Volume : 6, Issue : 3, March - 2017

Occupational Stress Related Coping Strategies Adopted by Special Educators in Inclusive Classroom

S. Kanmani, Dr. J. Sujathamalini

Abstract :

<p>&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 10pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">The empirical study highlights at examining the occupational stress related coping strategies adopted by special educators in inclusive classroom. Inclusive education is an idea in the field of education. It means that persons with disabilities or persons who need special care can learn in schools together with people who do not have special needs. However, inclusive education may make special aid, care or knowledge for persons with disabilities difficult if enough reasonable accommodation is not given. At this juncture, the teachers working in inclusive education need to be competent to handle children with special needs. Because of their commitment and competence they are under pressure and experience stress in inclusive educational settings.</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Occupational Stress is a term refers to ongoing stress related to workplace. It is a physical or psychological disorder associated with an occupational environment and manifested in symptoms such as extreme anxiety, or tension, or cramps, headaches, or digestion problems. Sometime the stress also acts as a motivator to the individual to strive for excellence. It is a pressure experienced by the responsibilities assigned in their duty. Such pressure is highly experienced by the teachers working in the inclusive schools with diverse group of learners. In the present study the investigator aimed to study the occupational stressors and the coping strategies of special teachers with special reference to inclusive education. Explorative cum experimentation was adopted in the present study. To collect the quantitative data, the occupational Stress and occupational stress related coping strategies tool was developed by investigators. The investigator designed stress related coping strategies focusing on physical well being, psychological well being, emotional well being and social well being. Stress related Coping Strategies were designed and adopted by the investigator for a period of 4 weeks and its effect was assessed. The study result shows that the special teachers experience occupational stress and the designed Stress related coping strategies were found to be effective. The study evinced the need to incorporate the coping strategies to reduce the occupational stress among teachers to implement inclusive education successfully. It is a need of an hour to incorporate the coping strategies in the teacher education curriculum which in turn develop the pre service teachers to get prepared to face the challenges of inclusive education.&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></p>