Als het vervolgonderwijs dichterbij komt is de spanning tussen school en ouders vaak helemaal te snijden. De selectiedruk is zeer voelbaar. Veel leraren ontlopen liever het lesgeven in de 8e groep omdat daar de problemen met ouders het grootst zijn. Zij hebben vaak medelijden met kinderen die een slechte CITO-score halen. Thuis wordt dat als een drama beschouwd, een klap in het gezicht van het gezin en een krenking van de ambities van de ouders. De relatie tussen leraren en sommige ouders verloopt wel eens moeizaam. Het scala loopt van overbetrokken moeders tot verwaarlozende ouders die zich niet geroepen voelen zich met het schoolse leven van hun kinderen te bemoeien. Ook zijn er soms dreigementen, klaagzangen en intimidaties (ik ben een persoonlijke vriend van de inspecteur). Iedere ouder vraagt om een eigen benadering. De ene vader treedt agressief op, de volgende weet alles beter, de derde interesseert het niet. De ene moeder klaagt snel over achterblijvende prestaties, de andere wijkt niet van de zijde van haar dochter. Leraar zijn zou zo mooi zijn, als kinderen geen ouders hadden, klaagt menig leraar.
In this study self-reported stress and burn-out levels between general and special education teachers in the Netherlands are compared. More than eight hundred teachers were assessed with the Utrechtse Burnout Schaal (UBOS-L/MBI) to determine their levels of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment within the school context. We also used instruments to measure different stress indicators (personal characteristics: self-efficacy, negative affect, and student characteristics: student responsibility and discipline, studentpeer relationships, and class size). Contrary to recent findings in the United States (Shoho, 2002), results regarding burnout did not show any significant differences between general education teachers (n=604) and special education teachers (n=206). However, we do find significant differences in stress indicators explaining burnout. We also looked for factors other than those intrinsic to teaching, by crossnationally comparing teacher stress and burnout. Teachers in the U.S. and the Netherlands differ significantly in burnout level. U.S. teachers experience more burnout.
Present study focuses on revealing and developing personal constructs regarding problem behaviour in classrooms. The main idea is that teachers opinions about their students and themselves influence the way they interact with them. Their thoughts and ideas about students - their personal constructs - are generally unconscious. We used the Personal Construct Theory from Kelly (1955) and his Repertory Grid Technique for exploration mental constructs. They can give an impulse to the development of thinking and acting of teachers. We think it can help them to build up their professional identity towards problem children. Twenty-nine teachers formed the sample that worked with this method. We investigated the number of unique construct pairs mentioned by the teachers. This number happened to be remarkably high. While assessing pupils, the teachers use primarily personality characteristics. There is hardly any agreement between the teachers constructs, which complicates their communication about their pupils. We considered the number of construct pairs named by one participant. This number seems to depend on the type of education the teacher is involved in. The type of the school the teacher is working at also influences the average scores on the constructs. We shall also turn to the issue of pupils sex and its role if any in the teachers scores. No significant differences have been found.
