Teaching Multiple School Subjects Role Conflict: A Theoretically Informed Conceptual Framework

Abstract

Emerging research suggests that the stress and complexities of the teaching profession contribute to early exits from the field. Stressors may be increased when individuals are tasked with teaching physical education and another school subject(s) concurrently. More specifically, role conflict in teaching multiple school subjects consists of three subdomains: status conflict, schedule conflict, and energy expenditure. The purpose of this paper is to propose a theoretically informed conceptual model of this type of conflict that better informs the professional lives and careers of teachers. The framework’s three interrelated elements are dynamic and contextually bound and influence the experience of multiple subjects role conflict. These three elements include experiences of role conflict, contextual and individual factors, and an outer limit of individuals’ capacity to manage stressors. Three vignettes are used to illustrate how teachers’ experiences of conflict interact with contextual and individual factors to increase or decrease their capacity for stress.

Modeling Conflicts at Work: The Case of Elementary School Employees in Croatia

“…There is an abundance of research investigating work-life conflict and its negative relationship with employees' health, job performance, and job satisfaction, and a negative effect on employees' absenteeism (Vignoli et al 2016;Atteh et al 2020;Ademola et al 2021;Marič et al 2021). Role conflict is also well-investigated (Xu 2019;Wu et al 2019;Lu and Guo 2019), often with role ambiguity as a cause and stress and burnout as a consequence (Pervez et al 2022;Iannucci and Richards 2022). Cronin and Bezrukova's (2019) proposal addresses the importance of interpersonal conflicts, which can arise from an interpersonal relationship or a task and affects work engagement and work performance (Costa et al 2015;Maltarich et al 2018;Yuan et al 2019).…”