Workshop presented to the administration and the teaching staff on 26th February, 2025
Presented by John Bosco Kiingati
Introduction
The human being is endowed cognitively (Decety & Wheatley, 2017), emotionally, and behaviorally (Gupta, 2023; Bawa & Sharma, 2025). Similarly, the human being is a social being, and with this comes the economic, psychological, cultural, environmental and spiritual-ethical realms (Ethics Unwrapped, 2022). With the continued expansion of technology, the human being has also moved from being localized, to being global (Lawson, 2023).
All these factors, interact intra and inter-personally, making the person a complex human being.
Within the person, different faculties inherently inter-relate in ways that at times elicit coherency and consistency (Coning de, 2009), while at other times they experience conflict and disparities (Vallacher, Norwak. & Bui-Wrzosinska, 2013). In the second phase where conflict and disparities are experienced, stress is realised. Stress therefore, is part of the human person, and its management, is consequently a human requirement, for continued individual and societal growth. For stress to be appropriately managed, discipline is required.
In learning institutions, the word “discipline” is largely used if not overused (Mariene, 2012; Bodovski, Nahum-Shani, & Walsh, 2013; Ngwokabuenui, 2015). Hardly do educators and learners sit back to clearly define its literal and metaphorical meanings. As a result, its uses, could easily fall into the realm of misunderstanding, and thus add to the stress, instead of facilitating stress management. It is on this backdrop that the paper deals with discipline within the confines of stress management.
Aim of the Study
It is hoped that at the end of the reflective workshop, and the subsequent study, the participants shall be clear on the understanding of both stress and discipline, and that they shall be aware of factors leading to, as well as the effects of stress. In addition, it is anticipated that the participants shall then have narrowed down to causes of stress in learning institutions, improper as well as proper ways of dealing with stressors, towards improved individual and societal growth. In the process, it is also hoped that the role of discipline in facilitating appropriate stress management, shall be elucidated. As an entry, the study starts by defining stress.
Causes of Stress
Omwenga and Mweti (2024, p. 276) come up with four categories of causes of stress affecting teachers. These are stressors associated with the organization, the job, the individual, and the body (response to stress). They state that these stressors affect the educator’s performance.
(i) Organizational stress has variables that include control/delegation, organizational climate, and organizational design;
(ii) Job-related stress has factors that include task overload, time constraints, role conflict, role ambiguity, and role overload;
(iii) Stress elements associated to an individual include income level, financial limits, competing demands, career advancement, and job stability.
(iv) Body related stressors factor in the physiological response to stressors which in turn act as increased stressors. These are “anxiety and profuse perspiration, difficulty feeling relaxed, chronic pain or muscle discomfort (back, neck, and shoulder, among other body parts), bloating or upset stomach, and shortness of breath” (Omwenga & Mweti, 2024, p.277). By extension, the psychological is also affected leading to “[a]pathy/loss of interest in work, low morale, reduced productivity, bad work relations, and absenteeism” The last two tend towards behavioural stressors.
Stress affecting Educators in Learning Institutions
The educator is a complex human being acting on (and being acted upon by) other complex human beings within a complex environment (cf Bhagoji, 2024). In these intra and inter-actions, stress emanating from within and from without, become imminent. In the learning institutions, the educator cannot avoid stressful moments, as noted previously, emanating from
(i) the organization and its stakeholders (government, proprietors, management, administration, benefactors, and parents, among others). State politics influence policies that in turn affect the educator.
(ii) the job, including tasks to be accomplished, relating with other teaching and non-teaching staff and with learners.
(iii) the individual (personality, competencies and deficiencies, identity: – role-based, ethnicity, social position (family, community, church)). One also has other roles that they play, which include son/daughter, sibling and even parent. These stressors from the individual also bring to play one’s desires and ambitions, versus one’s reality.
(iv) one’s body (experiential identity: – gender and age). A question at this juncture may be to what degree is the person comfortable with their looks.
(v) the environment, in which one lives, the type of house and the demands of the neighbourhood:- the infrastructure to/from and around.
(vi) one’s economic standings, where the financial ability versus one’s ambitions may also be an added stressor. Financial stressors interrogate one’s earnings versus one’s expenditure. The expenditure includes the day-to-day expenses, short and long-term investments. With increasing consumerism and materialism, finances become a stressor. On this note, leisure places, including supermarkets where attractive displays may lure instinctive buyers, may add to the financial-related stress levels.
Appropriate Methods of Dealing with Stress (Discipline)
Prior to initiating mechanisms to deal with stressors, individual educators are invited to be aware of the “Serenity Prayer”:
God,
grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and
the wisdom to know the difference.
This prayer seeks to categorize stressors into two: those that we cannot effect change; those that we can effect change. The focus is on personal strengths and abilities. It is an acceptance of my limitations as a human being and avoidance of the attempts to be the Supreme Deity; sin against the first commandment.
Following the serenity prayer, the process invites the individual to redress one’s self-awareness. Awareness of the self in relation to one’s strengths and limitations is a notable prerequisite of maturity. The self is the instigator as well as the first beneficiary of any carried-out efforts. It is thus, required that the individual is aware of the self as the principal actor, and upon whom success and failure lie. With the gifts of life, health and time having been granted, utilization of these resources among other inherent and acquired capacities, is recipe for development.
Conclusion
The term “discipline” is associated with research, knowledge and education. It also entails pursuit of set principles and order. Addressing discipline from a reductionist perspective of reward and punishment; reinforcement and weakening of behaviour (Bandura, 2004) is a dis-service to the imminent term. One that is disciplined becomes a disciple; a follower of a certain pathway. This anticipates relationships with the self, with significant others, and with the environment. Awareness of the self and of the surrounding, and the subsequent systematic process of dealing with stressors, is discipline, whose consequences are increased happiness and wellness (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2014). Inversely, allowing an emotional “avalanche” to blur the cognitive path of dealing with stressors is indiscipline, and leads to increased hurt.
