LANGUAGE CIRCLE: Journal of Language and Literature .... p-ISSN 1858-0165 Available online at http://journal.unnes.ac.id e-ISSN 2460-853X 274 Exploring Stress Factors and Resilience Experienced by Sumbanese EFL Teachers: A Critical Incident Technique Approach Ayuni Kabobu Heda Sanata Dharma University hedaayuni@gmail.com Concilianus Laos Mbato Sanata Dharma University cons@usd.ac.id Abstract Many researches indicated the EFL teachers’ factors of stress and the key to stay resilient. Stress vestiges the common issue in the teaching field. The attitude of resilient was the main point to assist the teachers in discovering the happiness and keeping them settle sustained at their profession as an educator. Stress factors experienced by educator are enhanced in this pandemic situation. This research was endeavoured to investigate the stress factors and resilient attitudes experienced by teachers in Sumba Island which was one of the remote area in Indonesia. The data was taken by accomplishing an in-depth interview with four teachers who were teaching in Sumba Island. The result revealed that there were some factors might lead the students stress in teaching in rural area, they were; students, lack of resources and facilities, technology awareness, different opinion with colleagues, and the sense of insecurity in teaching in isolated area. The strategic attitude of resilient developed by the teacher to cope with all of those stress were; optimistic attitude, taking a personal approach, self-introspection, keep in mind about job-consequences, and sharing about the problem with others. This research proposed to give further insight into the existences of teachers working in a rural area like Sumba Island, in specific how they ascertain their profession upon all of the stress factors they encountered. The result and conaclusion were presented in descriptive method. Keywords: [stress factors, resilient attitude, Sumba Island, terdepan, tertinggal, and terluar (3T) areas] INTRODUCTION Being a teacher in a rural area can be stressful for many teachers. The stressful factors can be diversified depend on the situations. It can be because of the students, behaviour, the co- workers, the workloads, the workplaces, or even the school’s or government’s regulation. Many teachers are able to survive over the pressures/stresses they experience, however it cannot be denied if there are also many teachers who gave up. It depend on the resilience behaviour that every individual has. The education in Indonesia is still not equitable between those who live in big cities and rural areas. Many areas are still struggling in improving the quality of education. Teaching in this current situation is the most challenging for all the teachers, especially for those who teach in rural area like Sumba Island. Sumba Island is located in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), Indonesia. Sumba Island is included of one of the 3T (Terdepan, tertinggal and terluar) place such as foremost, lagging and outermost. Benny K. Harman, one of the parliament from NTT claims that there are some factors affect the education low quality in NTT such as slow-paces infrastructure improvement, low connectivity, inadequate salaries for honorary teachers, poverty and http://journal.unnes.ac.id/ LANGUAGE CIRCLE: Journal of Language and Literature .... p-ISSN 1858-0165 Available online at http://journal.unnes.ac.id e-ISSN 2460-853X 275 underdevelopment. Teacher qualification is one of the important things needed in the teaching area. Teacher has a big role in the process of improving the quality education and it follows with their expertise on knowledge, skills and attitudes (Flora and Mbato, 2020). The head of the East Sumba Regency Education Office, Yusuf Waluwanja (2018), said that the low quality of education in Sumba Regency is due to many crucial factors, such as the lack of supporting facilities, teacher qualifications that do not meet the standards (S1), and several other problems. He added that one of the factors is Sumbanese children/students could not speak Indonesian well. Teacher professional identity Identity has a close relationship with self-concept. Teacher identity defines as an imaginary of how teachers describe who they are along with their values and beliefs. There are several factors which influence the shaping of identity. Beijaard, Meijer, and Verloop (2004) highlights that professional identity is “an ongoing process of integration of the personal and professional sides of becoming and being a teacher” (p. 113). Beliefs that the teacher have can lead them to decide the teaching strategy and technique used in the classroom that they consider would be helpful for the students to reach their learning goals. Being a teacher is no simple as we thought. Erstwhile, teacher will face diverse disputes and obscurities in learning- teaching process within and outside the classroom. This kind of situation may lead teacher’s stress and tension. Stress in teaching in rural area Before going forward, the researcher needs to clarify the meaning of stress in this research. In general, stress experienced during a person's life at times of difficult life transitions, involving developmental and social changes; traumatic life events, including sadness