Job Satisfaction and Stress

M ajor changes in society and education during the past decade have significantly affected physical education programs and the professionals who implement them. Declining enrollment, decreased professional mobility, staff reduction, shrinking budgets, increased demand for accountability, along with declining confidence and support in public education create major challenges. These factors influence the quality of worklife for teachers. While this topic has been an important area of research in business and industry for over fifty years, educational researchers have investigated job satisfaction only in the past decade or so. Literature in physical education cites several studies about college and university level professionals,I.2.3 and in the past year or two, about the public school practitioner.v No studies have focused on K-12 physical educators. The epidemic problems of teacher stress and burnout, indicate an obvious need for job satisfaction research in our profession. This article describes job satisfaction and job-related stress among public school physical educators, and offers recommendations to program leaders.