Distress tolerance involves skills that can help us to cope with stress and psychological issues. It involves keeping going despite the discomfort of distress. These skills are valuable for people working in stressful jobs like teaching. Mature and experienced teachers could provide colleagues and the next generation of teachers with a potential “gold mine” of knowledge on how they tolerate distress associated with teaching dilemmas.

Teaching dilemmas aren’t serious or critical incidents but are common decision-making situations within teaching where there are conflicting or competing interests or needs involved. The teacher is required to do something in the dilemma situation, requiring some form of compromise to do what is believed to be “right”. Here are two examples.

• “Should I spend more of my teaching time extending a very capable student or doing remediation with a less capable student?

• “Should I finish the unit of work now as instructed by my supervisor or keep going as my students require more time?”

If you are over 45 years of age and have taught in schools for more than ten years, we would really like to hear from you. We wish to invite you to a confidential and relaxed interview, either through Zoom or at a COVID-safe location near you. We expect the interview to be for approximately 30 – 45 minutes and at a time that suits you. You may be asked to join a second interview of a lesser duration. We know your time is valuable and would like to give you a $30 gift voucher after talking to show our appreciation.

This unique research is part of a Doctor of Education degree program and is approved and supervised by the University of Southern Queensland. If you would like to share your experiences with our friendly interviewer, please click on the link below to indicate your interest.

https://surveys.usq.edu.au/index.php/759922?lang=en

If you have any questions, please contact the principal researcher, Lorette Hargreaves by email: D1110744@umail.usq.edu.au

We look forward to learning from you and your experiences of teaching dilemmas.