and loss; and environmental stresses, including poverty and community violence (Germain and Gitterman, 1996). Teacher stress is define as “the experience by a teacher of unpleasant, negative emotions, such as anger, anxiety, tension, frustration or depression, resulting from some aspect of their work as a teacher”. (Collie, Shapka, & Perry, 2012; Kyriacou, 2004; Liu & Onwuegbuzie, 2012). Many factors can influence the appearance of teacher stress. Previous study conduct by Clipa & Boghean (2015), arrange some causes of teacher stress such as students misbehaviour, defective communication with colleagues or students’ parents, time squeeze, bad workplace vibes, displeasure with the salary and many others. Skaalvik and Skaalvik (2015) also found seven kinds of stressors, they are “disruptive student behavior, workload and time pressure, student diversity and working to adapt teaching to students’ needs, lack of autonomy, lack of shared goals and values, problems and conflicts related to teamwork, and lack of status.” School environment is conceptualized as a main indicator of emotional stress (Skaalvik and Skaalvik, 2016). One of the main obvious factors accomplished by the teacher is the workload (Clipa & Boghean, 2015). Teaching is not just all about sharing knowledge and teaching material since they are engaged in executing amount of responsibilities. At the side of teaching, teachers have to expand lesson plan, prepare teaching material, assess student’s assignment, and report the outcomes. Teacher also have to complete the administrative task since in Indonesian educational context, curriculum changes overtime, as a teacher, they have to ready for the changers of the regulation and requirements requested by the government. School which located in rural area sometimes distinctive in facing the new regulation in every changes of the curriculum. Teacher have to adapt the new normal and it does not easy for both, teachers and students. Nowadays, the curriculum implement student-centered learning, teachers are not sustained as a vital supplier if the knowledge but as facilitator who take a role to guide and help the students in processing the material (Harden & Crosby, 2000 as cited in Kumar and Monika, 2016). As learning facilitator in the 21th century where everything is connected by technology, teacher is required to be flexible. They have to afford the learners with several sets of attractive learning tools. Teachers drain both physical and mental http://journal.unnes.ac.id/ LANGUAGE CIRCLE: Journal of Language and Literature .... p-ISSN 1858-0165 Available online at http://journal.unnes.ac.id e-ISSN 2460-853X 276 energy (Rizqi, 2017) since they are not merely transmitting learning materia but also helping students in shaping their soft skills. In addition, parents also required the teacher to report their children’s performance in the classroom. In language framework, foreign language, especially English is not really common for students in Sumba Island. Most of the students receive or know English subject in the junior high school. It does not easy for the teacher because the students do not have notion about English/foreign language. As English is a second language, the target language has an important role in teacher’s competence and the pupils learning process (Nayernia & Babayan 2019). Richards (2017) mention that English expertise as an aspect of EFL teachers’ competency and subject knowledge. In the EFL context, teachers may feel stressed because they have insufficient language competence. They might face some language concern such as fluency, pronunciation, or grammar (Mousavi, 2007). Mousavi (2007) added that confidence is another stressor for EFL teachers. To sum up, rendering to Prilleltensky, Nerr, & Bessell, (2016), there are some factors influence teacher’s stress namely: personal factor, which involve teacher’s self-efficacy and self-capability; Interpersonal factors includes teachers’ relation with co-worker, learners, students staff and students parents; and organization factor which consist of school circumstance, culture, management, pedagogy, and government’s regulation/curriculum. Resilience attitudes in facing all stress factors As a result to the stressful situations and EFL deficiency mentioned above, stress is a situation that cannot be separated from the teacher. The most vital things to be perceived are how teachers deal with stress and discover effective strategies to deal with it. Stress is associated with coping strategies and resilience. The term of resilience was found by Emma Werner in 1973. Werner (1993) quoted that “Resilience is generally thought of as a ‘positive adaption’ after a stressful or adverse situation” Meichenbaum (2007) states that resilience is a crucial thing when teacher wants to rebound from though situation. As described by Masten, Best, and Garmezy (1990), “resilience is a form of successful adaptation even in challenging or threatening circumstances”. In short, resilience is very important for teachers, to help them deal with situations and become strong on the journey of forming a professional identity as a teacher. Rachmawati & listiyandini (2014, p. 3) quoted “A person who has resilience can be influenced by high self-esteem, self-confidence, problem- solving, and