What is Teachers’ standards

This chapter presents a small descriptive case study of workplace stressors of varied tones and hues as experienced by one UK secondary school teacher. This teacher started out his career “feeling excited and like I was doing [something] worthwhile… something noble... doing something for the kids… putting something back”; but twenty years later is now disaffected. The aim is to transport the reader to slices of life in his teaching world; to make the strange familiar to those who do not experience such daily stressors in their everyday work; but also, to make familiar stressors strange to those who have become accustomed to similar workplace environments. More than that however, this chapter provides readers with analytical tools for understanding how one teacher experiences such daily stressors, the emotions which accompany this and the psychological resources that buffer against negative effects.