Stressors Which Affect Learning: A Case Study of Learners in A Further Education College in The East of England

Stressors which affect learning have seldom been studied in further education in England despite interest in lived experiences of learning in further education. Stressors which affect learning have been categorised into academic stressors and external stressors in studies carried out in higher education in the UK and internationally using students on health professional courses as subjects. This intrinsic qualitative single case study follows the typology of Thomas (2011) and the case study protocol was designed to explore stressors which affect learning of BTEC Level 3 learners in an FE college in England using in depth unstructured interviews and documentary analysis of pertinent learner records. Purposive sampling was used to recruit study participants and a total of ten (10) interviews were conducted. Data was analysed using the Framework Method (Ritchie and Spencer, 1994) and facilitated by the use computer assisted qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS) NVivo 11 Pro. Three categories of stressors which affect learning have been reported and largely agree with other findings; academic stressors, personal stressors and social stressors. Coping strategies and support systems utilised by the participants were found to be both internal and external to the educational institution. Implications for FE practitioner heuristics have been drawn and a model of learner stress to help in supporting learners to effectively cope with stress, ensure good health and well-being as well as focus on individual learning outcomes have been suggested. The need for the learner teacher relationship to be caring, learner focused, needs led, holistic and humanistic in approach as opposed to the culture of performativity in the FE sector has also been discussed. Involvement of relevant external agencies to provide support, advice and guidance to learners to cope with stressors which affect as well as the need for change in teacher pedagogy in FE have also been highlighted.