satisfaction in interpersonal relationships. Resilience can be influenced by self- discipline, self-confidence, curiosity, self-esteem, and self-concept”. By having a resilient behaviour, teacher can shape their professionalism teacher identity. When teacher should encounter the challenges, teachers have their own acceptance and belief they are always carry. It is what we called teachers identity. Teacher’s identity interprets who they are and enfold their characteristics that make them stand by their own belief and assumption which different from others. Berger abs Le Van (2018) mention that “identity is strongly tied to the concept of self”. Thus, teachers’ identity is shaped by many factors such as workplace, workload, salary, school background and culture, or teaching experience. There are many researches were conducted related to stress and resilience. Diasti (2021) found out there are three factors of stress namely personal, interpersonal and organization that lead teacher’s strain. She also exposed that teachers’ professionalism is seen from those who are resilient in managing with numerous learning- teaching challenges and adaptive blending with unfavourable working situations. Rizqi (2017) signified that the changes of curriculum had a big impact to the teacher stress. Geographic location and environment also be one of the factor of teacher stress. It can be seen from the deficient teaching-learning reserve, provision and government devotion. These factors sometimes take place in a remote area of Indonesia (Lomi & Mbato, 2020; Nurwidodo, Husamah, Rahardjanto, Mas’odi, & Mufrihah, 2017; Florida & Mbato, http://journal.unnes.ac.id/ LANGUAGE CIRCLE: Journal of Language and Literature .... p-ISSN 1858-0165 Available online at http://journal.unnes.ac.id e-ISSN 2460-853X 277 2020). Regardless with the unconducive conditions, teacher in rural are required to teach as they trust that children in rural are also have their right to receive equal education as others and it can help them achieve a better live. Even though, the salary of teacher in rural area is suspended since some students would rather to pay the tuition late (Lomi & Mbato, 2020). Nevertheless, since there is not any previous research that pure discuss about the stress factors and resilient attitude from teacher in rural area, this study will contribute to deliberate intensely additional aspects which might lead the teachers’ stresses and the reasons that make them resilient as seen from one of the rural areas of Indonesia namely Sumba Island. The research questions were expressed as follow: (1) what aspects might lead to teacher’s stress in rural area? (2) How do teachers maintain resilient in a stressful workplace? METHODOLOGY This research was proposed to observe teacher stress factors, teacher resilience and how they stay positive during the process. Critical Incident Technique (CIT) approach was the method used in this research. CIT is a well proven qualitative research approach (Hughes & Lloyd, 2007). Since this approach offered a practical steps in collecting and analysing the information about real-life human activities and experiences, this approach is suitable for this research because the researcher would like to investigate teacher’s stress and their resilient behaviour on how they stay positive with their job. According to Daley et al. (2018), the main purpose of a critical incidents in the field of learning-teaching is to facilitate teachers in increasing their self-awareness of crucial event greatly evokes important transformations in their personality and pedagogical practice. The data collections in this study was done through an in- depth interview. Written response and questionnaires can be used as the tools to collect the data, but they might be less effective since the participants of this study are located far from the researcher place (Hughes & Lloyd, 2007). This approach needs to observe deeply about human experience and factual report rather than interpretations/opinion (Hughes & Lloyd, 2007). The participants for this study were 4 English Foreign Language (EFL) teachers that teach in some secondary educational schools (vocational and senior high school), both private and public school in Sumba Island, East Nusa Tenggara. The teachers have been teaching in school for 2-5 years. The participant were chosen by using purposive sampling. Purposive sampling is non- random technique in choosing participant who are willing to share information and experiences (Etikan, Musa, & Alkassim (2016). They were contacted by the researchers through WhatsApp to ask their permission in participating on this research. In order to keep the participants privacy, pseudonyms were given. There are five steps of CIT in this research: (1) the researchers established the general aims of the research; (2) the researchers determined the research plan and specification that included where was the research located and who were the participants; (3) then, the researchers would collect the data through in-depth interview via WhatsApp room chat since the participants were located far from where the researcher belong to. The interview would be done in Indonesian to get clearer understanding about the questions. The interview result was transcribed