Stress in the work of educators – Intercultural perspectives

The well-being of educators has become a central concern in educational systems worldwide. Yet, while burnout, anxiety, and emotional exhaustion are increasingly acknowledged, the ways in which these phenomena are experienced, interpreted, and managed are shaped by contexts, norms, and subjectivities. This Research Topic invites contributions that move beyond surface-level comparisons of stress prevalence across nations. We seek scholarship that interrogates the very categories we use such as ‘stress’, ‘resilience’, ‘well-being’ and ‘support’ and asks how these concepts acquire meaning in different educational environments.We encourage authors to adopt a critical stance that avoids essentializing cultural traits or reducing stress to simple statistical indicators. Rather than treating ‘culture’ as a fixed variable that determines how educators suffer or cope, we invite examinations of the dynamic interplay between:- Local institutional policies and global/glocal educational reforms- Individual biographies and collective professional identities- Moments of convergence (how educators in different settings share common struggles) and divergence (how those struggles are uniquely articulated).We particularly welcome reflexive approaches that acknowledge the researcher’s own positionality, i.e. how our professional, national, and personal backgrounds shape what we see as ‘stressful’, ‘adaptive’ and/or ‘problematic’ in our own and other contexts.As AI technologies increasingly enter educational workplaces, their impact on educator stress is both promising and perilous. We invite papers that explore:- How AI-driven tools (e.g., automated grading, student analytics, administrative support) might reduce workload pressure and/or (paradoxically) intensify it through surveillance, performance tracking, or dehumanization.- Comparative studies of AI adoption and its differential effects on educator well-being.- Critical examinations of the assumptions embedded in AI well-being apps or stress-reduction interventions.We also seek contributions that address how pre-service and in-service training can better prepare educators for complex stress scenarios. Questions of interest include:- What intercultural competencies are useful for managing workplace stress, and how can they be taught without falling into stereotypes and/or idealism?- How do teacher education programs in different countries conceptualize and address educator mental health?- What role does professional development play in helping educators cope with the tension between local expectations and international educational discourse?We encourage both large-scale and small-scale comparative designs, provided they are framed with critical awareness of the limitations of cross-national comparison. We are particularly interested in studies that:- Compare not only outcomes (stress levels) but also processes (how stress is named, normalized, or resisted).- Attend to within-country diversity and intersectional factors (gender, race, socioeconomic status, school type).- Use innovative methodologies, including digital ethnography, autoethnography, and participatory action research.Finally, we invite empirical and conceptual papers on stress management practices that take interculturality seriously. We ask: Do existing interventions travel well across borders? What adaptations are needed, and who decides? How can educators themselves be involved in co-designing culturally responsive support systems? Topic editors: Ning Chen, Fred Dervin Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/83704/stress-in-the-work-of-educators---intercultural-perspectives