Abstract:

Occupational stress could be considered as one of the challenging issue in educational setting. Ongoing reforms in teacher training system as well and in the educational settings, socio - cultural transformations in Lithuania, altered learners’ and parents’ needs allow us to rethink about teacher training programs in the context of pedagogues coping with occupational stress, of pedagogues’ readiness positively cope with stressful situations. The article deals with the coping issue of occupational stress of educational assistance specialists (special pedagogues and social pedagogues, N=142) in Lithuania. The main objective is educational assistance specialists’ training perspectives in the context of coping with occupational stress. Statistical data analysis of qualitative research (by using CISS questionnaire – Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations) revealed manifestation and tendencies of social and special pedagogues’ coping dimensions: i.e. task – orientated, emotion – orientated, avoidance - orientated coping dimensions that are considered in the teachers’ (especially in educational assistance specialists’) training context.

Keywords:

Coping, coping dimensions, occupational stress, training of educational assistance specialists.