by the researcher; (4) the next step is the researchers analyse the data. After gaining the data, the researcher highlighted and underlied the important information based on the data provided; (5) finally, the researchers would report and interpret the data into written form of result and findings, then the researchers drew the conclusion of the study. RESULT AND DISCUSSION In this part, the researchers elaborate the findings and discussions consider to the research questions regarding the teacher’s factors of stress and their resilient experiences. The finding and discussion also discuss with some pertinent literature. The researchers provide some utterances from the interview to support in explaining the findings of the study. http://journal.unnes.ac.id/ LANGUAGE CIRCLE: Journal of Language and Literature .... p-ISSN 1858-0165 Available online at http://journal.unnes.ac.id e-ISSN 2460-853X 278 Factors of stress Stress factors in teaching life is caused by many things. The teachers did not achieve the career satisfaction (Watson et al., 2010), and the consequence is they might leave their career (Carver & Darling, 2017). Some researches proved that profession as educator is challenging, problematic, and stressful (Bettini et al., 2017). This research is elaborating the factor of stress experience by 4 teachers in rural Area, especially Sumba Island. After having the interview, the researcher found out there are some factors that cause the feeling of stress of the teachers in Sumba. Students Students are the most important party in teaching life. They are the centre of all the activities and teacher’s focus. The biggest factor of stress also come from the students itself. Students in a rural area has a very low willingness to study, one of the respondents said that students in Sumba just come to school to avoid punishment. They are not truly maintenance about what will they learn or study in school. “Students’ willingness to study is still very low. Most of them just come to school to fulfil their ‘obligation’ as students. They ignore to deep learn the material because they avoid in paying the fine (school regulation). It is a challenge for me as a teacher here. But when it is exaggerated, I feel stress” When student has no motivation in the classroom activity, it challenges the teachers to find the way to overcome the problem. Changing students’ attitudes to see the important of education is not easy, it brings stress to the teacher when they are not achieve what they expect to derive. Student motivation in learning something new is still weak. It can be triggered by their inadequate background of knowledge. It is not a new issue that Sumba is one of the areas that included in 3T areas in Indonesia. Despite to the inadequate background of knowledge that the students have, it affects the way they receiving learning material from the teachers. Students need longer time to understand the material and disrupt the lesson plan which have been planned. “When I have set the lesson plan about one material for 2 meetings, but because my students are hard to understand and to get into the material, it takes longer time for me to teach them. However when the exam result come out, their score are still not up to the standard. Sometimes I am thinking, is it because of me? My method/ strategies in teaching them? I feel like I am not acceptable as a teacher” It makes the teachers feel they are failure in teaching their students. It also bring them the feeling of burnout and stress because the target material of each meeting will be postponed for the next meeting. This causes the setback of the lesson plan that have been designed. The tardiness in apprehending material in classroom is caused by Students' Indonesian language skills are still relatively trifling, thus it is extremely difficult to introduce new languages like English subject to them. Students still cultivate the local language in their daily communication. “It is tough for me at the beginning, teaching children who even spoke Indonesian wasn't that good or standard, because some still used the local language mixed with Indonesian...” Many factors of stress caused by students because students are the vital parties in teaching field. Teacher daily routines are meeting their students. Sometimes, it frustrated for the teacher when their students do not live up to their expectation. Clipa and Boghean (2015) determines one reason brings stress to teachers is the students’ attitude. This study contributes in adding some factors caused by student which lead stress feeling to teachers. Herman, Prewett, Eddy, Savala & Reinke (2020) in their research related to teacher stress and coping agrees that teacher’s stress can be harmful to the teacher-student relationship. Limited access of teaching resources and facilities Sumba Island is located in East Nusa Tenggara. Sumba Island is one of the 3T http://journal.unnes.ac.id/ LANGUAGE CIRCLE: Journal of Language and Literature .... p-ISSN 1858-0165 Available online at http://journal.unnes.ac.id e-ISSN 2460-853X 279 (terdepan, terluar dan tertinggal) areas in Indonesia. This matter caused by the limited access to get learning facilities and resources. Teaching in rural area is not straightforward for whoever it is. Access