 10 (1), 1–6
5.
BoudD.KeoghR.WalkerD. (1985). Promoting reflection in learning. In BoudD.KeoghR.WalkerD. (Eds.), Reflection: Turning experience into learning (pp. 18–39). London: Kogan Page
6.
BransgroveE. (1994). A decade of teacher stress: The changing nature of the determinants of teacher stress. South Pacific Journal of Education, 22 (1), 39–52
7.
BreakwellG. (1986). Coping with threatened identities. London: Methuen
8.
BritzmanD. P. (1986). Cultural myths in the making of a teacher: Biography and social structure in teacher education. Harvard Educational Review, 56 (4), 442–456
9.
BrunerJ. S. (1986). Actual minds: Possible worlds. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
10.
BrunerJ. S. (1990). Acts of meaning. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
11.
BulloughR. V. (1989). First year teacher. New York: Teachers College Press
12.
ClaxtonG. (1989). Being a teacher: A positive approach to change and stress. London: Cassell
13.
CoxT. (1978). Stress. London: Macmillan
14.
DworkinA. G. (1978). Teacher bum-out in the public schools: Structural causes and consequences for children. Albany: State University of New York Press
15.
ElkertonC. A. (1983). An investigation of stress experienced by beginning teachers during practice teaching. Kensington, NSW: University of NSW, Student Counselling Unit
16.
ElliottJ. (1991). Action research for educational change. Philadelphia: Open University Press
17.
EllisA.HarperR. A. (1976) A new guide to rational living. Englewood Clifis, NJ: Prentice-Hall
18.
EsteveJ. M.FracchiaA. F. B. (1986). Inoculation against stress: A technique for beginning teachers. European Journal of Education, 9 (3), 261–269
19.
FenstermacherG. D. (1988). The place of science and epistemology in Schön's conception of reflective practice. In GrimmettP. P.EricksonG. L. (Eds.), Reflection in teacher education (pp. 39–46). New York: Teachers College Press
20.
FormainiH. (1990). Men: The darker continent. London: Heinemann
21.
FreidusH. (1992). Men in a woman's world: A study of male second career teachers in elementary schools. Paper presented to the Annual Meeting of the American Education Research Association, San Francisco, April 1992
22.
GiddensA. (1990). The consequences of modernity. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press
23.
GiddensA. (1991). Modernity and self-identity: Self and society in the late modem age. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press
24.
GigesB.RosenfeldE. (1976). Personal growth, encounter and self-awareness groups. In RosenbaumM. R.SnadowskyA. (Eds.), The intensive group experience: A guide (pp. 87–110). New York: Free Press
25.
GleesonP. (1994). Cultural differences in teachers' work. South Pacific Journal of Education, 22 (1), 5–18
26.
GoldY. (1989). Reducing stress and burn-out through induction programs. Action in Teacher Education, 11 (3), 66–77
27.
GoldY.RothR. A. (1993). Teachers managing stress and preventing bum-out: The professional health solution. London: Falmer Press
28.
GrundyS. (1987). Curriculum: Product or praxis. London: Falmer Press
29.
HopsonB. (1982). Transition: Understanding and managing personal change. In HerbertM. (Ed.), Psychology for social workers (pp. 141–165). London: Macmillan
30.
HumphreyJ. N.HumphreyJ. H. (1986). Coping with stress in teaching. New York: Ams Press
31.
JamesP. (1983). Role change in people becoming teachers and students. In PeakG. (Ed.), Psychology for TAFE teachers. Sydney: Sydney University of Technology
32.
JamesP. (1987). Learning and teaching: A practical manual in educational psychology. Melbourne: Hawthorn Institute of Education
33.
JamesP. (1994). Reconstructing masculinity in teacher education: A story of cultural change. In CooperM. (Ed.), Voicing our agendas: Gender and teacher education conference papers— Ubud, Bali, July (pp. 148–173). Melbourne: University of Melbourne, Faculty of Education
34.
JamesP. (1995). Models of teacher education revisited: Reflecting on concerns. Vocational Aspect of Education, 47 (3), 289–308
35.
JamesP. (1996a). Learning to reflect: A story of empowerment. Teaching and Teacher Education, 12 (1), 81–97
36.
JamesP. (1996b). The transformative power of story-telling among peers: An exploration from action research. Educational Action Research, 4 (2), 197–221
37.
JersildA. T. (1955). When teachers face themselves. New York: Teachers' College Press
38.
KellyG. (1955). The psychology of personal constructs. New York: Norton
39.
KemmisS.McTaggartR. (1988). The action research planner (3rd ed.). Geelong, Vic.: Deakin University Press
40.
LittleJ. W. (1990). The persistence of privacy: Autonomy and initiative in teachers' professional relations. Teachers' College Record, 91 (4), 509–536
41.
LortieD. (1975). Schoolteacher. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
42.
MartinJ. (1992). Concerns of first-year teachers in Australian Catholic schools. South Pacific Journal of Education, 20 (2), 95–104
43.
MaslachC. (1982). Bum-out: The cost of caring. Englewood Clifis, NJ: Prentice-Hall
44.
McNiffJ. (1993). Teaching as learning. London: Routledge
45.
MealyeaR. J. (1989). Humour as a coping strategy in the transition from tradesperson to teacher. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 10 (3), 311–333
46.
MealyeaR. J. (1992). Not so ‘significant others’: Problems with the field-based classroom supervision of mature-age, technical trainee teachers. Australian Journal of Education, 36 (2), 181–201
47.
NoddingsN. (1986). Fidelity in teaching, teacher education, and research in teaching. Harvard Educational Review, 56 (4), 496–510
48.
OttoR. (1986). Teachers under stress. Melbourne: Hill of Content
49.
PithersR. T. (1994). Person-environment fit and vocational teacher stress. Paper presented to the Annual Conference of the Australian Teacher Education Association, Brisbane, July 1994
50.
RubinL. B. (1986). On men and friendships. Psychoanalytic Review, 73, 165–181
51.
SchönD. A. (1987). Educating the reflective practitioner. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
52.
StantonH. E. (1979). Increasing lecturer self-confidence. Australian Psychologist, 14 (3), 329–335
53.
TuohyW. (1995, January 31). The lost children. Age, p.1
