Occupational Stressors, Schools Location and Teacher Retention in Lagos Metropolis, Nigeria

Abstract

This study examined occupational stressors, school location and teacher retention in Lagos Metropolis, Nigeria. Stratified random sampling procedure was used to select the 300 teachers from six secondary schools who participated in this study. A researcher constructed Teacher Occupational Stress and Retention questionnaire was the instrument used for data collection. Two-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Fishers Least Square Method were used to test the two hypotheses formulated for this study. The first hypothesis which looked at gender and occupational stress influence on teacher retention rate indicated that female teachers have significantly higher retention rate than their male counterparts. Using Fishers Least Square method the comparison indicated that teachers who experienced high occupational stress significantly have lower job retention rate than those who experienced moderate or low occupational stress. On the other hand, teachers who experienced moderate occupational stress are similar in job retention as compared to those who experienced low occupational stress. The finding from the second hypothesis showed a significant difference between school location and teachers job retention. Further analysis indicated that teachers from urban schools have significantly higher job retention rate than those in suburban and rural schools. But teachers from suburban schools do not significantly differ in their job retention propensity from those in rural schools. The implications of these findings for Counselling are examined. It is suggested that Counsellors should adopt the Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) in addressing the occupational approach to emphasize the need for for increased social support among teachers which may include mentoring, social events, etc.