limitations referred are: technology awareness, economic unstable, lack of teaching resources and facilities (Lomi & Mbato, 2020), and limited teacher resources. In this pandemic era, teachers in rural area have to work really hard to get in touch with their students. Inadequate access like technology, gadget and network prevent the activity in learning process. A few number of students have economic issues which as the result, they unable to buy gadget to subsidize their learning activity. “In this situation, I feel stress because the Limited access to contact students and access to visit them at home is very difficult. They come from places far from the city and difficult to reach by vehicle. Most students live in villages and do not have a network. Not a few also do not have a smartphone. Difficult to convey materials and assignments.” This situation requires teachers to find a way to get the students home which some of them located on remote hutment. Despite of the lack of technology awareness (has no gadget or internet connection), the teacher have to deliver the material and assignment to their students home which takes too much of their time. It stresses them out. In addition, a research by Raja & Nagasubramani(2018) related to the impact of modern technology in education establishes that teachers should master the use of technology in classroom activity and have positive attitudes toward the growth of technology in education. Different perspective with the other teacher One of the factors that generates stress to the teacher is the relationship with colleagues. As teacher are working in the circumstance which require them to meet and socialize with other people such as students, colleagues, and staff. Every individual has distinct characteristic and perspective in seeing the world. Sometimes, teachers have different way and opinion in teaching their students. Lomi & Mbato (2020) argues that teachers face difficulties in raising a relationship with colleagues because of their idealist attitudes. “Sometimes, I have different view/perspective with the other teachers. For example, I (novice/young teacher) are prohibited to get too close to our students. They said that teacher should have a border with the students so they can give high respect for us. However, I have opposite opinion about this one. I think that the proximity (as their friends/sister) that I have with students will give them a freedom to tell me their story and it can help me to know them more and it will easy for me to guide/teach them. And of course they are still respect me as I am their teacher.” Thing like this is common among teachers in a school. Young teacher love to get closer to their students because it help them to grow a good relationship between their students. However, it can be criticized by others that they are having too close relationship which make there is no boundary between student and teacher. This issue can stretch relationships between teachers and as the result, the atmosphere in workplace is less contented. Sense of security Talking about teacher performance in Sumba, it must be admitted there are many teachers who still do not fulfil the qualification requirements to become one of the criteria for a professional teacher. In rural area, teacher management is still extremely disquieting related to the lack of qualified teachers (Adlim, Gusti, & Zulfadli, 2016). For this reason, there are many teachers come from outside the Island to become teacher there. The indicator of low quality of human resources of in Sumba reflected on the local society which is still very primitive and destructive (Sene, 2016). It can be seen in the problem of unemployment, http://journal.unnes.ac.id/ LANGUAGE CIRCLE: Journal of Language and Literature .... p-ISSN 1858-0165 Available online at http://journal.unnes.ac.id e-ISSN 2460-853X 280 traditional agricultural and livestock pattern, the cases of theft and robbery are happening everywhere. Sumba Island is also known as one of the area which have high crime rate in NTT. This makes the immigrant teachers worry, feel insecure and stressful teaching there. “I feel the stress of teaching here is because of Security. In the area where I teach, the crime rate is very high, cases of theft and robbery/motorcycle robbery are still common, and the victims of several cases related to motorcycle robbery are teachers.” The immigrant teacher sometimes become victims of the robbery accident, because the local people think they newcomers are the best target to be robbed. “Once, we have been teaching for 3 months and that morning I took my wife to school on the way my wife's teaching colleague was robbed of her motorbike. Not only be the target of crime, their arrival is sometimes rejected and not well received by the local community. The primitive attitudes of some group of people makes them hard to open to someone new in their community. Public talk about teachers from outside the Island makes teachers feel threatened. “And there is always public talk in the community that our presence on Kodi is rejected by a few people, we are always feared and threatened.” Resilient attitudes experience by the teacher in rural area Teaching rural area is extremely challenging for everyone. There a lots of factors that