Can you help with this research project?

Dr Patrick Tissington is a lecturer at Aston University (and one time contributor to For The Children) and is working with colleague Dr Rolf van Dick on a research project looking into the work life of teachers. Rolf is a researcher from Germany and came to Aston a year ago. In Germany, Rolf had been carrying out studies into teaching for some time and has published books and journal articles on teachers' stress and strain, their health and well-being and so forth.

They are particularly interested in finding the reasons why some teachers suffer from ill-health or burnout and take early retirement (as happened a lot in Germany) whereas others not only stayed, but actively enjoyed the life of being a teacher and put a great deal of extra effort in doing their jobs well.

We are part of a European research team led by Swedish colleagues and are building on this research with between country comparative studies. The main question of this project is “What differences are there between being a schoolteacher in Germany as compared to Britain?” and we also have very recently included a colleague from Greece who will also distribute questionnaires which will allow us to do comparisons across the three countries. This will also fit in with other studies throughout Europe.

If you would like to help with this research, we would very much like to hear from teachers in all areas of the education system. We have designed a survey to be completed on line which you can find by following this link

http://amirs.abs.aston.ac.uk/teachers/

It takes about 15 minutes to complete and we would be really grateful for your assistance – and do feel free to pass it on to colleagues!

There will be a report available after the research is complete.

Many thanks for your help.

Dr Patrick Tissington p.a.tissington@aston.ac.uk

Dr Rolf van Dick r.vandick@aston.ac.uk