Teacher Stress and Personal Values An Exploratory Study TATIANA BACHKIROVA, Oxford Brookes University ABSTRACT This article presents the first stage of a small-scale research project into the relationship between teacher stress and personal values. It starts by outlining the problem of teacher stress and an overview of the literature investigating the sources of it. A particular combination of factors related to personal values that may increase vulnerability to stress is then suggested and a research project conducted to investigate this idea is described. The results of the research are discussed in the light of the relevant literature. Finally a speculative interpretation of the results is presented together with some tentative recommendations in relation to stress for individual teachers. Introduction Teaching is traditionally considered to be one of the most stressful occupations (Cooper, 2000; Kyriacou, 2000). In the UK concern is grow- ing regarding the steadily increasing costs and consequences of teacher stress (Carlyle and Woods, 2002; DfEE statistics, 2002). Early retire- ment on the grounds of ill health, long absence due to extended illness, new teachers leaving either during training or within five years of taking up their first post are all factors that are significantly increas- ing. Travers and Cooper (1996) found that two-thirds of their large national sample of British teachers had actively considered leaving teaching within the previous five years. Various sources show that teacher stress and its escalation is not specific to the UK; this is also a serious concern internationally. (Carlyle and Woods, 2002). 1 Please address correspondence to: Dr Tatiana Bachkirova, Senior Lecturer in Human Development, Field Chair: Education and Human Development, West- minster Institute of Education, Oxford Brookes University, Harcourt Hill Campus, Oxford, OX2 9 AT, UK. Email: tbachkirova@brookes.ac.uk School Psychology International Copyright © 2005 SAGE Publications (London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi), Vol. 26(x): 000–000. DOI: 10.1177/01430343050xxxxx oct04Bachkirova 10/20/04 1:01 PM Page 1