makes teacher stress and frustrated. Resilient attitudes is needed to help the way they survive upon all the frustration and stressful situation or haps. After interviewed the 5 respondents which are EFL teachers that teach in rural area, the researcher found out some resilient attitudes that help the teacher subsist on their profession as teacher. Optimistic Generally, teachers who educate in rural areas are already knows the consequences of being a teacher there. They have to work harder than those who teach in developed cities because of the many negative factors. Teaching in rural areas, teachers have to ready with the students’ primitive attitudes, the lack of teaching resources and facilities, salary issues, and etc. Teachers there have a positive viewpoint of what other people are taking for granted. The teacher have optimistic attitudes towards their students. They believe that Sumbanese students have a big potential to receive an equal education as the other students around the country. “What makes me motivated in becoming a teacher here is the students have high enthusiasm in learning something new. They have a potential to move forward. Their awareness and skill in learning something deserve a thumbs up.” Teacher motivation is crucial in shaping their professionalism as an educator (Richardson and Watt, 2018). Optimistic attitudes is one of their motivation in maintaining their identity. The optimistic attitude held by the teachers in rural area is because of their goals to help educate the nation's children. They convinced that Sumbanese children need to get an opportunity to get a good education even though they are living in remote area. Taking a personal approach Despite to know the students’ struggles in the learning process, teacher have to take a personal approach with their students. They have to construct a reliable connection with their students. By making a comfortable atmosphere, it helps the students to enjoy their learning activity. The personal approach is the teacher's way of addressing or showing concern for students sincerely and honestly. “My defensive attitude is to approach students, find out their difficulties and talk to them nicely.” Since the biggest factors of stress is coming from students, teachers find a best way to cope http://journal.unnes.ac.id/ LANGUAGE CIRCLE: Journal of Language and Literature .... p-ISSN 1858-0165 Available online at http://journal.unnes.ac.id e-ISSN 2460-853X 281 with the stress in their students itself. They listen to students' opinions, concerns, and stories, give a positive response, create a trusting relationship, showing a willingness to help students, be open to students' feelings, and controlling the situation so that students feel assured.Teachers’ close relationship with the students can also influence their motivation in teaching (Tehseen & Hadi, 2015). Teachers who are coming from outside the Island are not only face challenges related to the students, but also with the society. The society unfriendliness is one of the reasons immigrant teachers do not enjoy in teaching in their places (Nasir& Mujiati, 2020). They are maintaining the resilient attitudes as a newcomer in one place by getting along with the people around. “I hang out with people in the hood where I teach and live. If there are activities in the church or parish, I always attempt to attend. At school, if any of our students are sick or without information, we always make visits.” By attending the society activities and visiting the students’ home, it help the comer teachers to observe the circumstance and recognize the society deeply. It helps to raise their good image in the society so that the society will not underestimate them. Self-introspection In the interview with the respondents, the researcher found out that the majority of the respondents said that self-reflection is one of the effort they did to stay resilient upon all of the stress factor in teaching in Sumba Island. Kuswandono (2014), mentions that reflection will help the teachers to be more conscious of the environs. The teachers in Sumba are facing their stress and frustrated by being open to themselves. They evaluate and find out the factor which makes them stressful and attempt to fix it. “I also reflect and think again what I’ve done and try to evaluate myself. I introspect myself and reflect on what needs to be improved. I also ask for god’s blessings.” Teachers need to introspect and evaluate of what they have done. Doing reflection helps the teachers in looking back in order to look forward of to be ready what might occurs ahead (Diasti, 2021). This attitude helps them in maintain their identity as an educator. Reflection is trusted to be an influential tool to support the growth of teacher’s professionalism (Rozimela & Tiarina, 2018; Lubis, 2017). Job-consequences Every profession and dedication has its own consequences. Being a teacher in a rural area, teachers have considered the consequences they will face. There will be a lot of unrest in the process in becoming a teacher in remote area like Sumba Island. For an individual, work can be a pleasure, happiness and self-satisfaction or can be vice versa tired, bored and unmotivated (Makarim, 2020). Those are the negative and positive consequences in pursuing a job. “I persist because this is a consequence that must be taken by a teacher who is ready to serve and be placed anywhere” Being aware of the consequences that will be faced, it can help teachers to be ready to encounter the challenges of being a teacher in remote areas. They have predicted things that will happen and are not too concerned about the problem, however find the right way to solve the problem. This attitude is needed by all human beings as self- preparation in doing the work or responsibility. Sharing with others The best way to reduce the feeling of stress and tension is sharing with others. It can help to lighten the burden thought. By sharing with others, they might give suggestion and idea from their point of view. Sharing means got social support from others. Sovitriana, et al. (2019) exposed that social support might give teachers opportunity to be listened, asked for advice, or suggestion. “I often talk to the head master who are also a priest in my school… we exchange ideas, I http://journal.unnes.ac.id/ LANGUAGE CIRCLE: Journal of Language and Literature .... p-ISSN 1858-0165 Available online at http://journal.unnes.ac.id e-ISSN 2460-853X 282 ask for his advice and suggestion related to the problem I face with students, co-workers, and also society surroundings” "In dealing with problems, I ask for help from friends, teachers or school principals. Sometimes I also share with my family about the problems I face.” From the utterances above, it is obvious that teachers choose to ask for suggestion, advice, or even help from the people around them to stay resilient with all of the stress factor they face in teaching life. Support from surroundings might assist to reduce teacher’s stress because they feel like they are being appreciated and loved (Sovitriana et al., 2019). CONCLUSION Grounded on the findings and discussion, the researchers terminated that the stress factors of EFL teachers in rural area were because of some factors. The biggest reason was coming from students. Students had low enthusiasm to study. This reason could be grounded by inadequate background knowledge that the student has. It took more time from the lesson plan to teach a material to the students. It also connected with the fact that students in Sumba Island was still difficult in speak Indonesian fluently. It was hard for the English teacher to ask them learning new language. The second factor was limited access of teaching resources and facilities. Technology in education nowadays influenced the students’ performance. Lack of technology stuff and students’ awareness in using it induced the stress of the teachers. Teacher had to go to the students’ home one by one to deliver the material and assignment, some houses were located on the place where could not be reached by vehicles. As the result, it required the teachers to foot-slog to get their students’ home. The third factor of stress was coming from the relation with other teachers. In workplace, there will be different opinion between others. It made the teacher stress when others ask them to follow their idealist. They had their own way in teaching their students, however it criticized by some group of teachers. The fourth yet last factor was the sense of security that the teacher had. The teacher who came from outside the island felt insecure because of the locals’ habit which the cases of theft and robbery. Society also did not really accept the newcomers to their place. This matter made the teacher feel threatened. Despite of the stress factors experienced by the teachers, teachers also had resilient attitudes to keep the positive and stay with their choice to become a teacher in rural area like Sumba. The first attitude was optimism. The teachers believed that Sumbanese students deserve a good yet equal education with others from the developed cities. The second was taking a personal approach attitudes. The teacher attempted to get close with students and the society around to mingle in their activities. The third attitude was self- introspection. The teacher reflected of what they had have done and evaluate themselves to improve in the future. The fourth attitudes was assuming that the obstacles they encountered were the consequences of theij job. The teachers stayed think positive. The last attitude was sharing story to others to reduce the stress feelings. Teachers tended to share their stress experiences to others such as principals, teachers, and also people around them to ask for advice how to cope with all the problem they face. Nevertheless, this research has some limitation. Firstly, since the participants of this study were only 4 teachers, the result of this study could not be generalized to represent the population of teachers in rural area in Indonesia. Therefore, the result of this study simply served as contribution to the previous related studies about teacher’s stress in teaching in remote area. For the future researcher who are enchanted to study the related scope can have bigger participants. It also will be valuable to take upon a research in the same scope on the relationship between teacher’s stress and resilience attitudes among the teachers in rural area in Indonesia. 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